Tag: Astrophotography - Page 3

Rosette Nebula with Narrowband filters

My first shot of the Rosette Nebula with my new set of Baader narrowband filters.

The image was combined using SII (ionized sulphur) for the red channel, Ha (hydrogen alpha) for the green channel and OIII (ionized oxygen) for the blue channel. This combination is known as the “Hubble Palette” and is the same method used by NASA for the famous Pillars of Creation image.

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

The exposure breakdown is:

Ha 25 x 10 min
OIII 34 X 10 min
SII 33 x 10 min

For a total exposure time of about 15 hours.

AstroTech AT65EDQ telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, SBIG ST-8300M camera + FW5 filter wheel, Baader Narrowband filter set.

2016-02-11No Comments

Astronomy Astrophotography

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas in Orion

I got a second amazing night for imaging and despite it being a Tuesday I couldn’t resist having a go at some RGB data and eating the lack of sleep. I combined the RGB images with the hydrogen alpha data I collected on Saturday to get this image.

SBIG ST-8300m camera, AstroTech AT65EDQ 65mm f/6.5 refractor, Astronomik 1.25″ RGB and Ha filters, Orion Nautilus 7×1.25″ motorized filter wheel, Losmandy G11 Gemini-2 mount.

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

30 x 5 minute Hydrogen Alpha sub-frames for luminance
20 x 5 minute sub-frames for each red, green, and blue filter
30 averaged darks
30 averaged bias frames

Total of 7.5 hours of exposure time.

2015-10-13No Comments

Astronomy Telescope Mods & Repair

Nexstar SE Wedge

The final part of my Nexstar project was getting it on a wedge which would make auto-guided long exposure shots possible. Unfortunately, the Nexstar wedge has long since been discontinued and even if it hadn’t — $160 for a weenie little wedge for this scope was a bit much for me. So I decided to buy a cheap used wedge from an older Celestron system and make whatever modifications were needed to get it to work with the Nexstar.

What I didn’t expect was how little modification was needed to get an old 1980s era Celestron C8 wedge to work with the Nexstar SE. All the holes, both on the tripod and drive base lined up perfectly and the only modification I really had to make to the wedge was to hammer out the center guide peg.

2012-08-069

Astronomy Telescope Mods & Repair

Nexstar SE Camera Platform

I recently picked up a used Nexstar 6/8 SE mount and tripod. The idea is using it not only as a grab-and-go for my 72mm f/6 Orion EON, (and hopefully a 5 or 6″ SCT OTA down the line), but also in the hopes of using it for some lightweight wide-field long-exposure and time-lapse astrophotography.

I wanted to side-by-side mount a DSLR camera and wide-angle lens combo alongside my unused Celestron 9×50 finder scope from my CPC800 and use an Orion StarShoot autoguider attached to the finder to guide the whole contraption for long exposure photos. That this setup can run on batteries, and is lightweight enough to chuck in the back of the car for camping trips, made this an interesting camera platform despite the Nexstar’s well known astrophotography limitations.

2012-07-2910

Astronomy CCD Cameras & Autoguiders

StarlightXpress MX7C to MX716 Conversion

Shortly after I bought my MX7C I read that the hardware in the MX5C and MX516 were the same, and all that needed to be substituted was the CCD chip. I contacted Terry Platt of StarlightXpress and asked if this was the same for the MX7C line of cameras. Happily he confirmed that this was the correct, and I put in an order for a Sony ICX249AL CCD chip directly to StarlightXpress.

Now why bother with a mono chip? Why the heck did I buy a color camera in the 1st place? Well, the convenience of 1 shot color is still a huge plus for me but the possibility of having a mono chip capable of taking more sensitive luminance images to combine with the color data was intriguing. Not having to buy another camera to be able to do this was what sold me on the idea…

2004-01-01