Leo Triplet and Orion Mosaic projects...(and an eagle)

M65 M66 & NGC 3623

 

Finally a clear night, added 6 more frames(3h 40min) to the Orion mosaic project and started a new project, the Leo Triplet. No equipment issues!!! Everything worked great except me, went to bed at 4:30am. Last night I collected 3 hours of RGB (6x10 minutes/each) and 40 minutes Luminance(4x10 minutes). I plan to add, so this is a work in progress, and I haven't applied the final tweeks to post processing.

Taken with a QHY9M CCD & Orion ED102T CF refractor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to my previous image with my Canon DSLR's & 8" SCT  taken January 2012

(2hrs, 24min)

Canon T3i 7x120 4x300 400

Modified Canon T3 w/CLS clip-in filter  6x600 w/ Ha clip-in filter 5x600

 

What a difference the CCD & triplet refractor makes in clarity!

 

 

Finally collected enough frames to add M78 to the mosaic:

 

 

Barnard's Loop can be seen creeping in on the top right near M78.

24 frame mosaic consisting of 3-20 minute frames and 3-10 minute frames(bin 2x2) of Hydrogen- Alpha(Ha) per frame for a total of 19 hours Ha. Images were taken over the course of 7 nights Jan 7,8,18,19,20 & Feb 10,12 2013

With the addition of M78 and the 6 new frames there are 27 hours 33 minutes of images

 

 

 

I had to throw this picture in. I took this yesterday on my way to a jobsite. He was flying down the road and perched for a couple of pictures. Immature bald eagle. Taken with my former astro-imaging Canon T3i. It really doesn't belong on an astrophotography blog, but I guess it demonstrates the versatility of a DSLR