M31, the Andromeda Galaxy & M45, The Pleiades

Not a bad night of astroimaging from the Heritage Park Observatory. First up is another attempt at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Tight focus and pretty good tracking--except for the third of the frames where the guider lost the guide star. So here are 20 x 5 minutes worth through the AT80EDT mounted piggyback & guided with the LX200, captured with the Digital Rebel XT with Astronomik CLS filter, via Nebulosity & PHD guiding. To do this justice, I really need a moonless night that I can devote the entire night to it.



Here's one of my favorite things to attempt to image--M45, the Pleiades. It's bright and easy to see, except for the blue nebulosity. You can start to see the "brush strokes" in this one hour shot (12 x 5 minutes, same setup as above). The same thing applies--this needs about six times more exposure to help kill the noise.