Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 and Surrounds, Nov 2026 Update, Canon 450D and Skywatcher ED80, Acuired by APT (Astrophotography Tool) and 49x2 Minute Light Frames Processed in Pixinsight.

 

I went 'old school' here with Astrophotography Tool and a PC to test out an older rig of mine that consists of a old modified for astrophotography Canon 450D DSLR and a olde gold coloured(these days they come out the box black) 80mm Skywatcher ED80 Pro Refractor with an Orion 0.80 Flattner Reducer.  With this rig I mainly intend to do Lunar photography with regardless so this deep sky test is just a bonus.

Here you can see the rig which includes an old Skywatcher HEQ5 mount which has been modified from cogs to belts to provide quieter and smoother operation.

Below for comparison is an image of the same area taken Friday October 31st 2014.   It was taken with the same camera and telescope and consists of just 7 x 180 second(3 minute) frames.

The difference in the first instance is 98 minutes of exposure above versus 21 minutes below.   The result here is much better signal to noise ratio allowing more lattitude to enhance the image in post processing

In the second instance, mainly due to the belt modifications in the mount, is a sub-arcsecond autoguiding variance above verses a 2 arcsecond below. The result here are much tighter stars and spatial detail in the nebula itself. As most telescope mounts are vaguely inaccuate in tracking the autoguiding locks onto individual stars to keep the image locked in the frame and send adjustments to the mount to keep the stars from trailing.

In the third instance, above the image has been post processed in Pixinsight which is this world's most advanced post processing tool for amateur astrophotographers.  Below I used a program, Nebulosity, and some tweeks in Photoshop which while great and inexpensive tool in it's day(at least Nebulosity was) there was limited ability to access and enhance the total data in the image.  

It's also taken some time over the years to enhance post processing, aquisition skills and equipment regardless so time is definitely a factor overall here.  The difference in the amount of colour and spatial contrast between the images is marked.   I will add that I was and am proud of my efforts in 2014 and this year regardless.