Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Eridanus (Eri)  ·  Contains:  65 psi Eri  ·  IC 2118  ·  LBN 959  ·  NGC 1752  ·  NGC 1797  ·  NGC 1799  ·  NGC 1909  ·  PK205-26.1  ·  The star ψEri  ·  Witch Head nebula  ·  the Witch Head Nebula
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Witch Head Nebula - 15 minute total exposure time with Canon 400mm F2.8 (145mm objective) telephoto lens, Rick Evans
Powered byPixInsight

Witch Head Nebula - 15 minute total exposure time with Canon 400mm F2.8 (145mm objective) telephoto lens

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

February 23, 2022.  Canon 400mm F2.8 (145mm objective) telephoto on full spectrum Canon EOS 60D APS-C DSLR.  Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount. No filters. ISO 800.  Only 30 sub exposures taken, at 30 seconds each.  Total imaging time was only 15 minutes.  Bortle 5-6 sky.  No moon during session.  Sky was clear but transparency rapidly degraded to nearly nil.  I had power strip problems (loose connection) and then my camera power cable (didn't use a battery) became entangled around one of my mount axes, freezing tracking until I figured out the problem in the dark.

So, a long imaging session was planned but only a 15 minute total imaging time is what actually happened.  I was surprised to get any result at all.  I'd always been told that in Bortle 5-6, the nebula required many hours of imaging to get any sort of image.  But the Canon lens is fast.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Witch Head Nebula - 15 minute total exposure time with Canon 400mm F2.8 (145mm objective) telephoto lens, Rick Evans