It’s been at least three years since I’ve done any astrophotograpy but last night I lugged out the equipment and shot a few frames. I only made it out as far as the driveway and the sky isn’t very dark in northern San Diego but it’s amazing what kind of results you can get with a Canon 10D. Traditionally you would use either slide film or a cooled, black and white CCD sensor.

This is the result of 7 stacked images ranging from seconds to 5 minutes,totalingaround 20 minutes of exposure. The core of the nebula is from a single 30 second shot.

The Orion Nebula

• Canon 10D camera
• Takahashi FS102 telescope
• Losmandy G11 mount
• STV autoguider
• Processed in Photoshop and Noise Ninja.

Compare this with my best M42 shot on film a few years ago. This picture was taken at a dark sky site using two 45 minute exposures on Kodak Supra 400 film. The Supra has a much better red response than the 10D but otherwise they are fairly similar in quality.

The Orion Nebula on Kodak Supra Film

• Astrophotography
• G11
• Photography
• Takahashi