Beginner astrophotography

Last night I decided to try something a bit different.
I used my old, standard cheapo Nikon D3300 along with a late 1980's Nikon 180mm f/2.8 ED AF lens to image the old favourite M45 The Pleiades.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D3300 ISO 800
Nikon 180mm f/2.8 ED AF (set at f/4)
333 x 30 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks
I used Siril 1.2.0 along with Starnet++

I'm very pleased with the result given the combination of an older (albeit highly thought of) lens, and an entry-level DSLR which first came to the market 10 years ago.

NikonM45.jpg
 
The first decent night for ages...
I wanted to try out the Redcat 51 I bought several months ago!
The target was M13 the Hercules Globular Cluster. The only trouble - M13 is fairly low in the sky until the Summer. I started at 11pm (it was then at about 30 degrees up) and was finished 1 o'clock this morning!
I'm impressed with the colour rendering on the various classes of stars. I added precisely zero colour saturation. If you look carefully, there are also a few surprises in the image.

M13 Hercules Globular Cluster
Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Redcat 51 F/4.9
183 x 45 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks
I used Siril 1.2.1 along with Starnet++

M13.jpg
 
Well not great conditions at all last night, but I managed to get 1 3/4 hrs of imaging done. Along with intermittent clouds, the light pollution from the Moon didn't do me any favours.

Anyway, here's M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major

Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Redcat 51 F/4.9
141 x 45 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks
I used Siril 1.2.1 along with Starnet++
M101.jpg
 
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Markarian's Chain of galaxies in Virgo (cropped)

I count at least 30 visible galaxies in this image, which is my first attempt at photographing the region. I was slightly too low and too far over to the right to have the Chain in the centre of the shot, but still got a decent result.
The galaxies in the image contain trillions upon trillions of suns. How many possibly inhabited worlds? Your guess is as good as mine...
Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Redcat 51 F/4.9
182 x 45 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks
I used Siril 1.2.1 along with Starnet++

Markarian's Chain region crop.jpg
 
Last night and this morning's effort, The Cygnus Loop.
This object is a supernova remnant of a massive star, thought to have been several hundred times the size of the Sun, which exploded about 8,000 years ago.
The distance from Earth is about 1500 light years away.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Nikon 180mm f/2.8 ED (@f/4.5)
295 x 30 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks
CL180.JPG
 
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Straddling the border of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, here is last night and this morning's image.
The Lobster Claw Nebula region, including the Bubble Nebula and M52 open star cluster.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Redcat 51 (250mm f/4.9)
474 x 30 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks

LC neb region.jpg
 
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M33 Triangulum Galaxy.
The third largest in our "local" group of galaxies, including our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. M33 is nearly 3 million light years from Earth, and is thought to contain around 40 billion stars.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) ISO 200
Redcat 51 (250mm f/4.9)
320 x 45 second lights
50 flats
50 biases
50 darks

M33.JPG
 
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