Leo triplet 50D test

[cruiser]

Had a mate come over the other night with his 50D and he wanted to see what he could get a shot of through my scope (100ed). So I polar aligned as best I could and we decided out of curiosity to see how good it shoots at iso3200 and what noise it produces.

Well we managed to get 16 x 60sec shots (no guiding just heq5 tracking) and then the clouds rolled in. Ah well, time for darks and flats (explaining to him what they are and how to take them).

So with 12 darks and 15 flats we stacked them is DSS and played with curves and levels in PS and below is the result. No noise reduction of any kind on this shot as we wanted to see how well iso3200 did and I thought I'd share the results here.

Not a bad result I think but more light frames would have been good and extra processing will improve the noise.

[drevilsmom]

Not bad!! So which 100mmED do you have?

[cruiser]

I have the Skywatcher 100ed. Its the gold coloured one.

[Jeff]

I'd say that look pretty darn good too. Did you have much light pollution at your site?

[cruiser]

There is some but fortunately the glow from the city is in the opposite direction to what I observe and image.
The forecast is for clouds for the rest of the week but when they clear I plan to image the same target with my 40D using iso1600 to compare the difference.

Brett

[chris.bailey]

Pretty fine indeed. Is that cropped at all? Surprised at the field flatness if not.

[cruiser]

Hi Chris, there is no cropping in that shot.
I am very happy with the results I get using that scope given that its f9 and only 4". I think a faster scope will be on the shopping list one day though (maybe a cheap 80ed if one comes up).

Brett

[MidnightSun]

Fine looking shot indeed.....:cool: