Cygnus in H-Alpha light

Hi,

I took some test exposures recently with the modified 300d and a Kenko H-Alpha filter. Below is the result of one of the images.
315sec exposure, ISO 400.



Constructive criticism/queries are welcome.

Regards,

I meant to add that the stars are quite bloated looking so must watch my focus better next time.

That's an impressive amount of nebulosity you picked up there. Is there any way you could get more detail out of the same setup because then it would simply be stunning. I'd also love to see Orion with this setup.

Bart.

That's an ambitious effort Michael! There is a hell of a lot of hydrogen in that shot, the milkyway is full of the stuff!

As Bart says, to really test how good this set up is - shoot at Orion, and in particular Barnard's loop and the neblosity over the top of Orion, you will really see how much red response there is

Keith..

Considering your new set up Mike, I too also will LOUDLY MENTION ORION as like the others - its probably the best large-scale 'red' target before e.g. Eta Carina (best of luck! ) and the North American Nebula (which you captured in the top right corner here).

As for constructive criticism, I know your focus is off, but is the tracking off too? Or was it simply left untracked? Also, there is an awful lot of red and purple in it. What kind of picture would you get with the traditional avi and stacking procedure (with the addition of black frames) instead of a long exposure?

Seanie.

The issue of trailing isn't so much with the tracking but with the lens. The stars at the edges trail off a fair bit.