Open: Sunday, 4 February 2018, 2053 MST Temperature: 61°F

Session: 1195 Conditions: Clear

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
Focal Reducer

Camera:
D850 DSLR
D7200 DSLR

This session I continued astrophotography tests with my new Nikon D850 DSLR.

2059 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed M42 (the Great Nebula in Orion), 102X. Then viewed NGC2392 (Eskimo Nebula, planetary nebula). I decided to image the Eskimo Nebula using the D850. SYNCed the AutoStar on NGC2392.

Mounted the D850 at prime focus of the 12" telescope. Focused on the star Procyon.

2117 MST: StarLock ON.

This is a highly cropped (which the high resolution D850 allows) image of NGC2392 (Eskimo Nebula), StarLock autoguided, 30 seconds, ISO 1600, White Balance 3570K:

Slewed to M42 (Orion Nebula) and did some an unguided, short exposures, high ISO test images. This is a 10 second, ISO 6400, WB 3570K image, essentially unedited:

I added the focal reducer for this edited, StarLock autoguided, 30 seconds, ISO 1600, image:

I also did some M42 images using the D7200 DSLR for comparison to the D850 images. I'll discuss that in my upcoming D850 review.

2212 MST: StarLock OFF.

Slewed to the star Aldebaran and SYNCed the AutoStar. 2222 MST: Wi-Fi ON. Used the iOS app SkySafari 6 Pro to GOTO Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS). This faint comet was not visible, 102X. Decided to not image it.

Then slewed to Asteroid 20 Massalia using SkySafari Pro. I plan to image it on a future session.

2230 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

2242 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Sunday, 4 February 2018, 2253 MST Temperature: 55°F

Session Length: 2h 00m Conditions: Clear

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