I photographed the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula for the second time now. This time, with significantly higher-quality equipment, a larger field of view, and more exposure time.
There’s actually not much to report. Except, perhaps, that the four imaging sessions went as smoothly as I had hoped. I’m currently in a phase where I deliberately avoid making any changes to my setup. This is because last season, I had significant issues with various parts of my equipment.
Oh, as I’m writing this, something else does come to mind.
Session Orchestration
The final image is composed of photons from four sessions. In sessions 1, 2, 3, and 4, I used the Optolong L-eXtreme filter for the 300s exposures. Specifically, this was the first time I used it in a custom 3D-printed drawer that fits into the CANON EF-RF adapter. On the first evening, there was unfortunately a “leak” which I managed to eliminate starting from the second evening. Despite this, I was still able to use the material from the first evening—an article about that will follow!
On the 3rd of the 4 evenings, I started with an RGB sequence for star representation.
Session Analysis
On the first evening, there were no significant issues during the session. However, they became apparent afterward. The details and solutions to this problem will be discussed in a separate article.
The second evening went without incident.
The same can be said for the third evening. It was mainly characterized by the fact that I began with 60 exposures of 60 seconds each to gather RGB material for the stars, and at the end of the session, I also “manually” photographed the moon during teardown.
On the fourth evening, everything went smoothly with the L-eXtreme again. After the two focusing sequences, it seemed that the mount needed a moment to settle. The photos looked fine, though. Perhaps I need to increase the wait time after focusing.
Full resolution on Astrobin:
Session Details:
| Telescope | Baader Apo 95 CaF2 – Travel Companion |
| Focal Length | 590mm |
| Erecting Lense | Baader M68 Field Flattener |
| Camera | CANON EOS R(a) |
| Guiding Equipment | Pegasus Astro Indigo OAG |
| Guiding Camera | QHY 5-III-462C |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro, Belt and Hypertuned |
| Photography Date | 06/24/2024, 06/25/2024, 06/28/2024, 07/06/2024 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | 136x300s – L-eXtreme 60x60s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, BIASES, DARKS |
| Sensitivity | ISO 1600 |
| Processing Date | 07/13/2024 |
| Software Stack | Stellarmate OS, PixInsight, Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Koblenz, Germany |
