Cygnus From Plettstone

This was my first opportunity to try my new AstroTrack mount. This simple mount replaces a heavier and bulkier GEM mount that is normally used for astro photos as long as your goals are relatively short wide field images.

This series of photos was shot using a Canon 20Da with a 24mm fixed Canon f 1.4 lens (at f/2.8). 10 exposures (120s @ ISO 400) were combined using Images Plus.

At CalStar I am going to try some photos at 135 mm and see if I can still get acceptable results. At 2 minutes the individual exposures were underexposed. More images might help this.

Clicking on the photos below will return a higher resolution image. Note that this may be quite large

This is full frame. Deneb is roughly in the center of the image. North is roughly to the right side. The texture of the Milky Way is clearly visible. Several H-alpha areas can be seen in the higher resolution version.

Having trouble aligning yourself? Maybe this will help

Closeup of Deneb Area

At full resolution you can start to see that this is an unguided image. Still it is easier to pick out some of the highlights. In this frame Deneb is about 2/3 vertical and toward the right of the frame.

This is an annotated version of above