Saturday Night at Harold Campbell

Saturday Night at Harold Campbellwas a nice evening spent with friends, laptops, stars and a 1/3 Moon. I meet Joe and Bennett at the first parking lot and the night wet off with out a hitch. No equipment or software problems and the weather was looking good as well. By 8:30 pm Bennett and I were both on target, guiding and gathering photons. I choose to image the Horse-head and Flame Nebulas and Bennett went with the Rosette. Bennett and I have very similar setups Orion ED-80’s and QHY8 Cod’s. The one difference we have in the optical train is that I have a 40mm spacer and he has a 30mm spacer between out Focal reducers and the camera. The optimal distance between the CCD and the Focal reducer as stated by many sites is 55mm but I have found the 62mm seems to work better for me.

In any case here is the final image I have for The Horse-Head and Flame.