My initial testing of the Hutech enhanced Canon XTi dSLR is very encouraging. I imaged the region surrounding Sadr in Cygnus. The visibility of the emission and dark nebulae surrounding Sadr is striking.

Some of the objects in this 5° wide field of view:

• emission nebulae IC 1311 (above Sadr)
• IC1318 (below Sadr)
• The Crescent Nebula (small bright red circle located about 1/2 way to the right of Sadr)
• M29 open cluster below IC 1318 as well as a second open cluster beside it named Berk 86
• prominent dark nebulae surrounding IC 1311 & 1318.

Imaging

• Camera: Hutech-modified Canon XTi dSLR
• Lens: Canon 70-200mm L zoom operating at 98mm f/5.6
• Exposures: 51 x 58 secs
• ISO: 800
• Mount: Astrotrac portable equatorial on Manfrotto tripod
• Image acquisition: ImagesPlus

Processing

• Canon ZoomBrowser EX - convert RAW to 48 bit TIFF - Custom white balance, Neutral picture style.
• ImagesPlus - calibrate using dark & flat frames, auto align (correlate, translate, rotate), stack images using Average combine (BP 4351, BG 29).
• Corel PhotoPaint X3 - convert to 24 bit RGB jpg, moderate increase to saturation, reduce image size.