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 10° wide field of view:
- emission nebulae IC 1311 (above Sadr) and IC1318 (below Sadr)
- The Crescent Nebula (small bright red circle located about 1/3 the way to the right of Sadr)
- A portion of the Pelican Nebula along the left edge of the image below Deneb
- A small but bright emission nebula Sh2-112 above Deneb and to the right
- The Northern Coalsack dark nebula between the Pelican and IC 1318.
See also a 5° field of view version of this image, showing off the detail in the immediate area surrounding Sadr.
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.