August 14, 2007

This wide field image centred on the Veil Nebulae also includes NGC 6940 in the lower right corner, and the two stars Cygni Epsilon & Zeta. This is the first time I have successfully imaged the central portion of the Veil Nebula, since this is my first attempt imaging this subject using my new Hutech-modified Canon XTi dSLR

Imaging
Camera: Hutech-modified Canon XTi dSLR
Lens: Canon 70-200mm L zoom operating at 118mm f/5.6
Exposures: 51 x 62 secs
ISO: 1600
Mount: Astrotrac portable equatorial on Manfrotto tripod
Image acquisition: ImagesPlus

Processing

1. Canon ZoomBrowser EX - convert RAW to 48 bit TIFF - Custom white balance, Neutral picture style.
2. ImagesPlus - calibrate using dark & flat frames, auto align (correlate, translate, rotate), stack images using Average combine (BP 4425, BG 44).
3. Corel PhotoPaint X3 - convert to 24 bit RGB jpg, moderate increase to saturation.