Little Eagle LDN777 in Taurus

It’s a challenge to image dark nebulae in light-polluted Flanders. So let’s try it!

This is the “little eagle” nebula, which I captured a few years ago as a tiny spot on a wide-field Plejades @180mm. Now the framing only features the Eagle head ; imaging with the Esprit and the ASI183mm.

LBN777 Taurus December 2019 29x300S L 10x300sRGB ASI183MM Esprit120 F5 SQM 20.30

It’s a bit dark – but what did you expect from a Dark Nebula? This is 10x300seconds on R, G and B channels and then 29x300s on Luminance. No Light Pollution filter used.

M45 Nikon 180mm ED F5.6 D750 6u 400ISO SQM2015 Meldert Oct2018 NoFilter 66% JPG

This is the overview, with on the right the Pleiades, and on the center left the Eagle Head (upside down).

Testing the TecnoSky AG70

On loan from a friend, I could spend some clear nights with this short-focus flat-field refractor. It has 70mm aperture and 350mm focal lenght, for an F/Ratio of F/4,9. It delivers a nice illuminated field and pinpoint stars almost to the corners of the frame. Some slight blue fringing is present near the corners. Focusing is very critical, and also very temperature-dependent. An autofocuser is almost indispensable to keep control over the focus.

Aldebaran non-cropped FF field without any filters (only stacked and stretched)
Aldebaran in B/W non-cropped fullframe with the Oprolong L-Pro (some fog or high clouds) only stacked and stretched
Cone & Christmas Tree nebulae, in B/W with the Nikon D750 (stitch line visible )
NGC2244 or Rosette Nebula mosaic 3+3 hrs Nikon D750 & TecnoSky 70AG

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