The Milky Way in Chepheus and Cygnus

I imaged the Cygnus-Cepheus region of the Milky Way characterized by bright emission nebulae, countless stars and dark clouds of interstellar dust. Deneb with NGC 7000 North America and its neighbour, the Pelican, and gamma Cygni with the nebulae rules the upper right corner of the frame, while on the left the much fainter IC 1396 holds the Elephant’s Trunk. Downwards from the center the Cocoon Nebula ( IC 5146 / Caldwell 19) is also visible, amongst other fainter and less prominent deep sky objects.

This time I used the cheapest lens I have, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II in manual focus mode, which is held tight and in focus by some hard wire I put on it. Although dialed to F/4, it performed pretty well, given the circumstances. In order to avoid having bad corners, I made a mosaic with big overlaps. So the HEQ5 mount held the Canon 1100D mod camera on a ball head, with the lens. 50×3 minutes, ISO 800, F/4. I also used the healing program – source code below.

(tovább…)