The Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49/50)

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The Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49/50)

[Public Domain] 18 Jan 2017 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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If you’re following me on social media you’ve already seen this and know that it’s the first real test of my new telescope (An 11″ Celestron F2 RASA)!

I captured the nebula firstly in a narrowband test against the full moon. This means only collecting a small sliver of light with filters. The result was pretty cool, but the colours are false.

I went back last night and photographed the Rosette again in “broadband” light as the moon had not risen. This allowed me to catch the nebula in it’s beautiful natural colours, but as a consequence you also record a LOT more stars which shine very brightly!

This new telescope is super fast. Exposures that used to take me 5-10 minutes are now only 30-90 seconds. In fact, most of the detail here is captured in 30 second exposures – which is INSANE!

Experienced imagers will notice a few errors (mostly focus / halos) but I’m pretty happy with this stunning image for a first fully completed shot from this new setup. I’m also using the new Celestron CGX mount and tripod too which is also impressive. New year – new gear!

40 x 30s mono QHY9m CCD
35 x 90s rgb QHY12 CCD
30 x 60s mono/Ha QHY9m CCD

Narrowband version (which is also quite nice!) below:

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