Finally, all the ducks were in a row--all equipment had arrived, it was a clear night, etc. and I attached my Canon Digital Rebel XTi body to my Celestron C6-R focuser and started with an easy target--the moon, clearly visible in the viewfinder (whose diopter I had callibrated on a house last week) so I could focus it that way. Other objects were not so easy--I focused on the moon first, then moved the telescope to the object, sometimes iterating as I often bumped the focuser while adjusting the scope....

But here are my first two images, taken and processed: 11.5 day old moon (90% full) and the center of the Beehive Cluster. (Click images for bigger versions). The beehive was processed with Iris, using the Drizzle algorithm. The moon was processed by hand in GIMP (9 images--I threw one away, I forgot what I didn't like about it) to improve contrast and color, and bring out the craters some.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Todd - love the Beehive cluster - nice pinpoint stars - great job! Thanks for posting it!

Clear skies!

Paul

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Photons are free. Take some!

Nice work Todd.
I love both images.

Phil

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If at first you fail, you're running average