Hi all

Chris Wakeman (33South) was kind enough to loan me his modded 350D (that he bought off Striker way back) on the Saturday night at SPSP, and so I went for some targets where I knew I could compare with what I'd previously captured using my non-modded 350D.

Simply put, the dark skies at the star party, combined with the modded camera, have captured detail that I didn't think was possible with my setup. It's made me want a modded camera even more, even sooner! If his camera wasn't black (mine is silver), I would've swapped them when I had to return it

Thanks to Chris for loaning the camera for the night!

So here's Eta Carinae, 13x 300s exposures @ ISO400 taken with my ED80, WO 0.8x reducer and modded 350D. Guided with DMK + PHD. Darks ICNR, flats calibrated.

Compared to my recent Eta using my camera (and from home), the difference is remarkable.

I've attached a 100% (1:1 pixel) crop showing the fine detail visible in the original fullsize version.

A larger, 1200px wide less compressed version is here (click the image to see it):

Eta Carinae with Modded 350D

Comments, suggestions welcome. I'm not sure on the processing - I could give it more brightness/contrast but didn't want to lose any detail or make it too unnatural.

Thanks for looking.

Attached Images

20080406-100pct-crop-low.jpg (90.6 KB, 31 views)

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Simply Beatiful!, Mike you have another keeper there. A big difference with the moded camera. Clear Skies

Wow, you really do pick up more nebulosity with the modded camera. Both the modded and unmodded shots are excellent though. Though you miss some of the nebulosity with your unmodded camera, the extra black in the image gives it an appearance of having more dramatic contrast.

I agree with NGC Hunter. Both shots are very nice, and the original has cool contrast with the new just remarkable nebulosity.

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Observatorio de la Ballona

Both are wonderful shots but if I was a betting man I would be willing to wager on where your next spare thousand dollars is going.

Kind regards
Matt