Rosette nebula from the balcony

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Still in lockdown and not allowed to go out at night (curfew). My balcony has only limited views to the south, so there’s not much choice in objects to image. And with unusual amounts of snow on the ground the skies are even worse than the usual Bortle 8/9, but the Optolong L-eXtreme filter is a powerful tool.

Canon EOS Ra, William Optics Star 71mm, f=348mm, Optolong l-eXtreme dual narrow band filter, 38x2min, ISO1600. Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount on Gitzo GT4553S, guiding and polar alignment with Staraid Revolution autoguider.

California nebula from city center

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I tried something new. I drilled holes in the wooden deck of my balcony so that the legs of a photo tripod stand stable on the underlying concrete. The Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount with a William Optics WhiteCat telescope placed on the photo tripod. The polar-alignment routine of the Staraid autoguider used to align the mount (the balcony is positioned on the south side of the building). I could only see the planet Mars (thanks to Bortle 9 scale and a lot of direct illumination) but through plate solving (also via the Staraid) the California nebula could be found. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and after only 5 shots it started to rain.

2021-01-12, California nebula, Canon EOS Ra, William Optics WhiteCat 51mm, f=250mm, Optolong L-extreme dual narrow band, 5x3m, ISO6400. Polar alignment, plate solving and autguiding: Staraid.

NGC7000 from city center

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Shot the North America nebula from the city center (Bortle scale 8/9) despite high clouds and humidity. I used a Borg 125 SD (f=480mm) combined with a STC astro duo narrow band filter. Camera was a Canon EOS Ra, 10x5min at ISO1600, Rainbow Astro RST135 mount, guiding through Staraid. Due to the terrible seeiing the stars are a bit bigger than usual.