Astrophotography with a OSC (One shot colour camera)

I will show you what can be done without too much effort using a One Shot Colour Camera (in this case a ZWO ASI294MC Pro) and the Live Stacking feature of the ZWO ASIAIR Plus.
The filter I used was the Optolong Le’Nhance filter (which captures LRGB plus some narrowband emissions all in the one filter) refer to an earlier blog I have written about this filter as well.

The Live stacking feature of the ASIAIR Plus has been programmed to take as many shots as possible within a 30 minute time frame and each shot is set at 60 seconds.

The location was in my backyard of suburbian Melbourne (Mitcham) with a Bortle reading of 7!!

Before I set up the plan to take my photographs, I made sure that the targets I selected were in good view, nice and high in the sky and allowed for as much exposure time as possible.

This particular night, I was fighting with the clouds that quickly came in from the West, which eventually evolved into one of the biggest storms I have seen in a long time, hence why the exposures were not as long as I wanted. But I have posted here to show you what can be achieved with such little time.

• 

Firstly, we have the Helix Nebula located about 694 light years from Earth.

• 

Secondly, we have the Orion nebula (M42) located about 1344 light-years from Earth.

• 

Then we have the Tarantula Nebula (NGC2070) located about 157,000 light years from Earth.

• 

We have the Triangulum Galaxy located around 2.7 million light years from Earth.

• 

And finally, we have the Horsehead Nebula is 1500 light years from Earth.

---

The camera is the ZWO ASI294 MC Pro – $1599.00
https://www.opticscentral.com.au/zwo-asi294mc-pro-usb-3-0-cooled-colour-astronomy-cmos-camera.html

The filter is the 1.25 inch Optolong L’eNhance – $265.00
https://www.opticscentral.com.au/optolong-l-enhance-1-25-inch.html

The hardware acquisition I used was the ZWO ASIAIR Plus – $499.95
https://www.opticscentral.com.au/zwo-asiair-plus.html

The telescope that I use is the Skywatcher Evostar 80600 refractor – $1349.00
https://www.opticscentral.com.au/skywatcher-evostar-ed80-600-doublet-refractor-telescope-ota-only-with-case.html

The mount is the Saxon AZEQ6 GT – $2899.00
https://www.opticscentral.com.au/saxon-azeq6-pro-mount-with-steel-tripod-built-in-usb.html

Feel free to discuss what is involved in setting up your astrophotography rig in the most cost-effective and efficient way or you may simply wish to query me in greater detail how I achieved these photographs.

Clear skies – Gerald