I worked Friday night on getting some experimental prime focus shots using my Rebel XSi and Orion Short Tube 80. I bought this scope to use with the autoguider, but I have a funny feeling that I might end up using it for some of the larger targets. At f/5, it's got a nice wide field of view.

This first image is Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, with it's two companions Messier's 32 & 110. M-31 is, I believe, the farthest object that is observable with the unaided eye, at 2.2 million light years distance. It is seen to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch in the constellation of, well, Andromeda. This image is a composite of 10 three minute images, unguided, through the aforementioned 80mm f/5 refractor, using a Canon Rebel XSi dSLR, at 400 ISO. Ten light frames and three darks were stacked using Deep Sky Stacker. The only image manipulation that I bothered with was auto leveling with GiMP.

The second image I worked hardest on that night was the one to the left of Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula. This one was a two-fer, as the wide field of the scope allowed me to catch Messier 20, the Trifid Nebula. Both of these wonderful emission (and reflection) nebulae are in the southern Milky Way constellation of Sagittarius. This area is lousy with deep-sky objects, it being the view towards the center of our galaxy. M8 is visible just above the spout of the teapot of Sagittarius. M20, is easily visible with a pair of small binoculars.

This image shows mostly the red emission nebulosity of these two objects, but you can just start to see the blue reflection nebulosity in the upper part of M20. I think either longer exposures, or more careful image adjustment would bring out the blue parts of both a little more.

Once again, this was taken using the 80mm, f/5 refractor, Canon Rebel XSi at 400 ISO. Nine, three minute exposures were stacked with three dark frames using Deep Sky Stacker. Minimal image adjustments (levels) done using GiMP.

I toyed around with a couple other targets, namely Messier 13, the Hercules globular cluster, and the Double Cluster in Perseus. I haven't had the time to pull them off of the camera yet. They'll probably show up as part two of this posting later on.

Enjoy.