California Nebula
Astrophotography, Nebulae, Sky-Watcher EvoStar 72 ·My first attempt to a wide nebula with an apochromatic telescope: the EvoStar 72. Good but disappointing result: the object is itself very bright but has few details, while the photo has a great noise-to-signal ratio even if I took only six frames. I wouldn’t buy this telescope, and I’ll explain why.
The nebula
The California Nebula, also know as NGC 1499, is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus and is 1000 light-years away.
My photo
Due to clouds, I was able to take only six photos of NGC 1499, six darks and a little more flats and offset frames. Despite all this and light pollution, the result is good, even if the nebula itself hasn’t got many details. I’m highly disappointed by telescope: a friend of mine lent it to me, so I haven’t bought it, and I won’t. I haven’t got a field flattener, but the comatic and chromatic aberration is higher than the aberation of my faithful Newton 200 f/5. In the photo, only at the very centre of the photo stars are sharp enough. I would have expected it because it’s an apochromatic doublet that costs about € 300, not a good triplet refractor.
Comatic and chromatic aberration in one of the raw photos. Also note light pollution: the whole background is blue.