Orion 52083 - Manual (Page 17)

Figure 13. The Combine Images window allows “stacking” of individual images into
one high-quality resultant image.
17
Imaging Deep Sky Objects
To capture breathtaking images of deep sky objects, such as galaxies, nebu-
lae, and star clusters, much longer exposures are needed. As with planetary
imaging, you will take several individual images and stack them together to
form one high-quality resultant image. But while planetary images are formed
by stacking many exposures of less than 5 seconds, deep space images will
generally be comprised of individual images of a minute or longer!
Because of this, polar alignment and motor drive tracking must be very
accurate. If not, images will be blurred and stars will not appear round. Also,
because camera noise increases greatly over exposure time (due to internal
heat generation), you will need to suppress the inherent camera noise with
the built-in thermoelectric cooler (TEC). Make sure the 3VDC power supply is
plugged into the SSDSMI-2.
To start:
1. Acquire the deep sky object into the field of view of your eyepiece, and
center it in the eyepiece’s field of view. Focus the eyepiece with the tele-
scope’s focuser. Make sure your equatorial mount is well polar aligned, and
the R.A. motor drive is on and engaged.
2. Remove the eyepiece and replace it with the SSDSMI-2.