Digital Astrophotography - Deep Sky

In 2004, we visited COAA, a small B&B in the Algarve region of Portugal, giving me a chance to try a little deep sky photography.
 

This is the Ring Nebula, or M57. It was taken using my Nikon Coolpix 5400 digital camera aimed down the eyepiece of a guided 8-inch Newtonian. Exposure was 3 minutes at 400ASA.

Another shot at aiming the Nikon down the Newtonian gave me an image of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Exposure was 3 minutes at 400ASA.

Exposure was only 1 minute at 400ASA for this shot of M13. This is a globular cluster, compact groupings of stars that surround our galaxy.

This is the Swan Nebula, M17 in Sagittarius. Exposure was 3 minutes at 400ASA.

This image was taken on the digital camera mounted on a driven mount to follow the sky. 5 minute exposure, 6-mm focal length at 100ASA, f/2.8. The image has been enhanced to reduce sky glow from the lights of the Algarve.

I didn't really have the proper gear with me to do proper deep sky astrophotography despite having taken my ToUcam with me. This was the best I could do. This is one of the brightest deep sky there is. NGC6543 is also know as the Cat's Eye Nebula. This was taken with the webcam which produced an AVI file. A nearby bright star gave the processing software something to register. This is the Hubble Telescope's version of this.