The following image of IC434 Horsehead Nebula was taken with a Modified and Cooled DSLR through an Astro-Tech AT8RX 8″ Ritchey Chretien telescope

The image consists of:

13x 10 Min Exposures
19x Dark Frames
53x Flat Frames
Equipment Used:
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Imaging Scope: Astro-Tech AT8RC
Imaging Camera: Canon 500D Modified and Cooled
Guide Scope: Celestron C80ED
Guide Camera: Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Image Acquisition: BackyardEOS
Ambient Temperature: 2 Degrees Celcius
Sensor Temperature: -19 Degrees Celcius

I was extremely proud when this photograph won photo of the month in BBC Sky at Night Magazine

This was one of my very first images taken with a DSLR, firstly it was taken with an unmodified Canon 40D and the same target with a  modded 450D to make it more sensitive by means of replacing the band pass filters with clear glass, here’s the unmodded version:

And with the Modded 450D:

As you can see making the modifications to the DSLR makes a huge difference

Both of these images were taken using a Celestron C80ED Refractor on a Celestron CG5 Mount on a field tripod in a very good dark sky location at Rocky Bay, Cork, Ireland