Test Run of My Travel Set Up - Imaging Nebula with a Full Moon

The first question is why image nebula when the moon is up?  The answer - No choice or don't try.  For my wife's 50th birthday we are going on a trip to Costa Rica and so I decided I needed a new telephoto lens so I purchased a nearly new Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens from B&H which can be used for normal imaging as well as astrophotography.  I did not want to bring a huge mount on the airplane so I i purchased a nearly new iOptron SkyGuider Pro Camera Mount from High Point which can be attached to any sturdy camera tripod. Great, I thought all is set. Southern Hemisphere objects such as the Running Chicken Nebula, eta Carinae Nebula, and the Southern Cross are low but visible. Unfortunately, the timing of our trip happens to be when the moon is out, hence, this test run. 

So on March 17, 2019 the moon was at 87%, equivalent to when when will be Costa Rica, I did a test run on Orion - Horsehead Complex and the Rosette Nebula which were both closer to the moon than the above mentioned. In order to lessen the moon glow I use the Astronomik UHC Clip-in filter which has helped me in the past with some nebulae.

The set up of the SkyGuider Pro was real easy.  The hard part was centering the objects - not so much with Orion as it is a very easy to locate. That said I did not center it well because it was going behind some trees and I wanted to get it before it was gone.  The Rosette took a little longer to find as it was dimmer and the nearby stars were masked by the moon glow.  This may be the biggest problem I face.  I did not try to center this either when I finally located it as I was getting tired and the point of this test was to see if I see the nebula. 

The test was made using the following camera settings: 30-seconds, f/3.5, ISO 1600 for the nebula images and 8-seconds for the Sirius image.

Raw Images:

Minor Processing:

Well, in my opinion the results are promising. The stars are round when viewed at full frame but are  not perfect if the image is zoomed in.  The nebula resolved out well for just a thirty second exposure. Judging by the background light, I am not sure about doing 1-minute exposures with the moon so 30-seconds may be my limit anyway. I did some very minor processing on the images to get an idea of how hard it will be. Not surprisingly the noise was the biggest problem since it was only one frame,  more exposures will help obtain a better image.

Individual Exposures:

Test Run
Location: Home Monroe, CT
Date: 3-17-19
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Lens: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal Length: 200mm
f/3.5

Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro on a Manfrotto Tripod
Filter: Astronomik UHF Clip-in
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 1 x 30s
ISO: 1600
Post Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop
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