Southern Horror Show
The Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070)

Here's an image of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070 in the Large Magellenic Cloud) that was captured recently with my new LXD-75 SN8 using the Mintron color security camera (MTV 62V1P-Ex) at prime focus.  Polar alignment wasn't very good, neither was focus.  Heh, it's my first big scope.  I hope to do better soon.

The Mintron comes standard with two video outputs. The Composite Video output I feed to an old color TV for live viewing, and I link the S-video cable from the Mintron to my Mini-DV camcorder to collect data for later processing on my computer (see attached processed image).

The image seen on the TV actually compares very favorably to the processed image. I can certainly see more detail in the Tarantula Nebula live on the TV than I can by looking through an eyepiece. These are interesting times for Astronomy. Behold the full horror in black and white (below image taken with the black and white Mintron camera MTV 13V1C):

View More Tarantula Nebula

View more Nebulae