Don't you just love democracy...a unanimous decision!
Antares is enmeshed with nebulosity, M4 and IC 4604 are nearby.
Heaven knows how often we have all looked up at it.
Again (as Alex is so good at pointing out) this thread is an opportunity for those of us who are learning, and for those that have a lot of experience, to post there efforts together, here in this thread.
Remember to include all the capture details.
Tip: Take a beanie
Oh, and we might have to wait until that bright globe goes out...
Beautiful Ray. Was that with an 8” Newt by any chance? Love the colour. Wondering about the diffraction spikes and what they mean? Not a criticism at all because the image just sparkles but wondering when they split a little along one axis what this might mean or whether it’s just the nature of imaging with a reflector?
Hi Ben, Yes, 8" Newt. All reflectors display diffraction spikes, 1, 2,3, or 4 depending upon how many supports the secondary mirror has. Mine are split because the alignment of all the parts of the optical train hadn't been checked and adjusted for a long time. I only generally only did that annually or
thereabouts. When the secondary mirror support vanes are perfectly
parallel with the scope's tube, and all else is correctly adjusted, the
diffraction spikes will be perfect.
raymo
Thanks for the info Ray. I have the same split spikes in my 8” Newt images so guess there’s yet more work to do there with alignment. The diffaction spikes I find quite a nice feature and when they reflect so much of the star colour it’s really compelling regardless of any kind of symmetry.
I'm thinking my rig will have a moderation of success with this challenge.The question is, will the shortest exposure time stacked multiple times give a better result than a longer time?? time to play
Nice shots guys.
I got similar weeks ago and feel that this object would benefit from using just a camera and a lens from 50 to 100 in an effort to bring out the dust lanes.
If I get a chance I will use that approach as I would like to get the dust and some of the sourounding interesting stuff.
Got a 20minute Antares. 5 minutes each of LRGB (30 x 10s) through the 8" Newt. Trimmed to get rid of an annoying reflection... not sure what I can do about that?
Was with a new laptop (well an old one that I hadn’t previously setup for Astro stuff) and lots to tweak were needed - PHD setting, EQMod setting... lots of time solving issues while hoping to image. Anyway got something in the end. No time for flats...
added a version thats more stretched..
Last edited by Benjamin; 12-06-2018 at 12:47 PM.
Reason: added an altered pic
Thanks Peter. A young student of mine saw the image and told me all about seeing Mars - it’s rival :-) Reminds you just how a simple star (albeit wonderfully red) can be such a talking point. SkySafari says this about it:
Antares takes its name because of its distinctly red color, which compares to that of Mars. The Greek name Antares means "Rival of Mars", the god of war. The Romans called the star Cor Scorpionis, meaning Heart of the Scorpion. However, they had been anticipated in this by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Sumerians, who for at least two millennia had also known the star as the Heart of the Scorpion. According to ancient Arab tradition, Antares is the warrior-poet Antar's star. Many of the old Egyptian temples are oriented so that the light of Antares plays a role in the ceremonies performed there. Antares was also known as Satevis in ancient Persia and was one of the four "royal stars" of the Persians around 3000 BC. It was also known as Jyeshtha in ancient India.
I took this ages ago like a couple of months☺
Its what we are after or am I barking up the wrong tree☺
I am not sure what I used but I am sure it was the nikon ...its all a blur..I gotta get back to a general diary ... at my age you think a bit slack and dont do thinks that remind you of work...a diary for my eas a pile of worms dripping with people and problems.
But I have tried a few things unsucessfully ..I have one in the oven using the 80mm but it will be bloated because of fog☺
Anyways here is my image..heck I hope it my image...wouldnt it be terrible to upload something you have downloaded to have a good look at...it looks so much better than the recent stuff. Sleep depravation is catching up I can feel it...I feel confused...maybe I am having a stroke...maybe so happy to be outta Sydney.
Just by chance, my best friend was looking over the shoulder as your image came up. She said 'Wow, look at that, amazing!'
So there you go. Never said that about anything I have done...
Technically a bit green, but that didn't matter at all.
Wow thanks.
I have trees and grass all aroung and even the house is green and maybe I get a lot of green light maybe..I go for detail which seems under my current technique seems to bring out detail...it helps that I dont notice☺
30 minutes until my stack thru the 80mm it will be interesting to see if it works better than the cheap nikon lens $200 v $2000
I tried the canon on it but so disappointing and after the eaier image recently posted featuring the photo I managed with it ..well reasonable expectations were not met. Got the Eagle started as well.
Alex
Love it Alex. Not waded into the wide field imaging and your images are bloody inspiring
Thank you Ben.
They blow me away most times because of their ease of capture to result...as I said above its great bang for your buck.
You must try it just do 30 seconds and a big stack see what you get.
Thanks again.
Alex
I took this ages ago like a couple of months☺
Its what we are after or am I barking up the wrong tree☺
Very nice Alex. I thought that was the challenge too. I still don't have a way to piggy back my camera to telescope or mount so would need to do a mosaic to get any wide coverage. I tried it the other night but my software wouldn't do it for me. I need to try old school!
. Sleep depravation is catching up I can feel it...I feel confused...maybe I am having a stroke...maybe so happy to be outta Sydney. 
