47 Tuc

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Globular cluster 47 Tucanae. 1 hour of 150 second and 180 second exposures taken from my light polluted backyard in Canberra. Several other globular clusters appear in the image, these belonging to the Small Magellanic Cloud which is just making an appearance at the bottom right of frame.

This is an 80% crop of the full image from a Nikon D5100 at ISO 800 on AT65EDQ scope with an IDAS light pollution filter. Subs were stacked and corrected with bias and flats in DSS. Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop.

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

That looks very good Cam well done

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Very nice

[G58 (Glenn)]

Very nice photo, I am new to this how do I post my photos ?

[traveller (Bo)]

Great image Cam, sharp and well exposed.
Bo

[pluto (Hugh)]

That looks great Cam, nice work!

Originally Posted by G58

Very nice photo, I am new to this how do I post my photos ?

Make sure your pic is under 200kb.

First start a new thread in an appropriate section of the forum, like "Beginners Astrophotography"
Then when you post click on the little paperclip above the text area. Click one of the Browse buttons and choose your file. Then press upload and close that little window when it's done.
You can click preview to make sure it works before posting.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Looks great Cam!

[G58 (Glenn)]

Thanks Hugh

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Thanks all. The rig is really starting to sing now. Can't wait to escape the bright lights of my backyard. I'm also thinking I really don't need guiding with this setup.

[raymo]

Great job Cam. It's funny how stunning 47 is visually, but how
difficult it is to make it look much photographically.
raymo

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Great job Cam. It's funny how stunning 47 is visually, but how
difficult it is to make it look much photographically.
raymo

There isn't an instrument that I've seen 47 Tuc with that didn't give me a view I loved, from 7x50 binoculars to the 9 3/4 inch refractor at Carter Observatory, to Dave Moorhouse's 16" 'retina-wrecker' binoculars. But you're right, photographically, even close-ups (and mine isn't even that) just don't do it justice.

I my own feeling is that photographs "smear out" the brightness of stars so the crispness of each star is lost. For nebulae it doesn't matter much, but for clusters and globs in-particular (since the stars are packed together so closely) it's a real loss.

[raymo]

Absolutely.
raymo

[Rex]

Beautifully done Cam. Nicely done right down to the core.