Scorpius, Galactic Rift and Milky Way

[cazza132 (Troy Casswell)]

Just love this area of the sky! - Camera collecting photons while drinking beer with some rocking music out the middle of howdy nowhere with me, myself and I. Illumination provided by the Milky Way is the best light source to navigating around site after night vision acquired. A long way from day to day life!
Probably the most action packed region of the sky, Mars and Saturn were welcome guests to the party.
Canon 6D (full spectrum), Astronomik clip in 'L' filter + some data using a 12nm Ha clip in filter, Zeiss Sonnar APO 135mm f/2.0, Astrotrac.
This is a multipanel mosaic consisting of about 100 panels. ISO3200, f2.5 with shutter speeds 4x3s, 4x8s, 4x30s and 8x90s for each panel aligned using PT Gui for each sub in a panel, then again to align panels for overall mosaic.
Combined using Fitswork to expand the dynamic range. Flat frames and dark frames applied to each sub beforehand using Photoshop. The remaining processing (gradient correction, levels, colour, etc) done in Photoshop.
Rho Ophiuchus crop: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130830...posted-public/

[DJT (David)]

Oh wow, that is epic!

So much stuff to see. A beautiful image.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Awesome!

[JA]

Wonderful Image

Best
JA

[el_draco (Rom)]

Detail is stunning. One of the best shots of this area I've seen

[Atmos (Colin)]

That is spectacular Troy!

[gregbradley]

A remarkable effort, fabulous image and a great formula you have worked out.

Greg.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Wow, very nice!
And this year's Malin award goes to...
(Methinks you're going to have to plan another roadtrip to Parkes

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

That's an impressive project Troy and a great image result.

[Tony_ (Tony)]

Brilliant piece of work - looks like a lot of time has gone into this one.
Great result.

Tony.

[Peter Ward]

Has your fingerprints all over it....and of course is superb.

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

The crop of Ophiucus was extraordinary, but the full scale is beyond any superlative I can come up with! The Ha really helps the nebulosity to pop, and you've set a new standard in image acquisition and processing.
This would print on a very large scale given the resolution of that lens and 100 panels, have you got any plans to put it up somewhere?
This should be in a museum or planetarium covering an entire wall!
Cheers
Andrew.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Wow - amazing work and big respect for what is obviously a huge undertaking.

[alpal]

Hi Troy,
that's wonderful -
I wish the whole sky could be mapped like that.

cheers
Allan

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

That's a beauty, Troy well done

[traveller (Bo)]

Amazing image Troy, well done!
Bo

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Boom - mic drop! Awesome!

[Mighty_oz (Marcus)]

Fantastic image

[tel.lekatsas (Tel)]

Stunning.

[cazza132 (Troy Casswell)]

Thanks for the kind words folks! It is a large project that I've been working on for quite some time. I'm really happy with the way it's worked out.

Andrew - thanks! No plans at this stage, but would be honoured if I was asked by a museum or planetarium. Will probably print it large for home though.

Andy - thanks! I entered this one in the International Greenwich astro comp a few days ago, so probably won't enter this particular image in this year's DMAs. Although I have used new data, it has similarities to the 'Stellar Riches' one entered a couple of years ago.