Rho Ophiuchus Neb Region

RB (Andrew) · #1 08-05-2008, 04:43 PM

Here's my effort from Sunday night's session.

Antares and Rho Ophiuchus Neb region - a very feature rich section of the sky.

This was taken through the 20Da and 85mm lens set at f/2.2, ISO 400, autoguided by PHD and the DMK.
A total of 11 x 4 min subs were ave combined (darks + flats applied).

I was dissapointed once again that PHD kept crashing on me but I was speaking with Houghy and he suggests that maybe my USB cable is too long and I need to use an active USB cable instead.
Will give that a go next.

I was hoping on taking more subs as I don't think 44 min at ISO400 is enough but alas I was too tired from the all nighter we had the night before at the pony club and so I called it quits.

Well as always thanks for looking and your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

I've uploaded a larger version here (470k).

[1ponders] (Paul) · #2 08-05-2008, 04:54 PM

Wow the 85 does a fantastic job with the FOV Andrew. Might have to look into one of them eventually. Which 85 was it f/1.2 or 1.8?

Nice processing btw

leon · #3 08-05-2008, 05:35 PM

Andrew, that is awesome,

just look at all those stars great effort indeed, if only the weather would change down here.

Leon

h0ughy (David) · #4 08-05-2008, 05:41 PM

woo hoo - what a nice shot

Zuts · #5 08-05-2008, 06:10 PM

Hi Andrew,

Lovely shot. The mix of colours in the nebs looks great and the framing of the dark neb really sets it off. I tried for it the other night but couldn't get the framing right so went on to other targets, maybe next year.

I wonder if you and Mike could share your data and double-stack to get even more detail, FL is different but maybe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Andrew, that is awesome,

just look at all those stars great effort indeed, if only the weather would change down here.

Leon

Don't worry Leon. The weather in Ballarat will change for sure. It will get a lot colder

Dennis · #6 08-05-2008, 06:17 PM

Beautifully captured, composed and processed. A stunning night sky vista!

Cheers

Dennis

seeker372011 (Narayan) · #7 08-05-2008, 06:22 PM

lovely shot..did you an mike decide to frame the object identically?

iceman (Mike) · #8 08-05-2008, 07:20 PM

beautiful work, RB. lovely colours.

Narayan, RB helped me frame the object on saturday night , so i guess it's natural his ends up the same

Deeno · #9 08-05-2008, 08:01 PM

Exquisite!!

RB (Andrew) · #10 08-05-2008, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Wow the 85 does a fantastic job with the FOV Andrew. Might have to look into one of them eventually. Which 85 was it f/1.2 or 1.8?

Nice processing btw

Thank you Paul, glad you liked it.
I used the f/1.2 on this.
It's quite a difficult area to process and very hard to compress to the forum limit because it's got so much detail.
I'm setting up again tonight and try this area again with a different FOV and hopefully have guiding on it.
I was so dissapointed that my guiding keeps failing on me and it shows in the frames.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Andrew, that is awesome,

just look at all those stars great effort indeed, if only the weather would change down here.

Leon

Cheers leon, hope you get some clear skies

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

woo hoo - what a nice shot

Thanks champ !

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuts

Hi Andrew,

Lovely shot. The mix of colours in the nebs looks great and the framing of the dark neb really sets it off. I tried for it the other night but couldn't get the framing right so went on to other targets, maybe next year.

I wonder if you and Mike could share your data and double-stack to get even more detail, FL is different but maybe?

It's such a lovely colourful region, I always return to it each year, glad you liked it.
I'll see what Mike says about a collaboration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis

Beautifully captured, composed and processed. A stunning night sky vista!

Cheers

Dennis

Thank you Dennis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by seeker372011

lovely shot..did you an mike decide to frame the object identically?

G'day Narayan, I love this section of sky and revisit it each year and do a shot.
It's funny but I was with Mike on sat nite but I didn't have my gear so like he said above, I was annoying him all night

but I set up the next night and I always try and frame it so the fingers run across or diag in the frame so the two images turned out similar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

beautiful work, RB. lovely colours.

Narayan, RB helped me frame the object on saturday night , so i guess it's natural his ends up the same

Thanks Mike, I'm going to try it again tonight so wish me luck with the guiding.
I wish my PHD would behave like your's does.

RB (Andrew) · #11 08-05-2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deeno

Exquisite!!

Cheers mate.

Ian Robinson · #12 08-05-2008, 08:20 PM

With such a wide fov , isn't autoguiding overkill ?

BTW : you have produced a wonderful photo ....

I bet the readers who live in europe and north america are all wishing they could get access to such southern delights , which pass directly overheat here.

RB (Andrew) · #13 08-05-2008, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

With such a wide fov , isn't autoguiding overkill ?

BTW : you have produced a wonderful photo ....

Thank you Ian.

With regard to autoguiding, my main aim is to get it working for me so I can image at prime focus.
As you know the longer the f.l the more you need guiding.

Having said that, I still would autoguide even at 85mm if I had the ability because this allows for longer exposures with nice round stars.

Ric · #14 09-05-2008, 01:34 AM

Fantastic image Andrew and it sits so well against that awesome backdrop of stars.

As I said with Mikes image, it reminds me of a giant celestial jellyfish difting along.

Cheers

Garyh · #15 09-05-2008, 09:04 AM

Very nice Andrew!

Gives a nice FOV with the 85mm lense..
Don`t know why you need guiding but I hope you sort it all out!
Unguided I can go 3 min @ 200mm with 80% good on the g-8 and never get a bad one at 50mm even with a 10min sub.

RB (Andrew) · #16 09-05-2008, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ric

Fantastic image Andrew and it sits so well against that awesome backdrop of stars.
As I said with Mikes image, it reminds me of a giant celestial jellyfish difting along.
Cheers

Thanks Ric, yes it does indeed look like a jellyfish, and so many stars in that region !

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garyh

Very nice Andrew!

Gives a nice FOV with the 85mm lense..
Don`t know why you need guiding but I hope you sort it all out!
Unguided I can go 3 min @ 200mm with 80% good on the g-8 and never get a bad one at 50mm even with a 10min sub.

Cheers Gary,

I finally sorted out the problem, it was a faulty USB cable, I'm using an active cable now.
The issue with guiding really needed to be sorted out so I wanted to use the opportunity even with a wider fov.
I've always found your images fantastic and it shows you have great accuracy in polar alignment & balance.
Do you have a permanent setup or do you pack-up each night.

I'm still a ways off setting up an observatory so it's a real pain each time to setup and pack-up.

I must admit though now that my guiding is sorted, I'd prefer to use it with almost any fov.