Carina Nebula NGC3372 Wide (60Da + Astrotrac)

[MrB]

Hi Guys,

I spent last week down at the girlfriends family farm in Nannup for a bit of a serene getaway and just had to make use of the dark skies for some widefields.

Sadly, I only get to do this about once or twice a year, the rest of the time I'm in suburban LP hell, but one powerball and I'm moving there for ever! :D

I was able to push 15 min exposures at 1600 and f4 with minimal fogging and would be easy to go more but with no guiding, trailing was becoming an issue.
My Sky Quality Meter(SQM-L) gave consistent readings of around 21.70 to 21.75, but did get one reading of 21.79.... I was loving the dark!

Anyway, stats for this image:
Single 450 second (7.5min) exposure, no darks or flats or any other calibration.
Canon 60Da at ISO1600, 100% APS-c frame (not cropped).
Astrotrac Travel System (Pier & Wedge etc), no guiding.
Pentax Super-Takumar 105/2.8 at f4 (50year old lens)

Processing is simply some fiddling in Canon's DPP, no photoshop or PI or anything.
I was fortunate(!) when some very thin, very high level cloud passed thru the shot and bloated the brighter stars which, I believe, enhance the shot.

With the bloated stars, I decided to crank the saturation right up to highlight the star colours and I really like it.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope some of you like it :)

A slightly larger but much less compressed version can be viewed here: http://www.pbase.com/image/154051615/original

Regards,
Simon

[strongmanmike]

Beautiful classic film like shot that of a classic southern field, very nice indeed and I recon Monsignor Malin would like it muchly Simon :thumbsup:
Don't let that girlfriend go either!

Mike

[RickS]

Very pretty field, Simon. Especially good for a single sub with minimal processing.

[ReaPerMan]

Great job Simon, I love the colour. Great Carina and a bit of Chook on the side :) We still have to catch up for lunch some time.

All the best

Paul

[cometcatcher]

Amazing shot for a single 7.5m exposure. My frame would be full of sodium fog by that time.

[seeker372011]

Superb just love it

[MrB]

Many thanks Mike!
I knew it reminded me of something, and you have just jogged my memory of Akira Fujii's marvelous film era photo's I used to stare at in various astro magazines when I was a teen. They were the sort of shots that made me dream of doing AP.... when I could afford it!
The bloated star seems to be a Fujii trademark ;)
http://www.davidmalin.com/fujii/source/af1-05_72.html


Thanks Rick, I had taken many more shots with the view to stacking, but my lack of skill with AP software I really couldn't see much improvement over the single frame.
Besides, this is the only one where the stars are bloated and the other frames look boring in comparison.


Cheers Paul,
I deliberately chose to have Carina slightly off-centre to get a bit of the chook in frame as I thought it would be a more interesting shot overall, but I find my eye keeps getting drawn to the top right corner where the image is less busy and, in a way, looks much nicer. It also has a kind of 3D effect with the blue star seemingly hovering in the foreground.
I'm going to have to target that area next time :)


Haha yes I have the same problem Kevin.
At home, with the same settings, I would be lucky to get a few seconds worth!


Many thanks Narayan.

[multiweb]

Great shot. Nicely framed with beautiful colours. :thumbsup:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

That's beautiful Simon!:thumbsup:

First time I've seen this area processed like this, a great piece of astro art!!

Cheers,

Justin.

[MrB]

Cheers Marc :)



Thanks Justin.
Though 'processed' doesn't really describe the effort(or lack of) that I put into it :D
The shot is basically as it came out of the camera with a little tweaking in Canon's Digital Photo Professional.
There is some green in the image but with DPP I was unable to remove this without making it look, to my eye, too warm or too cold.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Viva lack of processing !!:)

Sometimes produces great results.

Cheers,

Justin.

[LucasB]

Beautiful widefield shooting. Very nicely done!:thumbsup:
Lucas

[gregbradley]

That image turned out very well. Love the subtle colours.

Greg.

[MrB]

Haha, thanks Greg, I was worried I had gone overboard with the colour!
Saturation was one click shy of maximum in DPP.

The greatest thing I've taken from this is how good the lens is, there is some CA (red side) but the stars in the corners are near perfect.
Best FWHM value in APT's 'focus aid' tool was at maximum twist on the focus ring. Being an old M42 screwmount lens I might try a few other EOS adaptors to see if I can find one with a different thickness, that might allow me to improve on the focus and reduce the CA a little.

[Joshua Bunn]

I like that Simon. Beautiful colours, sharp and love the subtle star bloat.

[MrB]

Thanks Josh!
Yes the slight bloat is what set this one apart from all the other frames for me.
The cloud did make the image slightly soft overall, but I think it's a fair tradeoff.



Many thanks Lucas! My apologies, not sure how I missed your comment earlier :(

[gregbradley]

Pentax SMC lenses are good performers. I have the 6x7 55, 165 and 300mm. The 55mm is a dog. The 165 superb with no distortions or CA. The 300mm is also good but I have not done any colour shots with it. There is an ED version.

One caution about old Pentax SMC lenses some have thorium oxide in the glass to increase the refractive index (probably mostly fast lenses). This is slightly radioactive. You can find lists of the radioactive lenses on the net. Google radioactive lenses.

Greg.

[MrB]

Yeah I love the Takumars.
As you say, some of them are dogs, the 35/3.5 is great for daytime stuff, but woeful for astro.
But some are real gems too. I haven't got a copy of the 35/2 yet but from all reports it's a winner. Same for the SMC Takumar 135/2.5 (v2).
My 55/1.8 is sharp as a tack, but then it's the 35mm version, not the 6x7.
The 55/2 tho is a different beast, no where near as good.

I have one thorium lens, the Takumar 50/1.4, I'm not worried tho ;)

[Ross G]

Great wide photo Simon.

Beautiful colours.

Ross.

[stevous67]

Ditto all positive comments from above. The framing and senery colouring is excellent. Well done,

Steve

[Octane]

That is so beautiful. :)

H

[MrB]

Thanks Ross :)



Thanks Steve!



Cheers H :thumbsup: