M8 using 40 second subs.

[jjjnettie]

I'm reposting this in the beginners section because it shows exactly what you can achieve using short subs. 186 x 40 second subs. Unguided.

The Great Foot of Sagittarius. (if I keep calling it that it might catch on LOL )
M8, the Lagoon Nebula is at the heel and IC 4685 is the pink stuff at the "toes".
The total exposure time for this image is 2hr and 10min.
But...the individual subs were just 40 seconds long. (I wasn't guiding and thats as long as I could go before the stars would start trailing)
Camera - CDS1100D @ ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 Scope - FS78 with focal reducer.

Higher res image is on my Flickr photostream. The link is in my signature.

I also uploaded to my photostream a few other wide fields taken recently if you care to peruse.

[SimmoW]

Good demo of such a technique.

Your link doesn't work for me.

[cometcatcher]

You newbie JJJ you. :P

At first when I read it I though I was looking at a single 40 second sub. Then I read a bit more lol.

Yeah the total time is what counts, more or less. The good news about that is no need for all the guiding apparatus and headaches that go with it. Thanks for the demo JJJ!

[jjjnettie]

Exactly. If you don't have any guiding gear as yet, it doesn't mean you can't do any imaging.
And there is nothing more satisfying than processing an image that you took yourself. :)

[codemonkey]

That's a really great shot; I love the composition.

I just had a crack at M8 + M20 last night (76 x 30s @ ISO 800 + ISO1600), which I think I need to spend more time processing, but I much prefer your composition here. I think I might have another crack at it tonight :-)