Chameleon Cloud - IC 2631 from IISAC2015

[Rod771]

Decided to take advantage of dark conditions at Lostock and image something to the south. My southern skies at home are full of LP and imaging the Chameleon cloud complex is just out of the question.

Here's my version from Lostock. Should have more data but I called it a night at 2:00am after getting up 5:30am the morning before to drive up.

C11 Edge HD with Hyperstar lens F2, Canon 60Da ISO800

55 x 90 sec subs. Total integration - 1 hour 22.5 minutes Calibrated with darks and flats.

Processed in Pixinsight.

Large click Here (http://astrob.in/full/168596/0/)
Large click here (http://astrob.in/full/168596/B/) Boosted colour

Thanks for Looking

Cheers

Rod

[strongmanmike]

Gee! that's alright huh? lovely soft dust and little stars, quite lovely Rod, excellent work. You look to have that hyperstar tuned nicely, it goes deep fast huh? particularly under dark skies I bet :)

Mike

[multiweb]

That shot is truly excellent, Rod. Your field looks great. :thumbsup: Gotta love the hyperstar. Only if it wasn't so bloody heavy.

[RickS]

A great result, Rod! The hyperstar certainly sucks down the photons.

[Paul Haese]

Well done Rod, nice composition and smooth looking. Perhaps a little boost in the saturation though to give it a bit more punch.

[Placidus]

Very fine work, Rod. A subtle rendition with nothing lost.

A not-so-often shown part of the sky. Reminds me of the Corona Australis gas and dust complex.

[Geoff45]

Great work Rod. Amazing how beautiful dust can be.
Geoff

[Rod771]

Cheers Mike! :) I love my hyperstar lens, as Rick and yourself refer, under dark skies its a dead set Dyson with cyclonic blah blah blah :D. I actually approached the work flow for this one with the "less is more" mentality. Easy to do when the raw data is soooo good.



Thanks Marc! :) I was quite excited as soon as the stacking was complete. Heavy indeed! The Cgem DX copes well though.



Thanks Rick! The Hyperstar is the 60Da's best friend during the warmer months, 1 to 2 minute subs are all you need.



Thanks Mike and Trish! There wasn't much to do after stacking, It just looked real good to me. I shot Corona Australis from home last year, not a real gob smacker but pretty all the same. Image here (http://astrob.in/full/100908/0/)



Thanks Geoff! I really like the dusty objects. For some reason, imaging and seeing other people pics of dirt in space really appeals to me :question:

[Rod771]

Cheers Paul! :) If you have the FOV I think its one target that the rule of thirds is easily applied . I tried a few different levels of saturation, I probably pulled back little too far? Here's a version with a little more colour. Also push the red channel slightly with curves.

Large version link added to original post.

Thanks for the feedback :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

That's a very fine image Rod.

I'm currently imaging the same region with a 300mm FL Pentax lens in both visible and NIR.

Steven

[Rod771]

Thanks Steven! :)

You'll get a nice FOV at 300mm. Looking forward to your results.

Cheers

Rod

[sjastro]

Unfortunately not when the lens is attached to a ST-10XME

Steven

[Rod771]

Ah I see, just had a look with Ron Wodaski's CCD calculator. You should get a slightly larger field than my shot. My field is 136 x 91 arc minutes - 560mm FL with the APS-C sensor of 14.9mm x 22.3mm.

It says your field should be 170 x 114 arc minutes.

[Ross G]

Great looking photo of a beautiful but difficult object Rod.

I like your balance of colours.

Ross.

[Rod771]

Thanks Ross! It was your beautiful shot from Coonabarabran which inspired me to have a crack at it at IISAC. :)

[Phil Hart]

I'm late to the thread as usual but this is a lovely image.

Great image quality at f2.. I'm impressed! :thumbsup:

Phil

[Rod771]

Thanks Phil! :) Imaging under dark skies certainly helped. I need to do more of it.

[gvanhau]

Very nice result considering the short expo times.
The C11+Hyperstar is like a bazooka for wide field imaging :lol:.

[Rod771]

Yeah they can do a lot of damage when set up right ;)

Thanks Geert !:)

[Slawomir]

Amazing quality, low noise and nice stars right to the edges. Well done!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

That's very good Rod!:thumbsup:

One of my favourite objects to image.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Rod771]

Thanks Slawomir! Yes the Canon 60Da is quite good, but I'm dreaming of a SX 814 Trius to pair with the hyperstar.



Thanks Justin! :) I had fun with this one. Looking to image similar objects in the future, however I think they're too hard to shoot from home, need to travel.