Rho Ophiuchus Wide Field + Mosaic

[Meru]

Hi everyone,

One of my favourite regions in the night sky. Been meaning to take this for many years, feels great to have finally gotten it! This is a single panel of two, mosaic to come soon :) feedback always welcome :thumbsup:

D800 + Tokina 100mm f/2.8
Piggybacked on NEQ6 + 6" f/5 Achro
Total imaging time ~40min from Kinglake, Victoria

I haven't gotten around to getting my website up so unfortunately can only show the compressed image. One thing I have learned, it takes a very long time to stack and process 36MP RAW files!

[Meru]

As promised mosaic attached. Second panel is ~30min imaging time, ended up stacking and editing the two panels separately then combining/touching up on in Photoshop

[jase]

Love the mosaic Meru. Puts much into perspective. Well done, and thanks for sharing.

[DJT]

Love the image. The colours are awesome and the framing is great.

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Meru.

Nice colours and detail.

I love the composition of the mosaic.

Ross.

[Rex]

Top shot Meru!, Love that mosaic, and this area is just stunning.

[Paul Haese]

I like the cropped mosaic. Very nice image at that scale.

[SpaceNoob]

Wow, now that's some perspective. So many stars, that feeling of being insignificant comes mind lol. Nice job.

[DavidTrap]

Mosaic is fantastic.

Pretty impressive shots from the D800 - how long were your exposures?

DT

[pluto]

Those are just stunning, well done!

[RickS]

Great stuff, Meru!

[scagman]

Great images Meru.

[dvj]

The colors are breathtaking, wonderful, spectacular. These wide field are better than much of the work I've seen from some rather famous imagers.

j

[gregbradley]

A stunner
Greg

[Meru]

Thanks everyone! What a response, I wasn't expecting this :)

David, subframe exposure was 150s ISO1600 @ f/3.5 (total of 16+11 frames for left/right panel). I've always been a little weary of doing long subs and rather opting for higher ISO, but the D800 is proving to be very capable. I think next time I will go for longer subs. The galactic core is easy to process with the ~30min exposure, but definitely need 60min+ on the faint outliers (i.e. Rho Ophiuchi).

Another clear weekend up ahead so hoping to expand this mosaic, see if I can get the blue horsehead nebula & Vdb 99 :thumbsup:

Thanks again everyone for the feedback :)

[Rod771]

This is looking very good, Meru! Keep going, I'm enjoying the additions! :thumbsup:

[Meru]

Thanks Rod! Fingers crossed the weather holds up :D

[strongmanmike]

Sensational image Meru...grand and sharp at the same time, great stuff

Mike

[MGTechDVP]

Holy crp... wow... great image.. awesome colors.

Now who wants to count the stars?

[Leonardo70]

Fantastic ... congrats !!

All the best.
Leo

[Meru]

Thank you Mike!


Haha! Thanks Mariusz, DSS certainly had fun counting them :P infact I was trying to stack using the Mosaic feature but it could never match the panels - at one point I had 200,000+ stars registered and it still couldn't -_-


Cheers Leo :) One of my most rewarding images taken

[jase]

Drop'in by again for another peek. The view is mesmerising. Well done.

[Meru]

Please do drop by, the doors are always open :)