SMC at f3.6

[alocky]

And here's another from Monday night: This time with the focal reducer on the FSQ giving me f3.6 at 397mm fl.
Subs are 60 seconds @ iso 6400 and there is about 30 minutes worth. It was quite challenging to get a decent colour balance in this as there was an annoying purple-red cast - which was caused by the aurora :-).
Here's the high res version on astrobin (http://www.astrobin.com/189261/B/).
cheers again!
Andrew.

[Somnium]

:thumbsup: looking great.

[DavidTrap]

Why weren't you photographing the Aurora?

Nice SMC BTW :P

DT

[alocky]

Would you believe I didn't take a tripod! I have one photo using a 14mm lens resting on the lens cap on my picnic table. My face got stuck to the table while I was trying to focus and frame it (-2C!!) so I offset from infinity from memory. Even though I was completely sober at ~4:00am I didn't quite get it right, so the stars are a bit blobby. But I do have a wide shot of the aurora. I'm also quite pleased with myself for even registering it naked eye without having any knowledge of the forecast- it really wasn't that bright from here.

[DavidTrap]

Excused!

DT

[jase]

Massive FoV Andrew. Plenty to see. I was expecting to see the stars more finely resolved with the FSQ, yet its still a great image. Thanks for sharing.

[Paul Haese]

Huge field of view with lots of objects in the field. That DSLR gives a nice smooth background too. One of the best field of view I have seen of this galaxy. The image shows the galaxy's twisted shape really well.

My only critique would be that I think the galaxy and 47 Tucanae are a little too magenta.

[Regulus]

What Paul said. Really nice presentation.

Trev

[alocky]

They were - but I actually knocked the first three wavelet layers off in an attempt to get the HII regions to show through. With the reducer on, the FSQ is putting the stars into a single pixel. I'm now experimenting with the drizzle integration, but am really struggling to get the nebulosity to come through the stars.


Thanks Paul! I think I need to revisit this at lower ISO to try and get some more of the subtle structure to come through. BY trying to squeeze the detail out in the SMC I've made a complete mess of the colour.


Thanks Trev - I'm going to park this one for a while and come back to it once I've got a bit of distance...

[Rex]

Nice one Andy. That Camera does a fairly decent job indeed.

[RickS]

That's a great FOV, Andrew, and the image turned out quite nicely. I frequently use drizzle with a FSQ-106 and CCD camera with good results.

Cheers,
Rick.

[alocky]

Thanks again Rick, the drizzle really seems to have done the trick:
http://www.astrobin.com/189261/C/
Although the HII regions throughout the SMC are more subtle, at least the colour is better balanced. Definitely one to revisit and go a bit deeper on.



Thanks Rex - a keeper, this one! It will have to be - I'm not allowed spend any more money on astronomical equipment until the kids have finished school, the house paid off, etc etc...