playing with the Sonnar near Sagittarius

[alocky]

Last Thursday was a rare night without cloud, so I took the opportunity to head out and do some observing. I set up the Polarie with the D810A and 135mm Sonnar for a couple of runs of 90 x 60s images on Antares, and Messier central in Sagittarius.
Here's a couple of links to astrobin for the high res versions.

http://www.astrobin.com/251295/ Blue horsie and FSM nebulae

http://www.astrobin.com/251293/B/ Sagittarius to Scutum.

thanks for looking, and constructive commentary welcomed!

[Atmos]

They're fantastic! I really like the thumbnail version of Sagittarius! I have a thing for the universe being on fire :P It is punchier than the version on Astrobin, not that there is anything wrong with the Astrobin version, just sayin' :)

The blue horse looks (the right side of it) like a fiery hammer :lol:

[DJT]

Stunning images, Andrew. These are really excellent. Top job :thumbsup:

Star colour is great, framing spot on. Thanks for sharing.

[gregbradley]

Fantastic images. What ISO did you use?

Greg.

[Retrograde]

Awesome widefield pics. Looks like it's a great lens and camera combination.

[RickS]

Great pics, Andrew!

[alocky]

I had a couple of issues in pixinsight with that one- I'd left a screen stretch on the image so it looked fine onscreen but the output files were too dark.
I like the fiery hammer - I think it looks like something a pastafarian might worship.


Cheers and thanks for the kind words!


Thanks Greg - I use 1600 on the 810A, but haven't experimented enough with higher values. Too busy making the most of the rare imaging time we've been getting. I should set up some tests in the backyard though and see.


Cheers - it has to be the sharpest lens I've ever used. A real gem.

[alocky]

Thank rick - blown away by your polar ring gx on astrobin!

[IanP]

Fantastic shots, Andrew.
810a behaves much, much better than 60Da ..
:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Antares is my fav. Very nice widefields. :thumbsup:

[bobbyf]

They're really good Andrew :thumbsup:
I'd be interested in knowing how you make the dark lanes pop out as you have done.
I always seem to struggle with that.
Cheers
Bob

[batema]

Andrew if you wouldn't mind telling me how you polar ilign the polarie as I have one without the alignment scope but just attach a laser to the side with bluetac and align the laser with a star in the centre of the small window but if 6ou have a better method I would appreciate any advice.

Mark

[alocky]

It's all that full frame goodness! Although the very low ambient temperature certainly helped.


Thanks - it's an amazing patch of sky.


Hi Bob - there's no real trick, but having a lot of integration time pays off because you get a lot more signal to play with in the dark tones. I use pixinsight, but you can do the same thing in any photo editing software, just use the levels and curves iteratively to stretch out the signal down the bottom end, and then carefully bring the black point up until they pop.



Ah - it's a bit of a faff, but I use a doohicky I had made that replaces the standard polarie camera mount with what looks like a mini german eq. That lets me use the polar scope with the camera on it, other wise if you're trying to align with the scope and then put the camera back on, it will be very inaccurate.
I used to get good results by putting a 2" eyepiece extension tube over the polarie ring and hanging the camera off that by its strap, then reassembling the whole thing as if it were made of nitroglycerine...

[TraKtorman]

The spaghetti monster shot is fantastic. What adapter do you use to attach the camera to the Polarie? I am assuming there is a fair bit of weight in that camera and lens combo.

[alocky]

Just the little vixen ball-head that came with the polarie- you do have to tighten the thing pretty hard to hold up 2kg of DSLR and lens though.

[Ryderscope]

A great set of images Andrew.
Its a lovely area of the sky to image.

[mountainjoo]

Great images. The Antares region has a nice sense of depth.

[Rigel003]

Wonderful images, Andrew. Love the blue horsehead and the image scale is just right to make the tendrils from the rho/Antares area look fantastic. Great composition and a riot of colour with super sharp stars. What was the lens stopped down to?

I had to google FSM nebula - very amusing.

[Paul Haese]

Excellent examples of what can be achieved with a DSLR Andrew. The Blue HH image has very pleasing colours and brightness. I like the Sagittarius image but think it might be missing some blue tones. In any event both are nice images.

[alocky]

Really appreciate the feedback Paul, and was a little surprised by the lack of blue around the trifid. Probably worth a revisit!



Thanks Graeme, I'm not the first to see a noodly appendage or two there :) The lens works OK at f2.0 but I had it at f2.5 because there is a fair bit of vignetting at f2.0 and the flats can blow the noise up in the corners.


Thanks Jerome, there's a lot of galactic dust about there.

Thanks Rodney, it's certainly one of my favourites.

[Andy01]

WOW!
You've got the Nikon D810 singing there - lovely rich fields and well processed.
Top stuff :thumbsup:

[alocky]

Thanks Andy! That sublime lens is the other half of the equation.

[rustigsmed]

awesome work andrew.
i especially like the galactic bulge shot :) great colour makes it look like the dust is hiding a burning fire.

cheers

russ

[Decimus]

Absolutely stunning images, Andrew.:eyepop: Cannot take my eyes off them and when I do, I keep coming back! An outstanding pair of beautiful images which are every bit as good as any complex CCD set-up, in my opinion. (Don't you just love Zeiss lenses, too:)). Great work.
Cheers,
Richard

[Ross G]

Two beautiful photos Andrew.

Nice colours and so sharp.

Great lens!

Ross.

[alocky]

Thanks Russ - I like the way you describe it!



Thank Richard - although the 810A is more like a modified DSLR, I can't get results anywhere near as good with my CCD. The entire setup for this also fits on the back of a motorbike!


Thanks Ross - and definitely credit belongs to the opticians at Zeiss!