SMC with Bert's 300mm lens, unfiltered in galeforce wind

[tornado33]

Hi all
Initially set up the 10 inch after todays storms cleared for a nice dark evening sky, but out of nowhere wind sprung up, far to much for imaging, so reconfigured quickly for Bert;s 300mm F2.8 lens instead. Its fantastic for imaging in wind. Despite gale force gusts coming through, no guide errors.

Did the SMC, 4x4 mins ISO 200, uv/ir filter on modded 350D, no UHCS filter this time, hand guided. SMC at max height.
Larger version here
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/smc%204x4minsiso200300mmbig.jpg
Ive never attempted imaging in such strong wind before :)
Scott

[iceman]

Wow, a marvellous image, Scott.

[Dennis]

Very nice Scott. The larger version via the link looks stunning. A little CA visible around the brighter stars, but doesn't 47 Tuc look fantastic, just hanging there like a cluster of sparkling diamonds.

Cheers

Dennis

[avandonk]

Great framing Scott to squeeze the lot in. Was there much light pollution and or skyglow? There is far more yellow in your image than I can get with a Hutech LPR filter as a lot of the yellow is attenuated.
This is a really good image as 47TUC has not blown out to much even though all the dim detail is visible. Did you use any shadow masking?

To see such a well balanced detailed image makes me want to get to some dark skies to image without any filters (apart from UV/IR). I am glad the lens is doing what it is meant to do, collect photons not dust.:thumbsup:

Again another great image. Even the dim background galaxies are visible.

Bert

[Ric]

Hi Scott, rough conditions by the sounds of it but what a fantastic image.

great stuff

[CometGuy]

Scott,

Fantastic image. Nice detail edge to edge.

Terry


Terry

[Garyh]

Excellent image Scott, well framed and processed....:thumbsup:

[RB]

Wow another great image Scott.

:thumbsup:

[tornado33]

Thanks all :)
Yes, Bert, there was some light pollution. I can just see the SMC naked eye, but only just, and thats at its highest. I had to remove some gradient too, it was slightly brighter towards the bottom, again, caused by light polution being stronger lower down. I had no trouble focussing your lens, I focussed by eye, took a short test image, then moved the foucus slightly to the left a few mm, then tried again and was luck, it was in sharp focus. So much light comes in at F2.8 I only need to go for 4 mins each at ISO 200 otherwise its too much fogging. Imaging with this lens at a really dark site doing up to 10 minute subs would be fantastic I think.

I used the Iris function "Dynamic Stretching" and also some "colour stretching" to bring out the faint stuff but not burn in the bright areas like centre of 47 Tuc, with a bit of trial and error these functions can work really well. I always save the original unprocessed image and if I muck up the processing, just open the original and try again.
Scott