Another Keyhole

[PeterSEllis]

Hi Guys,

Not the greatest shot of the Keyhole Nebula, it was a "God Awful" night, but I was desperate for an Astro Fix. I envy those of you that live at dark site, Melbourne's Light Pollution is not getting any better.

Taken with a 150mm Esprit on a EQ8, using an unmodded Canon 600D with a Cold finger, 25 X 5 minutes subs, Darks, Flats etc.

Cheers
Peter

[JA]

Melbourne Light Pollution? Well you've done a great job managing it. The dark looks dark and the background is not mottled! Can you tell us about any filters used and your ISO?

Beautiful display Peter :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Placidus]

Most of us (writer included) so want to see every last photon we've captured that we're bringing out the subtlest details of the background, at the expense of the structure of the named foreground object.

You've photographed the Eta Carinae nebula! :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Really nice Peter! As we're living in the second most light polluted location in Australia, I feel your pain when I look heavenward :)

[PeterSEllis]

Hi JA,
I don't use any filters and the ISO setting for the Canon 600D is 800, as recommended by this site http://dslr-astrophotography.com/iso-values-canon-cameras/
One thing I do do now is to use Starry Night Pro 7 to predict when the DSO I wish to Photograph is about 30 to 35 Degrees rising in the East/SE. For Boronia that is the Darkest Part of the Sky, West for me is almost totally washed out with light Pollution. I also use PixInsight to process the images, Dynamic Background Extraction is very good at removing the light pollution bias.
Cheers Peter



Hi Placidus,
It has crossed my mind more than once to do some narrow banding DSO photography, there are certainly many advantages. The nights are so fickle here, I just grab what ever I can in a single night, because I could be waiting a couple of weeks before another night comes up. Having said that, I do look with envy at many of the shots I've seen up here with that fine intricate detail.
When I show my non Astronomy friends some of my better shots, there are lots of ooh arr's, I like to think I have shown them what they are missing.

Cheers
Peter


You've photographed the Eta Carinae nebula! :thumbsup:[/QUOTE]



Hi Atmos,

When I moved to Boronia 40 years ago, there where beautiful dark skies here, now I'm limited to about 9th magnitude, unless I go to great heroics and generally that only leads to poor results.
I'm only a beginner compared to many hardened veterans in this forum.
I will say one thing, I still have some shots I took on 2415 fine grain hyper-sensitized Kodak Film. My digital photography shots just blows them out of the water, it is almost embarrassing looking at them. I wonder what It will be like in another 40 years?

Cheers
Peter