Lagoon

[rumples riot]

Hi all, just a start to the season. There are several problems with this shot. First is that my alignment needs re-examining, some dec movement there and the second is that there are coma spikes on the stars. Need to recheck collimation again.

7 x 4:20 seconds
Stacked in Registax3
Processed and layer masked in Photoshop
D70
iso 800

Post notes, more attention to detail needed here. Still not too bad and this is a difficult target in light polluted skies.

Comments Welcome.

[Striker]

bloody brilliant Paul.....I would be happy with half the detail.

Nice job....

[ballaratdragons]

Paul, it looks terrific to me! Just as good as in some of the magazines.

[Robby]

Hi Paul,
What f/ratio did you use? Looks like you've got a focal reducer in there!
Nice shot though. I've been waiting to see some D70 shots.. Gary Beal is also a Nikon nut with a D100.
Cheers

[gbeal]

Paul,
well done, and a good start to the season.
You have mentioned all the obvious ones, and yes there is room for improvement, but nevertheless a good shot.
There almost looks like a little vignetting, with the outer areas being quite dark. We (Rob and I) sometimes get this if we stretch the image too much. Nice colour though, and that D70 seems to really be giving good results. Be good to see the Mk2 version.
Gary

[iceman]

I was gonna say the same about the vignetting, the blue to red looks quite immediate in it's change.

Great start to a season of scorpius and sag though, top stuff and keep it coming!

[seeker372011]

good to see someone is up to the early hours chasing DSOs

nice lagoon -esp the extended nebulosity

is the D70 more sensitive in the red than the Canon?

[rumples riot]

Thanks for the compliments chaps.

Robby the f ratio is 6.3 and yes I a focal reducer on the scope when doing dso's

Gary and Mike, yeah got lots of Vignetting and tried to reduce it by doing a layer adjustment to it. The colour is fair natural though as this is high red emission nebula.

Seeker the D70 is less sensitive to Ha light than the canon.

Will try soon for some more interesting shots and perhaps a little look again at the lagoon. Want to get something better than this. Just that perfectionist in me.

[ballaratdragons]

Paul,

Just a question. Could you do a nice photo of Orion Neb. The poor old thing seems to get left out a lot and I would like to see some good amateur shots of it.

[janoskiss]

How about this one by the man himself from iceinspace.com Reviews:

http://www.iceinspace.com/phpwcms_tmp/thumb_preview/1_408_DqHwui20qW.jpg

[rumples riot]

Ken here is the link of M42 that I took late last year. Hope this satisfies your need.

http://www.iceinspace.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=438

[Robby]

And another!...! From earlier this year.
http://www.2fdesign.co.nz/astronomy/DSO/Orion2.jpg
Cheers

[beren]

Wow more inspiration .....top stuff Paul .... the winter season is looking good

[atalas]

Paul that Lagoon shot of yours has captured alot of depth mate ,the tracking problem you will sort out easy "well as much as your mount will allow .

Keep em coming mate !

Louie:eyepop:

[atalas]

Robby stunning M42 dude !

Louie:cool:

[Seven]

The Astro Pics on this thread/site are just mind blowing - there is real talent here when it comes to imaging the things of the Universe !!!!!!!!!!!!! The best I've seen!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done !!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Jo-Anne

[john_drummond]

Good images guys. Rob, you nailed M42 with precision - well done...

JD

[vh_ahl]

rumples riot,

This is Adam here *exfso's mate in Brissy* - I too have a D70 but no telescopes yet, but got this moon shot on a 28-200 mm nikon lens....

Question for ya - when you took these shots were you using the 'hack' that stops the D70 taking an overlay/black shot of equal length for each bulb shot (to reduce noise)? I understand this second equal lentgth 'balancing' shot drops the quality of astronomy pics and that it can be overridden by switching off the camera as soon as the first timed exposure has gone off...eg

a 30 second exposure takes in total 60 seconds - 30 for exposure, 30 for offset shot (the offset shot you avoid by turning off).

[vh_ahl]

BTW - have you checked out www.d70users.com ? - great D70users site

[rumples riot]

Vh, firstly, welcome to the forum.

I don't currently use the hack, although I can say that the NR selection can be simply turned off in the menu. I really like the images that are produced using the NR option, and it does save dark frame subtraction. It might be something to consider in the future as I develop my skills in this area. I will check out the link that you posted and see if anything is there for me. Thanks for the input.