Wide fields

[rumples riot]

Hi all, did some wide fields tonight with the ED80mm Orion mounted on top of the LX200. Worked on 1000 ISO, all shots are at least two images stacked.

Here's the first and the best. Eta Carina. More shots would really bring out all the detail. Pretty happy with it though.

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Next is Orion and the Running man, which is just visible to the left of Orion. Pleased with this image in spite of the fact that I was shooting toward the city haze.

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Next is Omega Centauri, Looks quite nice and would need a lot more exposures to bring out the full complement of stars.

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Finally is the Jewel Box located in the cross. There are more stars here than I have seen before through the EP. Lovely little cluster.

[ballaratdragons]

The Orion Neb one is beautiful Paul. Quite often we only see extreme close-up pics of it. But you have captured a nice shot of where it is and it's surrounds.

I still can't see this running man in the pic you all talk about!

[rumples riot]

Unfortunately I just started to take shots with the LX200 of Galaxies I started with Sombrero and the clouds started to roll in. I had planned on trying for about 10 shots of Sombrero and 20 of M83 (face on galaxy) but was denied the opportunity. Anyway I am pleased with how the ED performs. Although I have noticed that some of the stars on the images have a pink hue around them. Still for 700 dollars these shots are as good as the images from the LX200.

Anyway I will leave it up to you guys. What do you think?

[beren]

:) At last some 80ed results , great stuff Paul, that Eta carinea shot is awesome , what was the exposure times on the images?

[rumples riot]

Stuart I did not really time them very well tonight as my stop watch locked up. But the Carina shot is 4 shots at around 2 minutes each. Orion was three shots around 1.5 minutes each. The two clusters were 2 x 2 minutes each.

Yes very pleased with the results. If I had a whole night I might produce some really magic shots. Clouds, always the way.

[Starkler]

Nice shots !

Id love to see the jewel box at double that image scale so that all the stars are resolved.

[gbeal]

Gratifying to use a shorter focal length scope huh? I love the way the star images are small and tight, and the guiding errors hard to spot, or impossible to see. Great work. Get out to a dark site now, and do it again. The Virgo cluster(s) would be a good one, as would the Leo Trio.
Gary

[iceman]

Nice shots Paul, I love starfield and widefield shots.

Omega Cent and Eta Carinae are my favs.. the Orion is nice, but very low as you said and a bit too exposed in the core.

A bit more processing and you could probably crop out the edges, or process out the vignetting in the jewelbox.

Very nice Paul!

[toetoe]

Wide field shots with great detail like these are ten out of ten.
Fantastic pics Paul.

[rumples riot]

Mike, that's not vignetting in the Jewel box shot, that's the edge of the coal sack in the lower right. I looked on the original and there is no vignetting. In fact non of the shots have vignetting with the ED80.

I agree with orion, I did a mask to help with core burn out and would need to take more shots at 30 secs to remove this problem.

Gary I am still waiting for my shack to be build over on York Peninsula, which has lovely dark skies. I am going to put in a pier over there too. Dark skies here we come.

Anyway thanks for the replies.

[Exfso]

They are great shots, hell I just gotta get me a decent camera.

:astron:

[ving]

hey great shots there paul!
really impressed :D

[[1ponders]]

How tempting is it to get one of those little scopes. Nicely done Paul. Going ahead in leaps and bounds

[Rodstar]

Paul H, looks like you have been having some great fun! Like others have said, it is always such a pleasure to see the wide field shots. Objects in context really emphasise how beautiful they are, and how spoilt we are to see them!!

Keep chipping away, and you might come up with some images that rival those of John Drummond!!!