Dumbell Neb with portable rig

[tornado33]

Hi
Heres the 2nd image from my portable rig's first night out at the Newcastle Astro Societies viewing night at nearby Shortland.

Dumbell nebula 3x180sec ISO400 with the 300mm f2.8 flourite lens from Bert
Modded 350D hand guided.
Scott

[h0ughy]

small but very pleasing to the eye Scott!! Nice one mate

[jjjnettie]

I love these sorts of widefield shots.
It's shows the objects in their natural environment.
Beautiful image.

[seeker372011]

cute is the word that springs to mind!great image

the whole northern sky is now open to you isn't scott

[citivolus]

Stop that! You're embarrassing those of us who take bad pictures :P

Nice shot, btw.

[strongmanmike]

Great FOV there Scott and a nice dark sky background, must be good imaging from dark skies huh?

Where exactly is the NAS dark sky site BTW?

Mike

[Garyh]

Its small but like all those shots with the 300mm, very sharp!
NICE!
cheers

[Ric]

Lovely image Scott.

A very crisp and clear widefield.

Cheers

[tornado33]

Thanks all
The venue is here
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=shortland+nsw+australia&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=-32.889516,151.686494&spn=0.013298,0.027401&z=16&iwloc=addr
Go thru a locked gate that we have a key for at the very end of Mcarthur St Shortland. Going to the satellite view will show a trail leading to a round mown area in the grass (looks like a crop circle). Though not a black country location it is darker then my place and has a better horizon then my place in most parts. 2WD in but can get boggy if wet.
Scott

[Dietmar]

very nice overview of this region with a beautiful jewel in the very heart of it!

[jase]

Nice work Scott. Wide fields always show an interesting perspective, but seriously I wouldn't waste the 300mm lens on such a target. Why not go hit the vela supernova remanent or other large arcmin diameter targets where you'll get some good resolution...

[tornado33]

Thanks all
heres a full res. crop
Some flaring on bright stars due to the way the filter stack (uv/ir and uhcs) sits in the lens I think.
Scott

[RB]

Beautiful work Scott, that lens is truly amazing isn't it !!
Lovely wide FOV.

Just curious, how necessary are the filters, can you image without them?
Do you use them to help with light pollution?

[tornado33]

Thanks
Yes the filters definately help but only with emission line objects such as Planetary and Emission nebulae. They dont really help with galaxies because they produce broadband light that the filter also blocks. One needs longer exposures though, to get the best from the UHCS, O3 and Ha filters I use.

The filters might not make such a difference from a dark sky location. However with the fast lens it would probably reach the natural skyglow from atmospheric oxygen in 10 or 15 minute exposures, so even there the UHCS filter would be useful. here at my place even on a good night, shots of more then 2 minutes without the filter are too bright, with the filter I can go 3 times longer.
Scott

[gbeal]

I agree with Jase Scott, it is a lovely shot, but really you should be hitting the wider expanses. Either that, or lug the big gun to the dark sky as well.

[tornado33]

I guess it would be good for the Andromeda Galaxy :)
Scott