LMC Wide Field 200mm, f4 - 26.11.08

[dugnsuz]

Hello all,

LMC – Tarantula Nebula (NGC2070) and surrounding area.
26.11.08

Image details…
Canon 40D (modded)
Canon 70-200mm f4L lens, 200mm @ f4, Hutech IDAS LPS2 Filter
Skywatcher Synscan EQ5 mount
Autoguided with PHD


10x30sec, iso800 (used as a layer mask to tame Tarantula blow-out)
9x420sec, iso800
Flats, ICNR.

Stacked in Images Plus, processed in PS.

Last night (Wed) was the first real early, clear cloud-free night in the Adelaide Hills for a while. I recalled Mike Salway’s recent post on “Rekindling interest in Astronomy” as I imaged under clear dark skies – it’s nights like this that help!!

Link to higher res…

http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=23a.jpg

Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[leon]

Ah Doug you make me sick with these great Lens wide fields, :P looks pretty good to me mate, keep at it. :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Great stuff doug. :thumbsup: Keep'em coming. Where the hell do you guys get clear skies? All I can see is clouds, clouds and more clouds? Did you leave the country? :windy:

[atalas]

Nice shot Doug.

[Craig_L]

Lovely shot Doug. Nicely framed and lovely colours. Has a nice transparency about it. Maybe it's that ISO 800 instead of 1600.

Do you know what the name of that bubble-like nebula is at 8 O'clock from the Tarantula and about halfway to the left edge of frame? Can't seem to find it on Star Atlas Pro.

Craig

[jase]

Excellent work Doug. Colour balance and saturation looks spot on. Great composition too. Well done.

[iceman]

That's a beauty, Doug. One of your finest. Lovely processing.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks leon :)


A case of "For one night only" with the clear skies I'm afraid, last night was business as usual!:(


Cheers:thumbsup:


Thanks Craig, not too sure about the catalog number of that object - it does draw the eye to it though. I noticed too at iso800 the lack of a separate red peak in the histogram which is obvious at iso1600:shrug:


Thanks jase:thumbsup:


Cheers Mike:)

Thanks for all the comments...Doug:thumbsup:

[RB]

Excellent shot Doug, and I agree it's one of your best I reckon.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Andrew - and that's your best avatar I reckon!!:P:lol:

[Garyh]

Yes I agree! nice image Doug! I like how you get the Ha standing out in your SMC/LMC shots!
I nearly got the 70-200mm f/4 version but a cheap 200 f/2.8 came up on ebay and I had to buy it!
cheers Gary

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Gary:thumbsup:
My good friends Levels and Curves help a lot with the H Alpha ;)

With your 200mm lens - Do you have to stop it down a bit to get tight stars or do you leave it wide open?

Doug:thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Very good image :thumbsup:

I like the contrast in colour, the nebulas stand out nicely.

[dugnsuz]

Thankyou Roger:thumbsup:

[RB]

:lol: There's safety in numbers huh !

[Bassnut]

Doug, Tad widefield for my tastes, but tight-as-a-nun guiding, low noise (ICNR seems to be the go, looks good here) colour, focus etc, top work.

[Garyh]

Doug, lens is quiet sharp wide open but I find it very sharp stopped down just a little like at f/3.5 :thumbsup:
cheers Gary

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Fred - I did have to apply a Noise Ninja filter on the image. 9 images in the stack weren't enough to beat that S/N ratio trap.

"Tad widefield for my tastes..." AAARRGGHH, blasphemy!!!!

Them's fightin' words ya varmit:P

[Martin Pugh]

That certainly is an excellent shot Doug

great stuff
cheers
Martin

[dugnsuz]

Thankyou Martin.
I may have to frame this thread as I'm getting so many kind comments from imagers whose work I admire:)
Oh my swollen ego!!!:P
Cheers all.
Doug:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Screwdriverone]

Thats a ripper Doug!

My Gauge of a top widefield shot is how long I spend looking around the image on full screen. Not very technical, I know, but on the scale of 1-5 mins, that rates a 4 from me.

Awesome!

More please sir!

Cheers :thumbsup:

Chris

[RB]

We're just trying to boost our post count Doug. :poke: :lol:

[dugnsuz]

"POP" - my bubble is well and truly burst Andrew!!!:lol:

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Chris - wasn't too sure about the high res version, thought it might need to be scaled down a bit to hide my crappy processing methods!!:P
Doug

[Screwdriverone]

Nothing crappy about that as far as I can see, another awesome image.

Thanks for replying to my comment too, I admit I thought I might have been on global ignore or something, just checked some comments I made recently and it seemed I had been totally skipped over in most replies, to the point it seemed I didnt even comment? Anyway, when I clicked on your post I knew all would be right as I actually stopped and thought...."If anyone is going to reply, its going to be Doug." and there ya go. :)

All is right with the world again. Thanks for acknowledging your legions of fans, its always appreciated at this end.

Cheers again

Chris.

[dugnsuz]

:lol::lol:

[avandonk]

Ever since I was a young lad in the fifties, images of wide fields of the sky were my major endeavour. Doug is doing allright. The more doing this arcane art the better!

Bert

[dugnsuz]

Thankyou Bert.:thumbsup:

[bluescope]

Looks great Doug ... I just moved to my dark sky home a few days ago and the first night was crystal clear, the SMC and LMC were so bright I could hardly believe my eyes ..... needless to say the rest of the sky was gobsmacking as well but if I can get a wide field view as good as yours I will be very happy. I also have a Canon FD 70-210mm F4 lens that I can use with my 350D or my ST2000XCM .... just got to finish unpacking and get setup for imaging .... we have some more fine weather coming up in a couple of days so maybe then.

Cheers !

:thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Steve,
I'm sure you'll put your dark skies to very good use!
The lens and ST2000 combo sounds amazing - turn that on the LMC and you'll blow my effort out of the water!!!
All the best
Doug:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Excellent image. Seems to me to have a slight red bias still.

Those modded DSLR cams need a good whipping with the red curves/levels/histogram to tame them.

Greg.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Greg,
I like Red!!
:lol:

[gregbradley]

Fair enough!

Greg.

[dugnsuz]

I find that my Baader BCF filter on the 40D lets less red through than the Hutech modded cameras though.
Doug:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

What's a BCF filter?

When I imaged with a modded 20D I liked the custom white balance function set using a midday sunny shot of an 18% photographic grey card (about $20 at a Photo shop) as the basis.

A lot of the colour correction was done automatically then. Saved time in processing and time at the red curves/levels/histogram part of Photoshop.

Greg.

[dugnsuz]

It's the replacement UV/IR cut filter put in by Peter Tan for my 40D mod.

I must try the CWB method - see if there's a great deal of difference between that and AWB.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[Lester]

Fantastic image Doug. At last I have got fast internet with large down load compared to the past; so I could look at the hi-res image and that was a definate WOW.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Lester - Broadband Godamn!!!!!
All the best
Doug:thumbsup:

[2020BC]

Excellent shot.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Bill - I'm going to try out my recently acquired 50mm f1.8 MkI lens soon, as you're the expert with that particular lens, what f stop do you recommend? I want to try and get Barnards loop in/around Orion.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

All well deserved Doug, a quite dramatic and rewarding view!

Mike

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Mike:)
Doug

[2020BC]

Thanks, Doug. I found that Barnards Loop was a big ask for my unmodded camera. The Loop appeared to be mostly faint H-alpha. I had a crack at it (at f4 and 14x4mins 800 ISO) and I wasn't pleased with the result. The loop was only just visible.

I'm very sure that with your modded 40D camera (x4 more sensitive to H-alpha) you would do a whole heap better than I did if you had a go at f4 for 60 mins or more exposure. I wouldn't go any faster (eg f2.8) with that lens because the stars will exhibit significant "coma". I'd recommend shooting this one in the early morning - the nights being warm.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Bill - had a quick go at 70mm a week or so ago, just managed to fire off a few 5min frames. But that was enough to pickup the loop, so I'm hopeful.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup: