Another Centaurus wide field and some plans for next target

[bojan]

This one is done with Canon FD 100mm F2.8 at F4 (modified to fit EOS camera)
It is a stack of 32 1.5min subframes, at ISO1600, standard processing.
The original field was much wider, this is a crop 1600x1200.
I am very happy with this lens !

[multiweb]

Beautiful field. Very nice stars and details. Top work with the lens. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

It does look a very nice lens.
What are you going to turn it to next?

[bojan]

Virgo cluster.
I already did that, but LP from where this image was taken (Johns Hill, 30km to the east of Melbourne) is still bad (especially to the north.. for Centaurus it was so-so) so the results are really poor.
I will have to try this from Daylesford (if weather permits) next weekend.
Attached is the crop from 16x stack (M87 is in the upper part of the image)

[mill]

Looking good Bojan.
It is very hard to get omega and centaurus A in the same pic without over exposing omega.

[Hagar]

Very nice wide field image Bojan. Worth checking your focus. It looks a little soft but with my eyes it could well be spot on. Looks like a very nice lens for astro wide fields.

Congrats and keep them coming.

[richardo]

Nice wide field Bojan, and yes definitely a keeper of a lens judging from your nice round stars, looks to be nice and flat out to the cropped area.
Hope you can get out to your dark sky location to get the Virgo galaxy cluster down.
Look forward to see the full extent of the group in such a nice wide field setup.


Rich

[bojan]

Thank you all for kind replies :-)
Yes, the lens is a keeper, considering the crop is from lower right corner (the original frame was centred a bit above (w) from M87.
I did apply a bit of CA correction on final jpg, though (Gimp.. 3 pixels only was required to sort out corners). The stars are round all over the frame (the lens is designed for 25x36mm full frame, and I am using it on C400d, 15x22mm so it must be good for this camera:-) )

[jjjnettie]

I'm thinking LMC next. Then I might see how many dso's I can capture at once in Sagittarius.
:lol: Honestly, it's a smorgasbord up there. We're spoiled for choice.:)

[bojan]

Yes we certainly are ;)

With Virgo cluster, I actually did a whole area (7 sets of shots.. something a la Avandonk's style) but it was not worth the effort to stitch them all together (because it is mostly LP captured on those frames).
You are lucky.. living in the dark :)

Well, recently I started working on this issue - actively searching for property in country Victoria, to retire (and to start my second life as full-time amateur astronomer.. can't wait..)