Astro 40D First Light - LMC

[dugnsuz]

Hi all,
Seems like a very long time since I actually did any astrophotography as opposed to talking/thinking about it.

Clouds parted for a very nice night of imaging down here in SA last night allowing me to finally test out my newly modded/cooled Central DS Astro 40D DSLR.

Set my sights on probably the 'noisiest, grittiest' part of the sky - the LMC!

Camera averaged a temperature of around -13.5ºC throughout the 3 hour session. (Ambient Temp started off at around 24ºC and dropped as night fell - have to admit that I didn't check ambient air temp while imaging...I just focused on the sensor temperature!!)

So details...
Canon 40D - cooled/modded by Central DS
Canon 70-200mm f4L IS lens - 200mm @f4 stopped down with cheapo ebay step rings from 67mm to 37mm to tighten up stars - unsure what f ratio that ends up with!!
IDAS LPS2 filter
In Camera Noise Reduction off.
18x10min subs @ iso1600.

Bright 58% Moon looking down on the scene until around midnight - 2/3 through imaging run.

Not as dramatic a difference as I had dreamed/hoped for, but promising nonetheless.

Certainly a lot smoother than my previous efforts a year ago on my photobucket site which was a lot grittier!
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=23a.jpg

Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[Craig_L]

Hey Doug, looks pretty good to me. Very smooth, lots of detail and subtle colour. Well done. Looks like the cooling was a good investment.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Craig - early days!
Now PM me and tell me me what you really think!!!:lol:

[TrevorW]

Actually not bad Dougie fairs well with Jase version

[troypiggo]

Well done! Looks great!

[Hagar]

Very nice Doug, quite a bit smoother than your last rendition. I do think your background has a bit of red tint to it. I had a look in PShop and a little tweak in curves on the red seems to improve the background, at least to my old eyes.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Doug - tweaked the red background a bit and reposted
:thumbsup:

[RB]

Much better Doug, that looks terrific.

:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Just re-read your first post above. Step rings to close down the aperture. Cool idea. Hadn't thought of that. Nice round aperture instead of diffraction spikes? Me go ebay now... :)

PS - I think your equivalent aperture would work out to around f/7.2. That's a good aperture in terms of sharpness and minimising CA for your lens.

[multiweb]

Maaaate! :eyepop: That's awesome! Well done indeed. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

I would be happy with that shot many times over!!

[jjjnettie]

Pretty schmicko Doug!

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Andrew



Bert (avondonk) uses an aperture mask to stop down his 300mm f2.8 which gave me the idea to try step ring adapters.
Configuration for the 70-200mm f4L IS with its 67mm lens is...
67-72mm ring>>72mm IDAS LP filter>>72-52 ring>>52-37 ring



Merci buckets Marc


I was happy too Dave until I saw jase's LMC - WOW!!!


Cheers jjj - hopefully weather will play ball and I can get some quality time under the stars.
It was a strange/wonderful feeling to be under a dark sky from horizon to horizon the other night. Steady!! I'm tearing up!!!:sadeyes:

cheers all
Doug:thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

Actually, this is quite exceptional.

thanks for all the details.

cheers
Martin

[dugnsuz]

Thankyou Martin
Doug:thumbsup:

[leon]

Now your getting picky Doug, :P i consider that a beautiful wide field ;), green, red, pink, bugger the colour, well done i reckon.
You don't seem to pleased with the results, if i read between the lines.:shrug:

Keep at it mate, your doing good stuff.:thumbsup:

Leon:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Yes a great shot really and with a lot a moon it's an even better result considering, that moon light would have seriously affected the image, try it again in dark skies, probably notice a difference then.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Hey that's a great image Dougie. A cooled 40D sounds real nice.

Looking forward to seeing lots of cool images from that.:lol:

Greg.

[alan meehan]

Way to go Doug well done,you are going to enjoy this camera
AL

[jase]

Lovely Doug. Not worth comparing, your image holds its own. The lens mask has provided aesthetic stars in sharpness and colour. The cooled astro 40D looks a keeper. Well done.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks leon - probably naively expected all my imaging woes to be over...as if!!! Image is growing on me.



Cheers Mike - I'm blessed with reasonably dark skies when the moon vamooses!



Seems to be working out so far Greg - really simple to use...a widefield dream!



Go the Astro 40D boys!!!:lol: Loved your cool Rosette too Al.



Thanks a lot jase. The cooled DSLR really suits my needs for widefield lens based work.

Cheers all
Doug:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Repro done and High Res image uploaded
Cheers all for looking
Doug
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=23b.jpg

[dannat]

nice work doug the detail is terrific for 200mm
-the step rings might be good for a try

[gregbradley]

That's a ripper of a shot Doug. You must be pleased by the performance of that setup!

Greg.