Antares - Rho Ophiuchi region

[Nicola]

Dear All,

this is my last image from the gorgeous Namibian skies, yes, the end of the series from the Southern Skies. :(
This image frames the Antares - Rho Ophiuchi region and it is a mosaic of two frames.

Link to details and highres: http://www.skymonsters.net/immagine.php?img=AntaresRhoOphiuchi .jpg

Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Nicola

[Octane]

That is beautiful, Nicola.

I always enjoy your images.

What were your exposure details on this one?

H

[h0ughy]

lovely shot - smooth and sharp. you must have enjoyed the trip immensely?

[CoolhandJo]

Georgeous image. Nicely processed.

[dugnsuz]

Beautiful stuff, just a little bit of noise present (only noted in the high res version) - the FSQ 85 is a dream scope for me as a widefield junkie!
Doug

[Nicola]

Thanks a lot for your appreciation Octane :)
It is a 2-frames mosaic. Each frame is a 8x480sec at ISO800

[Nicola]

Indeed! :rofl:
I did more imaging in a week than in 2 years from Italy.... :(

[leon]

Fine image indeed Nicola, I always love those wide field images.

Leon

[gregbradley]

Fantastic image.

The images from Namibia always seem to be a cut above the usual.

Is the seeing there particularly good?

Geographically it looks to be in a similar position relative to the coast and latitude to my dark site. But the seeing you get there seems superior.

Do you know what the usual seeing is there?

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Very nice image, great colours and attention to detail.

[Craig_L]

Wonderful image Nicola. Its an area of the sky I just can't seem to photograph.

[Lester]

beautiful image Nicola, thanks for the view. All the best.

[mill]

Very good antares with good colouring and sharpness :thumbsup:

[Nicola]

Thank you! :)

[jjjnettie]

Beautiful work Nicola.

[Nicola]

Yes, I agree. Do you know what? I'm the author of DitherMaster an utility to do dithering, but sad to say at the time I was in Namibia I only knew about dithering as a concept and didn't know it was so effective to cut down on pattern noise.
But next time.... :)

[Leonardo70]

Nicola,

fantastic image... congrats......

Leo

[multiweb]

Very nice. Love this part of the sky. Lovely rendition. :thumbsup:

[danielsun]

Wow Nicola! That is stunningly crisp and beautiful colours!
Sure is a beautiful part of the sky to image. Very nice!:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[atalas]

Nice!!

[Nicola]

Thank you Leon, for your appreciation. :)

[Nicola]

Greg, thanks for your comment. I don't have the right figures for the seeing but I would only like to tell that the site where I was imaging from was close to the Hakos Mountains where the European Southern Observatory was going to be built. For political reasons then they decide to choose Atacama desert in Chile, but first choice at the beginning was the Hakos mountains in Namibia. So you can imagine the seeing is averagingly very good.

[Nicola]

Hi Paul, thank you! Antares's halo gave me a hard time during postprocessing... ;)

[Nicola]

Thank you Craig. Do you have any issues with that area? Why? It should be at its best for yout latitude.

[luigi]

Beautiful color swirls! Great image Nicola!

[Nicola]

Thank you Lester :)

[Nicola]

Thank you! :)

[Nicola]

Thank you jjjnettie! :)

[spearo]

Beautiful
great capture of the region
frank

[marc4darkskies]

Superb shot in every respect Nicola - well done!

Cheers, Marcus

[Nicola]

Thank you Leo, I hope to see you at S.Barthelemy anytime soon.

[Hagar]

This I like Nicola. An area I haven't had much luck with in the past but I must give it another go using the FSQ, reducer and maybe a mosaic.

Very Nice.

[Nicola]

Thank you multiweb! :)

[Craig_L]

Hi Nicola,

I'm in the city of Adelaide which suffers from a fair amount of light pollution so I need to use a Hutech filter (LPS V3) to get exposures past 3 minutes on the Hutech modded Canon 450D. Not sure whether the filter has something to do with it. Must try it one more time. You've inspired me. Otherwise a trip up to Arkaroola to dark skies http://www.arkaroola.com.au/astronomy.php :hi:

Craig

[Nicola]

Thank you Daniel. I think after this image and a couple of others I processed before, I won't go back to image Scorpio for some time.

[Nicola]

Thank you atalas :)

[Nicola]

Thank you Luigi! :)

[Nicola]

Thanks a lot Frank! :)

[Nicola]

Thank you Marcus :)

[Nicola]

Yes, as you can see mosaicing this area is the way to go. Too wide and too many details to be cought with a telephoto lens and a single frame.

[Nicola]

Interesting place, I wish I could go there once...:)

[prokyon]

Ciao Nicola,

great work! For us Europeans this object is very difficult to capture. So you used your chance in Namibia. Great work.

Cheers

Werner

[Nicola]

Thank you very much Werner. I believe Namibia is the closest best place for us to image Southern Skies.

[TrevorW]

bellissima

[Jen]

:eyepop: wow lovely pic the colors are great :thumbsup:

[Nicola]

Grazie Trevor! ;)

[Nicola]

Thank you Jen, much appreciated.