Rho Ophiuchus/Antares region

[RobF]

This is Jeanette's fault. She's been posting so many gob-smackers lately that I thought I better dig out the nifty 50 and camera mounting gear I'd assembled but never used for widefield (there's never enough time dammit!).

So last weekend at Cambroon I shot some frames near Antares and Corona Australis to "get a feel for things".

This is only 3 x 3 min subs, ISO 800, Canon 450D + Canon 50mm F/1.8 ("nifty 50") at F/3.5. I'm not convinced all the luminosity around the blue stars is nebulae - more likely lack of dew control (which was me blasting the lens with a hair dryer from time to time :lol:). One other very badly affected frame thrown away.

Still, promising enough to perhaps try a bit at Astrofest if I get dew control sorted.
Bit bigger version with full screen option available here (https://picasaweb.google.com/UserRobF/RecentWork#5617293947039190274)

[jjjnettie]

:eyepop: 3x3
That's expletively awesome.
Looks like it'll be Nifty 50's at 20 paces at AF. Up for the challenge Rob?

[multiweb]

So cool! :thumbsup: You've got the prawn also in the lower right. Nice.

[Lester]

Very nice image Rob.

[danielsun]

Beautiful work Rob, very nice!!:thumbsup:

[oosh]

Looks great Rob... jealous of the skills mate! The fifty has got to be a good lens for wide field, might even be nicer stopped down to 5.6 or 8 even? Thanks for sharing it :)

[Ross G]

Great shot Rob.

Wide fever is spreading!


Thanks.


Ross.

[CoolhandJo]

Wow. For a quickie it's great!

[atalas]

Very nice Rob.

[[1ponders]]

I don't know Rob..... could be :whistle:

Nifty fifty at fifty paces. Bring on AF!! Modded Canons Rock :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

I don't know Rob..... could be :whistle:

Nifty fifty at fifty paces. Bring on AF!! Modded Canons Rock :thumbsup: (and Rule ;) :cool: )

[RobF]

:lol: Don't think I'm too much competition JJJ, especially if you bring out the big guns like the Tamron. Fingers crossed we get super clear skies to have a go though!



I'd like to say that was careful planning Marc, but its more to do with the what the FOV was when I roughly pointed the whole thing at Antares :D



Thanks Lester - thought it was worth sharing the more I looked at it



Thank you sir!



Thanks Jason. I'm sure you could do some real widefield damage with the 7D and some of the glass you have if you can get access to an equatorial mount. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Resistance is futile Ross - you will be assimilated....(pardon my Star Trekese). Why not though when you don't have to worry about guiding etc.





Thanks Paul and Louie!



I'm just wondering how expensive the damage will be if we try to do fifty paces through the imaging field at AF though Paul ;)
I never got the 450 modded, so I can't hope to keep up with your 20D me thinks.

[RobF]

Actually I'd appreciate yours or other people's thoughts on how far to stop down Jason. I'm a newbie at this sort of thing. I gather stopping down should make things sharper, but likely to require longer subs with all the requisite problems (noise, dew, tracking)? :question:

[[1ponders]]

f/2.5 to 3ish should be fine Rob, but F4ish if you have a particularly poor lens and it doesn't look that way

[oosh]

I'm actually a little reluctant to say much since my photog experience is strictly terrestrial based... so far :lol: Each lens is different, too, though I find around f8 - f11 to be the best among most lenses. Again it's different with lenses closer to telephoto lengths, so I'm not sure. What I suggest is just to google a review for the specific lens, find out where people find it's sharpest, or even test it yourself against a detailed brick wall or something similar with different aperture settings (and a tripod)

But yeah, stopping it down will either way mean longer exposures, more dew, more tracking issues.. all that fun stuff that you guys get to experience :lol:

[jjjnettie]

I think the more you stop it down the better. It really helps with the coma that is inherent with this lens. F4.5-5.6 give nice tight stars. :D

[RobF]

Thanks guys and gal for those helpful hints. I really didn't look too closely for coma last night, but zooming in now the right hand side shows a fair bit in both corners. All good to be figuring this stuff out now. I've been so excited using this lens on the kids (nice for portraits and natural colours without flash) I forgot it was originally purchased with astro in mind. :)

[batema]

Beautiful image Rob. I have one of those nifty fifty's as well. Watch out next new moon. I'll have to have a crack at that.

Mark

[RobF]

Either that or the 4 of us will be back to back 20 paces at AF....
Definitely worth giving it a go Mark. MIght be fun for the students to have a go sometime too.

[Paul Haese]

Very nice, like the field of view and the colour too.

[RobF]

Have to confess I was pleasantly surprised too Paul. Thanks for that.

Rob

[ving]

nice work!

[adman]

Right. That's it. I'm going to have to dig out my nifty fifty now and give it a bash.....

just not tonight. I am warm and rugged up and inside..:ashamed:...tomoorow night. I promise.

[RobF]

Thanks for looking and commenting David.



Hehe - I wonder if they'd set up a 3rd field at AF for all us new widefield wannabes? :confuse3: :lol:
It'll be a new arena for swearing, with Paul and JJJ calmly moving between us showing how to not forget lens cover, get focus right, etc, etc

[Manav]

My vote for APOD! :)

Nice work Rob very nice indeed

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Rob. This must be one of the most popular areas of the sky to image.

Cheers

Steve

[RobF]

Wow, thanks Manav. Thought it was worth sharing, but don't think its at that level (unless it was a sleepy day for APOD entries :lol:)



Thanks Steve - I think I understand better why now too - very rewarding in regards to brightness and obects to see/image.