Rigil Kentaurus

[multiweb]

This is a shot I took while I was aligning. It's a very familiar star in the southern hemisphere, one of the brightest of the two pointers towards the southern cross. Those two stars are smack bang in the middle of the mikyway lane just after the coalsack or the emu head, whichever way you look at it.

There are a couple of blue clusters around and a multitude or multicolor stars embedded in the golden starry background. This was approx. 10x2min while I was aligning and calibrating guiding.

Full field 1:1 here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/RigilKent_ff.jpg)[9MB] - Smaller download friendly size here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/RigilKent_f.jpg)[2.7MB]

Beautiful part of the sky. :thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

Thats a whopper of a star in the middle of a star field,good going considering you were multi taskingat the time
AL

[gregbradley]

A very nice widefield.

Good one Marc.

Greg.

[CoolhandJo]

Nice one :)

[SkyViking]

Nice part of the sky for sure. I often enjoy a quick visual look at Alpha Centauri, it is probably the most stunning double star out there.

[Paul Haese]

Nice view of that field. Millions and millions of stars.

[atalas]

Billions and Billions Marc....how did you get round stars while calibrating for guiding? or do you mean while waiting for guiding to settle down after calibrating?

[multiweb]

Thanks Alan. :thumbsup: That's right . I multi-task while imaging. I can walk around, chat and have a cuppa all at the same time. :)


Thanks Greg. :thumbsup: Dark skies win. All the time.

Thanks Paul. :thumbsup:

Thanks Rolf. :thumbsup: Yes it is, but lost in its own glow in this shot I'm afraid.


Thanks Paul. :thumbsup: Yep - stacks of them.


Thanks Louie. :thumbsup: I don't usually keep the test subs but these were good enough to stack. I go through a routine of checking guiding and acquiring subs for approx. half hour before I move on to my first DSO to see how it behaves. Probably why I have so many subs around Crux and the pointers :lol:

[atalas]

Marc,have you updated your PHD?has 64bit support and dither now.

[multiweb]

Nup - My field laptop is a win32 machine (XP pro). Quite an ancient machine by today's standard, about 5 yrs old. It just does what I need it to do so I leave it as is. When it packs it and it eventually will then I might upgrade. :) I've always been using dithering with the PHD server. Big fan of dithering.

[TheDecepticon]

Very nice Mark! I like it a lot!:D

[RobF]

Inspiring shot Marc! I don't recall ever seeing a pic of this field before, and I'm the better for having enjoyed yours :)

[multiweb]

Thanks for the comments guys. :thumbsup:

[Greg Bock]

Now that's an interesting and unexpected field Marc, I wouldn't normally think of imaging that area. So, it seems that's its richer and prettier than I would have expected. Such is the power of contemporary imaging equipment, and the curiosity to give it a go. Well done, I like the hi-res version, so rich.

[SkyViking]

Hi Marc, I found Proxima for you :D Good catch!
Your image will make an excellent finder chart for those that wish to seek out this one.

[Ross G]

Hi Marc,

So many stars.

Nice colour and deatil.

Pretty good for a test shot.


Thanks.

Ross.

[bojan]

Marc, which direction is North, and what's the scale of this magnificent photo (FOV)?

EDIT
OK.. Rolf was faster :-) He did what I wanted to do :thumbsup:

[Tom Davis]

I should say! Beautiful!

Tom

[multiweb]

Thanks Greg - glad you liked the field. :thumbsup: I have imaged this quite a bit but never very deeply and so wide.


Thanks for the analysis and inserts Rolf. :thumbsup:


Thanks Ross. :thumbsup:


Thanks a lot Bojan. :thumbsup: Yes he was. :)


Thanks for looking Tom. :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Here's a close up 1:1 on the area Rolf highlighted and a bigger field so you see where this frame fits in relation to the milky way.

[RobF]

Cool! Thanks Rolf - always wondered about finding Proxima :)

[Osirisra]

That is one sweet shot of our nearest system, very nice indeed

[multiweb]

Thanks Ken. :thumbsup: