The Constellation Scorpius

[RobF]

Taken during Qld Astrofest last month, this is a 2 frame mosaic of Scorpius taken with the 450D and a "nifty 50" lens at F/5.0. Each frame was 1hr of 10min subs taken at ISO 400.

It's taken me some time to get around to doing matching 10min darks (my wife got quite a surprise to find the Canon clicking away in the fridge one night recently around midnight :lol:)

Large 13.2 MB image availabe here (https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6c9a0ee3ac4c571d&sc=photos&id=6C9A0EE3AC4C571D%21109#cid=6C9A0 EE3AC4C571D&id=6C9A0EE3AC4C571D%21109&sc=photos)


This is probably my fav constellation dating back to first recognition of the brighter stars a long time ago, so pleased with this one. Thanks for looking. :)

[Octane]

Rob,

That is masterfully framed -- I really, really like this.

However, you might want to take care of that magenta cast. ;)

H

[jjjnettie]

Fantastic Rob :) It's a beaut little lens isn't it.

[RobF]

Thanks re framing Humayun - I'll take that praise any day from the compositional master :D
Magenta cast hey :doh: - I should know by now not to be processing during daylight, not to mention uploading monster files without some re-assurance from the friendly IIS critics :ashamed:

Ah well - Sidonio time! :)



Thanks Jeanette - and for all your help with nic nacs to keep me going on the night. The bottom right corner of this lens is a bit prone to coma effects but the way the frames come together here I was able to crop it out of conceal it in the overlap. Agreed, pretty hard to beat for about $100 !

[batema]

Truely stunning Rob. Fantastic image.

Mark

[jjjnettie]

My lens is prone to coma on the top left side, so I frame to suit. Shooting at F4.5-F5 make a real difference.

[astroron]

Very Nice Rob :) thanks for posting:thanx:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

That's a beauty Rob, a real keeper. Some things must happen for a reason, if your cooled camera had been working, you might not have got this one.

[troypiggo]

Stunning. Love it.

[ozstronomer]

Rob

That's a beautiful shot, well done :thumbsup:

As Robin said there was a reason you didn't have the QHY. You must get the "Nifty Fifty" out more often

[RobF]

Glad you liked Mark - I think we left a bit early to see you this year



Yes, and I wouldn't have stopped down this far or gone to 10min subs without your help either JJJ - thanks for the advice :)
I'm still to work on the other 5mins Miky Way shots taken earlier in the week as expecting more than the usual mosaic pain, but will be interesting to see how the stars are affected/tightened. Always stuff to learn when you try something different isn't there....



Thanks Ron - welcome back! Sounds like a great trip you had



Yeah, I was down in the dumps a bit Robin at the time, but I've never got around to trying decent widefield until recently. Hopefully Theo has her working now - get to find out later this week. I'm just glad I took the 450 and some dew control too. Thanks to Tony and JJJ for helping with spare batteries and power too....:whistle:



Thanks Troy :D



Yes, I hadn't planned to do more than an hr or two of widefield originally Geoff. Thank goodness I took a hard look at my early data though. It would have been a shock to get home with a week of dodgey data.

I've also got a lot of additional newly found respect for JJJ, Marc, Bert and other widefield masters that make it all look so damned easy too.. ;)

[gregbradley]

That's a really beautiful image. I love these widefields.

You chose an excellent (and slightly unusual) framing which picks up Rho, the Blue Horsehead and of course the centre of our galaxy. Wonderful colours and depth.

I have some Pentax 67 lenses all ready to go to do this type of imaging. Perhaps next weekend if the weather gods are smiling.

Greg.

[prokyon]

Very nice, thanks for sharing. This is my favorite area of the whole sky!

[RobF]

Thanks guys.

Greg, I often wish I could have a 2nd rig running once long exposures are under way. I'm sure you'll have a ton of fun with your Pentax lens once you get it under way.

Werner, I tried to depict the scorpion the way we see it ("down under"!) rising in Autumn and Winter, hanging low to the Eastern horizon. It really is a striking and beautiful sight isn't it :)

I've had another go at pulling back the red/magenta noise and hue as H suggested. Perhaps not tamed, but at least subdued a little.

[strongmanmike]

Really nice idea to frame the constellation like that Rob, looks great.

Overall I think the colour is about right

Mike

[RickS]

Very impressive, Rob!

[SkyViking]

Wow that's spectacular! I really like how you've managed to not let the background stars and Milky Way drown out the brighter stars of Scorpius, while still showing all that detail. The asterism is very visible and it looks great, beautiful colours too.

[RobF]

Thanks Mike - I spent quite a bit of time with the binocs finding objects I had never seen that way (NGC 253, Helix, Nth American Neb, etc) and found my hand at arm's length gave a rough representation of the 50mm FOV. After scanning around the sky like some crazy art director one night the idea for a 2 panel mosaic taking in Scorpio came together. Then again, it might have been all the Mango schnapps Martin brought along :rofl:



Thanks Rick :)



Thanks Rolf. PI processing takes a lot longer for DSLR images (in my hands) but the results blow anything I can do with Deepskystacker for six. Just seems to stack so much cleaner and tighter giving more processing options. There's a touch of morphological transform in there to subdue just the smallest stars otherwsie it all gets a bit overwhelming as you say in this region.

Here's a hastily (and poorly) stretched comparison of the master frames from both programs for interest from another milky way field near a glob cluster:

[midnight]

Very well presented Rob! Lots of detail there and an image I enjoyed looking at.

Thanks for sharing.

Darrin...

[multiweb]

Missed that one. Very clever framing. The color shift and star density is really dramatic from left to right. Loads going on there. The only clear point of reference is the constellation as a whole. That's what makes the shot's framing work. I like it a lot. :thumbsup:

[suma126]

exellant shot well done :thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

Well done. Colours look great, and the framing is well constructed.

cheers
Martin

[Stevec35]

Can only add to all the other comments. An excellent view of this very busy area of the sky.

Cheers

Steve

[RobF]

Thanks again everyone for the encouragement for my widefield forays. I wasn't confident at all I was going to hit the nail on the head collecting this one. Glad to hear of people enjoying, as I certainly had fun processing it. :)

[jase]

Apologies for coming in late, but better than never. Tip of the hat Rob! The framing has produced a well balanced image. A very interesting perspective. Nice going on the mosaic front too. Perhaps we'll see a few more panels added in future. Well done.

[RobF]

No apologies at all necessary Jason - appreciate your opinion and kind words :)

[Osirisra]

Liking this alot!

Got to be one of the best shots of Scorpious I've ever seen.

[RobF]

Thanks Ken :)

[Ross G]

A great photo Rob.

Beautiful colours and detail.

Great framing.


Thanks.


Ross.

[RobF]

Glad you enjoyed Ross. :)
I'm almost a bit embarrassed how much simpler it was collecting widefield for a change over the usual LRGB grind :thanx: