Wide Eta C field through to the Running Chicken

[RobF]

This is nothing special technically, but had a bit of fun this morning going over some Qld Astrofest 2011 data. This is a 30% crop from a much larger field that include the Southern Cross originally.

I just enjoyed playing with the wide Eta field to try and bring out some of the surrounding clusters and figured may as well share in case of interest.

Canon 450D + 50mm f/1.8 stopped down to f/5.0
8x5mins ISO 400, piggybacked on the 8" Newt with eFinder guiding.

p.s. Have thrown in the original widefield frame for reference

[madbadgalaxyman]

I like to call the large (but much less dense) Dark Nebula between Eta Carinae and The Coalsack, the "Half Coalsack" because, when looked at in binoculars or with the naked eye, it takes a large bite out of the band of the Milky Way on one side.
In your photo, it is not very obvious, because the background star fields shine right through it.

Like the Coalsack, it is full of smaller dust/gas clouds of greater density. The two globules on the western margin of this dark nebula are very obvious during visual observation with the telescope.

[Lester]

Nice widefield Rob.

[RobF]

Thanks Bob and Lester.
Bit of fun on a rainey day.
It's interesting sometimes as you stretch up a picture - you pass through a point that it looks much the same as it might at the eyepiece on a perfect night, then gradually you decide just how far to push the extra detail. I find it tricky processing milky way shots with all the millions of stars often getting in the way.

[jjjnettie]

All those stars......
Gotta love that lens eh. I should dust mine off and do a few wide fields.

[RobF]

I wouldn't have been lovin' it so much that night if you hadn't lent me that battery pack JJJ! :D :thumbsup:

[E_ri_k]

Very nice! Looks like that lens performs very well.

[RobF]

Thanks Erik - it never ceases to impress me in terms of bang for buck. Great for getting natural indoor light portraits of the kids, even if moving a bit too. The extra few stops over a kit lens opened a whole new (potentially expensive :lol:) world for me.