Ha Milkyway widefields

[multiweb (Marc)]

Did a couple of hours last night from my backyard. Reasonable seeing, very average transparency. Loaded with water and dew but I was happy to snap some Ha with my Pentax lens. I'm still experimenting and learning with this setup, especially what the best FL/Aperture setting would be. I believe the lens is very sharp on axis so on time I should be able to get a good field and some pretty pics.

Plenty to see. Eta, Chook, Wall in Ara, Prawn, cat paws, War and Peace and of course it wouldn't be complete without M8 and M20 (2px of it sort of).

Little noisy but as I said it was a pretty drenched evening. On a good note the dewstrap for the lens worked a treat. Hope you like the two shots. Thanks for looking.

[telemarker (Keith)]

Hi Marc,
Loads of detail in there with both bright and dark nebulae and the odd dust lane or two. Nice light hand with the processing too.

I realize it's only shaking down stage with the setup but you seem to have a bit of elongation of the stars near the edges. Maybe stop down the lens bit more but overall I'm sure you're happy with the detail the lens has picked up.

Regards
Keith

[batema (Mark)]

Nice cats paw in the middle of the first one. I have to have a go at attaching the CCD camera to the lens itself but I wouldn't have a clew about adapters. Nice images showing another aspect of astrophotography. Well done.

Mark

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by telemarker

Hi Marc,
Loads of detail in there with both bright and dark nebulae and the odd dust lane or two. Nice light hand with the processing too.

I realize it's only shaking down stage with the setup but you seem to have a bit of elongation of the stars near the edges. Maybe stop down the lens bit more but overall I'm sure you're happy with the detail the lens has picked up.

Regards
Keith

Thanks Keith. I manually open the lens aperture (with a bit of plastic jammed in the back of the lens). At the moment it's fully opened and I think I might try to close it down a bit next session. Originally I had it closed and I couldn't understand why I didn't get anything after 15min subs with no filters. I had no coma back then though but I had given up doing widefield.

Originally Posted by batema

Nice cats paw in the middle of the first one. I have to have a go at attaching the CCD camera to the lens itself but I wouldn't have a clew about adapters. Nice images showing another aspect of astrophotography. Well done.

Mark

Thanks Mark. Yeah it's pretty neat on axis which is what gives me hope that I can tame the field.

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Looks good. Getting there! Imagine this image in colour! Lots of objects as you say!

[allan gould]

Excellent wide fields Marc! Like the resolution of the lens you are using and also I just like Ha in black and white.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by CoolhandJo

Looks good. Getting there! Imagine this image in colour! Lots of objects as you say!

Thanks Paul. Once I get in gear I plan to do tricolor see where that takes me.

Originally Posted by allan gould

Excellent wide fields Marc! Like the resolution of the lens you are using and also I just like Ha in black and white.

Thanks Allan. Once I stop the lens I expect better results.

[Ross G]

Hi Marc,

The photos look great. Some much detail, especially considering they were taken from suburban Sydney.

Your Pentax/QHY8 combination is working so well.


Thanks.

Ross.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

Hi Marc,

The photos look great. Some much detail, especially considering they were taken from suburban Sydney.

Your Pentax/QHY8 combination is working so well.


Thanks.

Ross.

Thanks Ross. Looking forward to your pics from Ilford.