Horsehead from dark skies of Gloucester

[tornado33]

Hi all
Finally had a chance to try imaging with my rig under dark skies, setting up in an Aunt's backyard in the southern edge of Gloucester, they skies way darker then Newcastle. I used the 300mm lens from Bert and my modded 350D. The evening was perfect, 100% clear , only slight breeze and fairly dry.

Here is the Horsehead Nebula, 9x10 mins ISO400. UV/IR filter 300mm f1.8 stopped down to f3.5. Hand guided as usual while watching the Friday night NRL on my laptop!

At my place at ISO200 the subs are very light but at Gloucester even ISO400 are fairly dark, and the Horsehead shows strongly in the unprocessed subs.

Larger version here http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.co...cesterss2b.jpg
Captured plenty of brown dust. Only thing , needs a cooled camera as thermal noise now more dominant than light pollution.
Scott

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

Thats a fine effort, I enjoyed that one.
Thanks for posting

[Mighty_oz (Marcus)]

Absolutely beautifull ! I'm thinking that it's the lens now that does it not Bert at all ( j/k ) Fine effort u got as lot of dust for so short a time. Must get my 350d out too hehe.

[cventer]

Nice work. hand Guided. You dont see that too often. Well done. Nice processing , good colors.

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

Wow... a little lost for words. Thanks for sharing.

[tornado33]

Thanks all. After seeing how wonderfully dark the sky is there, back in Newcastle it looks just awful, I can barely see the LMC yet at Gloucester the LMC was so bright against a black background, and the orion arm a thick milky band across the sky.

My Aunts place in Gloucester has high fences around the yard keeping out stray light, the house blocks some of the south but overall I have a pretty good access to the sky, will take imaging gear next time I go.
Scott

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Sounds like you have yourself a decent dark sky a reasonable distance from home there, nice.

The result looks good Scott despite the thermal noise, colours are great too.

Are you planning a cooled camera soon?

Mike

[tornado33]

Thanks Mike. Id like a cooled camera but out of my budget. Mind you this would be a dam good buy :-)
http://www.centralds.net/en/cds-600d_1100d.htm
Scott

[Paul Haese]

I like the dust collection. Faint whisps all over the place. Good composition too.

[gregbradley]

Very nice.

Greg.

[rcheshire (Rowland)]

Love it. Good work.

[Ross G]

Great photo Scott.

I love the brown dust.

Ross.

[tornado33]

Thanks all.