Milky Way Ha

[gregbradley]

I have done a series of Milky Way Ha images. This is one panel in a mosaic. I have to reshoot one panel as it was cloud affected. I intend doing more.

This is Nikon 50mm F1.8G lens set at about F5.6 (unsure as I had to use a plastic spacer to open the aperture up as the lens has no aperture ring).

FLI Proline 16803, 5n Astrodon Ha filter, 15 minute subs, 2 hours worth.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/152035174

Colour versions will follow once the moon has gone.

Greg.

[IanP]

Hi Greg,
As usual, your pictures are so crisp!
Can’t wait to see the coloured version.
Thanks for sharing.

[RickS (Rick)]

Amazing to see on such a grand scale, Greg!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Great shot Greg. Very sharp lens. Beaute contrast. One of my fav areas of the milkyway. Bit of everything in there.

[pvelez (Pete)]

Looks great Greg

did you do this using a Polarie or piggybacked on your mount? If the Polarie, your PA and therefore your tracking is impressive

Pete

[pluto (Hugh)]

Nice work, I could stare at this for ages, so much to see

[Larryp (Laurie)]

That's great, Greg!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looks like a deep B&W Schmidt plate contact print

Mike

[Irish stargazer (John)]

[naskies (Dave)]

Very nice, Greg. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the mosaic and the colour version.

[gregbradley]

The reply with quote function isn't working all of a sudden for me.

Thanks very much for the great feedback. We are lucky to have such a good view of the Milky Way here.

This was the camera mounted on top of the CDK17 on the PME and autoguided through the CDK. I had to pack a washer under the camera mount because the lens was showing part of the end of the scope!

Greg.

[dvj (John)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

The reply with quote function isn't working all of a sudden for me.

Thanks very much for the great feedback. We are lucky to have such a good view of the Milky Way here.

This was the camera mounted on top of the CDK17 on the PME and autoguided through the CDK. I had to pack a washer under the camera mount because the lens was showing part of the end of the scope!

Greg.

Greg, I don't think I've seen a 50mm lens attached to a 16803 before. That's great field coverage.

jg

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by dvj

Greg, I don't think I've seen a 50mm lens attached to a 16803 before. That's great field coverage.

jg

Thanks John. I used 50mm 1.8G, 105mm F2.5 at F4 and 180mm ED at F4 all are good. I originally wanted to use my fabulous 14-24mm Nikon which is so good on full frame cameras but with this adapter its hopeless. Terrible coma. I think the distance from the chip is very sensitive and the adapter deliberately is a bit short so focus lands easily with the range on the lens.

This particular Nikon 50mm (there are several Nikon 50mm lenses) reviews the best. The downside is no aperture ring. I also have a 50mm F1.8D (an older lens) which was sharp wide open with a 11000 chip which I think is very unusual.

But in camera lensworld the 50mm seems to be the easiest for manufacturers to make so if they can't get the 50mm right they will have trouble with any other focal length. Although seemingly to contradict that the Pentax 67 55mm F2.8 lens is a dog but cleans up coma at F5.6 whereas the 165mm F2.8 is perfect wide open.

Greg.

[DavidTrap (David)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Thanks John. I used 50mm 1.8G, 105mm F2.5 at F4 and 180mm ED at F4 all are good. I originally wanted to use my fabulous 14-24mm Nikon which is so good on full frame cameras but with this adapter its hopeless. Terrible coma. I think the distance from the chip is very sensitive and the adapter deliberately is a bit short so focus lands easily with the range on the lens.

This particular Nikon 50mm (there are several Nikon 50mm lenses) reviews the best. The downside is no aperture ring. I also have a 50mm F1.8D (an older lens) which was sharp wide open with a 11000 chip which I think is very unusual.

But in camera lensworld the 50mm seems to be the easiest for manufacturers to make so if they can't get the 50mm right they will have trouble with any other focal length. Although seemingly to contradict that the Pentax 67 55mm F2.8 lens is a dog but cleans up coma at F5.6 whereas the 165mm F2.8 is perfect wide open.

Greg.

Greg - have a look at my comments towards the bottom of page 1 of this thread.

I have some spacers on order to see if they correct this problem. Will let you know what I find, but my hunch is that prime lenses are the way to go. Also, I wonder if your pushing the friendship using a 35mm format lens on a 16803 chip - might you be better off with a 6x7 lens?

DT

[ourkind (Carlos)]

Stunning Greg! As above I've just spent the last 10mins looking at it

[jase (Jason)]

What a ripper Greg! Well done! If you can manage the Ha blend with the chrominance data, it should make for a splendid image.

[Paul Haese]

Looks like a great field of view. Look forward to the finished result.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Greg - have a look at my comments towards the bottom of page 1 of this thread.

I have some spacers on order to see if they correct this problem. Will let you know what I find, but my hunch is that prime lenses are the way to go. Also, I wonder if your pushing the friendship using a 35mm format lens on a 16803 chip - might you be better off with a 6x7 lens?

DT

Thanks for that David. I only tried the 14-24mm Nikon once and it gave bad coma. So I switched to another lens. I think you are right in that the adapter is designed for a conservative distance to ensure you can achieve an infinity focus with some room left over. For example the 50mm focuses at 7m on the scale. So its a fair way off infinity which I guess means its a bit closer in than it needs to be. I also am finding the adapter goes into the filter wheel a tad too much interfering with filter changes.

I can unscrew it a little but that loosens things up. I possibly can play with it to get it further out and secure.

I have used Pentax 67 lenses and have a separate adapter for them. I have done quite a few shots with them.

I have a Samyang 24mm F1.4 lens.

Yes we shouls share info on this as its not a common setup.

Originally Posted by ourkind

Stunning Greg! As above I've just spent the last 10mins looking at it

Thanks Carlos. I appreciate your comment. I have a 3 panel mosaic done in Ha and I am shooting the luminance and colour at the moment. I expect the total image will be around 12 hours.

Originally Posted by jase

What a ripper Greg! Well done! If you can manage the Ha blend with the chrominance data, it should make for a splendid image.

Yes that's something that came up at AAIC that I intend to implement. Thanks for the tip/

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Looks like a great field of view. Look forward to the finished result.

Cheers Paul. Its looking promising although Ha taken with no moon seems to have more contrast than that taken with a moon present.
I may have to reshoot the Ha for the other panels. Not sure yet.

Greg.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Stunning view Greg!

Can't wait for the colour.

Cheers,

Justin.

[White Rabbit]

Wow, thats fantastic. it almost looks like the black hole in the center is giving off plumes of matter on either side.

Nice shot indeed.