Coal Sack

[raymo]

20x 45 secs 55-250mm zoom @ 150mm f/5.6 ISO 3200.
At last found problem with tracking. Best viewed at 67% screen.
raymo

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Excellent stuff!

Not many people have exclusively targeted the Coal Sack as its own thing. As a dark nebula, it presents a host of technical difficulties. You've managed to pull a bunch of OC's including the Jewel Box, the more opaque and more tenuous areas and how they all interplay, and just how busy the foreground of the Coal Sack is.

Lovely image, Raymo

Alex.

Edit: there's a reason why few people tackle dark nebulae: they are bloody hard to do! And the Coal Sack still holds a lot more detail!

[Outcast (Carlton)]

Nice shot Raymo

[ChrisV (Chris)]

You have set the scene very nicely Raymo. There should be more dark nebulae on this forum!

[leon]

Yep agree, top Capture Raymo that is pretty dark in there mate

Leon

[Startrek (Martin)]

Nice shot Raymo
Coalsack really dark
Mimosa , Acrux, NGC 4609 and jewel box
Must have been a late one !
Cheers

[raymo]

Thanks, Alexander, Carlton, Chris, Leon, and Martin.

I took this after an evening of trying to sort out a tracking problem, turned out it was the camera not tightened up sufficiently on the upper ball joint.

It wasn't late Martin, between 9.20pm and 10.20pm, we're three hours
behind the Eastern states.

This was chosen to take up Alexander's suggestion in another thread.
I will try again tonight at 250mm which is the longest lens I have, but
the subs will be shorter due to my so-so polar alignment, and the tracking
limitations of my little Nano Tracker.

Incidentally, all my work is JPEGs, no separate darks, flats, or biases, and
all [very basic] processing done in DSS, except for a little bit of sharpening done in Irfanview.

To my mind this shows that reasonable results can be obtained with
basic gear if one is budget constrained. Just simple tripod, DSLR and lens[es] and a Sightron Nano Tracker or similar. Outlay $60 tripod,
$250 used DSLR and kit lens, around $275-300 for new tracker =approx. $600. Some people will of course already have a tripod and
camera, and just need a tracker.
raymo

[Startrek (Martin)]

Raymo
Oops forgot your in WA
That makes it even better then , not a late night / early morning !!

[Fernando]

Very nice!!!

[raymo]

Thanks Fernando.
raymo