Deep Lagoon, Triffid in HA

[tornado33]

Hi
I used the 300mm lens from Bert, and the Baader 7 Nm HA filter to image this area under a fairly dark sky (for Newcastle)
7x 10 mins ISO 800, 300mm f2.8 flourite lens

Full size version here

Using just the red channel gave an image with saturated inner areas of the nebulas, so I used the green channel as an unsharp mask, preserving inner detail and keeping the faint extended stuff
Scott

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Yummy shot Scott - there's something about HA mono shots that I find so appealing. What sort of camera? I'm impressed at how much detail you've pulled in given the subs.

Dave

[tornado33]

Thanks. I use a Hutech modded Canon 350D, with the clear AR coated glass option. For the shot I also used a UV IR filter to stop unwanted IR light that might sneak past the HA filter.
Scott

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

That's very nice for a modded camera. I can't justify doing that to my 1D Mark IIn, since I use it for (mostly) terrestial photography, but I do have an older Canon D60...mmm

Dave

[AlexN]

Scott, Great image! Gotta love the beautifully corrected field of view given by the old 300mm F/2.8L.. Still haven't used mine for astro imaging.. Cant bring myself to expose it to the elements like that just yet!

It looks very clean and detailed for such short exposure... I recently did 18x1200sec subs in 7nm Ha with my refractor/CCD and the image didn't come out quite that noise free.. Mind you, I was operating at F/6, where as you're at 2.8... you'll suck down the data faster than I did...

Top work.. Exactly what I've come to expect from you..

[tornado33]

Many thanks all. All the hydrogen nebulae in the milky way are getting a bit now in the west now, so I should concentrate on doing some HA stuff in the magellanic clouds and the Orion area.
Scott

[multiweb (Marc)]

Love it! Very deep. One of the best Ha shot I've seen of the area.

[Phil Hart]

great shot.. interesting process technique too.. will have to give that a try sometime :-)

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

very pretty shot scott

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Please can someone explain what HA means

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Please can someone explain what HA means

Hydrogen Alpha. A filter that let's in only a very narrow band of light around 650nm.

[gregbradley]

That's a fantastic Ha image and puts to rest any idea that narrowband images are out of reach of modded DSLRs.

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Deffinitely agree with Greg here, nice job Scott

Mike

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Hydrogen Alpha. A filter that let's in only a very narrow band of light around 650nm.

Thanks for the explanation. I love to learn new stuff

[h0ughy (David)]

great work Scott

[tornado33]

Thanks all.
The filter is an unmounted 2 inch one, that fits in at the rear of the lens. Of course once in place nothing can be seen in viewfilder so before fitting it I line the camera up on a bright star, then adjust the guidescope's 8x50 finderscope on same star, and use that to point the camera, short 5 second test images at ISO 1600 reveal the framing. I always have the laptop plugged in so as soon as an images is taken it downloads it to the laptop where I can examine it for framing and focus.
Scott