More from Qld Astrofest, this time work shot with the Canon 450D through a Pentax 200mm prime lens at about f/5.6'ish. I ran my 80mm refractor in a side-by-side configuration with the 200mm lens most of the week. While the QHY9 was shooting through the 80mm, I tried to keep the DSLR snapping the same field using this lens whenever I could. Took longer to get everything set up and focused of course, but fun to have the wider field to compare later. At least one onlooker was bemused at how fiddley mounting and focus was for the 200mm, but glad I persevered.
I've already posted my
M31 with the ZS80 and QHY9 (did I mention I like imaging M31
). I haven't put all my M8 data from the ZS/QHY9 combo together yet, but really happy how the lens has rendered this area. Not too bad for a sub $100 2nd hand lens on the old DSLR. Considering the lens was bought primarily with narrowband in mind, I had no right to expect this from it shooting bayered RGB. Actually it was interesting how easy it was to get the right colour balance for the M8 data shot overhead, while much more effort was required to bring back the blues for the much lower altitude M31 data. I didn't get any good shots of the SBS rig, but you can sort of get the idea from
this poorly angled snapshot where the 200mm is visible with just the caps on (450D actually used to take the shot while wandering around before sunset).
M8 & M20 field was 11x10min shots (ISO 400 and ISO 800)
M31 field was 18x10min shots (ISO 400 and ISO 800)
(M8 field cropped in about 20% and M31 field about 30% during to dodgey aligning of camera and fields between nights)
Thanks for looking.
)
The FOV around the lagoon looks familiar. 
