Barnard Loop & Eridanus Mosaic

[multiweb (Marc)]

I got three clear nights since Friday. This is something I'm still working on and I'm clocking in the data so this is still pretty noisy. Had to stop because the clouds are back on Tuesday but I have a valid scaffold to work with now and I know where everything fits. I just need to get better subs and add to it to reduce noise and even up illumination.

The area spans from Taurus to Orion. It's pretty big. You can just start seeing the Eridanus Bubble and the Barnard loop on the right side.

Two panels and one quick one in the middle to bridge the whole lot together. Not the highest quality yet but you can see some structure starting to show. There's a lot of house gutters and trees I had to reject due to the extremely wide field spanning 70 degrees or so and the position of Orion which is still a little low for the season and I don't have much time before sunrise.

Out of the three nights Sunday night was the best. Pretty dry and steday. Saturday was a shocker though. So much moisture in the air it looked like soup. Very bad transparency.

The high res pano is here. I also did a platesolve here.
Hopefully I can keep plotting along weather permitting. This stuff is very faint so I'm considering getting the data from the next Wiruna new moon week-end.

Hope you enjoy the view.

[atalas]

Very cool Marc!

[RobF (Rob)]

Original (to my mind anyway) composition Marc. Already quite striking. Hope you get the data your aiming for. Know what you mean now about difficulty collecting widefield data. Every tree and aerial seems to reach out into the frame doesn't it!

Is this 3 x 35mm fields on the QHY9?

[RickS (Rick)]

A great start on a very ambitious project, Marc!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by atalas

Very cool Marc!

Thanks mate.

Originally Posted by RobF

Original (to my mind anyway) composition Marc. Already quite striking. Hope you get the data your aiming for. Know what you mean now about difficulty collecting widefield data. Every tree and aerial seems to reach out into the frame doesn't it!

Is this 3 x 35mm fields on the QHY9?

Thanks Rob. Yes it is 3 panels. The Barnard Loop and the Eridanus Bubble were framed separately. The panel in the middle just bridges the gap and it's only 2 subs. With the QHY9 the FOV is 29x22 degrees at 35mm with an image scale of 33asp. No problems imaging in high winds but focus is a challenge. So from Taurus to Orion you have probably close to 90(ish) degrees. I intend to add monoceros down the line.

Not much choice about the framing actually because of horizon restrictions. Here's a snapshot of my 'window of opportunity'. That's why I want to reshoot from dark skies.

The easiest way to find the Eridanus Bubble is to center your field on the pleiades (M45) then go right up by 15 degrees. You'll be smack bang on.

Originally Posted by RickS

A great start on a very ambitious project, Marc!

Thanks Rick. It 's just going to take a little planning an time but not overly difficult. Just very wide. There is very little distortion from Taurus to Monoceros as it's fairly high. The challenge is that's it's pretty darn faint and requires a lot of subs.

[Leonardo70 (Leonardo Orazi)]

Very nice Marc ... giant area...

All the best,
Leo

[John Hothersall]

These large scale projects are eyeopeners showing events from the past long over with. Imagine the whole sky like this. Focusing must be a real challenge, do you take test exposures to fine tune focusing till satisfactory.

John.

[Paul Haese]

Cool.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Looks good already the finished piece should be very nice

[leon]

Great work in progress, Marc, I'm sure the end result will be well worth the effort, looking forward to the result.

Leon

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Leonardo70

Very nice Marc ... giant area...

All the best,
Leo

Thanks Leo. You sould have crack a it where you are. You have the advantage of altitude and better seeing.

Originally Posted by John Hothersall

These large scale projects are eyeopeners showing events from the past long over with. Imagine the whole sky like this. Focusing must be a real challenge, do you take test exposures to fine tune focusing till satisfactory.

John.

Thanks John. There are a few whole sky maps in Ha and even more impressive in IR. What is cool is having foreground objects that give you a sense of scale besides whole known constellations. I have to focus by the numbers for this. I guide and loop the imaging camera on a star in 5s exposures in Nebulosity then try to get the best curve. With a bit of practice you get better at it. Focus doesn't shift much either. I find it holds for days.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Cool.

Thanks Paul.

Originally Posted by seeker372011

Looks good already the finished piece should be very nice

Thanks mate. Once I have it in 35mm I'll have a nice scaffold to stitch a lot more higher-res panels probably at 50mm or even 100mm. At the moment I'm still working out where the whole nebulosity is.

Originally Posted by leon

Great work in progress, Marc, I'm sure the end result will be well worth the effort, looking forward to the result.

Leon

Thanks Leon. That should keep me busy for a while. Anything to keep me away from M8

[DavidU (Dave)]

Now that is cool Marc !!!!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Now that is cool Marc !!!!

Thanks a lot David.

[Ross G]

An amazing widefield photo Marc and so original.

You really are taking astro widefield photography to a new level.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Ross.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

An amazing widefield photo Marc and so original.

You really are taking astro widefield photography to a new level.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Ross.

Thanks mate. Hopefully I can finish this from Coona hey?

[David Fitz-Henr]

Yes that's very nice work Marc ... seamless ... these large scale objects would go unrecognised without these widefield mosaics!