Omega Centauri widefield

[cruiser (Brett)]

Hi all,
Finally got a chance to get the camera mounted onto the scope again tonight and tried to see what I could get around the Omega Centauri area.
Well I got 3 good shot as the clouds rolled in not long after I started to run off a bunch of shots. So here is a widefield incorperating Omega Centauri (NGC5139) and a faint Centaurus A (NGC5128)
Only 3 x 90sec shots + 4 darks + 7 flats stacked in DSS. Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens @f2.8, iso1600. Piggybacked on tracking HEQ5 mount. Didn't get it polar aligned real well this time but you get that sometimes. And if it wasn't for the rain starting to fall I would have tried to get a close up shot through the scope too but instead it was a very quick packup. Ah well maybe tomorrow night.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_2r9eqlTPDhc/Sf...800/omega2.jpg

Brett

p.s. I must get myself an illuminated eyepiece for aligning

[dannat (Daniel)]

good work brett, they look small at that scale, have you tried crop/re-size? or does the bad tracking not let you

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Dam fine effort Brett.
I too was out last night, it was overcast very early and it cleared up really quick so I decided to take the chance, not long after the clouds rolled in and before you knew it, it poured down.

Paul

[Hagar (Doug)]

Nice widefield image Brett, So much space. It is a shame you were unable to frame another object into the shot to balance it up a bit.
Still a nice job and I am jealous of your skies at the moment Cloudy and raining here.

[dcalleja]

That really is a wide field shot. Nice. I think NGC 5128 is also close by. Not sure if both would fit into the one field though

[cruiser (Brett)]

Thanks guys, when I do a widefield I like to get a number of objects in the fov to give it some dimension. NGC5128 is quite faint but more data would have helped that although that is the first time I have gone after that target and didn't know how it would compare alongside Omega Centauri.
I knew the alignment wasn't right when I tried with the 300mm lens so I stayed with 100mm but I have added the crops of both objects so you can see whats possible with a camera lens.

Omega centauri crop
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_2r9eqlTPDhc/Sf...ega%20cent.jpg
Centaurus A crop
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2r9eqlTPDhc/Sf...0/Cent%20A.jpg

[cruiser (Brett)]

Originally Posted by peeb61

Dam fine effort Brett.
I too was out last night, it was overcast very early and it cleared up really quick so I decided to take the chance, not long after the clouds rolled in and before you knew it, it poured down.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Yeah, I thought it was going to stay a clear night. Not even any dew falling. So I started the run of shots, went inside to grab a snack and check the footy on tv. Open the back door about 20min later to check things and I can hear the patter of rain starting. So I quickly grab some towels to throw over the gear while switching everything off. Luckily it wasn't heavy and had only just started. Checked the shots on the laptop and most were shots of the clouds rolling in .

Brett