Realm of galaxies - widefield

[rocketandroll]

Hi all

Ok, so this is just a raw image really as I'm trying to work out how to get rid of the nasty gradient on the right hand side... but in terms of the data I am REALLY chuffed with this.

On some good advice (thanks Olly!) I went and aquired a second hand Canon f2.8 200mm USM prime lens the other week to do some widefield stuff. It's a stunning lens and I couldn't wait to use it in anger...

As most of the nebulous subjects are not high enough at the mo, nor is Andromeda (which was the main reason for buying it)... so when it looked like I'd get a clear few hours last night I decided to point it at the middle of the Virgo galaxy cluster and see what happened.

I actually sent the go-to to M86, took a 30 sec frame, saw galaxies and just started shooting... I figured that I'd get some and trying to get a decent planned composition on such a large target was fairly pointless.

Well, the cloud they predicted would arrive at 10:00pm was still nowhere to be seen at midnight... this image is a stack of about 30 mins of data in 40 sec exposures (I actually took 45mins but lost a LOT to satelites) at ISO 400 and f2.8, 12 X darks and 10 X flats.

If you zoom in there's even some spiral structure visible in some of the galaxies!!!

Man, I love this lens :-)

Ben

PS: This is a jpeg version, full size tiff available here:

realm-of-galaxies-mod01 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[cgarry]

Looking good.

To remove the gradient look at the DBE magic video here:

http://www.harrysastroshed.com/pixinsighthomenewbie.html

You can always download the trial version of Pixinsight to try it out.

Cheers,

Chris

[Demonperformer]

That is a really nice shot. Just goes to prove what is out there, even without a scope.

[rocketandroll]

...and here it is with (most of) the gradient removed and tweaked a little....

lots of galaxies there, I stopped counting at 30. Certainly includes at least 5 Messier objects as far as I can see.

Ben

[GrantEb]

Nice one, that's nice and fast @ f2.8!

[rocketandroll]

...yeah, it's amazing what you can get in an hour or so of imaging when working at f2.8 :-)

I must get an LP filter though, certainly in my nebulae shots the LP is really messing with the quality of the finished image.

Ben

[eliot]

I love this shot. It's a great lens.

[AndyUK]

Hi Ben - Hope you don't mind... I put this through PI DBE and then submitted it to Astrometry.net to help identify some of the DSO's - Here's the report, which also has this link to the full size image. At that scale there are indeed loads of other galaxies in here... Very nice shot!

[old_eyes]

A really nice image with all kinds of goodies hidden in its depths. I tried the Virgo area a few days ago and was blown away by what you can see.

And it's very nice lens. I wish I could find one second-hand. They seem to be pretty rare.

old_eyes

[rocketandroll]

A really nice image with all kinds of goodies hidden in its depths. I tried the Virgo area a few days ago and was blown away by what you can see.

And it's very nice lens. I wish I could find one second-hand. They seem to be pretty rare.

old_eyes

I just did a search online for them, found mine the week before last at a photographic shop in Yorkshire IIRC.

There was another on ebay at the same time too so there are a few around. Mine was £470 IIRC, the ebay one was already up to £490 with a day to go so I went for the one at the camera shop :-)

This is the one you're looking for:

Canon 200mm EF f2.8 L USM MKII Lens

It is lovely... can't wait to get a LP filter and use it some more.

Ben

[rocketandroll]

Hi Ben - Hope you don't mind... I put this through PI DBE and then submitted it to Astrometry.net to help identify some of the DSO's - Here's the report, which also has this link to the full size image. At that scale there are indeed loads of other galaxies in here... Very nice shot!

Cheers Andy, yeah, I ran it through the astrometry.net blind solver yesterday on Flickr too (great minds and all that :-)

I had no idea M100 was in there too :-)

I can see a lot of smaller feinter ones that aren't coming up on the blind solver.... I guess it only does the relatively easily findable objects.

Ben

[EdF_uk]

Nice widefield shot.

Ed

[rocketandroll]

A really nice image with all kinds of goodies hidden in its depths. I tried the Virgo area a few days ago and was blown away by what you can see.

And it's very nice lens. I wish I could find one second-hand. They seem to be pretty rare.

old_eyes

Welcome to the club btw old_eyes ;-)

[AndyUK]

I guess it only does the relatively easily findable objects

Yes, I think it only picks out Messier and NGC objects...

And it's very nice lens. I wish I could find one second-hand. They seem to be pretty rare

For anyone with the best part of £500 burning a hole in their pocket, there's one here if it's of any interest? It's obviously not as cheap as the one Rocketandroll picked up, but it is from a camera shop and it does say that it's in mint condition...

(If I didn't already need to spend > £500 myself on filters, I'd, be very tempted myself!)

[iwatkins]

That's a really nice widefield.

And the 200mm f2.8 L is a great lens. I used to have one for "normal" photography work. I always found it much sharper at f4 though, so that might be worth a try?

Cheers

Ian