Widefield around Gamma Cygni

[ashworthacca]

Last night was really clear but very very warm. Never one to pass up the chance to get out and do a spot of imaging I set up the Astrotrac and pointed my Canon 70-200mm lens at Sadr using the wide end of 70mm. Kept the f5.6 setting which I think is the sweetspot of this lens and stopped down to ISO400. I shot 32x120sec lights, 10 darks and 30 flats, stacked in Nebulosity V2 and processed in Photoshop. Here is the result.

Gamma Cygni Widefield (Sadr) by ashworthacca, on Flickr

I also grabbed a number of subs of the area around the veil complex that I will be processing later.

Thanks for looking, critique away.

P.s. The star spikes were added in a fit of boredom.

[Telrad]

Wonderful image ashworthacca, really impressive widefield with incredible detail and resolution. Thanks for posting!

[jgs001]

Good job Martin... clear and crisp, I want one of those 70-200 L's...

[ashworthacca]

Wonderful image ashworthacca, really impressive widefield with incredible detail and resolution. Thanks for posting!

Thanks Telrad, much appreciated.

[ashworthacca]

Good job Martin... clear and crisp, I want one of those 70-200 L's...

Thanks John....It's certainly a cracking lens when you find it's sweetspot which appears to be f5.6 at 70mm. I haven't found the sweetspot at 200mm yet though.

Cheers John:)

[ashworthacca]

Managed to grab a few short subs last night and it was the first time I have tried the nifty fifty. I used ISO 200 and f/2.8 but due to the very bright sky only managed 45 second subs.

I was pretty windy with strong gusts at times so this may be the reason for the horrible star shapes. It could also be the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens but I have a feeling the wind was playing havoc.

Anyway, keeping with the same area as before this is what I got.

Cygnus Widefield with Nifty Fifty by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Thanks for looking..........don't look to closely at the stars.

[jgs001]

It's nice Martin, but the edges on the nifty are rubbish till at least f/4, even at f/3.2 I had to discard quite a lot of edge thanks to coma. It's visible on that one, without seeing the larger sizes... That's what I found too.

[ashworthacca]

It's nice Martin, but the edges on the nifty are rubbish till at least f/4, even at f/3.2 I had to discard quite a lot of edge thanks to coma. It's visible on that one, without seeing the larger sizes... That's what I found too.

Thanks John, I did have a feeling last night that I might have been wasting my time but seeing as I'd never used it for astro work before I thought I'd give it a go. I'll stick to the 70-200f/4 L lens in future:D

Thanks again John.

[jgs001]

Don't get me wrong Martin, it does a great job, stopped down to f/4. However, if I had a 70-200L I'd probably think the same as you

[Psychobilly]

Yep always used to shoot my nifty at a min of f4... if i was fussy i would goto f4.5

I use the 24-105 f4L instead now.... if you go too wide you can have issues joining panes but that depends on the sodtware your using...

[swag72]

I like more what you have got with the 50mm. This area seems to work well with either context or individual items - I almost feel that the 70mm is uncomfortably between the two.

[ashworthacca]

Thanks John, Peter and Sara.

sara, I also like the area captured by the 50mm against the 70mm....I'll try f/4 or f/4.5 to see how that looks.

Peter, have you used the 24-105 enough to form an opinion yet? I might look into this one if it's highly regarded.

[roundycat]

Interesting how the first pic seems to show considerably more saturation around Sadr than in the NA Nebula. The second picture shows them to be much more even. Perhaps some sort of hot spotting in the first lens.

Dennis

[ashworthacca]

Interesting how the first pic seems to show considerably more saturation around Sadr than in the NA Nebula. The second picture shows them to be much more even. Perhaps some sort of hot spotting in the first lens.

Dennis

That's a good point Dennis.....something I need to keep a look out for.

Thanks.

[Psychobilly]

Not really... too many different things on the go and not enough clear skies.. only really used it in anger the one night ... I wasted a couple of nights by not focusing at the imaging FL settign - zoomign in focusign then zoomin g out mistakenly believing the claims that the 24-105 at least is a "Parafocal" zoom... well it aint... at least my example with the modded cams isn't... It needs to be stopped down a bit to sort out the corner stars..

I have got plans for a field trip down the Gower to get the Milkway from a sea level horizon and the 24-105 is the lens I am planning on using......

Peter...

[ashworthacca]

Thanks Peter, I'll look out for the Milkyway image when you post it up and hopefully get your thoughts on the lens them.

[Psychobilly]

Thanks Peter, I'll look out for the Milkyway image when you post it up and hopefully get your thoughts on the lens them.

With the weather forecast at the moment I guess it will be another one of those that never gets done....