IC 1396 @ 50mm with a little baby trunk.

[blackparticle]

I'm finding, especially with some of these larger nebulas, it's hard to judge scale from other peoples images and it's only when you've had a go yourself that you can really start to work out how big (or small) they are.

For this wide-field I used an SXVF-M8C and an M42 Pentacon 50mm lens set at f/4, Baader Ha filter, NEQ6 and Lodestar finder/guider. 5 hrs 45mins in mostly 15 minute subs.

Another thing I like about wide-fields is that they give you an indication of which parts of the image will be good for getting the scope on for the close-ups and detail. I've spent a good night imaging 'nothing' before now with the scope only to later find I was targeting a relatively flat part of a nebula where little was going on, not fully comprehending just how big the thing was.

Alan

[philj]

Thats nice and wide, gives you a good idea of the scale of the thing. Yep its not easy judging where to point the scope on extended objects like these so a recce like this is useful.

My 102 F7 just takes in the top half of the trunk in the atik 314, I can get most of the trunk in with a 0.8 reducer so shows just how wide this shot is.

Philj

[rocketandroll]

That's very cool.... I shot the whole of the IC1396 complex with a DSLR and 200mm lens earlier this year and got a similar FOV of the whole thing... it's surprisingly round if you look at all of it :-)

That bit top right of the ET, near the garnet star looks like a good target for some close up work... these widefields are a very useful thing to have!!! :-)

Ben