Emission and reflection

[Owmuchonomy]

So whilst waiting patiently for my poorly performing refractor to be returned from the dealer I was fiddling around with my DSLR and a spare dovetail.  Stealing a 3/8 fastener from my tripod I managed to fix the camera quite firmly and attach it to my replacement  mount that has just been delivered.  There lies another tale.  The resulting image using a 60mm lens is presented below.  The capture includes NGC1499 (California HA emission nebula) and of course M45 and its reflection nebulosity. I was quite surprised at how dark the lanes are between the two objects.  They obviously block a lot of photons!

Info: 1hour 54 minutes of unguided data at ISO400 (f4) using my Canon 60Da.  I did try and image at f2.8 but the star distortion was horrific.  Processed in DSS and Photoshop.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice wide-field shot. Puts the two objects nicely in context

[Owmuchonomy]

Thanks Michael.

[laudropb]

Lovely wide field capture and a very good expiation.

[wxsatuser]

I love seeing these two together with their contrasting colours.

[Moonshane]

Great image. It shows the huge size of the california neb!

[Owmuchonomy]

Thanks all for your kind comments. I am really pleased with it to be honest especially at full size.

[michaelmorris]

That's a really great image.  Nicely captured and the composition is very nice.  The dark lanes show up very well.

[Owmuchonomy]

Thanks again guys.  I looked in quite close and the image shows all the lower Perseus doubles, just!  The lens is a Canon 60 mm f2.8 1:1 macro normally reserved for photographing my wife's jewellery production.  I wonder if the 'macro' helps with the 'flatness' of the field.  Perhaps one of the photo experts can comment.

[sharkmelley]

Great picture!  I never realised there was all that dust between them there.

Mark

[Owmuchonomy]

Great picture!  I never realised there was all that dust between them there.

Mark

Me neither and it was a bit of a challenge to keep the contrast in the final image.

[wxsatuser]

Thanks again guys.  I looked in quite close and the image shows all the lower Perseus doubles, just!  The lens is a Canon 60 mm f2.8 1:1 macro normally reserved for photographing my wife's jewellery production.  I wonder if the 'macro' helps with the 'flatness' of the field.  Perhaps one of the photo experts can comment.

Pure macro lenses tend to have a flat field.

[kenny k]

Lovley widefield view...thanks for sharing.

Kenny

[Pete Presland]

That has come out very well, i also never realised how much dust was between them.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Good shot, like the contrast between these two, but is it a little dark maybe? Might be worth adjusting the white point perhaps.

[Owmuchonomy]

Good shot, like the contrast between these two, but is it a little dark maybe? Might be worth adjusting the white point perhaps.

Yes, maybe.  When I post to SGL this often happens in contrast to Flickr where the posts look a lot better.  Here is another one but the WP is now clipped.  You see, this is so much brighter on my screen but once posted it darkens considerably.