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DSO targets for 300mm lens?

Tommohawk

By Tommohawk
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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I've been slowly sorting out a travel setup which inevitable means a shorter focal length scope - the Tamron 300mm lens has given me some nice results. But there's a limit to the number of suitable subjects.

The Veil is good, so is the Rosette (not that I've ever successfully images it due to poor skies) the Witch Head should be good, and a grouping with Flame neb, horsehead and orion would be nice. Andromeda is also good.

But does anyone have any ideas please for any other subjects - maybe I'm not looking hard enough!

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Adam J

Adam J

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36 minutes ago, Tommohawk said:

thanks Adam, good call - any others please?

Yeah:

You should get the Flaming Star and the Tadpole nebulas into one frame.

You should also get the whole of the Heart Nebula

 

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pete_l

pete_l

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Depending on the location and time of year: M33, M51, M8 and 20 (possibly in the same frame), M45, Large swathes of the Milky Way, Orion belt / sword. Lots of stuff in Cygnus, down to Sagittarius / Scorpius. Leo trio, the Coma galaxies, Beehive cluster.

 

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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1 hour ago, Adam J said:

Yeah:

You should get the Flaming Star and the Tadpole nebulas into one frame.

You should also get the whole of the Heart Nebula

 

Ooops.... I shouldnt have forgotten those cos I did em last year, although heart (and soul) were pants due to too little image time.

1 hour ago, pete_l said:

Depending on the location and time of year: M33, M51, M8 and 20 (possibly in the same frame), M45, Large swathes of the Milky Way, Orion belt / sword. Lots of stuff in Cygnus, down to Sagittarius / Scorpius. Leo trio, the Coma galaxies, Beehive cluster.

 

OK yeah, but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order.. (sorry a bit of a Life of Brian homage thing)

M8 and M20 is a good one. The lens is F2.8 so I can easily 2 or even 3 pane clusters. Heart and Soul is good for that, TBH M33 and Leo I would do with the SW200.

I think the  main problem seems to be a lean period round about now - from April to June.

 

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pete_l

pete_l

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2 minutes ago, Tommohawk said:

I think the  main problem seems to be a lean period round about now - from April to June.

You mentioned this was your travel setup - have you any plans for where to go?

I ask because far from being a "lean period" I was out the other night - all night. Right now Sag. and Scorp are fantastic in the pre-dawn sky in deepest, darkest (and it is dark!), Andalucia.

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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27 minutes ago, pete_l said:

You mentioned this was your travel setup - have you any plans for where to go?

I ask because far from being a "lean period" I was out the other night - all night. Right now Sag. and Scorp are fantastic in the pre-dawn sky in deepest, darkest (and it is dark!), Andalucia.

Ah well funny thing that. I have a friend in Almunecar - he used to live way up in the hills where the skies were pretty good but now he's down in the town. I think they were getting fed up with the lairy drive every time they needed a pint of milk. So I may go to his and just head out into the hills.

You're right that Sag and Sco are good v early, and Trifid Lagoon and M21 would be a nice group - especially with a bit more elevation like you have. Trouble is I'm  the sort of chap that doesnt function well without sleep so the 4-5am thing doesnt suit so well especially as I'm cursed with the misfortune of employment!

Here I have 2 massive cedars to the south east so I cant get set till later, but out there I guess I could get set up say 10pm and let it run past the meridian a way - whilst checking out the Alhambra (I mean the Alhambra beer of course) So that's a good call too.

To date my travel set up hasn't seen the light of day - or dark of night i should say. Well, it hasnt travelled further than my back garden anyhow. I went to Spain in November with the aim of taking my kit but the forecast was so bad I left it at home. And same again for La Palma in Feb.

 

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AndyUK

AndyUK

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There are quite a few FoV calculators about, but the one I generally find most useful is CCD Calc, together with the supplementary download images (the link is on the same page). 

Once you have your scope (lens) and camera set up, if you have a few minutes you can literally scroll through the lot and see what you like the look of...  Admittedly, it doesn't have ALL the DSO's in the catalog, but it does list most of the "popular" ones (inc all Messier objects, as well as select IC, NGC, UGC and few others).  When you've seen the ones you like you can then use something like Stellarium (or Cartes di Ciel) to see where it is and what time of the year it's most accessible (or if) and then use a spreadsheet to map out a target plan by month...

(The only snag is at the end of the year when you look back on it and you then see how many slipped by due to bad weather / full moon / work / Holidays etc, but that's another story - They'll all be around again the same time next year :))

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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20 hours ago, moise212 said:

Elephant's trunk or Iris maybe?

Thanks for those - Iris I would probably prefer to do with the SW200. The Elephants trunk  also I've done with the SW200 but theres much more going on around it so that could work well with the 300mm - nice idea. It would also work well as an "all nighter" in June - and that remides me I need to sort out a decent dew shield for it.

 

17 hours ago, AndyUK said:

(The only snag is at the end of the year when you look back on it and you then see how many slipped by due to bad weather / full moon / work / Holidays etc, but that's another story - They'll all be around again the same time next year :))

LOL

Well that's definitely true .... they will still be there same time next year... for me to miss yet again due to bad weather / full moon etc etc !!

I use Stellarium all the time for this and have my sensor and scope / lens details in exactly for this reason. What I don't have is a list of objects to search. 

It would be really good if there were a list of all the DSOs which could be ordered by size, magnitude, best viewing time etc - I've never seen one anyhow.

Its also a shame that Stellarium doesnt have a bigger set of DSO images built in - but having got a top bit of software for free I'm not about to complain!!

CCD Calc seems to work OK, but not quite so user friendly as Stellarium maybe

 

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