Heart & Soul, Double Cluster in Widefield (85mm)

[coatesg]

I took these images on Sat 25th Nov from here in W Oxfordshire. I've got the widefield setup running now using a RPi3 running KStars and Ekos. This controls a modded, uncooled 350d (with Baader filter) and a serial shutter cable, an Arduino motor focuser (as a Moonlite compatible focuser) and the Losmandy GM8 it all sits on.

Images were taken through a Canon 85mm f1.8 EF lens at f4.5, exposures were 45 x 300sec (3h45m total) at ISO400 through an IDAS P2 filter. The field is a whisker over 15x10 degrees. Processing was in PixInsight and a bit of work in Photoshop to reduce a bit of amp glow that didn't calibrate out fully.

Fairly pleased with this (though the Heart and Soul have come out maybe a little red - the colour calibration uses PI's PCC tool, and the IDAS filter might throw it a bit), but there's some other areas of interest coming through in the image. Annotated image attached but there are a few other bits that PI doesn't grab - there's a small area of reflection nebula (LBN 142.14+01.97) to the left of Sh2-202 that's just coming through. Also, unlabelled are Stock 2 (between the Heart and the Double Cluster) and for the interested clouded out astronomer, galaxies Maffei 1 and 2 are visible in frame just below the Heart (labelled as Sh2-191 and Sh2-197). 

Thanks for taking a look!

 

[wxsatuser]

Cannot see the images, only links.

[coatesg]

Just now, wxsatuser said:

Cannot see the images, only links.

Odd - I was making a correction to a typo - might have caught it in the middle of the edit? Looks OK to me?/

[wxsatuser]

Can see them now.

Nice widefield of the Heart and Soul.

[ultranova]

very nicely done indeed, nice and deep

well done

Paul

[Filroden]

That’s lovely, and I like the red. Thanks for sharing.

[happy-kat]

Very nice. Pleased to read what aperture you used on this lens as whilst it's a fast lens it loves a flush of CA, I've got it too but hadn't yet experimented to find the sweet spot.

[coatesg]

Thanks all!

19 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Very nice. Pleased to read what aperture you used on this lens as whilst it's a fast lens it loves a flush of CA, I've got it too but hadn't yet experimented to find the sweet spot.

It is a fast lens, but the star quality in the corners wide open means it does need stopping down a bit - with this one, it seems to be about the right point to sharpen the stars up (at least on APS-C size sensors), though maybe could get away with f4 - I'll need to try. Certainly at f3.5, things start to get a seagull like at the corners...!

[Daniel-K]

great work, for a 350D !!

 

is there an adapter for the IDAS P2 filter for canon lenses? 

[coatesg]

18 minutes ago, Daniel-K said:

great work, for a 350D !!

 

is there an adapter for the IDAS P2 filter for canon lenses? 

Cheers! I'd really like to get a more sensitive mono cam that will take Canon lenses and do this kind of work (my SBIG won't take them with the filter wheel in place...), but budget contraints are what they are!

The P2 filter here is one of the special low profile 37mm ones that sits in a holder and screws into the body. Image of it in place on FLO's website (this is the second version I think - mine actually has a screw that goes into the body of the camera): https://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction-imaging/idas-mfa-filter-adapter-kit-for-canon-eos.html