Orion's Belt and Sword with the 50D

[Beyond_Vision]

Had a nice gap in the clouds Sunday night with good transparency but the intrusion of the quarter Moon to fight with. I decided to set up the Astrotrac as snow was forcast. I managed to grab nearly an hour of Orions's Belt and Sword area. The image was taken with my Canon 50D and Tamron Di II 70-200mm lens at ISO800 F4.5, 11x 5 mins. Stacked in DSS, darks and bias frames applied. False flat in Pix insight and finished with PSCS3.

(click to enlarge)

Regards

Kevin

[ChrisEdu]

Lovely photo. I've got to learn how to do this imaging thing somewhen - I've only managed to just take photos that use one exposure.

[moondog]

Excellent wide field Orion. Very clear Running Man, and the Horse Head and Flame Nebula look good. The Astrotrac seems to be working well for you Kevin.

8)

MD

[dogfish]

Hi Kevin

That's a really beautiful image. So much detail for a widefield. Bet you're dead proud of that one.

Cheers, Martin

[Jaffa007]

That's a really clear image!! :hello1:

Good work!!

[RobH]

Lovely!

Please do the whole sky for us

Cheers

Rob

[Tim]

Fantastic image Kevin. I am amazed at how much Ha the 50D has picked up.

[markcol]

Me also TJ, I can't help thinking that the 50D doesn't need modding!

great shot Kevin.

Mark

[Lee]

Fantastic, Setting the benchmark for AstroTrac users again,

Nice one Kevin.

[steve51450]

that's a glorious shot, so clean

[steppenwolf]

Very nice indeed, Kevin - great wide field image.

[dave1978]

what a great image, can i use for desktop?

[nuttystar]

Sorry to be a bit noob-like but... This was taken with just the camera and not through a telescope??

(again sorry for the noob question....)

[Beyond_Vision]

what a great image, can i use for desktop?

Feel free Dave and thanks for the compliment.

Sorry to be a bit noob-like but... This was taken with just the camera and not through a telescope??

(again sorry for the noob question....)

Yes this was taken with a 70-200mm camera zoom lens set to 152mm.

Regards

Kevin

[Tim]

I keep coming back to this one.

Any chance of a hi res copy Kevin? This is a great pic to show to others about just what is there around Orions Belt.

[thing]

Beautiful image Kevin, I love these widefields. Have you thought of doing some of the clusters in Auriga? That would be a cracking shot.

[lunator]

Kev

Very impressive image

Cheers

Ian

[ncjunk]

Great shot, enjoyed looking at that one.

NC

[Cloudwatcher]

Cracking image and a nice bit of processing. :salute:

[Barry W]

That's absolutely amazing!!Question - What is the "DSS" you mentioned about stacking the images.

Cheers,

Barry

[Beyond_Vision]

That's absolutely amazing!!Question - What is the "DSS" you mentioned about stacking the images.

Cheers,

Barry

Thanks for the compliments

It's a free program called Deep Sky Stacker here's a link to their web site.

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

Regards

Kevin

[dark knight]

How do you manage to tease so much detail out of the shot. I took some of same area with a nikon d80, and although the nebulae is visible it is small and a purplish colour?Great result by the way..

[jimmya]

Superb. Whats darks and bias? I'm a newbie.

[Erwin Kats]

Very nice !.

it only looks pretty dark to me?

i love the horsehead and flame region.

[Beyond_Vision]

Superb. Whats darks and bias? I'm a newbie.

Thanks Jimmya,

Dark frames are exposure taken with the lens cap covered with the same exposure length and ISO setting as the normal images. They should be taken when the camera is at the same temperature as when the normal images were taken. The dark frames can then be averaged and subtracted from the normal images.

Bias frames are taken with the lens cap in place and the exposure time set to the minimum.

These calibration frames can then be used with programs like Deep Sky Stacker to reduce the noise in an image.

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

There is a more detailed explanation within the tutorials of this program.

Regards

Kevin