Wadi Rum, Jordan - Orion, Pleiades, California, Milky Way

[Crackabarrel]

A few widefield images taken from a recent trip to Wadi Rum in Jordan

Milky Way: 30 x 60sec

The Orion Nebula: 74 x 60sec (Stacking in Sequator, Processing in Photoshop)

Pleiades and California Nebula: 129 x 60sec (Stacking and Initial processing in Pixinsight, finishing touches in Photoshop)

All shot with Nikon D5300 + Sigma 18-35 f1.8 , ISO400 (Stacking and Initial processing in Pixinsight, finishing touches in Photoshop)

I could get used to imaging at F2.0 in Bortle 2/3, any suggestions or criticisms let me know, probably went a bit hard on the processing.

Thanks for looking.

 

[FenlandPaul]

Wowsers!! 🤩

They look like SOME skies! Great images. 

[Crackabarrel]

Thank you, initially I stacked them in DSS and thought the data was worthless, Pix really came to the rescue however.

They were very nice yeh and won't be forgotten anytime soon, some of the darkest I've been under, being constantly cloud free during our stay was also a nice change of pace.

[Paul M]

They are all spectacular but the last one seems to show connection between the Pleiades and the surrounding dust.

I don't think I've seen an image like that before. The blue/white nebulosity associated with the Pleiades seems to trail off either side and then there is void in the dust below the cluster. It just looks to me as though the cluster has moved (upwards in this view) through the surrounding dust leaving a wake! 

Looks like a glowing jellyfish!

Maybe I need to do some research

 

Edit: I'm partly right, it's the dust that's run into the cluster: https://science.nasa.gov/pleiades-deep-and-dusty

Edited October 17, 2022 by Paul M

[900SL]

Neat! I like the California and Pleiades image. And I'm amazed you pulled out the witch head nebula by Rigel

Were you using a tracker or shooting from a fixed tripod? 

I'm several hundred kilometres south of you. The skies are something else in this part of the world, aren't they. 

[Crackabarrel]

10 hours ago, Paul M said:

They are all spectacular but the last one seems to show connection between the Pleiades and the surrounding dust.

I don't think I've seen an image like that before. The blue/white nebulosity associated with the Pleiades seems to trail off either side and then there is void in the dust below the cluster. It just looks to me as though the cluster has moved (upwards in this view) through the surrounding dust leaving a wake! 

Looks like a glowing jellyfish!

Maybe I need to do some research

 

Edit: I'm partly right, it's the dust that's run into the cluster: https://science.nasa.gov/pleiades-deep-and-dusty

Thank you, much appreciated, I was surprised to see the amount of dust picked up, initially I thought there may have been an issue with the lens given the central concentration, I had to go look at similar widefield images to confirm.

Very interesting to see the motion of the dust cloud past the Pleiades, lends a nice sense of movement.

4 hours ago, 900SL said:

Neat! I like the California and Pleiades image. And I'm amazed you pulled out the witch head nebula by Rigel

Were you using a tracker or shooting from a fixed tripod? 

I'm several hundred kilometres south of you. The skies are something else in this part of the world, aren't they. 

Thank you, they both came out better than expected I feel.

I was very happy to see the Witch Head popping up during the stretching process, did not think just over an hour would be enough to reveal it, but goes to show how nicely fast optics and dark skies pair.

All these shots were tracked with a Skywatcher Star Adventurer.

The skies in that part of the world are indeed something to remember, unfortunately we were only on holidays for a week in Jordan, 3 nights of which were spent in Wadi Rum, coming from Ireland I am very envious of the consistency of the clear sky over there.