Antares Region & Rho Ophiuchi taken over several years

[carastro]

Taken over several years.  Twice in Spain and twice in East Sussex.

Spain 2017 DSLR and cheap camera lens and Ioptron skytracker. 4 hours
Spain 2019 same set up but with a luminance filter and Mono CCD camera 2 hours 
I wasn't happy with either as the cheap camera lens produced horrible stars.

Having bought a Samyang 135mm lens at the end of 2019, I decided to try to get better luminance from the campsite I visit from time to time in East Sussex, but it is VERY low from the UK.  This time I could take my full rig with me and do longer guided subs.  HEQ5, Atik460EX and Samyang 135mm lens. 

2022 I captured some luminance with better stars of the Antares region, but half of Rho Ophiucci was chopped off.  1 hour 20mins
https://www.astrobin.com/sz1393/B/
last week April 2023 I captured the area around Rho Ophiucci and made a mosaic thus completing the image at last.  1 1/2 hours.  Of course we can always use more data but given my VERY limited opportunities I think this will be the final version.

Total of 8h 50mins

Slightly revised version posted on 29th April, with some star reduction.  Hope this is an improvement.  

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by carastro

[Roy Foreman]

I've always thought this to bs such a colorful part of the sky.  If only it wasn't so low down from the UK.

No chance of me imaging it from my location so I will just have to admire yours.

Well done, very nice.

[carastro]

Minehead is not a whole lot higher in latitude to my campsite.   Minehead is 51.2 degrees and my campsite is 51.02 degrees.  Might be worth a shot. 

Carole 

[WolfieGlos]

Wow, incredible image, and great dedication definitely paid off!

I tried this the other week from home, I get about a 30 minute window between some chimneys, so maybe in 10 years I might have enough data if I pursue it…

[ollypenrice]

Bravo Carole. This is a murderously difficult target from my place at Lat.44.  You've really stuck at it and got something worth having. Very impressive.

Olly

[Ags]

Truly superb!

[carastro]

Thanks Olly for your nice comments, and thanks everyone else.

Carole 

[Martin-Devon]

That's a fabulous image Carole - true dedication over several years to finally pull it all together. The colours and field of view are great. I've had a shot at this from my UK site several times and have only half-finished images and poor quality data, with the target being so low it's amongst all the murk in that part of the atmosphere. I'd be mighty chuffed though to deliver an image of Rho/Antares as good as what you have, well done!  

[carastro]

Thanks Martin.  Yes I must confess there have been other occasions when I have tried to image it from the same site and much depends on that low area being clear of cloud and murk.  

Carole