Astro Images from Brittany

[Dangerous-Dave]

Hi guys, here are some pics from my recent trip to France. We decided to head south for this year's holiday as we were getting a bit sick of the poor weather (and in my case, the light evenings) in the UK in June (which is sadly the only time it's convenient for me to take my holidays). Brittany was about as far south as we felt we could manage with a couple of tots, one of them a 9 month old baby. As boot space was likely to be at a premium, what with push-chairs, nappies and the like, I decided against taking my EQ6 or Vixen GP and invested in the new, competitively priced Astrotrac TT320X-AG, for £399 including polar scope from Stayfocused. Unfortunately, the first one I received had a crack in the plastic, caused by an over-tightened bolt, but Albert from Stayfocused pulled out all the stops to replace it in time, hand-delivering the replacement on the Saturday before my departure. I cannot recommend these guys enough, their customer service is top class.

I couldn't have asked for much more, astronomy-wise, from our holiday rental, being out in the sticks with a large, south-facing garden and no streetlights. It's just a pity the weather didn't always co-operate. Still, I got enough subs over the two week holiday to make a nice collection.

Without further ado, here are the shots. Hope you like them.

Star-trails

Canon EOS20D, Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye, 143x30s at ISO800 stacked in Startrails v1.1.

Canon EOS10D (my wife's!), Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye, 113x30s at ISO400 stacked in Startrails v1.1.

Canon EOS10D, Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye, 143x30s at ISO800 stacked in Startrails v1.1.

M11 and Barnard 111 in Scutum

Modified Canon EOS20D mounted on Astrotrac TT320X-AG, Leitz Telyt 180mm/f3.4 apo lens at f3.4, 25x150s at ISO1600, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.

M20 and M8 in Sagittarius

Modified Canon EOS20D mounted on Astrotrac TT320X-AG, Leitz Telyt 180mm/f3.4 apo lens at f3.4, 27x150s + 6x180s at ISO1600, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.

M24 Sagittarius Starcloud

Modified Canon EOS20D mounted on Astrotrac TT320X-AG, Leitz Telyt 180mm/f3.4 apo lens at f3.4, 12x150s at ISO1600, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.

Earthshine and weather-vane

Canon EOS20D, Leitz Telyt 180mm/f3.4 lens, 1 second at ISO 200.

Milky Way widefields

Both: Canon EOS20D, Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye at f3.5, single 30 second exposure at ISO3200.

Conjunction of Mars and Regulus, 6/6/10

Canon EOS20D, Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye at f3.5, single 30 second exposure at ISO800

[Psychobilly]

Really nice set of images you have put together on the trip and a chance to get some of those more southerly targets...

I was looking at the Astrotrac but went with an EQ3 Pro instead as i still wanted "Goto"....

Peter...

[Dangerous-Dave]

Thanks Peter. I had been using a Vixen GP for widefield for a while, but it was too big to fit in the car. I bought SS2K for the GP, but it was so hefty it was defeating the purpose of owning a light rig!

[Earl]

Lovely images, and such a nice venue!

[Beyond_Vision]

A superb set of images Dave it looks a great place that you stayed at. You certainly made the most of the astrotrac I especially like the M20 M8 image

Regards

Kevin

[cloudbuster]

e thinks that some of these pics are POW contenders! well done on a great set of images!

[anthony]

A great collection of images. Sounds like a great trip away.

Anthony

[neelam]

first one is an absolute stunner

[dragonmaster]

WOW, great pictures, I too like the first one.

[RobH]

What a great set of images Dave....looks like you had a fine holiday

Cheers

Rob