Southern Cross Widefield and More to come

[Radar]

I took this shot about two weeks ago, but all the pro photo labs have been shut over the holiday break.

I have more images to scan but I have run out of slide mounts.

This shot was taken through a Nikon FM2. Riding a G11, Autoguided with an ST4 through a SkyWatcher refractor. Film was Kodak Elite Chrome. Hi wind has causes the minor trailing and out of focus appearance.

Exposure was thirty minutes.

I will be adding more images to this thread, so check back in soon.

90

[h0ughy]

wow what courage sticking with film, nice shot to despite the wind:thumbsupmate:

[Radar]

Thanks Houghy,

I'm slow making the change to CCD or DSLR because I still like the feel of film for some reason. I like holding a neg in my hand.

This next shot is Star Trails of the Astronomical Group of Western Australia's Observing Pad with numerous astronomers and scopes on the pad in the foreground.

Exposure is 1 hour and 45 minutes. Taken through a 50mm lens attached to the same FM2. Autoguided with the Earth's rotation. "Nice job Earth". :thumbsupmate:

The glow at the bottom is the light polluting city of Perth.

91

[Radar]

A simple image of Sirius. This was only five minutes. I would have gone longer but the wind was playing havoc on my manual guiding.

Taken through a Takahashi Epsilon e160, riding a G11. Pentax Asahi SP2. Kodak Elite Chrome.

94

[CanisMajorTom]

Nice work mate :thumbsupmate:

[Radar]

This was Omega Centauri taken a few days later from my back garden. It was only a 5 minute exposure. I had to stop because of the wind.

It was autoguided with an ST4 and I used an IDAS LPR filter with it.

It's not going to win the Malin awards, but I thought I'd post it anyway. :Chessy_Smile:

95

[Radar]

Perseus and Auriga Region. I think that red nebulosity just above the trees is the California Nebula. I'm not sure what the other red parts are. Anyone know?

This was a 30 minute exposure. Again wind hampered my efforts, so I have used a blur in photoshop to smooth it out a bit.

97

[AstroBob]

I have no idea what I like about it, but the one of Sirius intrigues me. :cool!:

[Jimbot]

I like this one as it has a bit of every thing. Very nice and I am glad you shared these thanks
Jim

[RSW]

Good effort. Love the star trails one :thumbsupmate:

[AstroTasmania]

I took this 30 second shot with my new Takahashi Epsilon 180ED Astrograph and a Canon 350D SLR (unmodified) It is a first light shot and I have not done anymore since. This shot is out of focus as I used the camera viewfinder, which is no good for this sort of critical focus.

I also need the 10:1 focuser unit for the Tak, then I will link my laptop to the Canon with DSLRFocus so that I can get pinpoint stars.

I am also waiting to try my modified Nikon D50 on the Tak when I get another little device to aid focusing and triggering the infra red cable release. I have a colour image somewhere and will post when I find it.

Great to compare results with others of the same object.

[Radar]

Nice shot Shev. When I shoot that image through my tak on film, it is very small. So I'm guessing that the DSLR's chip is quite small in order to make this globular look like a normal size (taking into account that your Tak's field of view would be even larger than mine, so on film, that would have been even smaller).

[AstroTasmania]

What these shots show very well is just how fast the DSLR is compared to film, my 30 seconds compared to your 5 minutes. It means less time guiding, reduced tracking errors etc and a lot more images in one session.