The Milky Way in Cygnus

Deneb is below and to the left of centre. The North America nebula is the reddish hue just below Deneb.

Dark object on the right is the roof of my house with sky glow from Kenmare of all places.



Date: 4th May 2005
Time: 22:52 hrs UTC
Camera: Canon EOS300D with 24mm EF lens at F4.0
Mount: LXD75 GEM
Exposure: 180 secs (X2) - 180 sec dark
ISO: 1600
Processing: PSP9 - Dark removal and histogram adjust

james.butler.name/weblog/astrodiary/astrodiary.html

WOW ... that image is just stunning!

I just love wide filed shots like that.

Bart.

Nice shot there James. Good focus I see.
BTW, how did you find using the ISO1600? Was it difficult to remove the noise? I'd be interested to see the original version of the image as well just to compare. I've tried using high ISO settings before but with limited success.

Outstanding work James! The milkyway is amazing and the countless stars are points with no trailing.....have you checked that image for any nova canditates?

Excellent image!!

Super image James, love it! My God, its certainly full of stars!

Seanie.

To answer all questions:

ISO 1600 - For deep sky I never use anything but 1600. All my results with lower ratings are inferior. For the moon and planets I am using ISO 400. After much experimentation my results with eyepiece projection of Jupiter into a Canon 300D are now better than with the LPI.

Nova spotting - I think there is still plenty of noise in the picture to make nova spotting not worthwhile.

Tracking - I use a rough polar align of the scope. With such a wild field of view I can go to 5 minutes without noticable trails. The picture above is a 25% scale down of the original so I could comfortably use longer exposures.