Omega Centauri

Star cluster with perhaps a density of 1 million stars some 17,000

light years away. Your comments are always helpful, thank you.

Nice clarity on this one!! Nice job!! I must say, you have made me want to invest in a telescope so I can try to find nebulas and planets. Thank you for sharing all your photos!!! Please keep up the wonderful work!!

cool, how long was the exposure ?

Thank's Ross ... the exposure was ISO 800 - 30 seconds @ F10.

 

4" Refractor F10 at prime focus( = 1000mm focal length)

 

This was taken from my suburban backyard, so lots of city sky light, and a full moon to deal with, and all washing out finer detail.

 

Im going to take this again tonight at ISO 1250 and 1600 to see what else is hiding in there. Also I need to take this as a comparison image from a dark site location. I know the results will be very noticable.

 

Also, this image is a full frame, its not cropped.

Thank's Kathleen :)

 

A lot of the images in this folder, and my Moon folder, were shot using std camera lenses, 50mm F1.8, 18-135mm kit lens and a 500mm F8 reflex lens and several are using just a camera tripod.

 

The problem is that to do any long exposures you need a tracking mount. These can be purchased with or with out a telescope and starting price for a motorised unit would be $200 -$300 that you could attach your camera too and add a telescope later, these will guide a 30 second + exposure with no problem at lower powers.

 

Scopes come in all shapes and sizes, mine is really for observation, and not for photography, at F10 its a bit too slow and its an Achromat meaning it has false colour halos on bright objects, a better refractor would have ED or fluorite lenses to counter this, and give better resolution too.

 

But there are lots of choices out there :) ... some quite cheap, some quite expencive, and a lot in the middle.

 

The attached image is my 10 yr old Refractor, a Vixen 4" F10, riding on a Vixen GP mount. My D200 with attached 500mm reflex lens can be seen riding on top for when i use it in Piggy back mode using the mounts motor drive :)

 

For the record, a set up like this 10 years ago was $2800. Today you can get the same thing for 'less than half' that, or much better for the same price, lol, where is the justice in that, huh!

 

not sure how you do it.

 

do you attach camera to a telescope or somthing?

 

or what do you mean exactly by a 4" Refractor - Prime focus 1000mm FL.

 

how much does that cost ect.

 

I just want a sense of what the gear looks like, how big they are and how much.

 

cheers for ya help

G'day Clive

 

Yes, for this shot the camera 'body' was attached to the telescope. This at 'prime focus' made the telescope a 1000mm FL lens.

 

Prime focus is essentially the 'Focal length' of the telescope. In my case, my scope has an objective lens that is 100mm in diameter (4 inches) and has a designated focal ratio of F 10.

 

I've sent you an email explaining the other types/cost of scope and mount combinations.

 

Clive, apart from the image that's attached to my post of yesterday, this is one showing the camera body attached to the scope itself and aimed at a low moon.

It all makes sense to me now. I couldn't for the life of me picture a camera piggyback but now I get it, duh:). The picture in my head was completely differant from your photograph. I gotta say.....nice!! I'm pretty much half way there, I just need the trusty telescope. Oh well I'll just justify it by saying it's for the whole family. Thanks Kathleen

Thanks Kathleen :) ... using the 'for the family' always works for me! ... lol.

 

I'll send you and email with some pointers that may help you with scope selection.

That would be nice, it'd be great if you could recommend some litature on how to locate clusters, nebulas, you know the cool stuff:) I already own National Audubon Society's FG to the Night Sky so I guess I'd like to know if there's anything that would go with it.

Email sent Kathleen :)

Too much technical. But it really looks great. Its fantastic composition. Rgds.

thanks tony.

 

 

Keep up the great work! It is not often enough that I get to see pictures from the other side of the equator.

Thank you Kaushik and John

 

 

Clive, your welcome!

i love how this image realy draws you in, its great!