Nebula

Antares and the dust clouds

Posted on by Shawn Nielsen

2012 Skynews Magazine Canada astrophotography contest, honourable mention

Celestron CPC800 with Equinox 80 APO refractor which was used to take some of the images you will see here.This is a two pane mosaic of the bright Summer star Antares and part of the Rho Ophiuchus dust cloud region around it. It’s a very striking area of the night sky to photograph during the summer months. Antares is distinctly reddish when viewed with the unaided eye, visible in the south. It’s a red supergiant and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. It’s often referred to as “the heart of the scorpion”. Its at at a distance of approx 550 ly from Earth.

I imaged this during Summer of 2011 from near Conestoga Lake, Ontario, Canada.

The photo of the telescopes shows the Skywatcher Equinox 80mm refractor riding on top of the CPC800 SCT. I used this setup to take a lot of astro images over several years!

 

Technical:

  • 3 hours data each panel (5min subs) / 6 hours total / 30min/5min darks.
  • SW Equinox 80mm APO Refractor with WO .8x reducer/flattener. 400mm focal length.
  • Mounted on CPC800 SCT and Milburn EQ Wedge for tracking
  • Modified Canon 350XT (Rebel) 8mp DSLR
  • Orion Starshoot autoguider
  • Acquisition with Nebulosity and PHD for autoguiding
  • Calibration, align, stack in Nebulosity
  • Processed in Photoshop
Shawn Nielsen
Shawn Nielsen

My story began more than 40 years ago looking up at the Moon with a small collapsible telescope my Father had. Encouraged by my parents, who bought me my very own telescope, a 4.5" reflector, I began to explore the night sky from my family home backyard. Today I do astrophotography from my home in Kitchener, Ontario and also with remote telescopes located in New Mexico and Australia. Some of my images have won awards and have been featured online and in magazines.

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