2012 Skynews Magazine Canada astrophotography contest, honourable mention
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
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