Antares and the dust clouds

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