M17 and IC 4701 - widefield

[Kanadalainen]

Omega Nebula - my atlas enthuses: "M17 is located in the rich star fields of the the Milky Way in Sagittarius. It can be found easily, along with its apparent neighbor, M 16, the Eagle Nebula. Starting from Altair (α Aql), follow δ Aql and λ Aql to γ Sct; M 17 is just over 2° SW of this star, and M 16 lies 2° NW. With a visual magnitude of 6.0, M 17 is visible to the naked eye from low latitudes under good observing conditions."

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Another trip with a small group of friends out to a remote dark site about 60km east of the city. The two Kevins, Ryan and David - thanks to you for showing me this great dark site.

The evening was calm and the seeing was quite good. The mosquitoes were fierce for the first 30 min and then just left, as they do around midnight.

Anyway the skies were great - very good transparency. The idea was to warm up with a couple of DSOs and then catch Neowise at the end of the session.

I went back for some extra work on M17 (the swan, the omega, the checkmark or NGC 6618). Its a fascinating bright nebula.

Unguided with about 30 min integration.

Thanks for looking.

Tech details:

Imaging telescopes or lenses:Stellarvue 70 mm f6 apo triplet refractor
Imaging cameras:Canon 60D
Mounts:SkyWatcher EQ5
Focal reducers:Stellarvue SFFR70APO
Software:Adobe Photoshop CC 2020 , SkySafari 6 Pro , Adobe Lightroom 2019 CC , Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor APP
Filters:Optolong CLS - CCD clip in
Accessories: Telrad, Orion Bahtinov mask, black tea, red led headlamp

Dates:July 11, 2020
Frames:Optolong CLS - CCD clip in: 15x120" ISO800
Integration: 0.5 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~20
Bias: ~20

Avg. Moon age: 20.82 days
Avg. Moon phase: 63.92%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 3.00
Mean FWHM: 2.10
Temperature: 15*C

Basic astrometry details
RA center: 18h 18' 50"
DEC center: -15° 51' 39"
Pixel scale: 2.616 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 7.261 degrees
Field radius: 2.274 degrees
Resolution: 5203x3478
Locations: Dark site, Richer, Manitoba, Canada

[STEVE333]

Pretty image Ian. Bright nebula and lots of stars.

Steve

[Peter802]

A nice image Ian.
I love wide field images.
Thank you for sharing it.

[MariusD69]

Looks great! Well done, Ian!

[Juno16]

Great image Ian!

I really like your stars. I have only had a chance to image once (M13) since I bought the Stellarview SFFR102-2 fr/fr and It works very well for me.

Wow, Bortle 3! Good for you sir!

Keep up the wonderful images!

[Kanadalainen]

Pretty image Ian. Bright nebula and lots of stars.

Steve

Thanks Steve... I need to be careful about the central core. I have slightly overexposed it perhaps.

[Kanadalainen]

A nice image Ian.
I love wide field images.
Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks Peter!

[Kanadalainen]

Looks great! Well done, Ian!

Thanks Marius!

[Kanadalainen]

Great image Ian!

I really like your stars. I have only had a chance to image once (M13) since I bought the Stellarview SFFR102-2 fr/fr and It works very well for me.

Wow, Bortle 3! Good for you sir!

Keep up the wonderful images!

Thanks Jim, yes - SV really does their homework with optics and mechanicals. I followed their spacing recommendations.

[ic_1101]

Beautiful image Ian! Nice round stars and good detail in the nebula. Thx for sharing.

[Kanadalainen]

Beautiful image Ian! Nice round stars and good detail in the nebula. Thx for sharing.

Thank you Alex!

[BABOafrica]

Interesting to see that combination with IC 4701 in the field.

BABO

[Kanadalainen]

Interesting to see that combination with IC 4701 in the field.

BABO

Thanks BABO
I like shooting wide field images. Now I need to figure out how to stitch together chunks of the sky in muliple images.

[Astrovetteman]

Hey Ian, I really like that wide field image! You’re really producing some good stuff!!
Excellent Job!!
Tom

[Kanadalainen]

Hey Ian, I really like that wide field image! You’re really producing some good stuff!!
Excellent Job!!
Tom

Thanks Tom,
I am getting a lot of practice as our weather has been pretty good. (There now I've done it!! Rain for the next two weeks. )
All the best,