New Image: A dusty M45

[Jockinireland]

I have recently been piggy-backing my Samyang 135mm on my 20+ year old LX200. But last time out the mount died. There was heavy dew and after drying everything out it came back to life! But thinking it was gone for good I decided to get a Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTi to use primarily with this lens.

Monday was my first night out with the GTi and while it was OK, giving a guiding RMS of around 1.2 to 1.4" most of the time (which is well good enough for this scale) it was a bit flaky at times. It may have been breeze, or cable management or maybe even just not as stable a tripod as I'd like. Or it may be to do with the backlash inherant in this small mount. But it will do. I intend to put it up on my second Todmorden Pier and when I do that I can try to resolve these other issues.

For this time being this is;
Samyang 135mm (stopped down with rings to f 2.4)
ASI2600mc
Altair L-pro filter
Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTI
80 x 180s

[MariusD69]

Looks amazing! Great work, David!!

[Juno16]

Well, the image gives to clue of the issues with the mount. Just for curiosity, what is your image scale?

The image is really beautiful!

To me, the scale is perfect. To me, imaging at this scale really gives great perspective of these objects. Also, it is really nice to see the surroundings of these areas.

Even zooming into M45, the details are really nice and the colors are spot on.

Well done David!

[messier 111]

superb dust , thx .

[Jockinireland]

Well, the image gives to clue of the issues with the mount. Just for curiosity, what is your image scale?

The image is really beautiful!

To me, the scale is perfect. To me, imaging at this scale really gives great perspective of these objects. Also, it is really nice to see the surroundings of these areas.

Even zooming into M45, the details are really nice and the colors are spot on.

Well done David!

Thanks Jim.

So image scale with this set up is about 5.7"/pixel so well undersampled. But as you say, the details in the blue nebulosity is still enough to give a some indication of the filaments and structure.

I'm with you on the widefields like this - while you dont have the WOW factor of long FL images of pillars or Herbig-Haro Object or BOK globules, I like the over all context, the sense of size and distance that you get from images like this.

Thank again Jim

[Petrol]

Fantasic image David. Amazing detail, don't you just love the SY 135 Possibly the best bang for buck f2 lens there is.

[SkyHiker]

Beautiful image, thanks for sharing! M45 reveals so much more with long exposures, now I want to try this too with my Redcat51.

[KathyNS]

That is a spectacular image!

[bernhardhubl]

Beautiful image with excellent depth!

best,
Bernhard

[JayTee]

I like the overall context, the sense of size, and distance that you get from images like this.

Not to mention the fact that the maid is overdue for a good dusting!

David, it's a superb image and widefield images such as yours are really inspiring.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ylem]

That's beautiful David!!!

[JSBach1801]

You're the resident M45 master it seems.

Excellent image. I'm jealous of the fast speed lens and your dust.

[Gordon]

Congratulations David on having your image selected as our TSS APOD for today.

app.php/article/12-7-2023-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

[starfield]

Congrats, on the APOD, David. A gorgeous image.

[Juno16]

Congratulations David!

[Mirrorgirl]

well done on your Apod great work

[Jockinireland]

Thanks @MariusD69 @Juno16 @messier 111 @Petrol @SkyHiker @KathyNS @bernhardhubl @JayTee @Ylem @JSBach1801 @starfield @Mirrorgirl for the kind words, I really appreciate it when people take time to comment. And of course thanks to @Gordon for the APOD

[Mac]

Amazing capture David and congrats on the APOD, I hope mine comes out 1/2 as nice as this one.

[STEVE333]

Amazing and captivating image David. I've never seen this WFOV view of the region. It has a very ominous appearance, but, I can't stop looking at it!!

Steve

[Jockinireland]

Thanks Steve, great to hear from you.

Yes, I think these widefields of the dusty regions have become my favourite targets. With either my sharpstar 61 EDPH or like this one, my still new Samyang 135mm.

And I agree they do look ominous and, I think brooding but I still struggle to be able to understand or appreciate the size and scale of these vast clouds.