Tarantula the Beautiful - NGC 2070

[Dusty]

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I last posted here so I thought I'd drop in to share my latest image with you.

Last month I had the chance to setup while the moon was in first quarter.
While waiting for the moon to set, I drift aligned and got things ready so I could image The Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The Tarantula Nebula is one of the jewels of our southern hemisphere skies and derives it's name from the wispy spidery shape emanating from it's core.

If you click on the image it will open the larger version (1.2MB). (http://www.iimagespace.com/page/ds/tarantula.htm)

This was imaged through the TOA 130 at f/5.8 using both the Canon 20Da and 20D set at ISO 400, with over 2 hours of exposure (18 x 7 min), 18 darks and 15 flats.

Guided using the Orion ShortTube 80, Orion StarShoot autoguider and PHD on an EM400 mount.

Processed using DSS and Photoshop CS3.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed capturing it.

Thanks for looking.


:D
Dusty


http://www.iimagespace.com/images/ds/tarantula-potn.jpg (http://www.iimagespace.com/page/ds/tarantula.htm)

[Celestron]

Very nice Dusty . A little too red for my likings but thats MHO but other than that it's very nice !

[Nighthound]

WooHoo Dusty's back!

Stunning image. Excellent detail, beautiful dynamic range and what an amazing piece of astro real estate.

Hope all is well, maybe winter will allow me to break out the scopes and take some of my own.

[ady.space]

wow love it

[Dusty]

Thanks for looking Ron.
Yes I specifically processed it that way as I wanted to emphasize these gorgeous neb regions and produce a slightly different look to the usual look we see for this object.
That's also one reason I used two cameras, one modded and one standard.
Also this allowed me to take darks with one while the other was imaging and visa versa.

WooHoo Dusty's back!

Stunning image. Excellent detail, beautiful dynamic range and what an amazing piece of astro real estate.

Hope all is well, maybe winter will allow me to break out the scopes and take some of my own.
G'day mate, thanks for your very kind words.
Glad you liked it.

I hope you get some great weather Steve, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful work.

wow love it

Many thanks ady !
Really glad you enjoyed it.

:D

[chris.bailey]

Stunning image. 7 minute subs with a 20D/Da is very impressive. I always got amp glow with a 20D at much more than 4 minutes.

[Scoobs]

Lovely shot, great colours

[smallmadtv]

I love this!

I would like to know a little bit more on the post treatment...
Do you have some reference?

amazing!

[Dusty]

Stunning image. 7 minute subs with a 20D/Da is very impressive. I always got amp glow with a 20D at much more than 4 minutes.

Thanks Chris, glad you liked it.

When you do long exposures do you also take dark frames to apply to the lights?
The 20D/a switches the amp off during long exposure so it shouldn't have significant amp glow and applying darks should eliminate any that's there.

I have just finished another image, The Veil (west) Neb where I used 15 min subs, for a total of 6 hours exposure.
I did end up taking as many darks to apply to the image though.

Lovely shot, great colours

Cheers Stu, many thanks.

I love this!

I would like to know a little bit more on the post treatment...
Do you have some reference?

amazing!
Thanks smtv,

I don't have any tutorials written yet and the processing is quite involved to go into it here.
It's best to join an astro forum to learn, also do a search on deep space imaging using a DSLR in Google.
There are many tutorials on the net to get you started.

One of the very few astro forums I belong to is www.iceinspace.com.au (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/index.php), here you'll find a wealth of information and also be able to see images from the southern hemisphere.
This is where I learned most of what I know about astro imaging.

:D