Two butterflies, a propeller and a shell (well, a crescent) in the middle of a swan in midsummer (Paul Ecclestone-Brown)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: 29 Cyg · 34 Cyg) · 37 Cyg) · Crescent Nebula · NGC 6888 · Permanent nova (P Cyg · The star 36 Cyg · The star 40 Cyg · The star 44 Cyg · The star Revenant of the Swan · The star Sadr (γ Cyg · The star b3 Cyg

Two butterflies, a propeller and a shell (well, a crescent) in the middle of a swan in midsummer, Paul Ecclestone-Brown

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Two butterflies, a propeller and a shell (well, a crescent) in the middle of a swan in midsummer

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Two butterflies, a propeller and a shell (well, a crescent) in the middle of a swan in midsummer

At 53deg North, we have a couple of months where there is no astronomical dark. Conventional wisdom is that you aren't going to get conditions suitable for AP.

Well, there is a truism in sailing that there is no such thing as bad wind conditions, just incorrect sail settings and expectations of passage speed. I guess the same is almost true for astrophotography.... Change out your kit and go for a brighter target with the right filters.......

Here is a very widefield image of the centre of Cygnus taken in Ha only. It is a test of my new configuration of an old rig that I have set up to do ultra widefield, fast, imaging

The image was taken as near to true midnight as possible..... However guiding was tricky purely because there was less contrast between background and guide stars.

I really like the diffraction patterns from the lens diaphragm.... Maybe if I image a load of really bright stars in broadband later in nebula season that will be even more pretty.

I set the lens at F3.3 as my filters don't offer much improvement beyond that point in compensation for increase focusing challenges.....

Then a shout out to Rob Leonard at my astronomy club (Rosliston Astronomy Group) who introduced me to the idea of using a similar colourisation process for DSO Ha imaging to that used used in solar imaging - apart from the red point can be far more red (as DSO imagers are far more comfortable with Ha being very very red).

All in all a good first outing for the samyang135 combined with a dedicated astrocomera.

Fine Art Astrophotography

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Two butterflies, a propeller and a shell (well, a crescent) in the middle of a swan in midsummer

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