Camera Labs

This is the "Wall" region of the huge emission nebula NGC7000 in Cygnus. Less than an hour exposure time with a fairly light sky and an almost full Moon on the southern horizon - but this was a test-shot for the newly modified Hyperstar III lens system. I took the Hyperstar apart - matt-black painted the edges of all the lenses, and flocked the lens spacer tube. After one small glitch I put the whole thing back together and this is the first new image with the modification - it is an order of magnitude improvement on the old system. Nice round stars corner to corner and an almost perfect collimation. Noel Carboni who processed the data calls the fine stars you can see in the Milky Way regions - "Diamond Dust" - it means you have you imaging setup pretty much spot on regarding focus and collimation.

You can expect to see some pretty amazing new deep-sky images coming up in the remainder of 2010 with this highly-tuned Hyperstar system



Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Hi Greg,

Wonderful shot. Makes me want to turn to Mr. Sulu, command "Warp Factor 5" and see what's behind the veil.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Nice to know it is possible to do this even with the not so dark skies even late at night now.

Hmm... you've now seeded the thought into my head I could try the same with my little one... at the least I do know I need to have a go at collimating it some time so might roll that together.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hey Greg,

another stunner that challenges the notion that space is empty..what vibrancy!

If I were in your field, I'd be hard pressed to think that were are alone in the universe. I mean...just look at it out there...there gotta be others, don't you think?

Thanks again for sharing with us here at CL!

Cheers

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

I believe that without a shadow of a doubt there are many sentient life-forms out there, many of them much further advanced than us. But you also point out a most important fact - space is big - REALLY big. Fortunately (as far as I'm concerned) this means we're very unlikely to bump into one another - ever. I say fortunately because we don't have a very good track record with regards to bumping into different races on our own planet - let alone different creatures from another planet
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

For more on this and a sideways look on the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe, together with a discussion of the possibility that banks are the product of a deranged imagination, check out the Guide's entry for The Universe - needs RealMedia which may also be the product of a deranged imagination.

Bob.

P.S. Sorry Greg. I promise to behave better in the future and not to potentially hijack your threads.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I don't mind at all Bob
Douglas Adams was an utter genius and anything that keeps his memory alive is fine by me!
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

absolutely stunning cybermystic!

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Amazing shot Greg!

And I agree - There must be life somewhere out there.

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Flickr

Thanks guys To whet your appetites - this is complete rubbish compared to a huge mega-mosaic that Noel is currently puttting together. This April I managed to get a bunch of frames all around the Markarian chain of galaxies I took a couple of years ago. So this new image will be something like 12,000 x 12,000 pixels of the Virgo/Coma border containing many hundreds of galaxies (and a few asteroids as well ). It's going to be a BIGGY
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Can't wait for it!

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Flickr

Nice work Sir

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

Thank you Jeremy - glad you like it
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/