The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex is a large accumulation of bright and dark nebulae located in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 460 light years away. The complex of interstellar clouds is one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Sun. It is also one of the most colorful areas in the night sky.
Whenever photographing the Milky Way, I am drawn to this part and constantly try to do it justice - but usually fail to bring out colors and details. This is also a limitation of widefield nightscapes: trying to fit it all in leads to many compromises. Finally the wish to have a dedicated Rho image got so strong I ventured out to a very dark site with my telephoto lens to just concentrate on this target.
This was taken in a single night, 135mm focal length - 230 minutes total integration time.
Wow! Totally stunned by this. My mind cannot comprehend the existence, and the fact you have so clearly and beautifully rendered this for us to behold most definitely earns my vote. Thank you for sharing the glory!
Gregg B. wrote:
Wow. This is insanely good shot. Clean, sharp, no noise etc.etc. And, only at 135mm? Did you use the Plena lens?
Thank you! I think the lack of almost any light pollution helped a lot to get a clean result. As I don't have a car, it is rare for me to get the chance to go to such places - and this one is very far from home. Then of course - also lots of post processing involved.
The lens used was the Sony GM 135mm at F2.0.
Rho is actually fairly large, so much longer than 135mm and one would have to do a mosaic.
Ross Martin wrote:
Wow! Totally stunned by this. My mind cannot comprehend the existence, and the fact you have so clearly and beautifully rendered this for us to behold most definitely earns my vote. Thank you for sharing the glory!
I very much appreciate the encouraging words!
Wow! What a wonderful image of this part of our cosmos! It appears all of your work to pull this together (traveling, shooting, post-processing) paid off handsomely. Well done!
Given the number of exposures, I assume you used some kind of sky tracker? I also wondered if your camera is astro-modified? The colors are simply astounding!
jbush wrote:
Wow! What a wonderful image of this part of our cosmos! It appears all of your work to pull this together (traveling, shooting, post-processing) paid off handsomely. Well done!
Given the number of exposures, I assume you used some kind of sky tracker? I also wondered if your camera is astro-modified? The colors are simply astounding!
Jon
Appreciate the comment!
Yes I used a star tracker to avoid trailing and still make a reasonable sub exposure time possible. The camera is not astro-modified - even without an astro-mod, cameras can collect some Ha-alpha (reds), it's just much less effective. There was aggressive post processing involved which in parts of the image is too much for my taste, but priority was to get the reds out so it was a bit of a compromise edit.
