2012-06-24: Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

Last Saturday I captured this image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) from Boada, Salamanca, Spain. The equipment used was a Canon 550D, a 200mm SIGMA APO teleobjective with an exposure of 60 secs at ISO 12500. The Celestron CG5 mount was used to perform the tracking.

The used teleobjective is apochromatic and it is quite convenient for astrophotography.  However, I have discovered that the field is not flat enough. Although I cropped the image the distortion is clear. As Miguel commented,  it is an empirical assessment about something that astronomers knew long time ago: you must use a telescope, i.e. a large optical length to achieve a flat field close to the axis.... It has been sacrificed in standard photography... so, forget to use all the photographic stuff for astro!!!!!

2012-06-09: Australian Skies

During the australian tour after the Venus transit observation in Canberra, Miguel Sanchez-Portal and me captured the following images of the southern winter sky in Australia. The images were obtained somewhere in the road near to Barthust, New South Wales, with a  Canon550D with ISO forced mode, full aperture and 15 seconds of exposure.

Southern Area of Scorpio

Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri

Magellanic Clouds

So, it is quite evident that light pollution is nearly inexistent in Australia.