Milky Way in Ophiuchus on Acros

[James Cormier]

For some time I have been wanting to produce a tribute to the great Edward Emerson Barnard with a set of B&W photographs captured in very much a similar manner as Barnard himself had completed over 100 years ago.  It goes without saying that Barnard was a pioneer in the field of astrophotography, indeed often attributed as the Father of Milky Way photography.

In June and July I set out to produce produce such a photograph.  Although not the first B&W analog image I have taken, this image is the first in a series just for this project.

This image, a mosaic of two frames, was taken on one of the shortest nights of the year and with sky conditions deteriorating as night turned to morning.

Featuring the Milky Way of Ophiuchus and Scorpius with many of the dark nebulae recorded and cataloged by the great Barnard himself, this image is markedly wider than his efforts. This is due in part to being a mosaic, as the two images themselves have been taken with as Barnard did, with a portrait lens.

From the observatory notes:

June 18, 2012  Shortest Night of the Year.

 

"Clear with threat of fog.  Transparency average, becoming poor with sky brighter by early morning.  Transparency became very poor by end of run.  I continued as stars were dimmed, but not condensed when inspected with binoculars.  All frames used the SMC Pentax  200mm f/4 @ f/5.6 and B+W 021 light-yellow filter."

 

Scorpius Frame:  10:30-11:30  SQM 21.14

 

Ophiuchus Frame: 11:35-12:35  SQM 21.22

Average SQM reading for my astrophotography site are on average, 21.5 mags/sq-arc-sec.  So the night was much brighter than average.  

 

Perhaps the filter helped with the low contrast sky, which was muddy in appearance.  I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.  I might not have if I was using color transparency film.  

I'm happy to contribute a new film astrophotograph to the forum.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59003880/Analog%20Dreams.jpg

Jim Cormier

http://nightflyphotography.blogspot.com/ 

 

[Steve Banbury]

Wow Jim!! That is a beautiful image. Very nicely done!

That region is a holy grail for me.  

I'd be very proud of a result as nice as yours!

Cheers-

Steve

[James W. Cormier]

Thank you Steve.  The short nights are killer and I try to do as much as I can on the earlier morning hours of April and May.  That being said, when these targets are up and the night is clear, one cannot help but dig in and shoot!  I think this image was done on a work night.  The lack of sleep pays off if you did it right. 

 

More images using Acros will be coming. 

 

Thanks again.

 

Jim

[Ray Butler]

Excellent work with the P67, Jim.

Barnard is a hero of mine, too.

Great to see Acros film performing well for astro deepsky. I know it has fine grain and outstanding reciprocity specs - the datasheet is probably the only one (since Tech Pan) which specifically mentions "astronomical photography"! If it only had another 30nm of red sensitivity...But that lack of H-alpha is more in keeping with what Barnard used too.

Ray

[James Cormier]

Thank you very much Ray.  I've enjoyed shooting Acros during the June and July dark run with the weather being cooperative for the most part.  Yes, it would be nice to have some Ha sensitivity, but that is why I concentrated on the starclouds and dark nebulae.  Fun stuff this film.  Even with the poor red sensitivity it is the finest b&w film for astrophotography right out of the box.  

Thanks again Ray for your kind remarks.

Jim