CCD vs Film? Lots of time vs no patience? Alright, this is your place to discuss all the astrophotography what's and what's not. You can discuss about techniques, accessories, cameras, whatever....just make sure you also post some nice photos here too!
Here is a southern object taken during the course of the CNY pre holidays period where skies were pretty transparent (though seeing was sub average). It was a toughie and I could not find any close-up reference of this object on the Net besides photographic plates on big telescopes. RCW 32 or Gum 15 is part of the Gum supernova complex in the Vela molecular ridge, and is part of the RCW catalogue of southern emission objects (consisting of 182 and possibly more), mainly arising from Milky Way star formation regions. However, most of these RCW objects are only visible on photographic plates taken through large telescopes, and I am not sure if we could capture them using amateur telescopes (what more a 3-inch refractor). Nevertheless, I tried, and with considerably longer sub exposures, especially for Hydrogen Alpha (6nm), up to 30 minutes each. Luminance components were also taken to enhance the stars and bring up the fainter Collinder-type open cluster on the right part of the image.
RCW 32 (about 1000 parsecs away) looks like an alternative (and much fainter) version of the familar Trifid nebula in Sagittarius. Here goes! Something from the Singapore Eunos Balcony! ;P
Also, another old favourite, with longer sub exposures and a two-frame mosaic of HA data:
Like esp. your second photo. There is so much of texture and fine intricate detail at such a scale, it looks as if it was photographed from right in front of the nebula.
Stars are pin-point to the edge too!
See, who says not much can be done from Singapore...
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."