Wide Field Astrophotography from Revolcadores

The first time I took a wide field photo of the Milky Way was in 2005, from the Cañadas del Teide, in Tenerife island. The sky was fantastic, perhaps one of the best I have seen. We were traveling with the family of my friend, now gone and remembered, Carlos Fortea. Carlos and I took some photos with his Olympus camera and my little Teegul Takahashi mount. The result was not very good- we had no clue, really, of how to do it, but we got an image of teh Milky Way. Since then, every summer that I have travelled in moonless nights I have taken the "wide field kit" with me: the mount, the tripod, a lens and the camera, a filter-modified Canon 40D. I have then taken this kit to La Palma island, to Burgos, to Teruel, Soria (AstroTiermes star party), Zamora (Sierra de la Culebra), of course to Torroja in the Tarragona province. It does not take too much space and has given me many fine moments. Watching the Milky Way, standing under the softly glowing arc, is the best experience… but the second best is to do something to keep a record of it to enjoy it later, and processing it to extract details that the eyes were not able to see.
The last time I have taken the kit on tour was last solstice, to the Revolcadores peak in Murcia region. OK, actually, it was the night of June 23rd, not strictly the solstice, but it is the night when in many countries, for centuries or millenia, people celebrate the magic night of fire, fecundity and light… One of the shortest nights of the year, and for sure also the most noisy with fireworks of all kinds, fires on the beach or on any good open space, people jumping on them. In some rural areas, where ancient traditions are still real and part of life, they even walk on the hot ashes, and celebrate the harvest. Anyway, a very special night, and this year I was at 600km south of home (ok, I had some work to do in the area the following week, I didn't go just because of Revolcadores sky). I joined a group of local astrophotographers, kindly invited by them, in particular by Rogelio RBA who is a local guy both in Murcia and in California, a great combination for a great guy and astrophotographer. The other people also made a great night for me: Dexon and his wife, Mancera, Vlad and Fulgor. Thanks to all of them.
The place in Revolcadores area (highest peak of Murcia with 2025 meters) is very nice not only at night. Pine forest, the observing site at 1500 meters, good access and no traffic. A beautiful flock of baby goats jumping and running around… good that they went to "sleep" I guess, when it became dark. Also, to add to the special night, thanks to Dexon we were able to see in a satellite TV the footbal match between Spain and France, that Spain won of course. Did I mention that June 23rd is my cumplemedioaños? Sorry no translation for that, but it adds even more to the charm of the night.
With respect to the astrphotographic part, I was trying to complete some shots for a mosaic I'm doing of the Scorpio and Sagitarius area. Nothing compareable to what my neibourgh that night, Rogelio, has done before (http://blog.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/05/15/rho-Ophiuchus-Widefield.html ). In my case a modest one with just about 12 panels (which I have started in Torroja, and at this rate maybe I'll finish it next year) and with a 85mm camera lens. This is a f/1.4 lens that I close to f/5. I chose an ISO of 400, and I thonk that this may have been a mistake… probably 800 would not have added much noise and I would have collected much more light. I do the focusing with Liveview. With regards to the mount, I think I'll leave it for a next article, for more detail. The photo shown here is made of 20 subframes, each of 4 minutes. I took the same area, wit the same lens, in 2008, and I believe tha this one is better- perhaps I have learned a few things, but also the sky quality makes a big difference.
The South is the least good part of the sky in Revolcadores. There is only a gap in the mountains to the South that permits to see almost the horizon, but relatively narrow. The rest of the horizon is hidden for about 20 degrees by the mountains. By the way, I tried to see Omega Centauri with binoculars, and I think I was very close… the position was there but very close to the foggy area next to the horizon. However It was no problem to see Scorpio, complete. This place is at 38ºN, that is 3º less than Torroja and it is quite relevant. This and the dark sky allowed me to try to go lower in the mosaic. What I didn't have was time… I wanted at least 1.5 hours of each panel but I could only make two, and some tests for others. I made a mistake which made me waste one precious hour (the Teegul was in a position in which the knob in RA touched the DEC axis and stopped). At 4:30 my target area was practically gone, and I made two shots to the zenit, to the Cygnus area… which proves the quality of this sky. At 5:15 the dawn started, and I was really tired, it was a long day (and too short night!) including six hours of driving. So I picked my things up and left at almost six. Driving in that blue light through those roads in impressive landscapes, with Venus and Jupiter shining in the purple blue east sky kept me awake. A few hours later I went to visit the impressive town of Caravaca de la Cruz (very very recommendable!) and the area around La Puebla de Don Fadrique, already in Andalucía, where they say teh skies are still better…. But that will be for another occasion.
This is the 8 minute (only!) photo og Cygnus