Widefield: Cassiopeia, Pleiades and Orion

Cassiopeia Field

Pleiades (Seven Sisters)

Cassiopeia southern part

The Great Orion Constellation

These is a collection of widefield images taken from a 450d with a 50mm lens on a tripod and a shutter remote cable. I love widefield imaging and I use it as a studying tool for the positions of different objects in the sky that is sometimes so hard to identify from the telescope eyepiece.

One example is the first frame, The Cassiopiea Constellation. I opened it up in CS5 and adjusted the curves and was able to identify M103, NGC 663, NGC 457, Perseus double cluster and many objects just by zooming in and out and comparing them with the starmap software Stellarium, pressing alt tab to alternate between the windows.

One of the best tools for astronomy is familiarization of the skies. Although It takes more than a lifetime, the vastness of space and the immense distances between the objects make you understand why the writer of Psalm 8:4 (most likely King David) asked "what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Also you'll find another in Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Yet another in Psalm 104:2 The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent - yes the BIBLE already explained the Big-Bang and it's not even a theory!