Interesting thread on Cloudy Nights

[Weltevreden SA]

Hi all, I've been out of touch awhile. Pretty awful summer skies this year across the pond in SA.

A video astrophotographer by the handle of 'nytecam' has posted a thought-provoking image on the Cloudy Nights Deep Sky Forum (http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6287659&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=all&fpart=1&vc=&PHPSESSID=4381db20835e030735df8b9de 8bf88a4). It shows a string of galaxies at roughly 1.7 to 2 billion light years, plus a much more remote QSO at 8 billion ly. The image alone is an amazing feat of what can be done by we 'amateurs' these days. The bottom-most re-shoot reaches magnitude 18.5 visual with a 4 minute exposure.

The subject of the thread itself, galaxy strings and intergalactic bubbles, has really gotten interesting. I'd love to see our IIS ace galactophile Robert weigh in on this one. His expertise could really add some zing to the CN thread.

Please send clear skies . . .
=Dana in SA

[Merlin66]

Dana,
"Nytecam" is Maurice Gavin in the UK.
He's a passed President of the BAA and has been very active in spectroscopy for twenty years. He generally uses his observatory mounted 12" Lx200 Meade and various cameras for his observations.

[Camelopardalis]

He's also been posting some really interesting shots from his lodestar with 5s exposure too. Not sure of his light pollution situation, but almost inspires me to get into video astronomy from here in the city. All pretty amazing stuff :)

[seeker372011]

He also used his ETX 70 to interesting use..just thought it interesting to push the most basic gear to its limits.