Tonight one of the IIS members greatfully gave up some of his time to come and help a new player to astrophotography. I would like to post a very warm thankyou to Roger groom for steering the LX200 and the SBIG to some (finally) decent exposures. There are some limitations that have to be observed with a very small FOV and the absence of a Polar Wedge. Most of my shots are up close and personal. Hopefully i will get some of the photos up of M17, M83.
Thankyou once again to everybodys help and information.
Okay now remember that the limitations of my equipment at the moment and lack of components that really are needed... now the uni is starting to see that.! But i took some happy snaps of M 17 and M83. You will see with M17 just how little FOV i am working with (makes it soooo hard to actually figure out what your looking at! hahaha) but here it is, a Photoshopped m17 taken at 10subs each by 20 in LRGB and a B&W 7 subs at 1 minute m83.
*Leon i see your from where my family kinda is from My late uncle lived in Haddon and worked as a civil engineer, and the rest of my family is from Hamilton,coleraine, tarnagulla
See this is the thing, i know its alright, but i dunno whats "good" Hubble space telescope is "best" but? ill get a feel for it.
yes a focal reducer is one thing that i have said they have to get...
With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for
*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
*Guide scope and CCD (the meade base has a input for a guide scope)
*Auto focusing setup.
Ill be back out saturday if the weather is nice enough this time ill give it a go and see what boundarys i can push in exposure times before star trailing becomes noticeable! any rough ideas ?
A wedge is probably the best option as far as equatorially aligning the LX200R is concerned.. If the OTA is on fork mount already, its best to leave it that way... these are available through any store that sells meade products.. Just ask, if they dont have one in stock, they can order it in..
If you're thinking of a GEM for a 12" LX200R, you're thinking of something in the realms of a Losmandy G11.. and even then, from what I have been told (I recently considered a Meade 12", and asked ALOT of questions) the meade 12" is on the upper limit of what the G11 can handle accurately for photography.. So then, next logical step up would be an Astro-Physics AP900 or AP1200, or a Takahashi EM400 maybe... Either way we're talking BIG $$$$$$$$.
Auto-Focusing? Computerised focusing is probably your best bet here. and the simplest, cost effective way to do this is something like a Moonlite motorized crayford microfocuser, controlled via a PC using a Shoestring Astronomy FCUSB controller... The FCUSB is available directly from shoestring astronomy (google has their URL) or through Bintel. the Moonlite focuser available straigt from moonlite. (again with google.) Then using something like MaximDL, you can run a fairly basic focusing routine which when using motorized focusers, can have you very precisely focused in a matter of minutes.
Guide scope - you can get them anywhere, they dont have to be anything super-flash.. 80mm F/6 achromat will do.. Guiding, judging by whats being said in another active thread at the moment, the QHY5 mono camera makes for a very nice guider. Contact forum member "Gama" about these, he's the australian distributer... They cost $300, and as far as I can tell, they are awesome guide cam's
With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for
*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
Are you at Curtin by chance?
I'm sure the guys in the Engineering dept. are itching for something interesting to do with CAD/CAM!
Edit: oh, if you say Murdoch, I'll laugh hard for months....
Im at curtin , mmmm might have to go over there, i see that they have those flashy CNC machiens down near CMT. good though! save a bit of dollas. they arnt that hard to set up any ideas.? designs.?
Get the engineering dept at the uni to make a pier for it like this one. No need for a wedge then. It is our uni's old 14" in a dome. You can then just use the electronics that you already have.
Seriously, if they're enthusiastic, they could knock up a wedge in a day or two... a GEM on the other hand, a little longer.
Just give 'em the vital statistix and a couple of photo's of similar products and they'd be able to take it from there.
BTW, my previous post wasn't a dig at Murdoch uni, Just that they once had an observatory and society.
yes a focal reducer is one thing that i have said they have to get...
With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for
*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
*Guide scope and CCD (the meade base has a input for a guide scope)
*Auto focusing setup.
Ill be back out saturday if the weather is nice enough this time ill give it a go and see what boundarys i can push in exposure times before star trailing becomes noticeable! any rough ideas ?
Brendan
Hi Brendan,
You didn't say if you had used an IR/UV filter in your images?
That would help focus the stars better IMO.
Your first M83 is far better than my first M83...and I had a motorised
GEM to take mine! Well done!
Nope nothing apart from a wobbly 12" LX200R meade and a SBIG st 402-me with internal LRGB filter wheel. and a little bit of help from Roger!
heres saturday nights efforts.!
as soon as i shrink the others ill post them up too.!
theres the Eagle neb in B&W. still working on the Colour side, as the colours are not coming out as expected. ... I found the FOV of the CCD and Telescope setup.... 5.2Arc min X 7.7 Arc min... TINY so ill see if they will invest in F reducers.!
Sculptor galaxy is neat, see the southern cross layed over it? and thats the stars that are there. not put in yay for australia
Last edited by bmitchell82; 08-09-2008 at 03:40 PM.
Reason: adding in pictures.