Pimp my Dob ride..

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

I have assembled the secret weapon to beat the light pollution in Mayfield!!! Well maybe a little bit.

The 16" Lightbridge now has a GSTAR - EX attached with monitor. I have the Argo Navis and GSTAR at a nice comfy height for looking at their output. Everything sits on a lightweight bench attached to the dob base and rotates with the scope.

A laptop with wireless internet access at the ready to source images at the DSS or better still, to get that email about the new discovery away quickly!

At 128 sense up - that's one integrated image every 2.5 seconds or so - the view is stunning even from lightpoll central. At declinations of 75 or greater the images are excellent - little drift at full intergation mode. Simply reduce the integration time as you get closer to the equator.

The live images are not for the artistically inclined and will never grace the image of the week on the home page at IIS - more for the raw data enthusiasts who want the faintest object possible regardless of how it looks.

My viewing is mainly to the south around the polar regions - an image shot straight off the monitor (displaying in negative mode) of NGC 3195 shows the detailed structure obtainable. (For the immunologists/pathologists out there, don't you think this looks like a stained basophil - albeit a BIG one ???). Stars of 14th magnitude are viewable and I imagine better results will be obtained in darker settings.

Richard

[h0ughy (David)]

wow nice little enhancements there, be great to see in action one day?

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Great pimping.

You will be able to do some pretty special things with that aperture and a GSTAR-EX. I think you are going to need to jack your ride up onto an equatorial platform to get that those killer views, but it looks like your setting yourself up with one mean rig.

(have you joined us over on the GSTAR yahoo group yet?)

[rmcpb (Rob)]

To get even better performance in the light pollution how about a shroud and light/dew shield? Its an amazing set up there

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

That's a great setup. Every thing at hand when and where you need it.

I love my G-Star too. The fact that you are viewing in real time blows me away. I hope to use mine again sometime, if the clouds ever clear. sigh.
I ditto Astrojunk, have you joined the Yahoo Gstar group yet?

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Thanks everyone,

I am very excited about viewing with the GSTAR. Now also everything is on a good level for working with - though I must say looking away from the direction of interest is taking some getting used to! I am truly impressed by the possibilities of the GSTAR for live viewing. I am looking forward to seeing how far this camera will go with the 16" in live viewing. And a record of the view, although a bit primative, is merely a snapshot from a camera!

Richard