Australia first light

John Hothersall · #1 20-07-2010, 04:21 PM

Hello Forumers, I emigrated here to Cleveland - Brisbane beginning of April and have now setup my rig after shipping finally arrived.

My scope is a Newtonian SPX350 from OrionOptics in the UK close to where I lived. They make scopes to the highest optical standards my scope is 1/10.5 wavefront, pity I can't match it with my skill.

I have been viewing this forum regularly for last 5 months and this site consistently produces higher quality images than the other sites in the UK. Many here have RC scopes and produce near professional quality images. I'm in AWE.

SPX350 + 2xPowermate, EQ6mod, Mintron12V6HC, Astrodon RGB/Astronomik UHC filters.

Just a quick image of part of the Triffid nebula I cannot see from the UK. The Mintron is the same camera as the GStar-Ex, very sensitive with 2.5sec exposures in 8bit.

UHC-RGB
783-100 137 100 2.5sec subs.

Crop compared to HST image of dust at the centre.

Thanks for looking, JohnH.

renormalised (Carl) · #2 20-07-2010, 04:49 PM

Nice shot John!!!

HN40 looks really well resolved and the detail in the central dust lane is pretty good as well. Try your Ha filter for luminance instead of the UHC, you'll get really pin point stars out of that

DavidU (Dave) · #3 20-07-2010, 04:55 PM

Great to see you up and running. A couple of cool shot's to start with.
It must be nice to have a new sky to image !
Keep 'em coming.

multiweb (Marc) · #4 20-07-2010, 05:55 PM

Quite a shot John. Can't wait to see the next stuff you're going to post.

jase · #5 20-07-2010, 06:07 PM

Impressive work John. Well done.

jjjnettie · #6 20-07-2010, 06:16 PM

My ears pricked up when you mentioned the Mintron.
There's a few of us on the forum who have the Gstar-Ex.
Brilliant little cameras. I don't use mine often enough.
But your shot there has inspired me to dust it off again. Thanks.

renormalised (Carl) · #7 20-07-2010, 07:57 PM

John, here's a group you should have a look at...

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gstar-users/

...if you haven't already. They're a good bunch of guys

renormalised (Carl) · #8 20-07-2010, 08:08 PM

Should go and see Darrin Nitschke's shot of the Pillars in M16

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gstar-...371909903/view

For a small camera like the Mintron/GStar it puts a few of the megapixel boys to shame

jjjnettie · #9 20-07-2010, 08:09 PM

and gals.

renormalised (Carl) · #10 20-07-2010, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

and gals.

and them as well!!!

gregbradley · #11 21-07-2010, 07:34 AM

Great shot John. Super narrowfield, you'll be best mates with Fred in no time!

Orion Optics makes some great scopes. I checked them out extensively when choosing between a Planewave Dall Kirkham and their Dall Kirkham.
He is slow to produce though and the wait times are long and uncertain and that ended up being the deciding factor.

Great to see some new imagers in the forum and welcome.

Greg.

Hagar (Doug) · #12 21-07-2010, 08:43 AM

Great image John. Lovely comparison with hubble. Just goes to show how close we can get.

cybereye (Mario) · #13 21-07-2010, 09:09 AM

John,

Great image and good to see you up and running!

I spoke to you before your move to our side of the planet on the Stargazer's lounge (I'm astroeye) - welcome to SE Queensland!

Cheers,
Mario

Moon (James) · #14 21-07-2010, 11:09 AM

John
Welcome to the south. If you ever move back to the UK, then you have to promise to sell you scope on the forums here before you depart!
Great image btw.
James

h0ughy (David) · #15 21-07-2010, 01:04 PM

how good is that - excellent result

TrevorW · #16 21-07-2010, 01:21 PM

Hi John

Welcome aboard, nice close up, all you need now is to go and buy a Cooled CCD camera

Regards

Trevor

Martin Pugh · #17 21-07-2010, 01:51 PM

Welcome John, and nice shot.

hope to see more from you.

You are certainly going to appreciate the southern hemisphere and the great skies Australia has to offer.

cheers
Martin

renormalised (Carl) · #18 21-07-2010, 02:28 PM

Don't know whether you've noticed but on that dust/gas tower at the bottom of the piccie, there's one half of a bipolar jet streaming out of it. It's faint but quite noticeable. That's excellent imaging for a camera like the Mintron/GStar

So, somewhere inside that tower is a pre-main sequence star with a very active accretion disk

John Hothersall · #19 21-07-2010, 02:46 PM

Thanks guys for the comments and welcome, it took 14 weeks for shipping to arrive a very long wait. I image deep space lunar and planetary.

I used to go and see John and Barry at OrionOptics a few times in UK and they are on an industrial estate near the Crewe train station in very cramped premises with too few trained staff hence the long wait times for their corrected Dall-Kirhams but they are great guys and every scope is hand made including the optics.

I do have a cooled ATK-16HR but I am on a balcony so hope it is stable for long exposure.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4023194...7623225973863/

I did manage to get the M16 Pillars and The Bug nebula with the Mintron which I will post when finished, I always wanted to get The Bug but from UK it does not make it above the horizon which is roof blocked anyway. I love Freds Planetary Neb close ups and like Hi-Res close ups of everything and his narrowband work is wonderful with sensational detail.

Anyhow thanks for welcome, its nice and cool in Brissy now (like UK Summer) but I think Summer temperature here will kill me in Dec/Jan. Our AirCon needs fixing but am told we will get used to it and wont need the AirCon after a year or two.

Thanks Carl for the extra info, I noticed that shown on the Hubble image - I love The Hubble.

Regards, JohnH.

cybereye (Mario) · #20 21-07-2010, 03:23 PM

John,

It's only hot and humid in Brissie from October to May.

Cheers,
Mario