47 Tucanae

[richardo]

Hi folks,
this is my first image here. So good 'ay
Usually post on the SX Yahoo group.
Saturday night was quite reasonable conditions, although a bit of disruption to the atmosphere up to around 35 degrees.
I was after some colour data to finish off a Sagitarius star field image that I had taken some lum on previously.
But Dr Who was on (Cybermen... cool) and I missed my window of opportunity on this object by the time I unglued myself from the box. It hit the meridian and was heading over to the light dome of my near by town.
So went for Tucana instead to save myself the drama of a gem flip and gradients.
Tucana was about 35degs low in the sky when I started my lum run, but was just nice not to have to worry about guiding and short sharp shiny subs is always a joy.:)

Here's a link to the image via my front page if you'd like to take a peak
http://www.baytop-observatory.com/

Hope your getting your share of imaging time this new moon.

Cheers for now
Rich

[iceman]

Hey Rich.

You can also attach the image to your post by using the "manage attachments" button.

Very nice shot, good resolution! and welcome to the forum!

[Dennis]

Hi Rich

Welcome to IIS. Just had a look at your website - great site with terrific images.

Cheers

Dennis

[Lester]

Hi Rich,

great image, with excellent tracking.

[[1ponders]]

Welcome to the clan Rich. Nice shootin' :thumbsup:

[ving]

thanks for the pic richard, its nice :)

[richardo]

Hi Mike, Dennis and Lester,
thanks for your warm welcome and also for the kind comments.
Mike, I generally like to put links to my site as it saves on too many uploads.. you know... Bugpond certainly know how to charge once I go over my 500mb limit:eyepop:

I've certainly neglected Globulars of late, always seem to go for other objects.
Anyway I've just sold my VC200L to help part pay for my 10" F4 home built Newtonian Astrograph.
Already have made the Tube & the Primary mirror cell. Have invested in the CR-1 Moonlight focuser, Baader MPCC, Protostar secondary and 4 vane spider and Parallax 12.7" tube rings. I'm just waiting on Bob Royce to finish my 10" F4 conical mirror and then I'll be back in business with higher res images and certainlywill be loving life then:whistle:.

But for the time being, am always happy to use the Orion ED80 for semi wide fields. Certainly has been a great investment in regards to bang for buck. Now if Orion or even skyWatcher would only put out a cheap 12" RC... well.... now that would be something!!

Cheers for now guys..:thumbsup:
Rich

[richardo]

Sorry Paul and David for not including you in my previous thank you post...
Thanks guys for the welcome, nice to be onboard an Aussie orientated group!
On ya's

Cheers
Rich

[Jules]

Hi,
You've got some excellent images on your site!

How did you find the VC200L over the years? I am considering getting one...

Cheers,
Julian

[richardo]

Hi Julian,
I bought my VC 200L (now sold) going back when they first came on the market. At the time they were very different from the typical SCT's, the features that made them different were a good selling point.ie. no corrector plate to dew up, flat field right out to the edges, no mirror 'flop'. It was my next step up from starting out with a Konus 114mm Newtonian, which I incidently loved and used every night for around 2 years when I first started visually observing.
As I became well orientated with the VC, I found visually it was good, (with Takahashi occulars) however I never had a side by side comaprison with a SCT or reflector of the same size. If I had the chance to look through an apo refractor of say 100mm at the time, maybe I would have gone that way.
Any way being 8 hours away from a city, a man out here has to be self sufficient so a scope that is relatively easy to maintain is a must. The VC I found very hard to get exact collimation, and I did a colimation every year for 11 years! As said, it's fine for visual and adequit for starting out into imaging, but once my tastes matured, even after laser aligning the focuser/ corrector to secondary and then star tests to align the primary, my images always appeard soft. With the very clear skies I have here, this was dissapointing. Also flex in the tube (very thin metal tube) became an issue, especially when imaging at its native focal length, doing long exposures and with a small chip, things are critical, the slightest movement any where will show up as elongated stars. This elongation I found was exasperated when ever my auto guider made a correction.. (a small jerk back would flex the tube every so slightly) I tried many things over the years to improve these things, had a measurable improvement, but still these issues plagued me and weren't going to get me further along....
So Julian, you must decide where you are at and what you want the scope for.
For some one who wants a bigger aperture and are moving up from something smaller to better gear, this scope will be a good interim on the way to getting there.
If this is not you then I'd be looking for something optically better.

Hope this helps.
BTW, thanks for the kind comments on my images!!

Cheers
Rich

[tornado33]

Nice shot there, avoiding overexposure of the core is well done too.
Scott

[Jules]

Hi Rich,
Thanks for your thoughts! I am currently imaging with my WO ZS80FD and was looking for something with longer focal length, both to act as the scope for an autoguider or as the primary scope for long focal length imaging.
When I saw your setup with the VC200L and 80ED, I thought - "That's exactly what I am after!"
Oh well, I'll keep looking...

Cheers,
Julian

[alandee]

How do you find any time to image with that magnificent pub in town ?? !! ;)

Great images and an interesting read on the website, a full evolution being recorded !
Look forward to seeing what you do with the new scope.

[tornado33]

By the way, no need to apologise for missing imaging time for Dr Who Im a Dr who fan too, and the episodes just get better :)
Scott

[richardo]

Hi Scott and Al for you kind comments on my image.
Thanks Al for you comments on the, Evolution of my setup... it's been an interesting one, finding what works, what doesn't, getting better stuff, selling other stuff. A never ending thing for all of us.
The ol' bug bites hard !
Still waiting on my F4 mirror to be finished and shipped at the mo..... and waiting.. dum de dum.
Scott, yeah the ol' pub is still there, every now and then I get down there, but I'm always watching the pennies these days. Still, a nice cold Pale Ale doesn't go a stray.

Cheers for that guys.
Rich