Coonabarabran adventure

[vic4loc]

Short family break to Coonabarabran last week for 3 days. Stayed at the Warrumbungle Motel. The new host Ryan and Kimberly were very nice and accommodating, stayed in Room 13, second last room in the last block, away from the main area which was good. Setup the scope out the back of the motel room facing NE



As we were driving there, sky was almost totally overcast, but it cleared to perfect condition just as it got dark :)


Equipment use:
FSQ106, AM5 mount, 533MC Pro


M31, M33, M45 taken with the 0.73x reducer



NGC7331 & Stephan Quintet, M74 and NGC2020 et al. taken with the 1.6x extender

[croweater]

Wow Victor. Beautiful shots mate, and a great location. What was on the little tripod?
Cheers, Richard

[Dave882]

Wow what a great set of shots! They're all excellent!! You certainly had a very successful time. I was in Coonabarabran for some astro this time last year and enjoyed some of the darkest sky I've ever experienced.

[m11]

Great Shots that you took Victor. Many thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

Sounds like you had a great trip. :)

[joshman]

Fantastic set of images!

[TrevorW]

Nice set of keeper images :)

[strongmanmike]

Now they are true astronomers holiday happy snaps! :D

Great stuff

Mike

[vic4loc]

Thank you all for the feedback and compliments.


@Richard: I had the ZWO PE200 pier extension, and then the AM5 mount. If you are referring to the grey cube thing in the basket, that's my old heavy battery I now use it as weight to add some sturdiness to the tripod.


Victor.

[Ryderscope]

What a wonderful and very productive trip Victor, congratulations :thumbsup:

[Mickoid]

This just shows how good these scopes are in the hands of a skilled operator. Well done Victor, a great result for the effort and lack of sleep you went through to share these with us. You're not going to tell me these were all shot in one night's session, are you? :question:

[vic4loc]

Thank you Rodney, Michael :)


@Michael, they were captured over 3 nights. Had to plan and group the targets based on the scope configuration. So basically I started off with the 0.73x reducer train, took M31 until it was below 15 deg & M33 crossed meridian, then took M33. The next night started off with M33, then moved onto M45

The final night I changed to the 1.6x extender train, took NGC7331, then M74, then a quick 1 hr attempt at the NGC2020 Cosmic reef et al.


Had to discard some images as the moon rised at around 2:30-3:00 over those 3 nights and it was like a flash light, gave the images terrible light pollution gradient.


Sleep was a challenge :) took short 2-3 hours naps between imaging runs. One good thing with the Warrumbungle motel is that I could set up the scope just out the back of the room, so I could control the ASI Air on my phone in bed :)


Victor.