Antares and companion

[Dennis]

Hi

Here is an LPI image of Antares and its fainter companion taken through my Vixen 4" refractor on a night of outrageously excellent seeing. Antares was at the zenith.

Imaging details:
Vixen ED102S refractor mounted on a Vixen GP-DX mount with Vixen Skysensor2000 GoTo system though a TeleVue 5x Powermate and Vixen 2x Barlow stacked using the Meade LPI CMOS camera.
50 images stacked. Exposure = 0.5 seconds.

Antares details:
Antares is a deep orange, spectral class M1 fireball. Multiple Star System, aka Alpha Sco, 21 Sco. AB: 1.06+5.4 mag, PA 274° Sep 2.54" (2004.5). RA: 16h29m24.5s, Dec: -26°25'55" (2000) in Scorpius Magnitude: 0.91. Distance: 600 +/- 190.0 ly.
Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

Brilliant Dennis. Congratulation on nailing a hard catch
:thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

great stuff

[asimov]

Nice one Dennis! I may give antares a go later as well.

[tornado33]

Thats certainly diffraction limited, one can see a nice airy disc and a diffraction ring well done :)

[ving]

well done, thats a hard split. I havent tried it myself but will soon. now you have done that try it visually :P

[astro_south]

Nice shot Dennis!

I have attached one of mine that I took a bit over a month ago in some above average seeing (maybe about 7). It is a single shot through a Canon A40 handheld to an 8mm Radian on my 12.5" F6 dob. The companion is arrowed as it is faint and doesn't stand out very well in the picture, though visually through the eyepiece it was much more apparent.

[Dennis]

Hi Guys

Thanks for that. I find that the Vixen 4" can split Antares relatively easily visually, whenever the seeing is above average and Antares is anywhere near the zenith. A 5mm eyepiece (x180) is usually sufficient although when the seeing allows, a x2 barlow giving x360 makes the split even wider. I have been trying to split Antares for 2 to 3 years with my ST7 ccd camera but failed. The LPI seems to do a better job, I only had to experiment for a few sessions.

I admire your efforts Andrew, using a dob and manual eyepiece projection, as I need the full armoury of an equatorial mount with motor drives to attempt this!

Cheers

Dennis

[astro_south]

Thanks Dennis

Looks like you have a keeper scope there - might have to have a peak through it at Astrofest in a few weeks. ;)

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

I think that it is a good scope. I almost ruined it when I used a colloidal solution to clean the objective lens. The colloidal solution adhered to the lens surface and also managed to leak in between the elements - I cried for 24 hours. After re-composing myself, I e-mailed Vixen in Japan who said I should ship the lens, in its cell, to their factory and they will attempt a repair, or sell me a news lens in cell for $2,000 - gulp!!!

Anyhow, they salvaged the lens although the coating looks a little patchy, all for $190, so I had a really lucky escape.

I had previously used the colloidal solution quite successfully on mirrors and eyepieces and just got unlucky I guess.

Cheers

Dennis

[fringe_dweller]

Thats one really freaky image!! didnt know you could do that! Dennis have you discovered a protoplanetary disc in this image? ... lol just kidding of course - anyway well done :)
Kearn

[ballaratdragons]

Dennis,

Sounds like a good company to deal with. They could've said it was ruined and charged you $2000. Very honest of them!!