first astropic - eta carina

[alistairsam]

Hi all,

this is my very first attempt at imaging (apart from tests with m42), took this last night from melbourne between clouds.

this is with an 8" F4 reflector on a home built fork mount with no autoguiding and no coma corrector. Just RA tracking with a picaxe microcontroller.
Canon unmodded 1000d.
10 x 30 sec subs at iso1600 and 10 darks.

just wanted to see what i could get.
I still have a long way to go with focus, coma, guiding and tracking, but apart from the obvious shortcomings, any other pointers?
how far away are the colours?

will a uhc-s filter yield more contrast?

corrected colours with the canon digital photo professional software after stacking in deep sky stacker.

[Astroman]

Nice work Alistair great to see the results from the tracking. You see so many variations on this object, it's hard to pick which is right, but I think your on the right track (no pun intended).

[Hagar]

Great result Alistair. For those who haven't seen the scope used to capture this image, Beg to get some pictures of the scope posted. It is a real work of art and from looking at this image it will also produce the goods.
Nice one. Please post some pictures of your handywork.

[alistairsam]

Thanks Doug,

some pics taken at snake valley. will post some better ones.

This scope is still work in progress, i'll be redesigning and adding autoguiding and wireless as well but it is gratifying to see reasonable results from a home built mount and controller.

[White Rabbit]

For a moment I was picturing you standing with a pick axe attached to this scope and manually guiding it, lol.

Great shot for a first effort, I find it it a hard area to image because of all the gas in the are tends to look like noise. but you dont seem to have much even for ISO1600 on a 1000d.

[alistairsam]

it took me a few seconds, but then i finally got what you meant. lol. i do get that a bit when i mention it.

will edit to read "picaxe microcontroller"!!

thanks

[Rob_K]

Nice job Alistair - great to meet you at Snake Valley, and all the best with your rig. Good to see people thinking outside the square and applying imagination, inventiveness and skill to acquiring gear, rather than just throwing money at it. :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[Paddy]

Great shot Alistair and fantastic to see what you can do with your wonderful mount.

[niko]

Fantastic work Alistair

just a brilliant scope that's produced a very nice shot indeed!

niko

[barx1963]

Well done Alastair. I am in awe of anyone who can get results like that with home made stuff, truly wonderful.

[alistairsam]

thanks for the encouraging feedback guys. appreciate it.

[Jen]

:thumbsup: good on ya Alistair you have spent a lot of hours on this scope its a work of art good on ya buddy keep it going mate hoping to see lots more pics from you in the future :thumbsup:

[scagman]

Hi Alistair,

Only just seen this post, your image looks great.
I notice you removed the tripod setup off your mount. This setup doesn't look as stable, is it?

And what about the shaft, have you changed that?

Actually, taking a closer look is it a different mount.

[alistairsam]

hi John,
this eta car pic was taken last year.
The mount in this thread is actually my previous version and was just a prototype to understand how the weight distribution of a fork mount works.
I've made a lot of changes and completely rebuilt it from scratch. the current one is as you've seen with a push/pull tripod/pier and that's extremely stable and light. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=83912
this old one also only had a 20mm steel shaft which I changed to 50mm so more contact with the fork.
pic of the current one as at your place.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Pretty impressive Alistair!!

All that work is paying off.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Alistair.

Impressive telescope.

Ross.

[Greg Bock]

Hi Alistair,
It's great see some good old fashioned ATMing being done here, we don't see alot of it anymore...makes me feel like getting the hammer and saw out.

Great start to imaging as well, as you say, lots to be tweaked yet, but it's got plenty of potential.

I think a coma corrector such as an MPCC would reduce alot of the coma across the field, they are a must for any Newtonian. Having said that, the coma is not symmetrical across the field, so something else will need adjustment too.

Have fun

[rcheshire]

Brilliant work all round Alistair. I remember reading some of your first posts when you started this project and you moved to the picaxe rather than the Arduino.