Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane
Peter,
Thank you so much for the reply.
Is there a bare minimum aperture that you would recommend?
I'm primarily an imager and own only a couple (three) refractors.
I could be swayed to purchase a Dob...
Regards,
Humayun
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Hi Octane,
The great supernova sleuth Bob Evans used a 10inch Dob for many years to visually discover many bright (mag12 -13ish) Supernova. While I won't be controversial and say visual searching is dead, it is at best going to exceedingly difficult to visually discover one with all the ccd searches going on. Bob Evans will always be the most likely exception to what I have just said. Oops I nearly forgot, quite possibly Astroron using his 16inch - simply because he is very experienced, knows his galaxies and regularly searches them. I wish Ron well, the next visual discovery will indeed be a momentous achievement. Don't rule out the LMC & SMC for another possible naked eys Supernova. I won't try to cover the whole subject here, basically a 10inch newtonian on a say an EQ6 with a CCD is certainly going to give you a very, very good opportunity to find your own supernova (even smaller setups 8 inch on EQ5 or 8inch SCT on fork mount - you only need fairly short exposures). The more sensitive the camera the better and monochrome ccds have the edge, discoveries have been made by others using Meade DSI's, Orion Starshoots etc. I will post a summary of my set up but essentially you need to build up a reference library of images taken with your setup. You need to learn about or have other experienced amateurs willing to assist by way of confirmation, astrometry, and photometry - programmes like Astrometrica are very useful. And you need to take lots and lots of images - it is simply a numbers game. you may go for years before you find one, but never, ever give up if that is what your passion is as you will be rewarded.
I am a bit of a hack, no expert by far, I love the time at the scope taking and comparing images - the hard work is done by good friends like Colin and Greg.
To all thanks again for your posts.
And Matt, I think what I said at the time was "oh my goodness, gracious" don't know how you heard me say something crude....hehe
More later in a different thread or maybe file for IIS.
PeterM.