Hi,
Just next to M42 is a very interesting view containing quite a few "weird objects"
NGC1999
IC428
IC427
HH1
HH2
Waterfall Nebula
Taken from Savannah Skies, Australia which is situated in the dry savannah country about 3.5 hours drive west of Cairns in Far North QLD, only about 17 degrees south of the equator. Very remote dark skies exist in the middle of a vast cattle station with four observatory domes perched up on a hill with views of the scrub all around with no human infringements visible.
Telescope: Takahashi BRC 250. Mount: ParamountME. Camera: FLI PL16803 with FLI research grade filters. HaLRHaGB image acquired utilising CCDAutoPilot5 remotely. 10 minute subframes calibrated and stacked in CCDStack then processed in Photoshop and PixInsight.
Posting to see if your comments can help me improve.
Yes, the Savannah Skies site is a pleasure after struggling with the coastal humidity and cloud in Cairns.
You said you image remotely. How did you guys sort out power for your observatories. Do you have main AC or run Genies? If the latter I assume you have someone on site to do the house keeping? That looks pretty remote. Beautiful spot.
You said you image remotely. How did you guys sort out power for your observatories. Do you have main AC or run Genies? If the latter I assume you have someone on site to do the house keeping? That looks pretty remote. Beautiful spot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevec35
Nicely done. This has always been a favourite area of the sky for me and your image of it is great.
Cheers
Steve
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Love HH1 and 2. Superb.
Thankyou!
Marc, We are many many kilometers away from any mains power - we have an off-grid solar plant with a 3000ah battery bank. We also have an autostart diesel generator that will kick in if the battery bank state of charge falls below our defined level, but we actually haven't had any need for the backup generator at all. There is just so much solar energy out at the site with cloudy days being very rare especially during the dry (imaging) season from March through to November. There is a farmhouse a few kilometers away with support on the ground if we need it. The internet is 3G, with satellite as a backup.
Awesome image Tim, and a fantastic set up. I think I need to run SCNR on myself I am so green with envy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Your internet connection, is it landline or mobile 3g? If its mobile is it reliable?
Greg.
Good on you Rex!
Greg,
It is mobile 3G coming off a tower 22km away....If you look at the panorama shot I attached a few replies back, you will see a yellow triangular 3G aerial (yagi) on a pole high up above the satellite dish. This gives us very reliable internet indeed....actually faster than I get at home on the crappy old copper wires in Cairns (ADSL). We have never had it go down......It seems as there is very little population out there, that the bandwidth available to us remains solid all the time. If the 3G was to go down though, as the signal is going straight into our network router, along with the satellite internet, the satellite internet kicks in automatically and you don't even notice a significant delay......The satellite internet is not quite as good for remote access as the distance the the signal has to travel up to the satellite and back down to Earth (76000 km) causes an inherent 550msec ping time. The satellite however, is cheaper and good for file transmission, so we do use it for that preferentially.
We enjoy going out there to do regular maintenance or to troubleshoot .....total peace and tranquility!!
Nice to see your remote system Tim. Being a remote imager too, albeit a lot close to Adelaide than your present location to Cairns, I can appreciate all the nuances to redundancy and the level of complexity you have in your system. Very tidy looking setup.
Nice setup Tim with premium optics & other high end equipment.
It's such an interesting picture that I'd like to see the full size
& also just a Ha version.
Marc, We are many many kilometers away from any mains power - we have an off-grid solar plant with a 3000ah battery bank. We also have an autostart diesel generator that will kick in if the battery bank state of charge falls below our defined level, but we actually haven't had any need for the backup generator at all.
Yeah I noticed the banks of solar panels. Great gear too, under ideal conditions in a pristine location. Win-win scenario.
