Ngc2442

[Ken]

Hi I have grown impatient with the weather and decided to process this with a fraction of the data I wanted.
The Meat Hook Galaxy was taken with my 18" f4.5 Newtonian using aQHY9m camera, LRGB was 50,30,30,40 minutes -30 c 2x2 binning.
Clear skies Ken.

[Ross G]

A beautiful galaxy photo Ken.

I bet the final photo will be amazing.

Ross.

[Ken]

Thanks Ross but I think I will be a old man before I see clear skies again.
Ken.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Another great galaxy shot Ken, once again with a real sense of distance to it.

Re the shortish exposures, the power of a big fast Newt shines through there

Mike

[Ken]

Thanks Mike, your right big and fast is good. Hope to do some Galaxy test shots with a focal reducer working at f3.3 over the standard f4.5.
Clear Skies Ken.

[COSMOPARADISE (Nick)]

Nice Ken. I tried this baby not long ago and got to much skyglow to be any good. Great detail.

[Lester]

Very nice detailed view Ken. The 18" resolves a lot.

[Ken]

Thanks Nick, I am lucky to have dark skies but I had to move away from Sydney to make it happen. Thanks Lester yes it is hard to beat cubic inches unless you have a big stack of rectangular dollars, actually the old mirror coating is so thin these days you can see through it.
Clear Skies Ken.

[alpal]

What a great photo.
What mount do you use to guide such an 18" beast?

[Ken]

Thanks Alpal, the mount is a home made fork using a dob driver and stepper motors for movement. Argo navis finds my way, it is no paramount but I don't have to do a meridian flip.
Clear skies Ken.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Ken

Thanks Alpal, the mount is a home made fork using a dob driver and stepper motors for movement. Argo navis finds my way, it is no paramount but I don't have to do a meridian flip.
Clear skies Ken.

Thanks Ken,
do you have a focuser rotater to stop frame rotation?

[allan gould]

Ken
That's a great image, with lovely small ones in the field. Really love the detail and colour. Hmmmm big and fast you say - Just can't afford another scope.

[Ken]

Alpal no rotater is needed because it is a equatorial fork mount, but one would be handy to find guide stars for the Loadstar.
Allan there is nothing wrong with that R.C. of yours.
Clear skies Ken.

[alistairsam]

Ken, nicely done. waiting to see some pics of your mount as well

[Ken]

As requested some shots of my setup.
Clear skies Ken.

[alistairsam]

Thanks Ken, that's very impressive.

[alpal]

Thanks Ken for showing us the pics of the mount.
I was wondering how people guide such large telescopes.
Looks like you've done a good job to tame such a big 18 inch beast.

How long was each subframe?
You only give total times.

[Ken]

Hi Alpal the subframes are 10 min. on that shot but I also use up to 20 mins on very faint targets. If I use the ed80 guidescope I am limited to 5 mins because of flexure, so all the images these days are with the Orion or TSA oag.
Clear skies Ken.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Ken

Hi Alpal the subframes are 10 min. on that shot but I also use up to 20 mins on very faint targets. If I use the ed80 guidescope I am limited to 5 mins because of flexure, so all the images these days are with the Orion or TSA oag.
Clear skies Ken.

Thanks - they are long exposures.
I use a TS9 OAG too.

cheers
Alpal