M16 with QHY9

Ken · #1 16-07-2009, 10:30 PM

First colour image with myQHY9 and 18" Newt. had the usual problems of the clouds rolling in 10 mins into each session imaged only 30 mins RGB through light cloud. Ha was little better only 40 mins over 3 nights.
After rebuilding my fork mount over the last 3 months I finally coaxed it to follow a star. I threatened to replace it with a Lx200 and it decided to work.
Clear skies Ken

Tandum (Robin) · #2 16-07-2009, 10:32 PM

Looks really sharp to me ken ... What sort of filters are you using?

Astro78 · #3 16-07-2009, 10:32 PM

Amazing colours in the stars!

May I - what mount are you using for the little 18"?

renormalised (Carl) · #4 16-07-2009, 10:37 PM

Great shot there....nice and sharp and good resolution

Maybe a tad too green in the stars (filter??), but otherwise really good

DavidU (Dave) · #5 16-07-2009, 10:43 PM

Awesome !
an 18"?

Mount details please

Prickly · #6 16-07-2009, 10:47 PM

Hi Ken,

The colours look great and it has that smooth glassy look. Good to see that things are all behaving.

Weather here has started to improve so I plan a few more shots soon again hopefully.

Cheers
David

Ken · #7 16-07-2009, 11:01 PM

Thanks guys for looking.
There is some great shots of the pillars on this site at the moment.
I used 2" Baader RGB and Astronomic Ha filter in QHY9 wheel I also tried Baader o111 for the first time I did not realize how dark this filter was. The 4 min. o111 subs had little data in them so I left them out of the final image. all subs were 2x2 binned to save time.
My fork mount is home made it uses a dob driver and stepper motors.
clear skies Ken

Ken · #8 16-07-2009, 11:11 PM

Hi David Thanks for the reply this mono stuff is a steep learning curve after using the QHY8. looking forward to you posting some more images.
Clear skies Ken

Dennis · #9 16-07-2009, 11:30 PM

Gasp! That is a wonderful portrait of M16; very smooth and rich in data. Well done on managing to guide an 18” ‘scope on a home made fork mount, which is quite some feat in itself!

Cheers

Dennis

Tamtarn · #10 17-07-2009, 08:52 AM

Very impressive image Ken, so much sharp detail with good resolution.

You have done extremely well to be able to track an 18" on a re built fork mount.

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #11 17-07-2009, 09:41 AM

That's a very fine image Ken

- neb colour is spot on and detail is good. Stars are a bit green though (fixable) ... and a tad eggy (guiding probs?) But since we're talking about a home made fork for an 18" some minor issues can be completely forgiven!!

I have no skills that would get me even close to building something like that so I'm in awe! Well done and look forward to seeing more!

Cheers, Marcus

strongmanmike (Michael) · #12 17-07-2009, 04:50 PM

Yes that's a lovely image Ken.

I agree with Marcus the neb colour is spot on and if you reduce the green colouring in the stars it will be more excellent

The egging isn't objectionable (Fred may not like it though

) try his fix detailed in this thread here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=47247

I was building an 18" F5 back in the 80's, it was a mammoth project that was never finished sadly, it looked like the Hale 200" on a massive RHS Fork mount. It had a 5.5" secondary to fully illuminate a 6X6 film square (we had a Wynn coma corrector on the drawing board even) it also had a beautiful 16.8" Thomas Mathis drive...ahhh what could have been

do you have good link to your beast?

Nice work

Mike

multiweb (Marc) · #13 17-07-2009, 09:03 PM

Wow! Very nice. Love the colours and overall smoothness. Top shot.

Ken · #14 17-07-2009, 09:11 PM

Thanks guys for the replies. Mike, you should have finished that 18", would have given you something to do in your spare time

I could write a book on all the problems building this thing over the years. It started when I ordered a 17.5" mirror from Coulter Optical which went to the wall 18 months later taking my deposit with it.

I then purchased a thin 18" mirror from a local guy, which I had coated then found out it had astigmatism

. This was returned for a refund and I ordered a Galaxy Optics 18" mirror. The tube was made with ply rings and longitudinal spars and wrapped in thin ply. This turned out to be very strong whilst still be very light. I made rotating rings and a ply cradle. This fits in a ply fork modeled off some of the professional mounts. The original mount used a 20" steel disk connected to a 50mm SS shaft, this used friction drive from 2 small 1" SS shafts with stepper motor reduction gearbox connection for the RA drive. The wooden fork was replaced with a single steel fork as per Brian Lula's. This used a Jeep rear axle with tappered bearings. I used this for 2 years and decided to replace it with the original wooden fork. The RA friction drive has now been replaced with a 12.5" Aeroquest worm gear. In the near future the steel base will be replaced with a large concrete pier to fight the wind at night.

Clear skies,
Ken

RobF (Rob) · #15 17-07-2009, 10:06 PM

Love the depth and colour. Yumm!

DavidU (Dave) · #16 17-07-2009, 10:31 PM

I love this shot.
do you have a photo of your setup? It sounds like you have done a fabulous job of it.
Well done

Alchemy (Clive) · #17 18-07-2009, 06:53 AM

eggy stars aside, its a ripper.

telecasterguru (Frank) · #18 18-07-2009, 08:21 AM

Ken,
I agree with everyone that this is a fine image. Very deep with lots of detail.

Would love to see your setup.

Frank

Hagar (Doug) · #19 18-07-2009, 11:55 AM

Lovely detailed image Ken, The 18 certainly grabs the light very well. A little tweak to your guiding and the resulting images will be mind blowing.

Very nice.

Matty P (Matt) · #20 18-07-2009, 12:43 PM

Great shot Ken. Lots of detail in this one. Nice colours in the nebula as well.

Well done.