Jewel Box & NGC 6300 at 1728mm focal length

[Dennis]

Last night I used the Mewlon 180 F12 with Tak x0.8 Reducer/Flattener and SBIG ST2000XM to record the Jewel Box and NGC6300 at a longish focal length of 1728mm.

The Mewlon is a slowish ‘scope, even at F9.6 and the ST2K doesn’t have the highest QE, so the combination really struggled on NGC 6300 (ESO 101 25, PGC 60001) a Magnitude 11, Barred Spiral Hubble Type: SBb Galaxy located in Ara, with an apparent size of 5.5'x 3.5'.

I only managed 12x5mins Lum and 3x5 mins each RGB on NGC6300which is woefully inadequate for this galaxy from the light polluted suburbs of Brisbane. The Jewel Box was L 20x3 mins and RGB 5x3 mins each.

Both images are 1024x768 crops from the 1600x1200 originals.

Cheers

Dennis

[RickS (Rick)]

The Jewel Box is very pretty, Dennis, especially with the funky Mewlon diffraction spikes! Looks like a nice little galaxy too but lots more data required.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Nice image scale! I especially like the Jewel Box. I've thought about taking a high magnification image of the Jewel Box, now I better get around to do it Thanks for the inspiration Dennis

[Dennis]

Thank for your comments and feedback Rick & Rolf, much appreciated.

These efforts were part of a problem investigation from discovering some triangular stars from a previous session and I think I have identified some candidates for contributing to this:

• I used 1 sec auto guider exposures at a focal length of 2160mm and I think the rig was chasing the seeing.
• I fitted tube rings forward of the mounting puck and I think these introduced flexure.
• I removed the brass pressure ring from my focuser and this skewed the camera in the draw tube.

Just working my way through these issues and I chose these shots as auto guiding towards the SCP is so forgiving.

NGC6300 also needs a "Rolf special" – a multi evening shoot with his gorgeous dark skies. I won’t be attempting this faint fella again from Brisbane!

Cheers

Dennis

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looking good Deni...and I have no doubt that were there more funky spiders on more telescopes such diffraction patterns would not be noticed..we are creatures of habit and expectation Cool galxy too.

Mike

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

NGC6300 also needs a "Rolf special" – a multi evening shoot with his gorgeous dark skies. I won’t be attempting this faint fella again from Brisbane!

Lol, cheers Dennis.
However, my skies leave a bit to be desired unfortunately. I'm on the outskirts of Auckland and while I can easily see the MW and Magellanic Clouds it is still only around m20.40 around here according to a sky quality meter which I borrowed from Auckland Astronomical Society recently.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Looking good Deni...and I have no doubt that were there more funky spiders on more telescopes such diffraction patterns would not be noticed..we are creatures of habit and expectation Cool galxy too.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your comments.

The Mewlon diffraction spikes are quite useful to keep an eye on as each frame downloads and displays on-screen, as the vertical one usually drifts off-centre as the night progresses, a reminder for me to refocus due to temperature changes or other uncontrolled, evil gremlins in the imaging train!

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by SkyViking

Lol, cheers Dennis.
However, my skies leave a bit to be desired unfortunately. I'm on the outskirts of Auckland and while I can easily see the MW and Magellanic Clouds it is still only around m20.40 around here according to a sky quality meter which I borrowed from Auckland Astronomical Society recently.

Ahh, thanks for that Rolf, for some reason I had a picture in my mind of you sitting under pristine, dark skies in the middle of unspoilt countryside! A testimony to the quality of the images you delight us with.

Cheers

Dennis

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Thanks very much Dennis, I can clarify that it is unspoilt temperate rainforest but not entirely pristine skies
Still, we're really quite lucky in Auckland to have large wilderness areas so close to a major city centre with close to 1.4 million people!