deepish 47 Tuc

[tornado33]

Hi all
Did 47 Tuc 2 nights back, used the 10 inch f5.5 newtonian. A 3x5 min shot masked with a 3x30 sec shot. All ISO 200, unfiltered with modded 350D. Off axis hand guided.

Full res. version here
No noise reduction applied as yet, I might try that later on
Scott

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

You've captured so many of the outer stars! Excellent!
But I think that's what compromised the core.

[Hagar (Doug)]

WOW, Lots of stars in this image. Very well done considering it's hand guiding etc.

[TrevorW]

Good one Scott I like it any darks etc applied if not might resolve the inner stars more

The colour about right too although there are a lot of blue stragglers in the core

[bartman (Bart)]

Hi Scott,
I'm still new, and sometimes a post just......well.... makes me ask a question that might be seen as "DOOOH"

'Hand guided' means you sat there and physically used your hands either by control knobs or electronic means, to keep your scope centered on 47 TUC?
yes?

I have an eq6 with a 10" SW.......unfortunately due to shift work and clouds, I haven't had a real chance to go out and use it.
So to see someone not using an auto-guided system surprises me!
I know in ye olde times that was the norm, so I'm just curious if my above statement is true?

Confuseded
bartman

[theodog (Jeff)]

Very nice image Scott.

Originally Posted by bartman

'Hand guided' means you sat there and physically used your hands either by control knobs or electronic means, to keep your scope centered on 47 TUC?

I have imaged many times with Scott. I'm amazed by the way he can hold a deep conversation on any topic while keeping the guide star sniped on the crosshairs with a push on the RA button and a tweak of the Dec hand control knob. They don't build them like the 'Sampson' any more, do they Scott.

I, like no doubt many others, have tried to drag Scott kicking and screaming into the 20th Cent. All to no avail.
But why change when you can out-do many auto's.

[jase (Jason)]

Nice work Scott. The trusty eyeball guider at its best. Layering may see a more aesthetic image specifically addressing the core, but its a fine image as it stands. Well done.

[tornado33]

Thanks all.
Yep, as Jeff said, thats exactly how I do it. It goes back to the old film days, where once jeff and a few of us camped in the Warrumbungles at Camp Blackman, where I took some DSO shots on gas hypered Tech Pan 2415 film, and then used bush chemistry, chemicals diluted with river water to develop the negs, they came out too! Ahh those were the days.

Its a little easier now as I use a Q guider camera to put an image of the guidestar on the notebook display, and then keep it centred on a virtual reticle.

My Sampson mount doesnt have a motorised DEC, but I do know of one that had one made up for it and a dual axis drive corrector that could then accept autoguide input. Alas not so for mine.

The actual Sampson mount is almost on a par with the high end Losmandy and even the Paramounts. Its only the drive system that is lacking. If it had dual axis precision lapped drives, like the Byers drive I believe it could track every bit as good as a Paramount mount.

I might take some more images of the core and try and mask them in
Scott

[Paul Haese]

Well done, hand guiding is hard at best. I remember hand guiding by eye, and it resulted in sore dry eyes, but nice images when things worked. I respect a person that uses this system.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Wow, hand guided - well done ! Samson mount - brings back memories. I used to have a "Delux German Equatorial mount" from Astro-Optics (or I think they were called "Amateur Astronomers Supply Co" back then) which they used to sell prior to the Samson I believe. I remember one night after a couple of hours crouched over the guidescope hand guiding a few shots, when I realised that the exposure on my Praktica camera was set at 1/1000 of a second !##$%#! I guess you've heard it all before ...

[tornado33]

Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr

Wow, hand guided - well done ! Samson mount - brings back memories. I used to have a "Delux German Equatorial mount" from Astro-Optics (or I think they were called "Amateur Astronomers Supply Co" back then) which they used to sell prior to the Samson I believe. I remember one night after a couple of hours crouched over the guidescope hand guiding a few shots, when I realised that the exposure on my Praktica camera was set at 1/1000 of a second !##$%#! I guess you've heard it all before ...

LOL.
yep, my mate Jeff did that here one night, many moons ago hand guided a 30 minute shot but the shutter was set to 1000th sec or something like that.
Scott

[TheDecepticon]

Very cool. Lots of stars.