SPX350 F4.53 with 2xPowermate working at F9.1, EQ6, Mintron12V6, Astrodon RGB and Astronomik UHC filters.
The Eagle's Beak or the pillars made famous by the HST I had to try with the Mintron unfortunately the Ha filter was too dim, most of the data was in the UHC channel, the blue had faint detail but the green was empty of detail.
I saw Fred's Bug in narrowband and his results were amazing so I had a go with the Mintron with 2.5sec subs which is the maximum exposure. All the data was in the red channel with some blue, Ha was too faint for Mintron. The Mintron is normally my guidecam when using the ATK-16HR CCD.
Thanks a lot for comments, images are only 8bit so they won't win any competitions but detail looked good. The ST402 has a massive full well capacity and great QE.
Thanks David, I averaged 1 night in 6 in the UK for imaging deep space or lunar/planetary but here in SE Queensland I must be getting 3 nights a week and sometimes more; although weather is cloudy now for a few days.
One complaint though is JetStream for lunar/planetary, my first and second lunar attempts were amid awful wavey seeing and Jupiter was washed out and the disc was rippling with no better than average seeing. With experience I will be able to judge the seeing better but cloud is simple in Oz as it tends not to have the swirling you get in the UK so prediction seem straight forward so far, no doubt things will change these are just first impressions.
Do I miss the UK weather? errh NO! Raining for days on end; I don't think so, this place is way better for astro but I don't like the fruit bats; they make weird noises and collide with things in the dead of night - little devils.
... but I don't like the fruit bats; they make weird noises and collide with things in the dead of night - little devils.
Welcome to Australia John! There are plenty more things out there that go bump in the night. You just need to get use to them. I was freaked out in the observatory late one night by an owl screeching nearby. Sounded like a young girl in distress.
Well done with M16. Quite remarkable in fact given the focal length. Looks like you'll need to pick your nights with the seeing to draw greater resolution. Great work on the bug too. Looking forward to more...keep them coming.
3200mm on a EQ6 ?, max points for difficulty right there ;-), nice work indeed, but colour is off on the pillars. Heavy croping at that FL requires mucho PS fiddling, more than normal, the star shape for instance is easy to fix, but its good to see a counter-trend effort on long FL, well done.
Thanks Guys, my EQ6 has been used now for nearly 3 years trouble free. I always struggle with colour as it seems everyone has a different opinion but the Pillars and dust are way too red but just a quicky image in a very busy area of the sky I am slowly getting used to.
Welcome to Australia John! There are plenty more things out there that go bump in the night. You just need to get use to them. I was freaked out in the observatory late one night by an owl screeching nearby. Sounded like a young girl in distress.
