Woah!

[fringe_dweller]

I know lots of you read/subscribe/participate to/in Yahoo Digital_Astro - but for those that may not and havent seen this shot.... I wouldnt normally do this but ..

if this isnt an amazing add for AP refractors and the 20Da(amongst other things) I dont know what would be!! astrophotographer Chuck Vaughn in the US
http://astrophotography.aa6g.org/Ast.../m42_20da.html
made this shot of M42 with forementioned set-up.
Cheers
Kearn
ps nice tribute to Erwin on D_A's front page
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/

[atalas]

Louie

[TidaLpHasE]

That is AWSOME..........

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Sorry Chris V. Your 253's not on my my desktop any more

[davidpretorius]

i am literally breathless!.

Chris's running man in slightly more defined though i think!.

wow!

[h0ughy (David)]

how much detail can you cram in a image??? thats amazing

[cventer]

Its an awesome image allright!!!.

But for just under 3 hours of exposure time it should be. Most of the DSLR's 300D, 10D, 20D and 350D would produce the same image on that scope with that much exposure time so I fyou dont own a 20D then dont dispair....

Nice thing about DSLR's is their Blue sensitivity, which is why they seem to take such darn good shots of M42 and Pleades...

Best Regards
Chris

[Striker (Tony)]

Oh great....dont expect mine to be any where near that quality.

Thats brilliant.

[fringe_dweller]

I dont think there will be many amongst us that will ever own an AP 6" in our lifetime??? how much are they again? I think I may have heard the price tag of $50 000 US once??? I could be way off, but i know they are not cheap and readily available (isnt there a 100 year waiting list for there stuff? hehe - your sons and daughters may get it LOL - i am exagerating of course )
I agree with Chris there - maybe if all those dslr's you mentioned had been modified for the ha like the 20Da they would do the same job?.
Davo, Chris got that awesome shot with a $700 ota ( I think) - I cant imagine anyone could get a better result than Chris's M42 with the same set up as he used.
Tony - youd better start saving only joking
Kearn

[acropolite (Phil)]

Kearn wrote

isnt there a 100 year waiting list for there stuff? hehe - your sons and daughters may get it LOL - i am exagerating of course )

You're not far wrong Kearn. To get one (an AP) you first have to put you name on a list, then, if they decide to do a production run of the model you're interested in, you might get a chance to buy. Still it's a nice image, nearly as good as Chris's......

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

Davo, Chris got that awesome shot with a $700 ota ( I think) - I cant imagine anyone could get a better result than Chris's M42 with the same set up as he used.Kearn

yes, chris's is damn awesome regardless of $ of equipment!!! is damn a bad word???

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

is damn a bad word???

Thers no such thing as bad words in my threads Davo - its like switzerland in here :-)))) swear ya head off mate!! hhmm maybe not - you never know who is watching?
Kearn

[Itchy]

Originally Posted by cventer

Its an awesome image allright!!!.

But for just under 3 hours of exposure time it should be. Most of the DSLR's 300D, 10D, 20D and 350D would produce the same image on that scope with that much exposure time so I fyou dont own a 20D then dont dispair....

Nice thing about DSLR's is their Blue sensitivity, which is why they seem to take such darn good shots of M42 and Pleades...

Best Regards
Chris

Yea Chris you are right. Remember too that Chuck is a very experienced and accomplished film astrophotographer who has very recently been forced to go digital because Kodak stopped making TechPan. He went straight to the 20Da and then got it modified! He has made a dynamic start to his digital career!

cheers

[iceman (Mike)]

A very nice image!

I'm in two minds about Orion season again.. There's some lovely images coming, to be sure.. but it's also possible to get Orion overload

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by iceman

A very nice image!

.. but it's also possible to get Orion overload

Never it is just so fantastic, a great introduction for budding astronomers to get hooked on as well. Last year I attended a veiwing evening at a School and the parents, teachers and students (about 150) lined up and stayed on well past their 9pm projected finish (left at 11.30) they simply couldn't get enough of it. Even the school security guard was awestruck!

[tornado33]

Great image, but at a price! I checked online that AP scope is a cool $8,800 USD and thats ONLY the tube assembly. Throw in another $4500 USD for a suitable AP mount, and a sizable portion of the value of a family home has gone
http://www.company7.com/astrophy/pricing.html
I wonder why they cant make these scopes much more cheaply with advances in Computer Aided manufacturing and the like, and still maintain excellent quality. Computers are getting ever more powerful, for less money, but optics arent
Imagine a fully computerised optical shop where scopes like these are made by the latest computerised machines, for about $1000 each.

[tornado33]

I must say the other impressive thing about this image is not just the clarity, but the post image processing, effectively combining short and long images to get detail from the bright core to the faint outer details.
Scott

[fringe_dweller]

Scott, well found re price on the AP - I am glad I said I could be way off!! LOL! and i am with you on that point that there is more to that image than just a nice scope and camera - years of experience and skill show up well in both the taking and the processing - it is a masterpiece imo.
i wonder how long before the Chinese mass produced optics people reach that level in refractors and everything? maybe not many years?
I saw some stuff on foxtel news/biz chnnels recently - they were talking about the new BMW car factory in China - 70% of the floor workers had engineering degree's and worked for about $50 AUD a week! (China pumps out 1 million engineering graduates a year!!!) but that is a double edged sword as you all know - ie say see u later to most of whats left of the manufacturing industry in Oz pretty soon! :-(
With computer/machine made mirrors/lenses/optics - my understanding is that no machine can replicate the much needed randomness of strokes humans do naturally (to ensure an even surface finish) in the final stages of grinding/polishing and then figuring - at least that is the case with newtonian mirrors - I would imagine that applies to lenses to?
Cheers
Kearn

[xelasnave]

I have been drooooling over as Tacky 150 and an EM 400 mount advertized in Australia at (the mag is at home so this is approx) $11,000 for the OTA and $13,500 for the mount. It is hard to get ones head around the fact that you can buy a new small car for similar money. Now I spent under $2000 for my Chinese 150 ar and am very happy with it, but I really dont know any better. But I would love to see what the "experts" can get out of a "cheap" refractor.. I expect the mount would let you down but whats the difference in the optics in the hands of an expert?
alex

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by tornado33

I must say the other impressive thing about this image is not just the clarity, but the post image processing, effectively combining short and long images to get detail from the bright core to the faint outer details.
Scott

tornado33 is correct, it is one thing to have the expensive equipment,but if you don't keep up with the latest or best digital image manipulation methods you are not in the race.By race I mean to get the best out of the images YOU have collected. I spend more time on the computer manipulating data (images)
than what it took to collect. Always learning.Never satisfied.It is important we don't lose sight of the fact that we do this for enjoyment and self education.
When I see a result like this I immediately think that I have a lot more to learn,
never mind obtain.

Bert