My favourites

[bluescope]

Nice collection Greg ... would have liked to know which scope, camera etc took the images. Here I go again giving you more suggestions for work mate ... sorry !

[Craig_L]

Wonderful set of images and as others have said, inspirational.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Quark

What a lovely selection of images Greg,

I think that in most of us lurks a yearning to get into astrophotography. So many people that post on IIS, that are just discovering the delights of amateur astronomy, express an interest and long term goal of getting into astro imaging. As you would know it is a steep learning curve indeed.

However the work that you and other experienced astro photographers on IIS post is really inspirational to the rest of us, still at the bottom end of that learning curve.

Thank you for posting these fine images.
Regards
Trevor

Thank you for your kind comments Trevor.

Originally Posted by CoolhandJo

What an inspiration. Fantastic collection. Why not post some of you 2nd best! Love to see them too!

Hehehe.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Really nice images Greg. My favourites are the Vela SN remnant and the close up of the horse head. Great stuff.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeh daahh... ya sure?

Mike

No not sure!!
Jealousy is a curse

Originally Posted by madwayne

A truly great collection Greg and I am so happy to have one of your "rejects" in my kit. It is still like new and I am doing my best to it justice.

Let the FSQ106N live long and prosper!

As a suggestion for your next collection can I suggest you put together your road to greatness. A collection of your first images through to your latest images, perhaps in date order. This will give budding imagers an idea of how long the road, or as Martin Pugh decribed it to me slippery dip, really is. I would do one myself but I have only been happy enough with two or three of mine to post them on here.

Thanks again for sharing your collection and I hope you take my suggestion on board. Maybe others with skills of a level like yours might care to do the same.

All the best.

Regards
Wayne

I could do that, I have kept everything I started out with a Nikon D70 I modified myself and a Meade LX90. You know a widefield lens and a modified DSLR are a great way to start.

Originally Posted by bluescope

Nice collection Greg ... would have liked to know which scope, camera etc took the images. Here I go again giving you more suggestions for work mate ... sorry !

No problem.

Scopes were FSQ106N (Vela widefield, now belongs to Wayne), FSQ106EDX
with reducer/STL11000M (Pleiades, Rho Ophiuchi, Orion and Horsehead),
FS152/ST2000XM Trifid, AP140/Apogee U16M Eta Carina, Horsehead/Flame nebula, Tak BRC250/U16M
Pleiades, BRC250/FLI ML8300 NGC1365, TEC180FL/ML8300 M83, Centaurus A, Horsehead closeup all using a Tak NJP mount and most were guided using either Astrotech 66ED with ST402ME or ST402ME and efinder.

Originally Posted by Craig_L

Wonderful set of images and as others have said, inspirational.

Thanks Craig, I appreciate that.

[Tom Davis (Tom)]

All of the images are excellent. My fav however is the Venus transit with the jet. Great job!

Tom

[multiweb (Marc)]

Like an art gallery. So many wonderful pictures. Great inspiration and motivation to get out there and try ourselves. Thanks for sharing all this great work and tips over the years.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Tom Davis

All of the images are excellent. My fav however is the Venus transit with the jet. Great job!

Tom

Thanks Tom. The Venus shot was a stroke of luck.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Like an art gallery. So many wonderful pictures. Great inspiration and motivation to get out there and try ourselves. Thanks for sharing all this great work and tips over the years.

Thanks Marc. This is a great forum for imaging.

Greg.

[RB (Andrew)]

Greg, what a wonderful collection of favourite images you have there !
A collection to be very proud of.

Do you have a favourite scope, one that stands out in your mind, out of all the scopes you've used over that time?

[aworley (Alex)]

Thanks Greg, they were truly inspirational....

But really, the venus transit and jumbo jet??? Ok.....you must have contacts in high places to get Qantas to fly a jet in your light path when venus is transiting........ Fantastic!!!

Alex

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by RB

Greg, what a wonderful collection of favourite images you have there !
A collection to be very proud of.

Do you have a favourite scope, one that stands out in your mind, out of all the scopes you've used over that time?

I guess overall winner would be the TEC180FL. But they all have different things each does extremely well. FSQ for widefield is somewhat unbeatable, AP140 with the compressor is probably the only FSQ beater, the Tak BRC is a marvellous imaging instrument, F5 is so quick with 10 inches of aperture.

But if I only kept one it'd be the TEC180. It has the ability to do it all.
Also a large APO is very sensational visually. I mean raw visual impact of beauty of view. I well remember my first views through my brand new Tak FS152 and being surprised at how fantastic and bright the views were. Wow.

I now have a 4 inch FS152 dedicated reducer that probably will make the TEC180 do F5.6, with a large chipped camera and most likely round stars to the corners at medium widefield and 180mm of APO aperture. Plus with the ML8300 it will image galaxies. There is a certain raw appeal to APO images. Smooth and very sharp. But aperture rules in long focal length imaging and reflectors give bang for aperture buck. I am waiting to see how the larger CDKs work out. There are quite a few out there but for some reason noone is posting an images. Perhaps its bugged. Anyway that is a future project and not something in the very near future.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by aworley

Thanks Greg, they were truly inspirational....

But really, the venus transit and jumbo jet??? Ok.....you must have contacts in high places to get Qantas to fly a jet in your light path when venus is transiting........ Fantastic!!!

Alex

Thanks Alex. The other aspect about that image is it shows Venus's atmosphere. See the different colour above and below Venus? I believe that was first proof way back that Venus had an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is refracting the sunlight and causing the colour. Or at least that is what I think is the case.

Greg.