Scott, Dennis and Robby, wow, great effort and wonderful detail . One day when I grow up I would like to take images like yours, I am still in my astrophotography infancy!
The SBIG ST7E which I use (purchased from our very own EddieT) makes ccd imaging reasonably straightforward. The Vixen 4" only has a focal length of 918mm so it is quite forgiving in terms of guiding. The ST7E has an self-guiding chip so once you have set everything up; polar aligned, focused, cooled down the ccd chip, acquired the target, calibrated the auto-guding chip and pressed the <Go> button, you can sit back and have a cup of tea whilst the images are being exposed.
I have found the cooled ccd chip and auto-guiding function to be of enormous benefit – the M83 was 40 x 120 secs, an equivalent 80 minute exposure which I’m not sure a DSLR could handle as well?
The SBIG ST7E which I use (purchased from our very own EddieT) makes ccd imaging reasonably straightforward. The Vixen 4" only has a focal length of 918mm so it is quite forgiving in terms of guiding. The ST7E has an self-guiding chip so once you have set everything up; polar aligned, focused, cooled down the ccd chip, acquired the target, calibrated the auto-guding chip and pressed the <Go> button, you can sit back and have a cup of tea whilst the images are being exposed.
I have found the cooled ccd chip and auto-guiding function to be of enormous benefit – the M83 was 40 x 120 secs, an equivalent 80 minute exposure which I’m not sure a DSLR could handle as well?
Cheers
Dennis
Yeah sounds simple . Thats why I am in my infancy. I will be bringing my newly aquired wedge to QUeensland. I figure that over 6 days i should be able to learn off a few peole how to use it!
. One day when I grow up I would like to take images like yours, I am still in my astrophotography infancy! 
. Thats why I am in my infancy. I will be bringing my newly aquired wedge to QUeensland. I figure that over 6 days i should be able to learn off a few peole how to use it! 
