Greetings. My name is Andrew Peters and this is my first image posted on this site. I was active in the early 1990's using a variety of instruments including a 6" astrophysics refractor and a 20" f5 newtonian riding on a custom built fork mount. The mounting is old tech with no encoders while an SBIG ST-4 is used for guiding. The scopes incidentally were featured in the October 1994 issue of the magazine "Sky and Space".
After a long hiatus and now retired, the scopes are now set up some 2 hours north of Adelaide under a bortle 2 sky. M42 was imaged with the 20" using a nikon D750 camera and is a composite of 2 subs (16 + 600 secs at ISO 400) taken while experimenting with the coma corrector to sensor spacing. It clearly needed further adjusting. A cooled astro camera has since been acquired but the full frame nikon is still used on occasion for larger objects.
The obvious need for further adjustment aside, this is a very pleasing image of M42 with some glorious detail & colours.
The 20" Newt is clearly a very capable instrument & I look forward to future posts as you get the spacing dialed in.
Greetings. My name is Andrew Peters and this is my first image posted on this site. I was active in the early 1990's using a variety of instruments including a 6" astrophysics refractor and a 20" f5 newtonian riding on a custom built fork mount. The mounting is old tech with no encoders while an SBIG ST-4 is used for guiding. The scopes incidentally were featured in the October 1994 issue of the magazine "Sky and Space".
After a long hiatus and now retired, the scopes are now set up some 2 hours north of Adelaide under a bortle 2 sky. M42 was imaged with the 20" using a nikon D750 camera and is a composite of 2 subs (16 + 600 secs at ISO 400) taken while experimenting with the coma corrector to sensor spacing. It clearly needed further adjusting. A cooled astro camera has since been acquired but the full frame nikon is still used on occasion for larger objects.
Aaaaaaawesome telescope/s! Looking at your setup brought a tear to my eye in the mid 80's a friend and I were well on the way to completing a very similar rig but an 18" F5, with 5.5" secondary, and the dream of locating ot on a hill north of Canberra but after getting most components purchased or constructed...meah..we discovered beer, women and the gym and never completed it but it was to look just like your masterpiece!
Thanks for poating
Mike.....now please tell me that isn't a Byres drive!!!! we ended up purchasing a 16.8" Thomas Mathis drive and worm assembly.
Amazing scopes!! Look forward to more. Old school is great together with modern CCD techniques and should produce great results. At 2,540 mm with steady seeing it will be interesting to see what you can achieve on galaxies.
That M42 image has to be one of the cleanest M42's I've ever seen - faults aside due to coma corrector issues, the level of detail is absolutely astounding, and for it being a composite of 2 subs - imagine what it would be like with 4 or 5 hours worth of data....
Welcome Andrew,
Spectacular M42 I must say
That telescope of yours is a monster , wow what a rig !!
A cooled dedicated Astro camera would certainly do that rig justice ( that DSLR has done a tremendous job by the way )
Thanks Mike, Martin, Alex, Peter and Tony for the kind words.
Mike, yes it is a Byers 15" research drive collected from Edward's (R.I.P.) workshop in Bairstow California. For insurance purposes an identical unit was acquired in 1995 and remains unused just in case for a rainy day. Seriously though Mathis drives (and mounts) have an excellent reputation as well. Cheers.
Mike, yes it is a Byers 15" research drive collected from Edward's (R.I.P.) workshop in Bairstow California. For insurance purposes an identical unit was acquired in 1995 and remains unused just in case for a rainy day. Seriously though Mathis drives (and mounts) have an excellent reputation as well. Cheers.
Yeah my friend and partner in the 18" project visited Ed in California too, in1987, said his workshop was drive drool city!
We had a 9" Thomas Mathis drive on this scope as a test run for the big 16.8" er it tracked beautifully with low PE.
That's a stunning image!
I am curious, how many astronauts does that rocket you used carry?
I'm guessing 4 to 6?
No wonder you got such an amazing image, you flew up there to avoid the light pollution.
Woah, a mighty fork mounted rig there, interesting simple bolt adjustment for RA Altitude I think I see.
Sky and Space magazine
Very cool and impacting test image there also Andrew.
in the mid 80's a friend and I were well on the way to completing a very similar rig but an 18" F5, with 5.5" secondary, and the dream of locating ot on a hill north of Canberra but after getting most components purchased or constructed...meah..we discovered beer, women and the gym and never completed it but it was to look just like your masterpiece!
we ended up purchasing a 16.8" Thomas Mathis drive and worm assembly.
it tracked beautifully with low PE.
