#1  
Old 02-09-2008, 11:06 PM
bmitchell82's Avatar
bmitchell82 (Brendan)
Newtonian power! Love it!

bmitchell82 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mandurah
Posts: 2,597
IIS Shows how its done!

Good evening all,

Tonight one of the IIS members greatfully gave up some of his time to come and help a new player to astrophotography. I would like to post a very warm thankyou to Roger groom for steering the LX200 and the SBIG to some (finally) decent exposures. There are some limitations that have to be observed with a very small FOV and the absence of a Polar Wedge. Most of my shots are up close and personal. Hopefully i will get some of the photos up of M17, M83.

Thankyou once again to everybodys help and information.

Brendan
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-09-2008, 12:40 AM
AlexN's Avatar
AlexN
Tunnel Vision

AlexN is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Caboolture, Australia
Posts: 6,801
Great to hear Brendan.. I look forward to seeing the pics!

ps. up close and personal is where you want to be Narrowfield RULES!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-09-2008, 03:58 AM
iceman's Avatar
iceman (Mike)
Sir Post a Lot!

iceman is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Gosford, NSW, Australia
Posts: 36,760
Roger is a great guy, no doubt! It's great when people get together to help each other.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-09-2008, 12:32 PM
leon's Avatar
leon
Registered User

leon is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Warrnambool
Posts: 12,430
Yep, that is what it is all about, glad it all came together for you.

Leon
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 03-09-2008, 11:32 PM
bmitchell82's Avatar
bmitchell82 (Brendan)
Newtonian power! Love it!

bmitchell82 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mandurah
Posts: 2,597
Okay now remember that the limitations of my equipment at the moment and lack of components that really are needed... now the uni is starting to see that.! But i took some happy snaps of M 17 and M83. You will see with M17 just how little FOV i am working with (makes it soooo hard to actually figure out what your looking at! hahaha) but here it is, a Photoshopped m17 taken at 10subs each by 20 in LRGB and a B&W 7 subs at 1 minute m83.

*Leon i see your from where my family kinda is from My late uncle lived in Haddon and worked as a civil engineer, and the rest of my family is from Hamilton,coleraine, tarnagulla
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (M17.gif)
185.8 KB51 views
Click for full-size image (M83.gif)
198.5 KB34 views
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 03-09-2008, 11:53 PM
AlexN's Avatar
AlexN
Tunnel Vision

AlexN is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Caboolture, Australia
Posts: 6,801
woah... that is UPCLOSE!!

the M83 shows good detail indeed... I take it the next thing on the shopping list is a focal reducer?
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 04-09-2008, 12:03 AM
bmitchell82's Avatar
bmitchell82 (Brendan)
Newtonian power! Love it!

bmitchell82 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mandurah
Posts: 2,597
See this is the thing, i know its alright, but i dunno whats "good" Hubble space telescope is "best" but? ill get a feel for it.
yes a focal reducer is one thing that i have said they have to get...

With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for

*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
*Guide scope and CCD (the meade base has a input for a guide scope)
*Auto focusing setup.

Ill be back out saturday if the weather is nice enough this time ill give it a go and see what boundarys i can push in exposure times before star trailing becomes noticeable! any rough ideas ?

Brendan
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 04-09-2008, 01:08 AM
AlexN's Avatar
AlexN
Tunnel Vision

AlexN is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Caboolture, Australia
Posts: 6,801
A wedge is probably the best option as far as equatorially aligning the LX200R is concerned.. If the OTA is on fork mount already, its best to leave it that way... these are available through any store that sells meade products.. Just ask, if they dont have one in stock, they can order it in..

If you're thinking of a GEM for a 12" LX200R, you're thinking of something in the realms of a Losmandy G11.. and even then, from what I have been told (I recently considered a Meade 12", and asked ALOT of questions) the meade 12" is on the upper limit of what the G11 can handle accurately for photography.. So then, next logical step up would be an Astro-Physics AP900 or AP1200, or a Takahashi EM400 maybe... Either way we're talking BIG $$$$$$$$.

Auto-Focusing? Computerised focusing is probably your best bet here. and the simplest, cost effective way to do this is something like a Moonlite motorized crayford microfocuser, controlled via a PC using a Shoestring Astronomy FCUSB controller... The FCUSB is available directly from shoestring astronomy (google has their URL) or through Bintel. the Moonlite focuser available straigt from moonlite. (again with google.) Then using something like MaximDL, you can run a fairly basic focusing routine which when using motorized focusers, can have you very precisely focused in a matter of minutes.

Guide scope - you can get them anywhere, they dont have to be anything super-flash.. 80mm F/6 achromat will do.. Guiding, judging by whats being said in another active thread at the moment, the QHY5 mono camera makes for a very nice guider. Contact forum member "Gama" about these, he's the australian distributer... They cost $300, and as far as I can tell, they are awesome guide cam's
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 04-09-2008, 06:50 AM
MrB's Avatar
MrB (Simon)
Old Man Yells at Cloud

MrB is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Rockingham WA
Posts: 3,435
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmitchell82 View Post
With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for

*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
Are you at Curtin by chance?
I'm sure the guys in the Engineering dept. are itching for something interesting to do with CAD/CAM!

Edit: oh, if you say Murdoch, I'll laugh hard for months....
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 04-09-2008, 09:21 AM
bmitchell82's Avatar
bmitchell82 (Brendan)
Newtonian power! Love it!

bmitchell82 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mandurah
Posts: 2,597
Im at curtin , mmmm might have to go over there, i see that they have those flashy CNC machiens down near CMT. good though! save a bit of dollas. they arnt that hard to set up any ideas.? designs.?
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 04-09-2008, 09:25 AM
AlexN's Avatar
AlexN
Tunnel Vision

AlexN is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Caboolture, Australia
Posts: 6,801
mmmm custom made GEM
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 04-09-2008, 10:23 AM
Terry B's Avatar
Terry B
Country living & viewing

Terry B is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Armidale
Posts: 2,789
Get the engineering dept at the uni to make a pier for it like this one. No need for a wedge then. It is our uni's old 14" in a dome. You can then just use the electronics that you already have.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (webster.jpg)
36.6 KB26 views
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 04-09-2008, 10:26 AM
MrB's Avatar
MrB (Simon)
Old Man Yells at Cloud

MrB is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Rockingham WA
Posts: 3,435
Seriously, if they're enthusiastic, they could knock up a wedge in a day or two... a GEM on the other hand, a little longer.
Just give 'em the vital statistix and a couple of photo's of similar products and they'd be able to take it from there.

BTW, my previous post wasn't a dig at Murdoch uni, Just that they once had an observatory and society.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 07-09-2008, 07:40 AM
kinetic's Avatar
kinetic (Steve)
ATMer and Saganist

kinetic is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Adelaide S.A.
Posts: 2,280
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmitchell82 View Post
yes a focal reducer is one thing that i have said they have to get...

With this in mind and what im producing and the equipment i have access to, can the astro guys suggest suppliers/options for

*Wedge for the LX200R
*Mount (im thinking GEM)
-remembering they have already brought a fully optioned 2m high dome and they are qwibbling with engineers and architechs as to where to plonk it. They are wanting to remotely opperate it too.
*Guide scope and CCD (the meade base has a input for a guide scope)
*Auto focusing setup.

Ill be back out saturday if the weather is nice enough this time ill give it a go and see what boundarys i can push in exposure times before star trailing becomes noticeable! any rough ideas ?

Brendan
Hi Brendan,

You didn't say if you had used an IR/UV filter in your images?
That would help focus the stars better IMO.

Your first M83 is far better than my first M83...and I had a motorised
GEM to take mine! Well done!

regards,
Steve B.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 08-09-2008, 12:39 PM
bmitchell82's Avatar
bmitchell82 (Brendan)
Newtonian power! Love it!

bmitchell82 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mandurah
Posts: 2,597
Nope nothing apart from a wobbly 12" LX200R meade and a SBIG st 402-me with internal LRGB filter wheel. and a little bit of help from Roger!

heres saturday nights efforts.!

as soon as i shrink the others ill post them up too.!

theres the Eagle neb in B&W. still working on the Colour side, as the colours are not coming out as expected. ... I found the FOV of the CCD and Telescope setup.... 5.2Arc min X 7.7 Arc min... TINY so ill see if they will invest in F reducers.!

Sculptor galaxy is neat, see the southern cross layed over it? and thats the stars that are there. not put in yay for australia
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (siiiik.jpg)
105.1 KB17 views
Click for full-size image (jupiter.bmp)
34.8 KB16 views
Click for full-size image (sculptor.gif)
199.0 KB15 views

Last edited by bmitchell82; 08-09-2008 at 02:40 PM. Reason: adding in pictures.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +10. The time is now 07:16 AM.

Powered by vBulletin Version 3.8.7 | Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Advertisement
Testar
Advertisement
Bintel
Advertisement