coatesg

Mine has a coat now (in 2 bits!). Shrouds from Heather at scope shrouds.

I must do a construction thread!

I'd agree with comments on the Flame - the HH and surrounding emission look super, and the palette really works, and there's great detail in the faint wispy stuff; but the Flame in lemon yellow doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid :-/. 

Apologies to everyone: I reasoned that it had been cloudy for so long this spring, I could buy kit and get away with it... hopefully not cursed it for next week...

I picked up a good deal on a Canon 200mm f2.8 L USM II on Ebay that arrived on Tues - and also have just found a new QHY camera well... (need a new FW and filters now :-O )

1 hour ago, laser_jock99 said:

Not sure I understand your problem. The normal 'cure' to extend the point of focus outwards beyond the current travel of the focusser is to move the primary mirror closer to the secondary (i.e. shorten the the tube).

That or you can use an extension tube (though you might land up vignetting at the drawtube if it's too far out). I have to use a 2" extension to come to focus as I designed the scope for imaging and so have 60 mm between lowest travel and focal plane. Works fine

Just seen this thread - thought I'd throw in some pics of my double truss newt.

Optics were from an Orion SPX350, but I got fed up of the thin walled tube that just wasn't enough to take the weight of everything for imaging. Bought the spider and new mirror cell, and reused the Moonlite CR2, but everything else I designed and made with help from a couple of mates, one who can weld ally, and one has a mill in his garage.

I need shrouds, to wire up the secondary dew heater, and to mount the new PC on the scope, but it's otherwise working!

Mount underneath is a Losmandy Titan - might need another counterweight too :-/

Lovely image Gav - great colour too (very reddened due to the intervening dust!)

Faint/obscure objects: Use Aladin and Simbad! See screenshot below.

The faint patch to the lower left of the galaxy has catalog LEDA 166077 - this almost looks like an extension of one of the spiral arms but is catalogued in its own right. The tiddler right at the left hand side of the frame is 2MASX J03450118+6747228 (from the 2MASS IR survey). HTH!

Well done everyone! Some great images in this one!

More good words from me - adaptor I ordered needed to be ordered from manufacturer, but excellent comms detailing how long it would be - and turned up before expected too!

OK - technically not my first (somewhere there float a load of images taken with a society scope back in the mid-to-late nineties...), but these were the first taken when I got my own ccd+scope going. All ST2000+12"LX200 Classic (sometimes at f6.3, sometimes at f10) or TV Pronto for the wide ones. Guiding was entertaining (the drive wasn't the smoothest), but my first ever results using my kit. My processing skills have come on a bit since then (I hope) - if only I can hurry up and get back setup again - I miss imaging...

So... Sept 2004 NGC7331 (very first image with my stuff I think):

NGC 6946 with Supernova 2004et:

M76 (first LRGB I think...processing a bit harsh...):

M45 (RGB or LRGB - can't remember, through a TV pronto, hand focused, blatted during processing!):t

The Rosette (LRGB on same night, same result with the processing - Not a patch on the B/W version through my Tak with a HAlpha filter...):

And finally, an early one which I quite like: (NGC 2683 in B/W)