laser_jock99

Nice - wonder what F ratio?

Don't remember if it was the exact same display- but here's some Aurora images from Warwickshire in the 1990's

Why can't they paint them black.......

They probably can't turn the street lights off at night. The generation 'system' needs a 'load'.............

Submitted my observations. One or two less than last year on both sites. Are my eyse getting worse with age or is Light Pollution increasing...........?

REMINDER- don't forget to remember the phase of moon. All too easilly forgoten in the excitment of booking a holiday........

I only use DSLR's at the moment. With a DSLR you have a rectangular imaging area superimposed over an imaging circle. The trick is to get the pick off prism in the area of the long side of the DSL image rectangle so it doesn't intrude into the imaging area.

The EQ6 mount is capable of large payloads, but everything must be supremely well balanced and moved with care. Things liking stopping the scope dead during a fast slew will destroy the gears. So I probably wouldn't recomend this kind of payload. Still, it's interesting to know it can be done!

Up here in the Welsh Mountains the water went away very quickly (downhill) and off into the tributaries of the River Severn...... So yes- it rained a lot but didn't stay too long! I'm looking forward to a slightly drier spring galaxy season.

Around 35Kg for imaging...... EDIT- been running this rig for eight+ years.....but can't say if the mount manufacturer would endorse it or not!!!

Okay, maybe this will help? M8 in just 30 seconds with a 8" F2.9 (ultrafast) scope!

Thanks for endorsment! I run a 12" F4 scope on an EQ6 (pushing the limits on weight loading....). Typically though I'm only imaging at 1200mm (or 870mm if using my focal reducer). The only real wisdom I can offer is that off-axis guiding works best with this kind of set up. I tend to limit my exposures to 10 minutes max, but more often three minutes to avoid too many dropped subs. Good luck!

Can't they paint them black........?

The EQ6 & counterweights stay on - but not any optics.

My outside pier is covered with a selection of BBQ covers when not in use (as seen arrayed on the table to the right). This rig has survied six Welsh Mountain winters so far.........

Critters is a problem for me. The mains is burried in plastic condiut but rodents have attacked all the exposed cabling (12V, USB & radio coaxial feeds) in the past.

Petition signed.

Modern CCD cameras are very sensitive to incoming individual photons, couple that with a large aperture scope and it's remarkable what faint magnitudes can be reached. I attempted to image the same 'blank' area of sky used for the famous Hubble Deep Field Image. Using a 12" F4 fast Newtonian and Lodestar X2 camera, I was able to pick up the four main magnitude 21-22 galaxies in just 180 seconds.

Great post- I'm enjoying the pictures so far! I'm curious if you can see any light pollution from the Cape Flattery Silica Mine ? It's about 20km due south of Lizard Island.

Flexure can be problem on any scope- more so on Newtonians with thin metal tubes and heavy cameras hanging off at right angles. I'm a great believer in beefing-up the dovetail and tube rings to support the scope properly. Even my little 6" Newtonian benefits from a custom made, longer, stronger dovetail bar. No flexure here!

Nice rig- look forward to seeing some more images.

Thanks for sharing- rarely seen on UK forums due to it's low altitude. Needs a dark southern horizon to show well!

Head over to Wales for some of the UK's darkest skies.

Also been some nasty rain in Mid Wales last 24 hours. Observatory is fine - house is leaking though! Roads badly flooded- had an epic 8 hour 'road trip' to Shrewsbury and back yesterday. Clocked up 210 miles to find a way round it all......