This should cheer you imagers up

[geoff_k]

We all moan about the quality of images we try and get, but I reckon we aren't doing as badly as we think we are.

I found this Saturn image from the 1970's. It was taken with the 1.5m telescope at the Catalina Observatory in Arizona. Don't know what camera was used, but it won't have been a webcam!

Now I know that if the observatory is still functioning they could probably improve on it now, but it shows what amateurs can do these days is vastly superior to what could be done by professionals then.

[Vega]

Well we can all feel real smug now... I like it

What on earth would they have thought if they saw some of our webcam results and we say "yeah I used an 80mm Archormatic refractor for this one" LOL

Matt

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

But imagine where we would be now, and what we would know, if the old guys had got access to my shed. CCDs, guiding and goto for the likes of Messier, Herschell et al would have been witchcraft. But if they had got their head around it, with no street lighting like in their day, goodness knows what they would have done with it all.

Makes you wonder why they still build the humongeous stuff up the mountains, they must be doing stuff that they aren't showing us.

Captain Chaos

[legion48]

I reckon just getting above the cloud layer must make it worth building mountain top observatories.

[GazOC]

They've nailed the focus but not enough frames stacked....

[geoff_k]

If Herschel appeared in my back garden one evening I might have to go and change my underwear!

I think he would soon latch on to what I was doing. The technology is new and scopes were much bigger in this day (he had a 40 foot long scope originally I believe) but the basics haven't changed much.

I would love to be able to show him the images I took of the planet he discovered. I wonder what his reaction would be.

As for the Catalina observatory here is a link to the 1.6m Kuiper telescope which I think is on the same site nowadays. They have amongst other things, an image of NGC6791 in Lyra. Judging by the picture and the toys they have to play with, they seem to be slowly geting the hang of things.

http://james.as.arizona.edu/~psmith/61inch/