Hole lot of Rosette

[Chris]

I decided to setup the 150p in the obsy tonight mainly to see how well a Newt worked with the height of my pier. I chose to have another crack at finding the Rosette nebula as I struggled last time out with my ED80 with its pants 6x30 finder:( Luckily the 150p has my red dot on it so I actually found it this time:D

The image consists of 47 x 70 second subs unguided and stacked in DSS with further processing in Paint Shop Pro. I used my Modded Canon 350D which has a bit of a hot pixel issue as can be seen by all the green and blue spodges on the image. When I get time I need to Zoom right in to all these flaws with the clone brush tool or similar which might make things look a little better:D.

Still quite pleased for a first crack at this object:)

Chris

[pixueto]

Nice one Chris. I can see that the 150P gives you the perfect field of view for this target. I'll be having a go next time I have a chance but I'm afraid that with my 200P it won't fit. I'm now worrying about what star I'm going to use for guiding as I use a webcam with PHD and I'm not sure any stars in the area are bright enough.

It must be really nice having an obsy, and not worrying about setting up every night. In my case, it takes me a good hour to get everything ready when guiding -and I'm not even drift aligning! Can you add goto capability to your setup? Life is much, much easier since I've got the synscan.

[Gina]

Very nice Must have a go at that one myself. Sometime when we get a clear night.

Oh and when I've got all my equipment working properly. Had a very frustrating nigh last night with equipment failure

[allcart]

Nice one Chris, I was thinking about the Rosette last night as I had a clear view of it after midnight, but it was a bit too windy to put the rig out. I have to erect a screen to block out the street lamp and it would have blown over, i settled for a bit of widefield for Gemonids instea. I'll have a go at it soon though.

[Chris]

Nice one Chris. I can see that the 150P gives you the perfect field of view for this target. I'll be having a go next time I have a chance but I'm afraid that with my 200P it won't fit. I'm now worrying about what star I'm going to use for guiding as I use a webcam with PHD and I'm not sure any stars in the area are bright enough.

It must be really nice having an obsy, and not worrying about setting up every night. In my case, it takes me a good hour to get everything ready when guiding -and I'm not even drift aligning! Can you add goto capability to your setup? Life is much, much easier since I've got the synscan.

Thanks pix, yes the field of view does fit it rather well doesn't it:) I'll also be trying my 200mm lens on this one at some point as well. Try doing it unguided if you have trouble finding a guide star, I just used 70 second subs unguided.

The obsy's great, still lots to do on it but its great to have it functional. It was the time setting up and putting stuff away that gave me the push to build the obsy, any chance of you building one?

[Chris]

Very nice Must have a go at that one myself. Sometime when we get a clear night.

Oh and when I've got all my equipment working properly. Had a very frustrating nigh last night with equipment failure

Thanks Gina I think you'd love imaging this one:) You do seem to have more than your fair share of equipment problems you do, but you're so tenacious that I doubt anything will stop you, the gremlins might as well give up:D

[Chris]

Nice one Chris, I was thinking about the Rosette last night as I had a clear view of it after midnight, but it was a bit too windy to put the rig out. I have to erect a screen to block out the street lamp and it would have blown over, i settled for a bit of widefield for Gemonids instea. I'll have a go at it soon though.

Thanks allcart, how did you get on imaging the Gemonids, I saw a few wizz by last night:)

[Chris]

I've been playing around with the image attempting to get the background sky a touch more natural and the rosette a bit deeper looking, I also scratch removed all the hot pixels I could find, which version do you guys prefer now? I find the processing to be the most mentally challenging part of AP, good fun though:)

[WaveSoarer]

That's a great image.

[Chris]

Thanks Wavesoarer, as a bonus it also matches Sir Patricks jacket:D

[Andyfx]

That's a lovely image Chris. Why don't you keep the 150p, flock it and drop a nice dual speed focuser on it?

[Gina]

That's better Chris

[Gina]

Is that broad spectrum colour, Chris? It looks like it's pretty well all Ha.

[Beulah]

Good effort, Starfox, that's an excellent image.

Keep at it Gina, I'm sure you'll get there!

[Gina]

I might be able to reduce the risk of equipment failure but I have no control of the weather whatever unfortunately Normal state ATM - yep! - raining

Must say, this hobby (??) stretches my patience and perseverence to breaking point!

[pixueto]

Thanks pix, yes the field of view does fit it rather well doesn't it:) I'll also be trying my 200mm lens on this one at some point as well. Try doing it unguided if you have trouble finding a guide star, I just used 70 second subs unguided.

The obsy's great, still lots to do on it but its great to have it functional. It was the time setting up and putting stuff away that gave me the push to build the obsy, any chance of you building one?

I wish but I'm too clumsy for that, I'd be out of my depth but maybe a pier in the the garden would save me half of the time I currently spend setting up. That would be nice!

As for unguided subs, you may not believe this but I have less tracking accuracy since I upgraded to a HEQ5Pro. With my trusty EQ5 with the handcontroller modded for guding, I used to get pinpoint stars from 10 minutes subs. Now I'm nowhere near that and, even with 6 mins subs and no wind, I still had to discard some of them (that didn't happen with the EQ5). I know the HEQ5Pro should be far more accurate and I must look into this when I have some time. What is nice, though is typing in the target in the synscan pad and watch the telescope find the object for me. That saves me a lot of time, particularly here in SE London where the LP is so bad that I couldn'd even use my telrad and ended up selling it.

[Chris]

That's a lovely image Chris. Why don't you keep the 150p, flock it and drop a nice dual speed focuser on it?

Hey Andy:) the 150p is a great little scope for imaging it really sucks in the photons e.g. this image used barely over 1 minute subs! I was a bit worried about my pier being a bit too high for a Newt but if you spin the tube around with the tube rings so the focuser is pointing vaguely towards the ground its reachable without a step and would only take a small step close to zenith. Surprisingly, even though my camera was hanging upside down the stock focuser held focus all night even without tightening the locking screw (I guessed the initial focus as I don't have a mask for this scope) So I don't think I'd upgrade the focuser unless I had cash burning a hole in my pocket. I would say you have a good argument for me keeping it which I will for at least a while, its just that if a 150p f/5 can do this what can a well fettled 200p f/4 Quattro produce?

[Chris]

That's better Chris

Thanks Gina, I think I prefer the second one as well:)

Is that broad spectrum colour, Chris? It looks like it's pretty well all Ha.

Yes Gina, I just used my full spectrum modded 350D with my new CLD-CCD filter which I think is worth its weight in gold!

I think this star forming region must be Hydrogen dominated, not much in the way of other colours with my camera but there is when you see people use the Hubble Palette?

[Chris]

Good effort, Starfox, that's an excellent image.

Thanks Beulah, I didn't expect such results with just 53 minutes:D

[Andyfx]

Lol very true Chris, a 200p should be impressive but might sit even higher on the pier eeek! FLO are doing the flocking for 7 quid a roll now btw :-)

Again, very nice image, bet youre chuffed. Youre spoilt for choice now with your scopes now lol, has the zs66 been relegated to guide scope now?

[Chris]

Hey Andy yes I'm chuffed with this one, the only thing I don't like is the pick stars that should be yellow, my fault for not getting my head around layers yet:D The Quattro has a focal length of 800mm vs 750mm for the 150p so it shouldn't be much longer mate, plus I can lower the pier adapter by about 1.5" which will help a bit. I clocked the price of the flocking the other day when I was considering doing the ED80 which would be tricky in such a tight cylinder but I just don't know if it really makes a noticable difference or not? If I find out it does I'll go for it, thanks for the reminder though I'd forgot all about that:D

I am spoilt for choice at the moment, its quite a little collection I have going:D I have imaging scopes with focal lengths of 388mm 600mm and 750mm plus a 200mm manual camera lens. I proabably will sell one of the apo's to help fund the 200mm Newt as all I really need is a good longish focal length scope for for close up stuff (the Newt) and one of my fracs for widefield. These two plus my 200mm lens for super wide shots should give all the combos I need. Theres probably no point going longer than a 1000mm for focal length as my mount probably woudn't cope with it.

I'm leaning towards keeping the ED80 and getting the reducer for it which means I'm contemplating selling the WO66 with FRII, I might cry though:(

[Andyfx]

Lol no need to cry, that little zs66 and the mark 2 flattener should fetch a good price, and help towards the quattro. Then you can flog the 150P and start saving for a dedicated ccd mwahahaha. Looks like you're doing well with the imaging, must be nice to have the pier sat permanantly in the obsy, no lugging stuff about anymore :-D

I'm definately looking for a longer focal length scope, so many choices though! Do like the look of the Mak-Newts though.....

As for flocking the ED80, you're totally right, that'd be a pig of a job! Might as well wait and make that decision on the Quattro. Are you going to look into guiding?

[Chris]

True I think it would sell pretty well especially with the WO FRII they are like hens teeth, and the mk3 doesn't work with the WO66 so you need the mk2 which brings it down to f/4.7! I think DSLR's are better on a fast Newt, but as for guiding I'm thinking about something like an Atik Titian, which will do planetary, guiding and would be an intro to CCD imaging. I'm not going to set up guiding until the spring though once the warm room kitted out, like you say at the moment its just nice not to have to lug all the kit about so I'm chuffed doing basic unguided imaging at the moment:)

Theres a 190MN on ASB for 700 pounds mate, But if it was me I'd be tempted by an 8"RC if its focal length you want in a compact package, which is still good for imaging with an almost inherent flat field. Have you thought about thsi option mate?

[Andyfx]

Funnily enough i've been looking at the Atik Titan recently too, looks good and the software will be great but you can get the Qhy6 for 100 quid cheaper and is cooled. I believe that driver issues for the qhy6 are sorted now too....

I must admit that i've not looked at the RC's yet, but may well have a nose in a bit lol. Am still debating between a second scope or simply saving for a deicated ccd then nb filters etc. My little scope does fine and when the clouds clear, if my field is 100% sorted then i think i'll be a happy bunny for the time being.

Btw you do seem to be doing very well unguided with the 150, but i reckon the ed80 will churn out some crackers too!

[James]

THat's a nice image Chris - nicely fitting in to the field of view. All the more so given the relative shortness of the subs and that they were unguided!

James