Happy Birthday Mr 6" RC

[johnrt]

I realised this week that my trusty 6" RC is 5 years old, graciously bought as a Valentines present to myself, by me, back in 2012. We had a good clear night on Saturday, so as I was waiting for my main target of the night to rise above National Rail's tree wall I thought I'd re-visit a target that was one of my first DSO images a full month in to my imaging career in 2010. NGC 2903 in Leo.

So here is the 2010 incarnation, imaged with a non modified Cannon 1000d and Skywatcher 150p if I remember correctly. I was mighty proud and pretty amazed I was capturing another galaxy of some 30 million light years distance at the time! My comments on Flickr say that this was 36 x 2 minute exposures, I don't recall much else in the way of detail or equipment.

 

So fast forward 7 years (almost to the day) and here is a snap shot and rough process of 3 hour run with the birthday scope, and is also the first imaging run on my new back garden pier that I have been working on. I was particularly happy to find the trains rumbling past 50 feet away had no impact  on the guiding. I was a little concerned that the concrete base was under sized, I dug out a 40 x 40cm hole 60cm deep, which took 8 bags of premix concrete to fill, but all was well.

 

 

Imaged with the 6"RC and Atik 460ex. 18 x 10 minute Luminance subs stacked in PI and processed in CS5. Needs lots more integration time before it turns in to a serious image, but it did make me chuckle when I compared it to my 2010 effort.

 

 

Thanks for looking

John.

 

[Tom OD]

Looking great. Good focus and sharpness in there.

[laudropb]

Very nice image.

[sloz1664]

Yes John it's amazing how astro photography has come along way in not so many years. I wonder what images we will be taking in the next 7 years. Very nice images btw.

Steve

[cfpendock]

Some really nice detail showing in the core.  Hopefully more time can reduce the noise, but what a contrast the seven years made!

Chris

[swag72]

You have become the king of the 6" RC and do nothing but produce stunning images from it..... Happy 5th Birthday to 'it' - Does 'it' have a name?

[johnrt]

32 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

Yes John it's amazing how astro photography has come along way in not so many years. I wonder what images we will be taking in the next 7 years. Very nice images btw.

Steve

Will we all be taking thousands of 30 second exposures on super sensitive chips with zero read or shot noise on none EQ mounts?

8 minutes ago, cfpendock said:

Some really nice detail showing in the core.  Hopefully more time can reduce the noise, but what a contrast the seven years made!

Chris

Yes I wouldn't normally post an image of just 18 subs, I aim for around the 60 - 100 mark when I'm shooting luminance.

7 minutes ago, swag72 said:

You have become the king of the 6" RC and do nothing but produce stunning images from it..... Happy 5th Birthday to 'it' - Does 'it' have a name?

Yes, it is most commonly referred to as "that stupid telescope", for example;

• Can  you get that stupid telescope off the kitchen table please?
• Are you messing around with that stupid telescope again tonight?

[wimvb]

Great improvement. I imaged this very same dso as last target a year ago with my 150pds on eq3 (no guiding). Now I've upgraded the mount (also az eq6, with guiding) and plan to revisit this season. So, I can relate to your story.

I hope you'll get enough clear skies to finish a colour version.

Thanks for sharing

[johnrt]

Dunno if it will ever make a colour version, but it was worth the snap shot just to compare to my 1st image, good to remember we were all beginners once.

I've often thought about trading up to the 8" RC, but I really don't know if it would be worth it or not, quite a bit of expenditure for not much in the way of gain.

[ollypenrice]

Another fine result from your remarkable RC.

(I've tried this target a couple of times and have been thoroughly jinxed on it. It may take at least two more years for the sulks to wear off before I'll go back for more.)

Olly

[Uranium235]

On 20/02/2017 at 16:21, johnrt said:

Yes, it is most commonly referred to as "that stupid telescope", for example;

• Can  you get that stupid telescope off the kitchen table please?
• Are you messing around with that stupid telescope again tonight?

Very funny, but also - very familiar

[theo]

Great work John, lovely to see the huge progression over time with this wonderful scope.

Pete

[johnrt]

Thank you folks for the kind comments, we're still in discussions (with the finance director) to decide if the 6" RC deserves a present for it's 5th birthday, a Lakeside focus unit or perhaps an electronic filter wheel so I can retire the old hand cranked (& steam powered) one. Goodness knows how I have coped with this scope over the last 5 years manually focussing and changing filters!

[kirkster501]

Hi John,

Happy birthday Mr RC6!  Hope you had a good 'un!

Steve