Leo Triplet

[RichieJarvis]

Hi All,

I recently brought a Meade .33 Focal Reducer, and decided to have a play last night - Leo was nicely up in the sky around 10:30, so I setup and went for the Leo Triplet.

Based upon the FoV, I reckon this has brought my F/7 102 down to around F/3.2 at the cost of large amount of vignetting - I need to sort out the spacing really, but need a custom adaptor to do so. It also had a rather strange effect on the shapes of some of the stars towards the edge, but nevermind

Several subs were ruined by the occasional cloud causing the guidecam to lose the guidestar, hence the odd sub counts in this one!

Really wish I had captured some Ha data to go with this one now, but nevermind - maybe next year!

Heres the image data:

Date: 2009-05-20

Location: South Common Observatory

Scope: Astro Professional 102ED at approx F/3.2

Camera: SXV-H9

Exposure (L): 22 x 300 seconds - 1x1

Exposure ®: 18 x 200 seconds - 2x2

Exposure (G): 21 x 200 seconds - 2x2

Exposure (: 22 x 200 seconds - 2x2

Guidescope: Williams Optics Zenithstar 66

Guidecamera: SX Guidehead

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Richie

[Stephen Green]

Hi Richie what a great image

Stephen

[Hipolito]

I likes it. Really nice shot.

[Psychobilly]

Nice image ...

Both the Vignetting and the dodgy star shapes are due to trying to use the f3.3 reducer to do something its not really meant to do....

Its really only any good for the tiny sensors in the Meade DSI I , III and LPI's

Here's the manual online...

http://www.californiastars.net/lx200gps/files/documentation/focalreducer33_pg01.gif

http://www.californiastars.net/lx200gps/files/documentation/focalreducer33_pg02.gif

And manulas for a whole range of Meade accessories... and scopes...

http://www.californiastars.net/lx200gps/tips.html

Peter...

[Taff]

Hi Richie' thats a very nice capture of the 3 galaxies nice and clear with you.Mark