Saturn nebula and M11 with Mintron12V6

[johnh]

SPX350, EQ6, Mintron12V6.

A couple of low alt objects I would not normally bother with as they are too low but they turned out quite well.

NGC 7009 is always difficult and looks great in an eyepiece very Saturnesk. M11 is a very dense cluster like a globular scaping over the roof tops ahead of NGC7009. Very sensitive Mintron with 2.56sec exposures did very well on breezy night these very short subs survived breeze.

M11 at F4.53 L/RGB 18.9min/4.0m 3.9m 4.5mins in 2.56sec subs.

NGC7009 at F13.6 L/HaRGB 21min/4.5m 7m 7m 7mins in 2.56sec subs.

Thanks, JohnH.

[rich_t]

Nice shots John. Great detail in the Saturn Neb, 4.7meter focal length, wow!

Rich.

[MidnightSun]

Nice shots...

[vincentnm]

Really impressed with the Saturn Nebula. Usually dont see much of that.

How does imaging with the Mintron compare with a CCD cam ? I saw a book dedicated to video imaging and some people swear by it.

Regards

Vincent.

[johnh]

Hello Vincent, Bern from MA said it was unbeatable as a guidecam because of its sensitivity (80mm F6 guidescope sees 12th mag stars) which is what I mostly use it for but small bright PN image really well in my 14" newt at long fl from 3200-6500mm. It is only 8bit uncooled with hot pixels and does not have the Well Capacity of 16bit mono ccd's and cannot be binned. The 2.56sec subs means I can image when it is breezy as quite a few exposures survive and LRGB takes 30mins which is quick.

Some use these video cams as eyepiece cams to show objects down to 18th mag, the Watec is probably better at this with 10sec exposures (more sensitive) but Mintron is much cheaper and you can connect it to a LCD monitor without a laptop.

These are essentially rough and ready cams that give instant results rather than the many hours 16bit cooled ccd's require. They can also be used to image moon and planets (not as good as DMK) and also as a meteor cam with a fisheye lens.

JohnH.

[Tim]

Like that Saturn nebula John, hardly ever see that, really good detail there.

[Yoddha]

Nice pictures! M11 is becoming one of my favorite summer open clusters. Pleasant to observe, and repaying to capture Saturn nebula looks hard target, especially on such slow ratio! I'll look for your forward posts.