Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

Hi all,

No students and a clear sky! 8O Been a while since that was the case!! So I dicided to have some fun at the observatory! Here is a shot of M66.

16" f/10 schmidt-cassegrain with f/6.3 focal reducer. SBIG ST-9E

20 x 3 minutes clear, 10 x 3 minutes red and green. 7 x 3 minutes blue. Unfortunately the low altitude claimed the guide star before I could get the rest of the blue images.

Cheers

Maurice

Hi all,

My first attempt at using narrowband filters for a colour image. IC 1318, the nebulae around Deneb.

60 min H-alpha, 60 min SII, 18 min OIII, processed with Ha as red S as green and O as blue. 300mm f/3.8 Tamron zoom lens at 300mm. SBIG ST8XE.

A couple of problems with it. The zoom was slightly different for the Ha. I forgot to check it after changing the filter. (SBIG CCDs will not focus if you try to use a filter wheel with a standard camera lens.) As a result, the Ha images do not quite match. The other problem is that I used a Lumicon OIII filter and it appears to have an IR leak. As a result, the stars are bloated with that filter. I will need to piggyback an IR blocking filter with that one.

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Another image from my session on Sunday night. NGC 4656, sometimes known as the "Hockey Stick" galaxy.

60 min unfiltered, 15 min red and green, 18 min blue. SBIG ST9XE. 10" f/6.3 LX200.

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Amazing movie of the Tvashtar volcano on Io erupting. Taken by the New Horizons spacecraft.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000972/

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Just arrived back in the USA from 4 weeks observing back home in Oz.

Most of my time I was busy doing photometry, however I had some time to experiment using narrow-band filters I had just purchased to get some "pretty pictures" of some familiar and some not-so-familiar southern objects. Here are a few that I have processed so far. I will post others as I get to them.

In addition to the CCD imaging, I also had time for film photography and visual observing with 80mm binoculars. Of the 22 nights I was at the observatory, only one was totally lost to cloud, and most were totally clear. However on many nights there were strong winds blowing which kicked up a lot of dust, reducing the naked-eye limiting magnitude to only 7.4, except for a few nights following the cloudy night which also brought some light rain which settled the dust resulting in a limiting magnitude of 7.6 - 7.7.

The highlight of the trip however was a visit by a friend from the Perth Observatory. He brought up their new 30" obsession. You have never lived until you have seen things like omigosh centauri, NGC 5128, or eta carina near the zenith under very dark skies with a very large telescope!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy the images.

Cheers,

Maurice

The image below is of NGC 1763, an emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is a combination of 10, 3 minute exposures with an H-alpha filter using a 300mm f/6 newtonain.

Hi all,

At the risk of starting a war of words, I am looking for opinions on the new Meade RCX OTA's, specifically the 14".

I currently have a C-14 for CCD imaging which I use with a focal reducer to get about f/7. It works quite well, but I would rather be able to do away with the foacl reducer for most work. Also, being a metal tube, the focal point changes during the night, making it necessary to take many sets of flat fields.

The RCX 14" is advertised as being f/8 which means I would not need the foacl reducer, and as having a carbon fiber tube which would minimise changes in focal point.

Anybody here used the RCX scopes and know what their quality is like compared to the C-14?

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Yesterday I managed to process some more of my images from my time back in Oz.

This one is NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula in the LMC. Combination of 20, 3 minute images with H-alpha and SII filters and 10, 3 minute images with an OIII filter; taken using a 300mm f/6 newtonian.

cheers,

Maurice

The Oz government is in a turmoil over defence minister's admission that Oz is keeping its troops in Iraq because of oil.

It has been interesting reading about all the backtracking and spin going on since this one got out! :S

More here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/05/1970982.htm

cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

I posted this question on the Equipment forum, but did not get any responses. Hopefully here it will be more visible.

At the risk of starting a war of words, I am looking for opinions on the new Meade RCX OTA's, specifically the 14".

I currently have a C-14 for CCD imaging which I use with a focal reducer to get about f/7. It works quite well, but I would rather be able to do away with the foacl reducer for most work. Also, being a metal tube, the focal point changes during the night, making it necessary to take many sets of flat fields.

The RCX 14" is advertised as being f/8 which means I would not need the foacl reducer, and as having a carbon fiber tube which would minimise changes in focal point.

Anybody here used the RCX scopes and know what their quality is like compared to the C-14?

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Just came across this blog by one of the Hurricane hunters showing pictures of hurricane Felix from their flight into it last night.

One of them shows the moon rising over the eyewall clouds. (just to keep it a little astronomical!! )

Cheers,

Maurice

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/LRandyB/comment.html?entrynum=106&tstamp=200709