Posts Made By: Robert Gabany

I have a new MaxSxope40 on order and plan to mount it to my 12" LX200. I would appreciate comments on using a piggy-back mount versus a Losmandy dovetail setup.

I took receipt of SBIG's new one shot, two mega pixel color camera (ST-2000XCM) two days ago and was able to point it at the sky last night using my Takahashi CN-212 at the cassegrain focus (f/12.4).

This is essentially the first decent color CCD image I have ever taken and it is a testament to how simple this new camera is to operate. I mean, if someone who essentially does not know what he is doing can take this image, given all of its flaws, think what someone who knows what they are doing can accomplish!

The image below is of M-3 and is the result of 12, 30 second images that were aligned, combined and stetched with the histogram tool in CCDSoft.


Additional, full size first light images are accessible at the following URL's:

each are 12 X 30 seconds with auto-darks, aligned, combined, histogram stretched, no auto-guiding

M-3 (full size): http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-3_040704.jpg

M-13:
http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-13_combined.jpg

M-13 binned 2X2:
http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-13_2X2_combined.jpg

Stunning! Your photograph takes an old favorite and presents it from a fresh perspective.

I beleive this is a defining characteristic of other great contemporary photographers like Gendler, Hallas and Gleason: the ability to capture a familiar "astro-chestnut" in an manner that reveals new information which was previously hidden or veiled so that even the jaded viewer is caught off guard, surprised to the point that they stop what they were doing or thinking and just stare...

You have a great talent, Mark!

Go to the following site for a complete explanation of how to collimate your scope. It features a little FLASH application that let's you practice before you actually adjust your scope...it's really cool.

Below is a link to the European Tak distributor website filterd by Alta Vista's Babelfish translation service so you can understand the text.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?lp=fr_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.optique-unterlinden.com%2Fpratique%2Fcollimat.htm

The mount is rated to carry up to 25 pounds, according to the Texas Nautical Repair site. I used a CN-212 which weighs in at about or slightly over 20 pounds, with the tube ring, on this mount with great success.

Magnificent! Unbeleiveable, jaw-dropping detail. This is the new benchmark.

Amazing details that rival NASA imagery! Congratulations on your optical train, seeing and (more importantly) your prodigious skill-set. Please keep 'em coming!

Wow! What a great image of this familar nebula.