New Forest Observatory ®

This is the second (and final) bit of ancient history that I’ll be looking at today. This time it is Merope (and Ally’s braid) again in the Pleiades, this time from 25/12/2005 (so it looks like I was out imaging on Christmas evening that year). This is also taken on the original Hyperstar (no collimation or rotation adjustment) on a Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS, with the tiny little SXVH9C OSC CCD (1.4Mp). This was (only) 95 subs at 55-seconds per sub, and again we see a glassy smooth (noise free) image, with very little depth.

Sometimes it is good to delve into a bit of ancient history to see how things have developed (or not). This image of Alcyone (in the Pleiades) is from 20/11/2005. It was taken using an original Hyperstar (no collimation or rotation adjustment) on a Celestron Nexstar C11 with a tiny little SXVH9C OSC CCD (1.4 megapixels from memory). This is a massive 312 subs but with only 20-seconds per sub! What do you notice about the image? Well it is glassy smooth and noise-free due to the 312 subs – BUT – it is not very deep, due to the very short 20-second exposures. Win some, lose some I guess.