60 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE April 2018
S The author’s father looking through a polar
alignment axis. Above right: The author’s
wide-field rig, showing the Takahashi scope
and FLI camera. Right: The Witch Head
Nebula, captured using the same system as
the LMC image on the previous page.slip into wider-field imaging. I decided
to mount the new and rather hefty
joint FSQ scope/FLI camera rig, side by
side with my existing high-resolution
system. This would increase the weight
of gear on my circa-1994 Takahashi
NJP mount to more than 50 kg,
which, considering the equivalent
counterweights required, meant
some 100 kg would be riding on this
legendary Japanese mount. Luckily,
the NJP lived up to its well-earned
reputation and performed perfectly. The
new scope also performed perfectly, as
did the FLI Proline 16803 camera — so,
as they say, it is now happy days!
The accompanying picture (previous
pages) of the Large Magellanic Cloud
(LMC) is the second image I made with
this new wide-field imaging outfit. It
comprises just under 10 hours of data
taken over three nights in October and
November 2017, and includes H-alpha
and OIII data, as well as RGB, using
Astronomik narrowband and Deep
Sky RGB filters. I decided to frame the
scene to capture the greatest amount of
interesting HII and OIII regions within
the heart of this, our most majestic
dwarf satellite galaxy.The resulting wealth of detail,
the pinpoint stars and the amount
of hydrogen emission showcased is
quite mind-blowing for me. Way back
in 1985, I recall stumbling upon a
black and white contact print of a UK
Schmidt plate, lying discarded in one
of the out-buildings of the old and
historic Oddie refractor at Mt Stromlo
Observatory (prior to the devastating
fires of 2003). It showed all the same
LMC HII regions, albeit overexposed.
I recall I was completely mesmerised
by the sight, and never for a moment
thought that someday I would capture
something very similar, or even better!
When I was receiving those returned
astronomy books from members of the
Astronomical Society of the Hunter
all those years ago, I could never
have imagined recording the LMC,
nor any other region for that matter,
in such detail and with such clarity.
We certainly live in a great time forastronomical imaging... and who knows
what the future will enable us amateurs
to record?
It must be said that without my
father’s toil and burden through a life
of poverty in Italy during the 1920s and
’30s, followed by a World War and then
immigration to work hard in a new and
strange homeland, it would not have
been possible to record this amazing
vista. Love you Dad, you done good.IMAGING