An irregular test

[Paul Haese]

This is a mono image of my first light on the new Truss Newtonian. Only 110 minutes and with 10 minute subs. The scope is a speed boat compared to the FSQ (which I have just sold) and the RC. I'll enjoy the faster imaging speed which will allow me to getting imaging done faster. At the moment I still need to crop the very outer edge of the frame as I have some tilt in two corners opposite each other.

I intend to do more luminance on the image (probably about 240-360 minutes) and also to collect data on the colour in the next couple of weeks.

As to the object and image: This is an irregular galaxy about 5.8 million light years away from the Earth. It is apparently one of the few galaxies where individual stars can be resolved; probably with much larger apertures. The star in the foreground is mag 7.7 and the galaxy is about mag 10.6. You can just make out few dust lanes near the centre of the galaxy.

There are also a myriad of smaller galaxies in the back ground. Most of the larger ones are around mag 17-18. A few though are around mag 21-23.

[Merlin66]

Paul,
Details of the actual telescope, camera and mount????

[Stevec35]

Looks very promising Paul. I wish my first light images turned out that well.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Ken. The details are found below the image on my website but I'll repeat them here.

Telescope is a GSO f4 Truss Newtonian
Camera is a QSI683 WSG
Mount is SB PME
Corrector is a TS GPU (same as the Skywatcher one)





Thanks Steve. Lots of fiddling has been done in the last two months on this scope. I had to sort an astigmatism problem and then beef up the secondary cage a bit. I think the scope has real potential now.

[Merlin66]

Paul,
Thanks for that....but what's the aperture of the GSO f4 Newtonian - it seems to be missing.

[Paul Haese]

Ah, sorry for that. I have rectified that problem now. It is a 302mm aperture.

[xelasnave]

Hi Paul
I am happy to see the new rig is showing promise.

Have you cropped this yet? If not the stars you complain about ,I presume, dont seem too bad.

alex

[LewisM]

Something is irregular in that image. Oh yeah, the galaxy :P

Nice for a trial!

[Paul Haese]

Yes this is cropped Alex. About 500 pixels wide and 300 pixel high. This is not a problem for smaller objects but for larger targets this will be a problem and I therefore need to eliminate the tilt and slop to utilise the entire frame.



That is highly irregular of you to say that Alex. :P

[Atmos]

Nice test image Paul. There is some great irregular detail in the centre but it would appear that 3/4 corners have some tilt, as long as it isn't my astigmatism playing in the bottom left!
You'll have a real photon sucker once you get the tilt issues fixed :)

[LewisM]

OK, no worries Mike :P

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Colin, the tilt now is nothing compared to what was there before. It was really bad. After I have finished this image I'll pay a visit and add another shim or two on each of the three corners. I am hoping that will sort most of it.

I never really thought it would be a total pain to get the tilt right on this corrector, but it being so long it is really sensitive to tilt.



;) Thought that might amuse. Thanks Lewis.

[atalas]

:lol:

[atalas]

That looks quite awesome Paul :thumbsup: nice luminosity shining through the stars, and galaxy stars resolving by the looks of It.....I think you must be smiling right now :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

What a nice galaxy, and what a fast beast! To produce that sharp clean field in just a couple hours is spectacular.

What we see when we look in the corners is: ... even more tiny distant galaxies.

[multiweb]

Wow that's a nice fov! Lots of interesting faint fuzzies in the background. :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Look very promising Paul :thumbsup:

I have been following your journey with this telescope with a great interest. I have been thinking of a fast Newtonian but I'm concerned that due to my lack of experience I may be spending more time tweaking collimation than benefitting from a faster instrument.

[gregbradley]

Looking very good. A little bit of tilt to contend with but you must be getting close.

Welcome to speed imaging.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Louie. I am certainly happier now with the potential of the scope. f4 is so much faster than using the RC at f8. The scope seems to resolve things nicely but further tweaking will be needed.



Thanks Mike. It is a nice little galaxy isn't it? I just happened upon it whilst testing. There are not many images of it about on the web. 4 or 5 from memory.




Suavi, the collimation is easy really. You will need cats eye collimation tools, which will give you good collimation easily. Using a laser for confirmation too. The hard part is sorting the tilt. The coma corrector is very sensitive to tilt, so some trial and error is needed. You might need to do a mod to the secondary cage too but nothing is too hard; just minor tweaks really.



Greg you should have seen the tilt before I started adding shims and remember this is a crop too. A couple more shims should sort things out.

[RickS]

A very successful test, Paul!