Busy night for me

[Zuts]

Some planetary fun

The Moon
Jupiter
Mars
Saturn
Venus

All taken with a Edge HD 9.25 @ F30 (except venus) with a ZWO 1600 MMC Pro.

Focusing with a Bhatinov mask.

I Posted a question asking should I sell my ZWO 290 MC and buy a mono guide cam as I have a ZWO 1600. I think I have my answer. I can see no reason for keeping the 290. Don't get me wrong it's a great camera but the 1600 is also a planetary camera and its far easier to find and frame planets. So maybe I will get a mono 1600. Dual use as guide cam and maybe one day I will do narrowband or RGB planetary.

So I think I am pushing it at F30 with a 9.25 Edge. An Edge HD 11 would give me around 8.5 meters and would be crisp? Also it's a great deep sky dark site scope so ....

Cheers
Paul

[Bushy69]

A productive night, thats a nice set of images.

Cheers,

Justin

[Wavytone]

Hi Paul, nice, typical “Celestron” images. A C11 Edge HD will give you a bigger image scale and brighter images sure, but resolution will be much the same.

A scope with supreme optical quality will give better, clearer detail than a slightly larger scope with mediocre optics. And most Celestron and Meade SCTs are... well... ordinary.

To get sharper images you’ll have to switch from SCTs with a fat Central obstruction to something else, either for example a 9” Schiefspiegler at f/23 will do far better or a high-end maksutov - TEC or AP at F/15 or f/20 with small secondary.

Another option is a big old-school newtonian planet killer with an f/9 primary and a Barlow or eyepiece projection, but mounting this will be a huge problem.

This is the point of strehl as a measure of quality ... Celestron and Meade SCTs typically are 0.8...0.9 but none top 0.9. My mak is 0.965 - and has a small secondary obstruction.

If you have the $$$$ the last of the Russian optics sets if for sale at APM - a 14”Mak by Matthias Wirth with Intes glass.

FWIW I see you are in Sydney, if you would like go side by side with my scope to see what is really possible from a 9” I’m up for it tonight. Mine is on an AZEQ6 if you’re tempted to put your camera on but my focusser is rubbish.

[Zuts]

Thanks Justin, cold but worth it.





Thanks Wavy.

I was getting far more detailed images at F20, I could get good detail on the hexagon but at F30 it's a bit mushy.

Last night I was trying with a bhatinov mask and the sharpcap tool but as you know it jumps around and you are never sure if you are at the best focus. I do have a feathertouch auto focuser and was using focus max 4, however I just got it and to date can never get a decent v curve with the SCT, so I removed it last night and tried the mask.

I am going to try one more time with the feathertouch tonight, and compare images at F20 and F30, maybe they will be a bit more detailed if I get the focus spot on. However looking at the moon image which is one shot from a video at F30 i'm probably not that far off. Which shows that a 20 buck mask is far better value than an $800 focus boss setup.

I would love a 14inch mak as mentioned in your reply, however I did not check the price, I am over 60 and have already had one heart attack....

Thanks for the offer, Usually I image at a park in Glebe where I live, but this weekend I am all setup in a backyard in Castle Hill.

Cheers
Paul