Quote:
Originally Posted by Satchmo
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...uality+imaging
Glend,Alpal, al the simulations you need to see are presented in this thread frpm 2012 on just this topic, with major contributions from all the usual suspects. :-) The end of the thread is probably the most useful.
Regardless I note that the best images on this forum are taken by guys like Rolf, Sidoneo, Fitz Henry, all using known high quality optics. Whether it is because they treat all aspects of the train with equal respect I dont know. I am a visual guy, and I know for sure that everything helps there, and also for the planetary guys doing short exposures .
Glend: you would probably benefit most from upgrading your mount and tracking capability than worrying about the improvemnts of ion milled optics.
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Thanks for that Mark. I will confess that I am not really trying to produce images that compete with Rolf, Sidoneo, Fitz Henry. I am just trying to get the best performance out of my admittedly budget imaging system as possible. Imaging newts are cost effective and can produce good results, certainly I am happy with my images so far and they are getting better - but not to the point where I would want to post them up here on IIS and run the gauntlet of the critics. So much of imaging lies in the post-capture processing side and that's where I need more work.
I didn't know I had a mount problem. I run it on a new NEQ6Pro, and the combined imaging load is well under the mount payload capacity. I keep the legs short (not extended at all) and it sits on indented pavers buried in the ground. I always make sure to run the Polar alignment routine in the new Synscan V3.35 and it is correct to less than a few seconds. I run wide dovetail bars top and bottom of the scope secured to the cast rings spaced 13" apart to stiffen up the tube support structure. The scope and gear is all balanced on the mount in both axis. All of my imaging is guided now, using an ZWO ASI130MM camera on an Orion Miniguider scope set in the middle of the top dovetail bar. I use Metaguide for guiding and it works great with the ASI camera, it will hold on the target star very tightly for hours at a time. My 8" GSO imaging newt is an f5 (picked to reduce coma effects), with 1000mm focal length, with upgrade mirror springs, flocking, a light shield, and the collimation seems absolutely stable in all the extreme angles of operation (I've checked that). I run a GSO Coma Corrector with spacers to hit my camera sensor at the right distance, and I have no trouble with focus (use a Bathtinov Mask). The imaging train on the focuser does not flex, or seem to, and I keep it as sort as possible. I do run the stock GSO Crayford style focuser(which is lockable) but plan to move to a Moonlight in the future. Not sure what more I can do with a fairly simple Canon 450D DSLR setup.
Which is why I originally asked about the mirror.