Your Astronomy Dream Product?

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

I’m firmly of the notion that the GIGO principle applies to imaging i.e. “garbage in garbage out”
Anything that improves the data works for me.
Higher order, adaptive optics would be amazing (i.e. deformable mirrors )

Edmund optics had a 5" deformable mirror with electronics and SDK a couple of years ago. But you have to do everything yourself.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Edmund optics had a 5" deformable mirror with electronics and SDK a couple of years ago. But you have to do everything yourself.

Was this advertised on April 1st?

With the demise of CCD's sadly things are going one step forward and two back, as often happens when accountants influence engineering.

The original SBIG AO was not as Bill suggests ".... commercial AO boxes that only correct for mount imperfections"

When its control software ran under DOS, the system could achieve 40Hz tip-tilt corrections to the incoming wavefront.

This is the first order AO correction that even higher order professional systems must apply.
These finely calibrated units often cost $$ to send back for correcting "defects" purely due to rough handling by FedEx/UPS etc. hence commercially had issues from the get go.

The introduction of Windoze95 slowed it down a tad, with 30Hz being more
typical. Then the design was made more robust by the use of a refractive element, but that slowed corrections by a factor of two i.e. 15Hz.

That said, 15Hz guiding can and does improve FWHM's by a good 30%
First order AO works well on nights of "slow seeing". But when guide-stars start to look like fuzzballs, sure the system has few practical benefits.

It's also worth noting, it would nigh impossible to guide a telescope + mount at 15Hz.

I regularly watch the atmosphere bounce around guide stars in Ra and Dec, that my AO-X quickly calms....

but to get 150Kg of Telescope/Mount/Counterweights etc. to ignore inertia and move at the same rate and be passed off as "mount imperfections"
sorry...I simply can't agree as being an accurate description of the physical reality

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your insight and experience you have had with the SBIG AO-X, and a 30% improvement in FWHM is at least something that is a step in the right direction.

I was not suggesting that mount corrections were happening at 15Hz or higher, however the tip/tilt optical window is operating at that rate and a guide pulse to mount may only be once every 4 or 5 secs.

When I looked into these AO units in 2014, I ignored the SBIG product because you could only use their guide cameras and you had to use Maxim software.

The other two that were available back then ($1600 ea) was the Starlight Express SXV-AO and the Orion Steadystar AO, both of them claiming to provide up to 40Hz correction to the tip/tilt window.

Orion has discontinued their product but you can still purchase the Starlight Express unit. Except its old technology that uses a RS232 port as its interface to the computer, Orion used a USB port.

In the end I rejected both of them because of the amount of backfocus they steal (70mm for the Starlight Express and 45mm for the Orion both including the integrated OAG).

This was the sales blurb for the Orion Steadystar:-

SteadyStar's high-speed refractive correction eliminates tracking errors far more effectively than regular autoguiding, resulting in better astrophotos with rounder and more pinpoint stars

Fastest adaptive optics guider (used for amateur astrophotography) on the market today! Capable of making more than 40 corrections per second, depending on guide star brightness and computer speed to overcome your mount's periodic error, combat wind-induced vibration, and even compensate for some of the negative effects of turbulent seeing.


Bill

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Originally Posted by GrahamL

Cloud dissapator.

Somewhat late in learning of this thread.
What you suggest is only partially useful. What else is needed, needs to be applied, once you have the sky cleared of clouds.
Clearing out all those swarms of satellites. Being able to zap them with a signal so they make a bee-line for whatever mob ordered their launch.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by JeniSkunk

Somewhat late in learning of this thread.
What you suggest is only partially useful. What else is needed, needs to be applied, once you have the sky cleared of clouds.
Clearing out all those swarms of satellites. Being able to zap them with a signal so they make a bee-line for whatever mob ordered their launch.

That would be the Starlink satellite swarm, which are Elon Musk's project. He pretty much seems to be ignoring the concerns of the astronomy community, other than testing painting some of them to reduce reflectivity, which i suspect is just a panacea. Unfortunately he has US FCC permission to launch these things, and that is all he needs. It pretty much follows the attitude that space is there to be exploited, which is how the planet became so messed up. Ultimately we all may have to buy time share on high orbit (above the swarm) telescope platforms, or Moon based observatories; and I am sure SpaceX will be happy to transport the gear up there (for a price).

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Not just Musk's roll out of the spaceborne equivalent of junk mail, Glen, but ALL the military and spy satellites as well, defunct or working.
Being able to forcibly return all such space pollution to sender would be a big boost in clearing the skies for astronomy.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

An equatorial mount that auto polar aligns, and plate solves. No need for adding a laptop etc to it, same for autoguiding, built in. Only need a computer to acquire images and maybe input a target

[warpsl (Jason)]

Skywatcher 7 inch refractor