Hi All,
Here is the first serious test of the new 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian after I got everything fine tuned: A quick shot of the famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion.
Please note that this is
straight out of the camera, no processing was done apart from a simple curve stretch to reveal the dynamic range.
Link to full resolution image (3.6MB)
Image details:
Date: 7th December 2013
Exposure: Luminance 35 mins @ -25C
Telescope: 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand
This was taken in between clouds on a humid night with rather poor seeing and so I only managed 35 minutes of data.
I used a new coma corrector, the Baader MPCC MkIII. It seems to be very efficient at removing coma in the image; Stars are round and sharp across the frame from edge to edge.
I also installed the Ovision worm upgrade kit for the Losmandy G-11 mount, and as a result there is no star trailing in R.A. The performance of the mount is much improved, way better than I expected.
Overall I think this new scope is far superior to my old one and I'm very happy to see the flat corrected field produced by the new MPCC, and the top performance of the Ovision upgrade.
The light gathering power is obviously much greater too, probably about twice that of the old 10", given the increased aperture and fresh mirror coatings.
Comments most welcome.
Regards,
Rolf