Baby(Q)'s first picture

[Peter Ward]

Sticking with the program of using Eta as a "standard candle" decided to point my new Takahashi FSQ-85 (Baby Q) at Eta Carina to get a handle on its performance.

The standard focuser worked extremely well. Very little play and it certainly coped with a STT-8300 plus 8 position wheel without much fuss.

The system was not par-focal from H-alpha to Blue, but I strongly suspect a filter thickness variation from NB to RGB sets. With the moon running to full, I decided H-alpha for now was the go.

Anyway, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.....

First light image is here

[RobF (Rob)]

Wow, you can't complain about that for a single sub! (albeit 20mins).

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by RobF

Wow, you can't complain about that for a single sub! (albeit 20mins).

Thanks Rob...

Sorry...forgot to amend the text (now fixed) . It is a 3x 10 minute effort.

[LewisM]

NOICE! I said it's NOICE!

Dunno where you guys find the clear skies, but send some north will ya! If it's not rain and cloud, it's cirrostratus!

[astronobob (Bob)]

Struuuth, 3 x 10mins, I cant wait to get off SLR's and onto CCD's tho I doubt a Tak FSQ-85 wiil find its way into my astro kit , ,
Impressive stuff Peter,,

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Pretty good for only 30 minutes. Very detailed.

Cheers

Steve

[dvj (John)]

Lovely little scope. Great match with the 8300, and a great image too!

[Peter Ward]

Thanks for your feedback guys... I suspect this should have gone under equipment discussions. Indeed the FSQ-85 does look like a good match for the KAF8300 sensor. That said, the shallow wells of this sensor fill quite quickly, with many stars reaching saturation within the 10 minute subs used here.... shorter exposures being the likely fix. Field flatness and correction of the Baby Q looks to be excellent. Hard to believe just 85mm of aperture can perform so well, as even the fickle finger is resolved in the posted data. Well done Takahashi

[LewisM]

It's great when you find a perfect scope-CCD match, as I did with the SXVR-M25C and FL102S. Everything just WORKS without much effort

When you can ale 1 or 2 pictures and get such data you know things are right.

Peter, if you do a SYD-BNE-BNE-SYD, can you bring up some clear sky please - all us QLD'ers will chip in

[Octane (Humayun)]

That's superb!

I already have an FSQ/STL marriage made in heaven. It might be worthwhile looking at a Baby-Q/8300 as a second/travel combination on a lightweight mount at some stage.

H

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Octane

That's superb!

I already have an FSQ/STL marriage made in heaven. It might be worthwhile looking at a Baby-Q/8300 as a second/travel combination on a lightweight mount at some stage.

H

Thanks H, but imaging at 450mm is a no-brainer.

I've got the FSQ106 as well... a very fine instrument! ...but it's such a nuggety (and heavy) sucker (optical-version of a wombat) that I've found it needs a beefy mount to perform well....

Hence the FSQ-85 which I hope to take to Central Oz in May

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Octane

That's superb!

I already have an FSQ/STL marriage made in heaven. It might be worthwhile looking at a Baby-Q/8300 as a second/travel combination on a lightweight mount at some stage.

H

I have used my reduced BabyQ with a QHY8 on an HEQ5Pro on a trip last year and found the combination really worked well. What I found surprising and a bit of a pain was the amount of "other" stuff you need to drag around to make it all work together.

Still, it's great to b able to do it at all.

Peter

[multiweb (Marc)]

Beautiful field. So this is like a mini FSQ right?

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Beautiful field. So this is like a mini FSQ right?

Yep, picked it in one

It's the same optical design (Petzval 4 element).

Shorter, lighter and you can still the same Taka reducer as the FSQ106 (which I'll try tonight, weather permitting) ... or barlow.

I expect it will be a nice WF comet-catcher