Hyperstar Rosette in Ha

[multiweb]

Did an all-nighter last night. Pretty cool after Thursday when my QHY5 stopped working so I had no guiding. Tonight I had the lodestar. That worked flawlessly. Problem is that I don't have a way to fit on my finder scope so I had to piggy back my APO on top of the C11. Total rig weight 25kg. The G11 didn't seem to care much. I did though when lifting everything up there. Still feeling it this morning. :P

Very wet but clear from 11:00pm onwards. This is 10x300s on the Rosette. Finally got the primary tilt spot on. Residual top left corner is a final tweak with the tilt of the focal plane on the hyperstar in the front of the scope then I'm there. On axis details are nice and sharp. Little black strip on all stars at 5 o'clock is a piece of flocking that decided to give way inside the tube and was hanging. There's always something. :rolleyes:

Big one here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/NGC2237_HS3_ha_fff.jpg)- 2669x1997 [2.53MB]
HD here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/NGC2237_HS3_ha_ff.jpg)1920x1437 [1.27MB]

*Added some uncompressed 1:1 crops of the central area with some details.

Thanks for looking. :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

awesome - i still have the c11 hyperstar i bought - haven't used it yet

[peter_4059]

Great job Marc. Love the field.

[Larryp]

Great work, Marc!

[RickS]

Very nice, Marc. Looks like you have the Hyperstar set up working well!

[Rigel003]

Beautiful image, Marc. I've always been a bit dismissive of the hyperstar concept (why would you put a camera in front of your objective?), but this has changed my mind. Tweak that top left corner it it will be fantastic.

[allan gould]

Marc
Really excellent image with the hyperstar, in fact one of the best I've seen and glad to see you didn't over process it to brittle sharpness as most do with this object.
Allan

[multiweb]

Thanks David. :thumbsup: You have too many toys mate. :lol:


Thnaks a lot Peter. :thumbsup:

Thanks Larry. :thumbsup:

Thanks Rick. :thumbsup: The hyperstar always worked. It's the C11 that is finally getting there.

Thanks Graeme. :thumbsup: Yes it does sound a bit silly to stick something in front of the aperture doesn't it? But it works. I'll post some 1:1 on-axis details later on.

Thank you very much Allan. :thumbsup: There were enough details and contrast already there without sharpening or stretching. Thats't the good thing with the hyperstar. You get so much signal that you overcome noise very quickly in reasonably short subs. The only doen side is it is fiddly to set up.

[h0ughy]

as Marcus has in his sig - "he who has the most toys wins" :rofl:

[sjastro]

Very nice image Marc.

Don't see too many images taken with a Hyperstar.

Clear skies

Steven

[multiweb]

Ha! You win then...

Here' a pic of the finished rig. The chrome and thick black steel counterweights on each end are stock Losmandy.

In between I have 4 rubber coated gym weights. They cost a couple of dollars each in any fitness shop. Got them bored and enlarged by 2-3mm to the shaft OD and slide them in. Each side has locking screws so that's how it all holds in place. Works quite well. Easy to set up with the shaft horizontal. Just slide the whole lot sideways then lock each end.

[multiweb]

Thanks a lot Steven. :thumbsup: Yeah everybdy seems to say so. I don't know why.

[David Fitz-Henr]

A fabulous image Marc! You would probably need a mosaic of 6 panels if you were to image at the standard C11 f/10 ratio in order to cover the same field of view! It must be extremely challenging to hold collimation at f/1.8 as well; I would imagine that you may need to re-collimate periodically as the scope tracks the same object across the sky?

[dvj]

I have never seen a decent image done with the Hyperstar system. This one is excellent! With such fast f-ratio, extremely fine adjustments are needed for collimation and or tip-tilt. You are very close indeed. I also like this image scale. Well done.

jg

[multiweb]

Thanks David. :thumbsup: Yeah the C11 is pretty useless at prime unless you like narrowfield 'a la Fred' ;) . I like widefield and this is like a super lens. Just a 25kg one... Retaining collimation will be a challenge over time I suspect. Although in one imaging session once the mirror is locked, focus shift through the CF parts is very minimal. The orginal body would contract in the cold within half an hour. I'm already working on a better system to tilt the primary so I can do it in the dark as often as possible.


Thanks John. :thumbsup: There are some pretty cool Hyperstar shots on the web but you've got to dig them out. Mostly in your neck of the woods.

It's a demanding rig and a big learning curve but it's fun to use. What I like most is viewing faint stuff in a 5s focusing run (even through a dense Ha filter) to center the targets. It gathers an insane amount of light in such a short time. It's also pretty forgiving on guiding with the QHY9 on an image scale of 2.21 arc seconds per pixel. The field is uncropped 2.1 x 1.5 degrees. You'd get the same on any typical 5-6" F/5 system.

SCT have very good resolution on axis but a field curvature like a salad bowl and a very small usable imaging circle. The Hyperstar field although not perfect is somehow flatter. The main advantage is that data acquisition is very very fast. Imaging sessions can be very productive if like me you can live with good enough as just that.

[RobF]

Great to see you using the hyperstar to good effect Marc. I've been hanging out to see what you managed when you found time, and as usual you haven't disappointed. Great image! :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks Rob. :thumbsup: Believe me I have been hanging to image again with the hyperstar too. It's been too long.

[Capricorn1(Tom)]

Great image...good to see Hyperstar images on the forum.....more please...all being well hope to get a Hyperstar for my C14 this year.

Cheers:D

[gregbradley]

I missed this one.

A great result Marc. So deep and detailed for 50 minutes.

I had a laugh about its always something. 2nd last time I was imaging I had
everything going, was wiating for the first 10 minute sub to finish so I could see it
looked alright. I was listening to some music to while away the time. It looked great so
I clicked off what I thought was Windows Media Player but it was CCDsoft! I thought no worries
I'll just start CCDsoft again - no way. I could't get the camera recognised. Wasted 30-40 minutes
trying and an hour the next day! Plus of course missed out on 2-3 hours of data from a beautiful clear night.

The advantage of a fast system.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Thanks Tom. :thumbsup: Looking forward to your C14 hyperstar. Should be a monster.



Thanks Greg. :thumbsup: I have a program called EndItAll that I run on my imaging laptop before the session. So it kills all background processes and any programs that I don't need. This way no conflicts or distraction. But I did on occasions press the wrong button. Once in nebulosity I punched in the number 5 (5s) during a focusing run in the gain field instead of the time field. Then proceeded to shoot all night with the wrong settings. I only realised it the following day when trying to calibrate the subs and discovered something was very wrong. One good night wasted. I was spewing. :mad2:

[Ross G]

Hi Marc,

Great looking widefield photos.

Now that you have tuned your setup, you potentially have the ultimate widefield machine (...including RH's and FSQ's..).

Knowing you, I am looking forward to some amazing photos.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. :thumbsup: