M42 Hyperstar

[Rod771]

This is my second attempt of imaging M42 and Running man.

My first try headed south pretty quick. The iso settings were too high and I ended up with some great shots of light pollution :thumbsup:

Taken @ F2 with 60Da / hyperstar lens on C11

This one consists of:

10 x 3 sec subs @ iso 100
10 x 10 sec subs @iso 160
10 x 20 sec subs @ iso 200
5 x 35 sec subs @iso 320

With darks and flats, stacked in DSS processed in Pixbuilder

All suggestions welcome :)

[multiweb]

Great shot. :thumbsup:

[Larryp]

That looks good!:)

[h0ughy]

That's so impressive. I need to get my c11 with hyper star operational. Do you have a shot of your setup?

[Rod771]

Thanks Marc and Laurie :thumbsup:



Cheers Dave, here's a couple of pics mate.

[Poita]

Pretty sweet for less than 9 minutes of data.

[prokyon]

Deep respect for everyone who can handle the hyperstar. Good result, exposure times are sensational.

Regards

Werner

[Ross G]

Nice photo Rod.

You have the Hyperstar working well.

Ross.

[h0ughy]

I concur - initially setting the beasty up has probably put me off it a bit ( ok more than a bit i have had mine for over 2 years), I have only had respect for those that can

[Rod771]

Thanks Peter , Werner , Ross and David

Appreciated your kind words :)

[johnnyt123]

This maybe a noobie question but I though that reducing the f ratio meant a wider field of view.

I mean I have a cpc 9.25 and when I place the f6.3 focal reducer I notice the field of view is much wider.

So I though at f2 everything would be tiny!!!!

John

[Rod771]

The above image was cropped a little. DSS left strange black lines across the top of the image.

The Edge HD can image at F2 , F7 and F10. Here are the FOV's for each focal length.

Here's also a Hyperstar shot un-cropped from IISAC 2013 . Cant remember why, but I only exposed for 20 seconds. You'll notice less faint detail in M42 when compared to the original image (35 sec)

Hyperstar FOV on the APS-C sensor = 130.2 x 86.8 arcmin.

[strongmanmike]

Coming from a photographic beginning in the early 80's - to have imagined that you could get such a result in colour, with exposures measured in seconds and just 8 minutes total exposure, from your backyard, would have been stuff of fancy :eyepop: :thumbsup:

Mike

[Rod771]

I cant even imagine how painful it would have been to take astro photo's with film, however the feeling of getting it right would have been absolutely amazing.

I wonder what we'll have at our finger tips in another 30 years :question:

Cheers Mike :)

[JZ]

Nice photo Rod! And a very interesting thread.

I'm thinking about getting a hyperstar as I am keen to do some wide field shots but have never seen one "in the flesh".
What's involved in setting one up on a C11?
I know how to install them but are they fiddly to set up?

Thanks,
Ross...

[Rod771]

Thanks Ross :)

The lens is pretty straight forward to set up. I followed this video before setting mine up for the first time, its quite helpful.

http://starizona.com/acb/videos/Hyperstar/HyperStar%20Demo.wmv

I've read in places that people have had trouble collimation of the lens however, I've found if your scope collimated well then your 95% there.

I'm not sure about the normal fastar OTA's but the edge HD's have an indexed secondary mirror. They can only be refitted in the same position, maintaining collimation. - That's the scariest part, removing the secondary. Just take it steady as you go and all is fine. :thumbsup: