First Light.

[Tandum]

Got myself a GSO 12" newt with a 3" ASA corrector and TS-Giant OAG with a qhy5L II coupled to an sx wheel and atik 11000. Maxim tells me it's running at 1149mm or F3.83.
All the bits are finally here and it stopped raining late last night so I could dial in the OAG and snap a few test shots of M8.
CCDI says I've got some droop in there and the 3.5inch secondary isn't big enough for this camera but it's a worker, even with 25Kgs in counterweights on the eq6 :thumbsup:

This is 7 x 10min Ha subs of M8 and a pic of the camera/corrector assembly. :D

Just levels and curves on M8.

[gregbradley]

That's really very nice. Congrats on your new setup. It looks impressive.

Greg.

[Octane]

Wow, Robin -- that is very impressive. Looks like you've got nice stars across the frame. f/3.83. :O :O :O

How much does one of those Newtonians cost and what do they weigh?

H

[CoolhandJo]

Lovely detail - smooth as silk!

[Tandum]

Cheers Greg, still got some gremlins in there but if the weather comes good I should get em out. I need to build a new light box for it too.

H, I see em at Andrews for $949, but I can't remember what I paid, I've been fiddling with it for quite some time. The new spider/holder only arrived yesterday, the original was wiggling around. James has a pretty good mod guide (http://deepspaceplace.com/at12in.php) on his site. I changed the spider, added grub screws to the focuser (it was rocking with only 2 screws), put a galv plate under the focuser to stop flex and flocked it as well. I guess it's about 20Kgs out of the box, plus mods, rings and camera would push it to 25Kgs. The corrector cost more than the scope :lol:

Thanks Paul, might put the RGB filters in for the week-end.

[RickS]

Good to see you're up and running, Robin!

[allan gould]

Excellent image Robin, very smooth. You were up late last night as I saw scorpio rising and thought about m20 but it was 3am so I went to bed.
Allan

[Tandum]

Me too Rick. That tube has been standing in the lounge room since early December :eyepop:

The last sub is time stamped 2:46 Allan.
I only had to sit around and install a new server today, didn't need to be chirpy for clients :P
I think Saturday night will be a pearler.

[Octane]

Thanks for the info, Robin! Glad to see that your tinkering has paid off. That's a beautiful field!

H

[strongmanmike]

Great first light Robin (Marc Aragnou will love it) and so far so good :thumbsup:

Mike

[asimov]

Fantastic image!

[ozstronomer]

Nice image Robin, looks like that will be a great imaging rig.

Lets hope your are right for Saturday's weather report :)

[multiweb]

Looks great. Really nice field. :thumbsup:

[DavidTrap]

Very impressive Robin.

Fingers crossed for the weekend.

DT

[peter_4059]

You've got that working nicely Robin. That corrector is producing some very fine stars.

[FlashDrive]

That's a great image ...very clean, defined and smooth. :thumbsup:
Congratulations.

Flash ..!!

[allan gould]

Robin, thats really an excellent image with very tight stars. Your efforts have really paid off.
Allan

[Tandum]

Thanks for all the comments but remember that's a Ha image, to me stars always look tighter in Ha.
Wait til I post some gradient ridden horror in RGB :lol:

I did swap the carousel to RGB today and found the corrector wasn't all the way in so that might fix a couple of issues, like that dark spot bottom left. The field seems to be as flat as the TAK, maybe more so. But no good for galaxies and I no longer have a long FL scope, sold it :sadeyes:
Maybe a smaller camera will do it. Still waiting for Mike to post something there ;)

Before I forget, does anyone local have a 2" sight tube. I wanna double check the secondary is right.

[strongmanmike]

Yes, sorry'bout that :ashamed:, I am just waiting for the observatory really, the potential resolution increase will be wasted in the regular strong breezes I get, it will most likely only show the benefits if I can get out of the wind and only on the good nights (like the last) :thumbsup:

You could just take a punt...:shrug: ;)

Mike

[Tandum]

No rush here, I'm still waiting for the eq8, that's the next expense.

The dome will make a huge difference, it did here. Just switch on and go :)

And not a dew strap in sight :thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

Great set up Robin lovely and smooth iam not a great fan of Ha but that is
impressive,under dark skies at astrofest what a winner
AL:thumbsup:

[alistairsam]

that looks great Robin
how is the qh5L-2 for guiding with thd oag?
I got one as well as the TS oag but haven't had the chance to test as yet as the drivers dont work.

[Tandum]

Not sure if it will fit in the Golf with all the other stuff Alan, it just fits in this tiny dome. Might try getting it up to 10 chain sometime to see if it fits.

Alistair, I swung it around the sky last night trying to get dome geometry setup and I had stars on the qhy at every stop, plus I forgot to up the gain on it before connecting. I was doing 2 sec subs last night. Get new drivers for it off their web site (http://qhyccd.com/en/top/download/). The new drivers work fine, the ones on the cd do not.

[RobF]

This is looking awesome Robin. Go the Newt!
Didn't realise you could do away with dew control in the dome - interesting.

[Tandum]

I've never had to run dew control in mine but it's all foam though. I even put the left overs in half the wall sections.

Here a quicky from last night while trying to get the geometry right. This is the LRGB straight from maxim. I just removed gradients.

Looks like 5xRGB and 15xLum all 60sec subs binned x1 full frame.

[RobF]

Looks like the corrector does what it says on the box then, which is a relief for all those $$$$ ;)
That's the Keller corrector?

[Ross G]

Nice photo Robin.

Impressive equipment.

Good luck.

Ross.