Lagoon with 10" LX200R

[Striker]

Tonight was more for testing purposes..checking collimation..focusing basicly all the new gear...I was extremely annoyed when I put the 6.3FR on to see images that were quickly sent to the recycle bin..the vignetting was just horrible.

Anyway I took the FR off and imaged at F10..which I dont like...it's way too slow.

12 x 3 minute guided images at ISO 800 focal length 2500mm.
No flats as I dont plan to image at this FL for long....darks and bias frames applied.

I also used the hutech LPR filter

Very little processing

More then happy with how the mount performed over anything.

[toetoe]

Top shot Tony :thumbsup: i would like to see this one in a wide field shot.

[strongmanmike]

I agree, looks pretty good

Were you autoguiding? What with and how acurate was it and how long were your subs?

What was it that impressed you with the LX200R mount?

Where in the image train was the FR located? I assume you are using a DSLR? The F6.3 SCT FR was never really designed for that size image circle so I guess you will not be happy with it. The Lumicon Giant Easy Guider however was and even though not talked of much these days, I recomend you consider it. Not sure of its performance with the new R series Meades though?

Mike

[Lester]

Great start there Tony.

[tornado33]

Gee thats not bad for F10, and a big image scale too. Well suited for smaller planetaries and globulars.
Can you post an image of your new rig, would love to see it.
Scott

[EzyStyles]

top shot tony! very nice.

[Dennis]

Wow Tony - that is very nice. Lovely colours and nice tight stars. Looks very promising once you have completed the shake down and got everything working together again.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

Great first light Tony.

[Striker]

Mike,

I had the lumicon Giant easy guider on my C11...I felt it performed very well even though I only used it for the focal reducer not off axis guiding....at $400USD I was hopeing to get something more dedicated to my cause then off axis equipment....I have sent Lumicon a email but I think it will be more dedicated to the standard SCT.

The mount is Losmandy G11 and was guided with the Sbig ST-402XME through CCDSoft....corrections were prodominently less then .30 what ever that means and the sub exposure were 1.5 seconds with .5 second delay between corrections...what I liked about the guiding was the little corrections needed which I have had trouble with previously....mainly due to poor drift align and gears meshing...the guide star virtualy never moved, that's what I am more pleased with.

The FR was tried in multiple locations..first it was SCT - 2" focuser - FR - T -Adapter - T ring - Canon 350D.
Secondly I took the focuser off and had the same but straight on the back of the SCT cell....I also have some adapters and tried difference lengths of tube to vary the space from chip to FR...tried approx measurements bewtween 70mm to 110mm.....all very poor.

I did try the focal reducer with my C11 origanly and even though yes their was vignetting it was no where near as bad as this...also I forgot to mention it added a lot of Coma with my current set up.

On cloudy nights someone has tried the CCDT67 on 16" Meade LX200R with 11000 CCD and said it works perfectly and mentioned we should be looking at more refractor/RC type Focal reducers then SCT reducer.????

Ignore where the focal reducer is in these pics..that is just 1 of 5 different places I tried it.

[iceman]

Wow, that looks impressive Tony.

[astroboy]

Sure looks promising Tony nice flat field and the tracking is spot on :thumbsup: .
Sounds like you may have to give the AP reducer a go , Meade said that they would make a dedicated reducer for thier refractors and a flatener for the old F6.3 SCTs and that never happened.
Seems strange meade include the 6.3 reducer in there package for the RCX:screwy:

zane

[tornado33]

Thanks for the pics of the rig. Looks very professional. I guess its quite wind resistand due to the short tube and strong mount. Does meade make a FR designed specifically for theor RC scopes?
I came across this today too.
http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/downloads/rcos_reducer_guide.pdf
Scott

[Striker]

Scott thats the focal reducer I am after CCDT67...fairly cheap at $148USD...it's still not deigned for large chips but it will be 100% better then the meade.

No meade dont produce anything for the RCX and R series...yep stupid.

[tornado33]

Yes I guess the front of a FR needs to be somewhat bigger then the chip size as it will be reducing the cone of light from F10 to a lower value.
Do you already have the series 4000 Fr like this?
http://www.meade.com/accessories/premium/index.html#focalreducer
Scott

[Phil]

Great shot nice and flat good focus well done love the setup . I have the G11 how do you find the tracking at F/10 on the 10".
Phil

[Striker]

Excellant phil....my error corrections are less then .30 on X & Y Axis...the guide star virtuly never moves...lets see how long that lasts...lol

Scott..yes thats the one..no good for the LX200R series.