first light new scope

[Shiraz]

Have finally retired the old 200mmf4 GSO Newtonian :violin:and am now in the process of working up a 250mm f4 Skywatcher CF, with the RCC1 and H694. The attached images are first light from the complete new system - luminance and Ha only at this stage.

It was windy, so these are only about an hour each of 2 minute subs - seeing was average at about 2.5 arcsec. The M104 is full scale (~0.9arcsec/pix) and Eta Carina is presented in full scale and reduced .5. All images are crops from the full frames and only M104 has had any sharpening (minor at that due to small amount of data) - Eta Carina is straight off the chip with some intensity modifications.

There is a little bit of image plane tilt getting in from somewhere, but overall, it looks like the new scope is a keeper :) - not enough data for deep imaging, but the image scale is OK and the resolution looks to be seeing limited. It was particularly nice to only have to re-focus every now and again, rather than very regularly, as was required with the steel scope. thanks for looking. Regards Ray

[IanP]

Looks like a very handy system, Ray ..
Very nice M104 :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Winner!

You're onto a winner there Ray. Beautiful tight stars and great rez. That M104 shot is very good.

Greg.

[alistairsam]

Nice results Ray, love the tiny stars.
How bad is the vignetting with the RCC1, would be minimal with the small chip? I presume your focal point would be quite a bit out to prevent the RCC1 falling in the light path. any pics of the setup?
Cheers
Alistair

[RickS]

That's a great first light, Ray! Looking forward to what you can produce with that set up...

Cheers,
Rick.

[alpal]

That detail is very nice.
You should do well with this setup.

[allan gould]

Excellent image with nice detail throughout.

[Bassnut]

Geez, for 2min subs, 2.5 arcsec seeing and straight off the chip (eta) on a skywatcher, thats pretty awesome :thumbsup:. Your game to crop a first light with no processing like that, and you got away with it :lol:. Very well done, bodes well.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, what Fred said :D

Looks great...now, just get that colour combining down pat and you are on a winning imaging machine I recon, SX cameras are pretty ok too ;) :thumbsup:

Mike

[atalas]

Off to a great start!

[ericwbenson]

Hi Ray,
IHMO I think you might have a bit if astigmatism, not tilt, but it doesn't seem excessive. Try rotating the corrector to see if it goes away (partially cancels with any primary astig) or just rotates (ummm this would be harder to fix).

Keep at it!
EB

[Shiraz]

thanks Ian - so far so good

Hi Greg. It seems to be working OK - need more data though



will post images later. the RCC1 only intrudes slightly - the scope was designed to put the focal plane a long way out. I was considering shortening the tube, but could not bring myself to cut that beautiful CF - probably leave it as is for now.


Thanks for the encouragement Rick


thanks Allan - we shall see...


Thanks for the comments Allan.


Would have liked longer subs, but wanted to get the mount out of the equation - needed something bright and Eta fitted the bill. thanks for the encouragement.


Colour aaaugh! guess I'll have to do it sometime.. Yep, the SX is a nice little cam and works well at 1m fl


Hi Louie thanks for the comment.

[Shiraz]

Thanks for the suggestion Eric. will try. There is probably also some mount input, particularly in RA - it is only an EQ6 and it is working pretty hard with the 10 inch scope.
regards Ray

[multiweb]

Awesome rig Ray. Shows a lot of potential. Sounds like you're going to have fun with it. :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

thanks Marc. Must be nuts, just got the old scope fairly well sorted and now have a new one to do all over again :P Was pretty happy with the first light though - hopefully it was not just beginners luck. regards Ray

[LucasB]

Love it Ray! Look forward to more!:thumbsup:
Lucas

[RobF]

What can you say about that M104 - other than stunning!
Would love to see some pics of the rig if you get time Ray. Looks like you're definitely on to a winner. Good to see a good Newt system getting the recogition it deserves :cheers:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Stunning Sombrero from the new scope Ray!:thumbsup:

You really know your stuff, must pick your brain on scope setup if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers,

Justin.

[Shiraz]

thanks Lucas - hopefully will do


Thanks very much Rob. Newtonians have their problems, but with small pixels, they are the only affordable way to get significant aperture at shorter focal lengths and they can deliver if you get the coma sorted. Once I had decided on the H694 for its high QE, low read noise and ABG, the choice of scope was clearly a fast Newtonian.

Pictures attached - bog standard at this stage:)


Hi Justin. Pick my brain :lol: ... What did they say in the old police movies? - "move along folks, nothing to see here.."

To date, the scope is as supplied - want to keep it that way until I am sure that it won't need warranty work. It really only needs a slightly stronger focuser to keep the CC and camera aligned and it will have to be wrapped in reflecting tape to reduce dew formation (will be a shame to cover up that beautiful CF, but it gets dripping wet as is). Mirror mounting appears to be effective and the CF tube is nice and stiff.
Will need a better mount as well, but will make that decision when I am certain that the optics can consistently deliver.



Images as requested showing the bog standard scope on the bog standard EQ6 and hiding behind the windbreak. At this stage am using manual focusing and have not yet modified the height of the focuser so that I can fit the OAG. Oh, and the wiring layout is temporary...regards ray

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Damn!!

Was hoping you had the answer to life the universe and everything :confused2:

Cheers,

Justin.:D
















42.....

[Shiraz]

Hi again Justin. 42 is about the critical focal zone of the scope - good call. there are many questions with that answer :lol:

If any use:

1. First step was to laser align the focal plane to be parallel to the camera face (critical and still not perfect).

2. wait until the mirror has cooled to within 2 degrees or so of ambient.

3. Carefully laser align the two mirrors through the coma corrector while the scope is pointing in roughly the direction of the target. Check the alignment by ensuring that the slightly out of focus stars are concentric. If not, go back and do it again.

4. Then focus carefully to ensure that the stars are as small as possible and that they are as round as possible. I use Nebulosity3, which has a very useful focusing process based on the half flux radius measure.

regards ray

[Rod771]

Wow Ray! That's an awesome start with the new gear, very nice detail, especially in M104.

Well done :thumbsup:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Ray!

Some very useful tips, I'll try them out.
I use a Bahtinov mask for focusing, never tried other methods.
Yep 42, is there anything it can't do :love:, it's even our street number here in Penwortham :).

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

Great looking detailed photos Ray.

Good luck with the new setup.

Ross.

[Shiraz]

Thanks for the encouragement guys - its great to have forum feedback when getting a new system running. Regards Ray

[David Fitz-Henr]

Awesome first light images Ray :thumbsup::thumbsup: There's no beating a good Newtonian setup :)

[Shiraz]

thanks very much David - agree, Newtonians have stood the test of time and can still hold their own. It is nice to have effective coma correctors so that we can use fast scopes. regards Ray