An M20 teaser AOX test

[Paul Haese]

I am finally starting to get somewhere with the AOX and defining settings. this is the start of a project on M20.

I am planning to do a broad spectrum of data collection and produce a similar but better shot than my recent M8 and M20 image.

This shot is a blend of red and Ha data. Not a lot collected yet but looking pretty promising. I was surprised to discover that there are at least 5 stars close together in the Trifid heart (see small crop). I had never really bothered to find out how many there were and had assumed it was two close doubles. Always something new to learn even on the most imaged objects.

In the image you will note some noise from sharpening, which really shows how little data there has been collected so far. I am pleased to see the stars are nice and tight and the detail compares well with other images posted here and else where. I am rather excited about the possibilities of using this AO now and wonder what it will help me to produce.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/M20.html) for larger resolution image.

[topheart]

Looks very promising indeed!

What FWHM's are you getting with the AOX compared with previously without it??

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

That is interesting Paul. I am definitely interested in an AO unit.

Greg.

[RickS]

Very cool, Paul. The jets are well defined also.

[Placidus]

Hi, Paul. Your AO has resolved the 5 o'clock star of the bright pair as a double. I've only ever managed to elongate it.

[Harel_Boren]

Sheer delight. I have my own theory about brights and will imaged objects. I think many of us get to these objects early on in our imaging career, hence most of the images of these beautiful bright objects are of beginning astro photographers. I believe each of them well deserves revisits by far more advanced imagers to show their true sheer beauty in depth. Yours is a very very good example :-)
Cheers,
Harel

[Paul Haese]

Typical FWHM's were around the 2.2" mark in CCD inspector. It seems the AO has dropped that to around 1.9". Though I doubt I have my settings perfect in CCD Inspector. With faster guide rates to around 5hz or greater I would imagine the difference would drop dramatically. Finding really bright stars is now a priority.



Part of the reason I went with SBIG and the STXL series to begin with was the AOX and its integration into the camera. I am hoping it will be worth the patience and time invested to produce very sharp images.



Yes I noted that the jets were easily seen. Fingers crossed for some really good seeing in the coming weeks.



Mike, that actually put a smile on my face when I saw it. I was amazed that guiding at 1.8hz would have such an impact.



Thanks Harel. I quite agree that the glossies often get overlooked once an imager attains a certain level of skill. We start looking for harder and harder objects to image. I have a pretty long list of objects I want to image in the next 5 years now, but whilst waiting for the next hard object to image I thought I would see if I can do this justice. Time will tell.

[Harel_Boren]

Hi Paul,

I perfectly agree with this - indeed going for more and more difficult objects causes this. Keeping this in mind, I feel that's MUCH more to do on the "glossies". Bringing veteran-imager proficiency to these objects brings out of them aspects which are kept latent otherwise... And the process of doing that is SO MUCH FUN :-) :-)
Cheers,
Harel

[topheart]

Hi Paul,

Those are good numbers and I am sure you have made a good investment indeed!

All the best with it....I look forward to seeing your data going forward.

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Paul,

Get one of these:

http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_fr1a.htm

You'll need a little adapter for it to fit on the end of the STi. Luckily the STi lens kit had that little adapter. It will help in brightening up guide stars and is useful for widening the FOV of the guide camera plus brighten the guide stars.

I don't know if you can fit it to an STXL. I read on Astromart someone selling an STXL11 and he has a .7X reducer on his guide chip. So is that standard or an accessory?

Greg.

[Peter.M]

As far as I am aware the STXL self guide filter wheel has the 0.7x reducer built into it.

[g__day]

Really impressive!

[gregbradley]

Thanks Peter. I wasn't sure about that but I did see an ad for an STXL and it mentioned a .7X reducer but it was unclear if that was an added accessory or not. A reducer is helpful at times. Not always but often.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Matthew.



Tim as you would no doubt know, everything relies on the final tuning of any given imaging system, refining the performance incrementally to get the absolute best on any given night. Though there are times I wish it was all over and imaging night after night without any bugs occuring. :lol:







Just to clarify and confirm; according the to the literature on the SBIG site.
"This guiding CCD is the same sensor used in the ST-i autoguider. Moreover, the optical elements that transfer the light from the pick-off mirror to the CCD act as a 0.7X focal reducer, similar to the OAG-8300 configuration. The result is a doubling of the field of view of the guiding CCD with a correspondingly greater selection of guide stars"

I have attached two images of what the filter wheel looks like with the pick off prism. It's not like the 8300 camera that has the ST-i inserted. As you can see putting another optical element into the equation is not possible, but thanks for thinking of that Greg.

[jase]

Great object to test the AOX Paul. Looks like its working very well and a great compliment to your set up. I'm keen to see some fully processed images once you've got the set up bedded down. They should be stunning. The bright stars appear to have a lot of scattered light associated to them. Do you know what is causing this?

[Paul Haese]

I am also very keen to see what can be achieved now Jase.

I don't know what is causing the scattering. Perhaps something in the final polish of the mirror or maybe some reflection. The stars look similar to other images so I don't think it is caused from the AO. The stars have a slightly off centre look to them too and that might just well be a bit of miscollimation showing through. A tweak might be needed there. CCD inspector is reporting 1.2" of miscollimation. I'll chase that up in the coming weeks if this low does not blow us away first.