NGC104 with Orion ED80 and Meade 6.3 FR

[[1ponders]]

I've been waiting for a few weeks to give this combination a go and I managed to grab 4 shots tonight before the clouds moved in again.

4X2 min ISO400 Canon300d unmodded, ED80 and Meade 6.3 Focal Reducer, autoguided with ToUcam and K3CCDTools. Dark subbed and combined in Imagesplus, post processing and cropping in PS.

To be honest I was expecting more. There is pretty serious vignetting and the FR certainly doesn't flatten the field as much as I'd hoped, stars near the outer edge were almost triangular. They weren't too bad in near the center but I wouldn't call them round.

The first shot has only had levels (and quality and size) adjusted to show the vignetting, the second shot is the first but has had a median filtered duplicate subtracted and quick curves and levels and the third was cropped before adjusting.

[EzyStyles]

those are great paul. you are not serious that those stars are not round?? they seem fine to me.

[ballaratdragons]

Paul, all looks great to me too! Terrific pics!!

[asimov]

Didn't you know Paul was a perfectionist Eric? ;) He's the only bloke I know that will try & collimate the blue limb off Jupiter! :D

Nice shots digger...They look round enough to me! :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Paul, look at the attached screenshot of your pic.

I have blown it up to 300x in the far corner, and the stars are still perfect! The small window shows the area that is blown up.

So, where's the problem? :shrug: You can't get rounder than 'round'.

There's even a nice little faint fuzzy visible in there at 300x! :thumbsup:

[RB]

ROFL with Asi........

Like Ken, John and Eric said Paul, very nice work mate.

:thumbsup:

[EzyStyles]

:lol: :lol: you dont wear glasses do you paul? :camera: :poke:

[Octane]

Paul,

That is magic!

You think your focal reducer is bad? I've had two from Bintel (original was replaced) as the vignetting and field curvature is beyond ridiculous.

Don from Bintel did say to me that the current batch (at the time) weren't much good as they were being made by a new manufacturer. I think I will try and return my second one, as well.

I tried Louie's Celestron F/6.3 and it did a much, much, better job, without as much vignetting and curvature.

Once again, top shot and I'm glad to see some new images from you.

Regards,
Humayun

[spearo]

Nice Paul!
well done. Is the "faint 'n fuzzy" at 3'O clock in the cropped shot NGC 121? Seems too close/faint or is it?
frank

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

Thanks for posting the results. I must try my Celestron F6.3 R/C on the WO 80mm and see what results I get. Hope I have the necessary adapters! Nice photo by the way!

Cheers

Dennis

[Striker]

The stars dont look to bad to me Paul.

A higher res shot may say different.

yes your getting vignetting but that will flat field out easliy fixed.

Nice job.

[[1ponders]]

Thanks for the support guys. I'm trying to make the most of every chance I get atm with the way the weather is and these little things irk :P

Theses are the stars that I was talking about. Funny thing is the "coma" is the opposite direction to normal. This crop is from about halfway out from 104 towards the top left hand corner. You will also notice a bright star in the lower left of the original that is quite out of shape. I think the FR is overcorrecting the normal curvature of the ED lens. :shrug:

I think that is NGC121 Spearo. Its in the right orientation for when the image was taken and matches up with postiton of some of the stars.

What I would like to know is if anyone can identify the circled object in the second image here.

[JohnG]

Nice shot there Paul.

At a guess I would say that the other glob is Kron 3, according to Hartung's both Kron 3 and NGC 121 should be in the same low power field as NGC 104.

That 1st shot is a good indication to people why they should use 2" camera adapters with these scopes.

Good work.

Cheers

JohnG :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Paul, there are 3 DSO's in your pic.

[mick pinner]

how are you connecting the FR to the ED as in adapters.

[[1ponders]]

Bintel have an adapter called an Orion Camera Adapter Prime Focus 2" for $59. You screw it apart and the silver 2" barrel screws into the female C thread of the FR and the other piece (which has female C and male T threads) screws onto the male C thread. Works like a treat. When using it you have about 8mm of in focus left. :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Any idea what the third one is Ken?

[gbeal]

You want a crap reducer? Give Striker a call, I sold him one. Looked like Warp Factor 9.

[avandonk]

I think it could be an alignment problem. Either the FR is not orthogonal to the optic axis or the focuser is not aligned on the optical axis.

Bert