Thor's helmet, keel and horse

[rustigsmed]

Hi

Finally got the system up and running after a few issues. Here are few from thurs night.

Thors helmet, 2hrs worth, Ha O3, Hydrogen was only two subs, needs more time but pretty happy i've had this target on the list for ages.

Carina - 2x 5mins before dawn.

HH - 1hr Ha, half the subs probably had low level cloud.

higher res on my flickr page.

Finally starting to get there :thumbsup:


edit added colour boosted crop of ngc 2359 https://www.flickr.com/photos/80336656@N07/23471386079/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/


Cheers

Rusty

[multiweb]

Looks very cool Russel. Gotta be stoked with that. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RickS]

A good night's work, Rusty!

[rustigsmed]

thanks a lot Marc :thumbsup:



Cheers Rick, the benefit of a fast system and high qe chip :D buut i will add more data to all of them, it was just good to finally produce something!

[PRejto]

Hi Russel,

Nice work for such a short amount of time!

Have you got some sort of optical issue? Stars in lower right look pretty round, but moving diagonally up to left corner they are quite elongated. Maybe the camera isn't square??? I'm probably not pointing out anything new but I'm curious as to the cause. (this comment is for Thors H.) Picture 2 shows better stars in lower left...perhaps you flipped that image?)

Peter

[rustigsmed]

Hi Peter thanks for the constructive feedback, yes thors is flipped the others are 'normal'. I've got a lot of bugs to work through, I think i have tilt from the rcc1 not being easy to use with the system- I plan on buying an extender to the moonlite so I can bring the rcc1 collar right to the edge of the focuser.

Still a way to go but I couldn't get a sub this long 2 days before this from firmware issues. Been troubleshooting flat out!! More to go!!

edit: just saw the pics on my work computer and a real monitor - stars are worse than I thought! (I process on the tv).

Cheers

Rusty

[Slawomir]

Great to hear your system is up and running again Russell!

I like the helmet in particular :thumbsup:

[rustigsmed]

thanks mate - its not singing along yet, but it is up and running thankfully! ... I'll take that :)

[graham.hobart]

good set mate!

[rustigsmed]

thanks mate :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

huge step forward Russell. Bit of a tweak still needed on the CCD to get the focal plane aligned, but it is not far out by the look of it.

Even so, the results are nice to look at as they are. It is a nice feeling to come out of the other end of the tunnel.

[strongmanmike]

Hey, there is some good detail around the bowl of the helmet and bottom of the wings Russ, nice.

Get that tilt sorted and you are cooking with gas :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Looking very good there. I would also agree there is a tilt issue.
First step to handle tilt is to work out the orientation of your image with respect to your camera. For example my Honders scope the image is reversed left and right as well as top and bottom thanks to 2 mirrors and a corrector lens.

I use a dimmed torch (a tissue over a dull torch) use a focusing exposure with a delay so I have time to get in front of the scope. I shine the torch briefly either top or bottom of the end of the scope. I then look at the resulting image and not where the bright side of the image is - the same or reversed? Now I know the top of the scope is the bottom of the image (or vice versa). I repeat for left and right. Now I know which corner of the image relates to which corner of the camera.

In your image the tilt is the top left. Chances are this is the bottom right of your camera or bottom left.

Pack out only that corner. Take another focus image and concentrate on the shape of the stars in that corner. Are they better or worse? Take it from there until all 4 corners show round and sharp stars.

Tilt often makes one side or corner look soft in focus with larger bloated stars as well.

I am not sure if collimation errors can also get confused in here. So hopefully your collimation is fairly accurate.

I also use CCDinspector as a tool to confirm the problem especially when you are close to fixing the tilt but a little bit remains.

It may sound daunting but if orient first it may only take 15 to 30 minutes (yeah right).

The shimming required usually is a small amount like .2mm. Spark plug feeler gauges are great and cheap or buy some brass shimming sheets from a steel supplier and use scissors to cut little strips you can insert between your corrector and where it attaches in the offending corner(s).

What can make this difficult is flex. So you can correct it for one angle of the scope and then when you image it shifts at a different angle of the scope. So make sure all your adapters and attachments are seated squarely and nice and snugged up.

Greg.