first light AP 130GT and Quad TCC F4.5 alternate version

[gregbradley]

I have been working on dialling in the Quad TCC (APs name for their reducer/compressor) on my AP130GT F6.3.

The TCC is an impressive piece of astro gear and I used one in the past on the AP140 I had.

Its quite sensitive to distancing though, 1mm+/-. The QHY600m camera is a bit sensitive to tilt but it seemed to take the same corrections as my FLI cameras so I take that to mean QHY's stated tight tolerance for sensor orthogonality to be spot on. There is a tiny bit left to tune out but no biggie and focus was also very stable although I can get it more stably spot on once my electronic focuser is fitted. Manually focused for now just once early evening.

I took 3 sets of images over the last few nights. F4.5 at 130mm is a great combo with this QHY600 camera. At 1x1 binning it gives 1.31 arc secs/pixel which seems to be the sweet spot.

I only took a small amount of colour because I was planning on doing full narrowband as I took this when it was almost full moon and did not expect the RGB to be any good. But it was surprisingly.

Taken at my home observatory on a PME mount.

https://pbase.com/gregbradley/image/171751483/large regular size

https://pbase.com/gregbradley/image/171751483/original large size. Zoom in and surf around.

There are some interesting ripples in between the Lagoon and the Trifid.

Here are the links to the Ha image which has a lot of detail:

https://pbase.com/image/171751518/large regular size.

https://pbase.com/image/171751518/original large size for zooming in.

This camera/scope setup is very sensitive. A 30 second image holds a surprising amount of detail. A single 300 second image
is like a much longer exposure from previous cameras and setups.

Greg.

[JA]

Congrats on the great setup:thumbsup: Good point - I see what you mean about ripples... almost as if the Triffid is dragging dragging stuff out of the Lagoon. I'm sure your new setup/FOV will keep you busy imaging, weather permitting.

Best
JA

[gregbradley]

Thanks JA. Its a pretty cool setup. I should post an image of it. The 130 is riding piggyback on the AP RHA305 which is the guide scope!

I like this AP130, as its surprisingly light and small for a 130mm scope. It was designed to be airline portable and unscrews with caps into 3 pieces.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Hmm?..looks like a cheap Chinese plastic lens doublet..? :shrug: :rolleyes:

:rofl:...sorry :ashamed:

Looks mighty fine Greg :thumbsup:...great gear

Mike

[gregbradley]

LOL. It would go nice at 1440 metres. I wonder where that could be?:rofl:

Greg

[strongmanmike]

Indeed...my old Starfire EDF is only F7.5...in fact about F8.2 with the 4" field flattener :sadeyes:

Careful analysis of many sources, suggest that if I place my new observatory in the top NE corner of Eagleview, and I can elevate my dome deck a little (~1-2m), I should be able to get the Dec shaft of my mount somewhere between 1445m-1450m ASL, the official height of the telescope :D :lol:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Wow.

The Quad TCC should also work on your AP152. It more a matter of the spacing. It needs at least a 3.5 inch focuser. Roland makes adapters for it to work on other makes like TEC and TMB.
At .72X it would make your 152 F5.4. That would be very fast given its aperture. The AP140 I had was F7.5 also.

Greg.

[Retrograde]

I'm interested in seeing a pic of this setup too Greg. :D

A lovely image of a great part of the sky. :thumbsup:

[rustigsmed]

looking good Greg!

[strongmanmike]

Me too, love astroporn :evil2:

[gregbradley]

Thank you. I am very happy with the results so far.





Not the best photo as its getting dark but it shows it.

Thanks Russell for your compliment.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Daleen at AP clearly came through. ;)

Sure, I'm preaching to the choir...but that's a very, very pretty result.

Nice one :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Peter. I was surprised the colour would turn out given it was very bright moon.

Greg.

[IanP]

Hi Greg,
So well done...BRAVO!!!

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Ian for the nice compliment.

Greg.

[DavidTrap]

Noice ;)

DT

[AnakChan]

Very nice Greg. I was eyeing on that AP130GT when it went up FS last year :D. Didn't realise it came with a Quad TCC!

Glad to see some results through it. The Lagoon's so beautifully captured.

[Ryderscope]

Great work Greg. Your efforts in dialling in this combo are paying dividends. You will be able to produce some very nice images for sure.

[alpal]

Outstanding images Greg.
You have some high quality expensive gear there and it shows.
There is something about a refractor that can't be beaten.
One little thing -
the stars are missing colour.
Would you have needed to take some short exposures - say 10 seconds -
with that QHY600 to retain some colour?


cheers
Allan

[Andy01]

Ha looks great Greg, teeny tiny stars & lots of nice details. :thumbsup:

Unconvinced about this colour version though with it's muted star colours, presumably because of the moon being up?

You must be a very happy camper now with these lovely new toys. :D

[matlud]

Looks great Greg -the Quad TCC certainly looks to be one of the best reducers out there.

[multiweb]

Lovely details and colors Greg. Top scope. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much. This FOV is very similar to an FSQ106 but with larger aperture (585mm versus FSQ 530mm). So a bit like an FSQ130.



Thanks very much. So far the tilt correction has been straightforward. That last little bit was hard to tell if spacing or tilt. Spacing though should really affect all 4 corners so that narrowed it down.





Thanks Andy. Yes the star colours are weak as noted above. I'll go back and see if I can get them more saturated. It should be in the data.



Yes its right up there for sure with the absolute best.



Thanks Marc. I prefer this scope to the AP140 I had. Smaller, lighter and quite a bit faster. I've read the AP140 used the AP160 tube.

Greg.

[AdamJL]

really stunning. Definitely a standard to aspire to. Thanks for sharing :)

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Adam.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Apart from the less than exciting star colours, this is a really nice image Greg! :thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

What a great image you produced here!

[gregbradley]

Thanks. Next clear no moon night I'll take some more RGB and longer exposures. RGB in this image is only 12 minutes each (6 x 120 secs) under a nearly full moon.
That should handle the star colours.




Thanks very much for the compliment.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Here's an alternate processed image keeping the golden stars near the Milky Way core accurate and the dark dust lanes. After checking several images of this area this seems fairly accurate as to star colours as there isn't a lot of diversity in star colour but mostly golden yellow core stars.

https://pbase.com/image/171758405/large

https://pbase.com/image/171758405/original large size image.

Greg.