QHY-9 ultra-widefield now in colour

[Omaroo]

Hi all :)

I put up an image or two of this setup a little while ago, but had a devil of a time finding appropriate threaded rings to be able to connect the SBIG CLA-5 Nikkor adapter to the M53 front aperture on the CFW. Well - I had the wrong ring mailed to me from HK some time ago for one of my Taks, and it had been cast aside and was hiding in a drawer until this afternoon. Yeehah! :D Shows that you don't throw stuff away or sell it just because you don't have an immediate use for it! :P Now it all sits in between the two Losmandy guidescope rings wonderfully - tight as and no flex whatsoever.

Anyways - can't wait to get out now - full LRGB and Ha-OIII-SII false colour though the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, 50mm f/1.4, 24mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.0 and 300mm f/4.5ED lenses.'

I'll take it outside tomorrow if the weather holds. I haven't done squat in weeks because I'd lost interest. This will kick it along a bit now. :) Hopefully the 40D will arrive tomorrow and that'll get a go too. :D

[Mighty_oz]

Looks like a great setup :)
Glad u got your enthusiasm for it back.
Looking forward to those images !

[danielsun]

That's one neat, compact and powerful set up there Chris!!
Look forward to seeing some stunners from this beast.:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Oz & Daniel :) I hope to get out there reaaaallll soon. I'm going nuts!

[RobF]

Wow - really looks the business Chris. Will be interested also to see how you go with this beast when time and weather allows.

[strongmanmike]

LOoks neeeearly as good as Guys ;)

Just a suggestion, rather than using the lens diapgram to change the F ratio, instead use an aperture stop (home made) in fornt of the lens ala Bert. This way you will get nice round APO like stars without the multi pronged diffraction spikes while still reducing the edge of field abberations :thumbsup:

Mike

[Omaroo]

Thanks Rob :)

Excellent advice Mike, thank you. I have a bunch of filters that are scratched, so I'll rip out the filter glass and replace it with black-sprayed plastic card cut to size. I suppose that it doesn't matter of the aperture holes match the iris clearance at various stops - so long as they are holes "around" the size you'd see the iris at.... I'll visit Bert's post. :thumbsup:

[dp297]

Hi,

I am very interested on any focusing issues you might have with this setup.
I am using the Nikon 180 f2.8 but it doesnt focus with QHY9 unless I remove the front window of the QHY9.
Is it a lens issue?

[George Ionas]

I agree with Demitris, you will have to remove the front window to get to focus, you're about 15mm too long. You will need 45.6mm from the lens bayonet to the chip to achieve focus. Been down this road before, but once the front window is remove you'll get great results.

[dp297]

How are u able to achieve focus with a FW even without the front window??
Surely that is a lens issue...

[George Ionas]

No. I use a filter-draw from TS-Services (15mm thick), I had to machine a few millimeters off the Nikon T-ring and removed the camera window. If you aim for 45mm lens bayonet to chip distance this will give you a little bit of room to just go past focus.

I have attached an image taken through a Ha filter, the conditions weren't the best, but I have previously posted some images taken in better conditions with lens from Pentax 67 55mm at f/4 and with a Nikon 200mm F/2.0.

[dp297]

I used this setup for this attempt at a narrowband with the TS filter drawer....just seems that a FW is impossible

[George Ionas]

The distance available is so tight that the 18.5mm thick QHY9 filter wheel was substituted for the 15mm filter-draw from TS-Services to gain that extra 3.5mm.

[gregbradley]

That's a good tip. You probably can get these stop down rings on ebay cheap. I'm gonna have a look now.

Greg.