gregbradley
07-09-2010, 05:26 PM
I did a shakedown cruise of my new setup and discovered I had a part pushing the camera adapter forward causing the top 1/3rd stars to be a bit out of focus (since fixed it).
I now have everything working and it seems reliable.
Planewave CDK17, FLI Proline 16803, Starlight Xpress Lodestar autoguider on a MMOAG.
The Planewave has its own electronic focuser, fan and temperature control (it takes about 1-1.5 hours to equalise). The focuser works quite well although finding exact focus is not as easy as the refractors that snap to focus nor as easy as the RCOS I had. It isn't that hard either.
But it does seem to shift sometimes with temperature a bit and doesn't seem 100% repeatable. Then again it does work but you have to work it a bit. Perhaps I will add FocusMax to my routine to help there.
Otherwise it all seems to work according to their website and seems well made.
The Paramount does it job easily and is by far the best mount I have used. Also it is very easy to use and user friendly being so tightly integrated with The Sky 6.0. The Paramount throws this scope around like its nothing yet it weighs about 40kgs with cameras etc.
CCDSoft was used for acquisition.
I haven't had a lot of clear nights here, where it was clear all day then suddenly formed cloud at dusk several times.
This scope also (like any really) seems to need dark skies as the large mirror really scoops up the light including moonlight. Baffling could be improved as nearby bright stars can flare. It seemed even Ha during moonlight nights was picking up too much light pollution.
This image is :
NGC253 LRGB 170 50 50 50
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/128197233/large
A larger version around 2.3mb:
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/128197233/original
Here is a photo of the setup:
http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/127663527
Overall I am very happy with this scope. I can see an AO device may bring out more with it. It will also need dark skies and good seeing.
The autoguiding works well and is easy now it is setup. No trouble getting a guide star so far.
With the ML8300 camera, smallish galaxies will fill 2/3rds of the frame so that should be fun soon when I image a couple of the smaller ones.
Greg.
I now have everything working and it seems reliable.
Planewave CDK17, FLI Proline 16803, Starlight Xpress Lodestar autoguider on a MMOAG.
The Planewave has its own electronic focuser, fan and temperature control (it takes about 1-1.5 hours to equalise). The focuser works quite well although finding exact focus is not as easy as the refractors that snap to focus nor as easy as the RCOS I had. It isn't that hard either.
But it does seem to shift sometimes with temperature a bit and doesn't seem 100% repeatable. Then again it does work but you have to work it a bit. Perhaps I will add FocusMax to my routine to help there.
Otherwise it all seems to work according to their website and seems well made.
The Paramount does it job easily and is by far the best mount I have used. Also it is very easy to use and user friendly being so tightly integrated with The Sky 6.0. The Paramount throws this scope around like its nothing yet it weighs about 40kgs with cameras etc.
CCDSoft was used for acquisition.
I haven't had a lot of clear nights here, where it was clear all day then suddenly formed cloud at dusk several times.
This scope also (like any really) seems to need dark skies as the large mirror really scoops up the light including moonlight. Baffling could be improved as nearby bright stars can flare. It seemed even Ha during moonlight nights was picking up too much light pollution.
This image is :
NGC253 LRGB 170 50 50 50
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/128197233/large
A larger version around 2.3mb:
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/128197233/original
Here is a photo of the setup:
http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/127663527
Overall I am very happy with this scope. I can see an AO device may bring out more with it. It will also need dark skies and good seeing.
The autoguiding works well and is easy now it is setup. No trouble getting a guide star so far.
With the ML8300 camera, smallish galaxies will fill 2/3rds of the frame so that should be fun soon when I image a couple of the smaller ones.
Greg.