NGC2070 QHY10 and GSO RC10 together at last

[ReaPerMan]

It's taken me a while to get everything together and working. I work nights and the weather has been consistantly bad on my nights off since I got the RC in September!!! Very frustrating. Then there was some difficulties in collimation and finally I have a pic taken with my new scope mated to my QHY10. There is still a small bit of tweaking to do collimation wise but it's definitly getting there.

GSO RC10 CF, Astrotec 2" FF, QHY10. 33 X 240 secs CCD Stacked Darks subtracted, separated into L RGB recombined in Photoshop with Levels and Curves. I don't know if my colours good but it's what I got. Given a slight tweak in PS with shadows highlights Hue sat etc.. and a bit of sharpening with Topaz detail.

I've looked at the pic on 3 monitors but if all holds true to to form it will be a bit red maybe?

Feedback very welcome,

all the best

Paul :thumbsup:

[ReaPerMan]

Grahame did a repro for me correcting the colour. (must get my monitors sorted!). The equipment is working better just not me and my processing :)

All the best

Paul

[RickS]

Glad to hear you're up and running Paul. A promising start...

Cheers,
Rick.

[ReaPerMan]

Thanks Rick been a long time coming ;)

[midnight]

Coming along good there Paul.

Been waiting for so long to get a run of good nights down here and it finally came through.

Darrin...

[richardo]

Nice going Paul!
The adjusted colour version is right on the money!
You've done a great job with the star cluster at the heart of the Tarantula..

Ok, one more thing to do is get rid of the gradient in the image and it will be just perfect!

Congrats with getting everything up and running.

Rich

[bmitchell82]

Well done young paddawan :D consdiering you are using a grahame tweaked RC 10" on a poxy white bm tuned turd the thing is producing golden nuggets! :D Just wait till it tastes the sweet sweet flavour of un light polluted night skies :) then you will be a happy camper!

BM

[ReaPerMan]

Thanks Darrin. I can't believe that it's taken so long to get clear nights when I'm off duty!



Thanks Rich I'll give it a go.



Oh Brendan waxing lyrical again :lol: you have such a turn of phrase, but also a sense of the practical. Yes the RC has received love from Grahame and the EQ6 has received abuse and a spanking from yourself. Now the never ending story will be to give it some AO and get the auto focus software to work.

Cheers guys. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Nice photo Paul.

I like the subtle colours.

Ross.

[TrevorW]

Well done you've resolved the core nicely, colour is good and focus, hard to tell maybe a bit soft, do you have a link to a larger image

[Lester]

Very nice detail resolved in your image Paul. Thanks for the view.

[bmitchell82]

Hey trev, I think its just the GSO scope, I have never seen them super crisp as they are affected by seeing and the quality of the mirrors being that of a mass produced scope :) Though the details are there and focus is good.

Yes AO will kick it up a big step but AO is also 2+K :) It all depends on what your looking for I guess!

[TrevorW]

Fair call Brendan (except Optics) although I have seen some really nice tight images with the GSO, but as you said it could be the seeing etc

[Marke]

I dont think you have been looking at the right images Brendan thats a very broard statement and I think Leo would disagree too
http://www.starkeeper.it/NGC281.htm

[ReaPerMan]

Thanks Ross I like it too.



Hi Trevor the link to the full size pic is http://www.pbase.com/paulstorey/image/139331992/large

At the bottom i've attached the Bahtnov pic that i focused with. I'm still "tweaking" the collimation so maybe that might have something to do with the softness?



Thank you Lester.



Not so sure Brendan but needs more pics to tell. I would like to see some of the pics that Grahame took with his RC10 and see if it's something that is noticable in the 'family'.

I have just put a deposit down on the AO that was for sale here on Ice for $1300. Can't wait to try it out...

[bmitchell82]

Ill have to give you a quick tute Paul how to keep your image big but allow it to compress into a small file :D

[ReaPerMan]

Sounds good maybe Saturday when it's RAINING!!!

any way here is a set of core detail pics

1 untouched image

2 Some sharpening small and medium detail

3 can anyone say Cthulu!!! ;)

all the best

Paul

[TrevorW]

Looking at the large image and the Bmask picture I'd say collimation off a bit I would expect a perfectly round star image when focusing with the Bmask

cee thu lu

[Grahame]

Hi Paul,

few links from when i had the GSO RC10 for you to compare:

M83 here (http://www.astro-photo.net/jpg/m83_rc10_qhy9.jpg)

M20 here (http://www.astro-photo.net/jpg/m20_PS5_IIS_web_large.jpg)

I never did NGC 2070 with the old RC but i'll have a crack at it with the new one for comparison if you would like.

Grahame.

[ReaPerMan]

There is a slight pinch and I agree that the slight egginess of some stars in the top left coner of the pic goes along with the way in which it needs some further collimation. Boy these are difficult beasts to ride! Its very close but a few more tweaks to get it right on.

cee thu lu the pronounciation of Cthulu indeed... how very literal :D
my answer is

facial tentacles and even a baleful red eye
EEYA EEYA ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Still the slight softness of the pic allows your imagination to run wild..
just like the face on mars so many years ago. A whole industry was ruined by better Mars orbiter pictures :rofl:





Thanks Grahame you've been a ton of help with all of this so far and you have my undying thanks.

Between you and Brendan I have learnt so much since I took my first DSLR pic in March.

all the best

Paul :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Leonardo70]

:)

Paul congratulations ... the photo promise a lot ... also the setup.
Have funny ... with GSO.

All the best,
Leo

[Manav]

Hi Paul,

Would love to see a photo of your setup. GSO RC 10 on a EQ6 I thought that would be impossible. I'm thinking of going down this path any advise?

Ta

[ReaPerMan]

Thanks Leo, I am in awe of your efforts and can only hope to try and get mine close to your standards. I am happy with the setup and will continue to push and get it better.




Hi Manav
Here is the photo - remember I am using the carbon Fiber version of the GSO RC10 with all the associated thermal and weight advantages. In the picture I was entertaining the thought of using the ED80 for guiding but have gone to more light weight persuits such as finder guider and OAG. i am now hoping to get into an orion AO setup. The EQ6 handles the weight very well and has not been complaining at all. I recently had Brendan tune it up for me and the little beast is now singing along. If you were ever to see how much Brendan loads up his EQ6 it would make your hair stand on end! :lol:

all the best

Paul :thumbsup:

[cventer]

What QHY10 bayer matrix color settings are you using ? Ie when you debayer are you just using 1:1:1 then fixing in hotoshop or have you calibrated your on a G2V star ?

[gregbradley]

Nice looking setup. It shows a great deal of promise. Paul Haese and Leo have shown how good these setups can be.

I guess the trick with these scopes seems to be collimating them well and getting a decent focuser on them. Did you consider
maybe a FLI Atlas focuser with a fixed tube? That would work well too but it'd be pricey.

RCOS uses the Tak collimation scope which I have. It makes collimation very easy. I presume it would work on this scope.

The carbon fibre would be the go rather than aluminium tube. You get used to the same focus each night. Very handy.

I see a possibility of getting one of these for my dark site. They seem quite compact as well which is a plus as wind made using a long carbon fibre tube not practical at my dark site. Too many lost nights and the refractors are not bothered by it.

Greg.

[ReaPerMan]

I have been feeding the QHY data into CCD stack and then creating the LRGB and recombining them again, The ratios i have been using (1:1:2) are slightly off perhaps a bit blue and I have been experimenting to get the best result I have just had a program recommended to me which should help with the ratios:

eXcalibrator (http://bf-astro.com/eXcalibrator/excalibrator.htm) calibrates image color by using the NOMAD1 or SDSS database to identify stars in your image that should be white. The program then computes the correction factors to apply to the green and blue channels.

looking forward to giving it a go.



Hi Greg
Yes they are a bit fiddley with getting the collimation exact and the Tak collimator works well but requires adapters to make it fit correctly. I agree about the focuser and have fitted a moonlight, the feathertouch 3" is also a popular replacement and when these units are sold under the altair astro brand the FT is an option at purchase (hint hint to retailers).

I have been waiting to see some more of Paul Hase's pics from the 12" that he was using (especially as his RC8 pics were so good) and Leo is undoubtedly a master with his RC10.

thanks for the comments

paul :thumbsup:

[Manav]

Thanks for the photo I like the perspective poor EQ6 lol.

Well that said I'll be taking the plunge to RC as well. :)

[bmitchell82]

Yugent you just have to make sure to tune that EQ6 as the back lash will kill you if its not sorted out :) If you want i can talk you though it over the phone and with all the modern tech we could possibly just do it over skype. piece of p155 :)

Brendan

[Manav]

I will Brendan let me get the Mrs permission first to actually buy the RC

[ReaPerMan]

You won't regret it, in Bang for the Buck these RCs are outstanding.
In relation to the mount the tuning that Brendan did removed so much of the backlash that the EQ6 had. It's true that you don't miss something till it's gone but the noises the mount made before tuning (which of course I hardly noticed at the time) compaired to after are worlds apart. Brendan should set up a service leading poor Synta EQ owners out of the wilderness :lol:

Good Luck with getting permission from SHMBO. !

[Manav]

thanks guys you have both been very helpful....cant wait to join the RC Club

[ReaPerMan]

The process is now done with Excalibrator using the NOMAD database to check the offsets. The final values were R=1 G=0.866 B=1.508 This has now been applied and i've repro'ed the result

Large version here http://upload.pbase.com/paulstorey/image/139331992/large

I have also deconvoluted and fine detailed the Lum fixed odd shaped stars and put it all back together.

Thanks for looking

Paul :thumbsup: