2070 in O3 on the new scope

[Peter.M]

Hi guys, Recently I have had some absence from the imaging world. I set out to build myself a new scope a few months ago which was the first reason. When I finally had the scope all together The first night I took it out my mount decided on not working :mad2:, It went back to the retailer and they sorted it out. But on return they forgot to send the synscan controller (that I don't use anymore) and also my EQmod cable. This of course ment that I couldn't use the damn thing. They delivered those back to me on Monday, and last night I took it out for a test drive.

The moon was full and so I "chose" the only narrowband target I could think of within my skys limit. The tarantula, I also have not used my narrowband filters much so this is my project for the next few weeks.

This is 100 minutes in 10 minute subs with my baader 8.5nm OIII filter.
I had not done 10 minute subs with my current guiding solution (orion mini guider), but I am very happy with the results. Using it with my old 8 inch steel tube was impossible as flexture would ruin subs.

The stars are acceptable for me however the left side has some trailing that the right side doesn't and I personally am not sure what it is. Perhaps someone with more experience can help me there, I think the sensor might be slightly tilted ( which would be entirely possible) but im not going to chase it while I still have the focuser on that is on now.

[David Fitz-Henr]

That's a great inaugural image with your new scope Peter - some good detail there! The distorted stars on the left / upper left look like a collimation issue to me.

[strongmanmike]

Yes looking ok Peter, what are the Catseye's saying?

Mike

[Peter.M]

Could be collimation, I didn't star test it with the camera on. Thanks for the comments David I envy your setup :). The cats eye tools say im perfect, however the orion optics focuser is less than excellent, It struggles to hold up my camera and is probably flexing, so next time I will star test this baby before imaging

[DJT]

Congrats on first light. All the more pleasurable when its something you made yourself. Nice image .

[Ross G]

Great photo Peter.

Good luck.

Ross.

[Peter.M]

Just an update, I am currently shooting some HA on this target and seem to have sorted out the left half of the image. I did some focuser modifications and it is holding the camera better. I am yet to capture some S2 for this, but here is my HA frame and a weird bi colour I created.

[David Fitz-Henr]

That's a great improvement Peter - stars are now nice and round across the whole frame! When I first got my STL camera I used it on my 200mm Newtonian but had similar issues as it was too heavy for the focuser. How did you modify the focuser?

[Peter.M]

I took it apart and found that the tension adjustment screws at the base of the focuser still had some rough edges that caused it to seem tighter than it actually was. I cleaned it all up and re assembled it. Then I took of the very small thumb screws that were on the compression ring and replaced them with far larger thumb screws from another focuser I had.

[Peter.M]

Another update, I was able to grab around 2 hours of S2 to add to this last night. So this is my first full narrowband with the new scope. Now I just need to sink another session into each of the filters to get rid of some noise and I should be able to make a cracker image.

[Larryp]

Thats looking really nice, Peter!

[Peter.M]

Thanks Larry, I should get another couple of hours tonight for one of the filters.

[LightningNZ]

Nice! I like the Hubble palette on this.

[Peter.M]

I captured another 2 hours of HA on this last night, here is my new processing attempt with the HA as luminance.

up too Ha 210 Sii 120 Oiii 100. This is already my largest exposure on one object, I plan to add at least one more session to the S and O channels and will assess the image then.

[strongmanmike]

Looking great Pete nice work :thumbsup:

Mike

[Larryp]

Beautiful, Peter!

[David Fitz-Henr]

Nice Peter, getting better and better!