I have just upgraded my secondary Mirror from 88mm to 104mm. This is now hanging from a fancy Carbon Double Spider! I got a great opportunity to try the system out last night with some of the best conditions that we have had for quite some time. FHWM after focusing with FocusMax was reported as 2.44! Anyway here is a test shot
M17 or NGC 6618
LRGB 20,20,20
Atik 11000M,12" GSO Newtonian F3.6
Large version
http://www.pbase.com/paulstorey/image/155960338
This is always a tricky target as there is a wide range of bright and dark features as well as it sits in the middle of a dense star field so lots and lots of stars to contend with. Still it's nice to have a bit of a challenge and it was a good test of the system. Still some fine collimation to do and a little bit of tilt to fix! The other interesting aspect is that the double spider is supposed to act like a focusing tool. In the picture and certainly in the bigger picture there is a 'dash' like appearance to the star spikes. It is most noticeable in the Ha images. This may be due to being slightly out of focus but FocusMax says its OK? I'll have to play with this one. As a test image the guiding wasn't perfect so sorry if a few stars are eggy here and there.
All the best
Paul
