Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
A fast astrograph is not really the right tool for galaxy imaging and your
16 inch aperture and F3.6 is better spent on something more widefield where it will show off its capabilities better. Something like Rho Ophiuchi or NGC6188.
The right tool for the right job. Also your PL11002 is a wide field imager at that focal length and a small chipped camera would get you some more magnification going.
To use your ASA 16 for a galaxy you probably need a Powermate 2 inch 4X or a Baader FFC or something to get extra focal length.
|
Can't say I agree with you on this Greg
A 16" F3.6 astrograph provides plenty of focal length actually at nearly 1500mm and provides arguably a perfect image scale of about 1.2"/pixel with the PL11002. The notion of feeling the neccesity for a narrower FOV simply to frame galaxies or other smaller deep sky objects better at the expense of FOV is a bit strange IMO, this is what cropping (and upscaling if you want to) is for. It 's much better to have the FOV first for all those larger objects and then crop out a bit when you have a smaller object in the field than to be forced to mozaic to cover larger objects.
My deep Cen A image data set at 1140mm FL is a good example of this wonderful versatility IMO.
From this:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...61387/original
To this:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...88806/original
All with the same data set and that was at 1.6"/pixel with just a 6" scope too so 1.3"/pixel with 16" of aperture and you have the potential to produce amazing results and FAST (F3.6!) on a very wide range of objects.
Adding a barlow only slows the scope down too, nup I'd say once (if) they have it sorted the 16" F3.6 is just about the perfect imaging scope
Before I knew of the heartache and dissapointment the 12" ASA was going to be
...I would have gone for a 16" ASA too... if I had something bigger than the NJP to mount it on of course (oh and the extra money
)...then again, it too may have been a lemon just like the 12" ASA was
so it's all irrelavent really...............
Mike