[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Originally Posted by atalas

Congrats on first light Rolf,a nice cluster with more to come I'm sure.

Thanks Louie And much more to come hopefully!

Originally Posted by multiweb

Significant improvement in stellar profiles. Gotta be happy with all that hard work paying off.

Thank you Marc, yes I think the improvement is huge. I'm definitely happy with the results so far

Originally Posted by Hagar

Nice cluster Rolf. Glad all your work has paid off. You have to be a happy Chappy.
Well done for both the image and the scope.

Thanks Doug, I'm very happy indeed

Originally Posted by richardo

Very nicely engineered Rolf.. and the proof is in the pudding, yes definitely better results although your present image tracked better than your previous.

Always wondered about the string mounted secondary when I was researching better designed secondary holders and spiders.. I think it was stellafane which brought my attention to the idea for visual scopes a long while back. I wondered how they would hold up for imaging.

Have you tested it to see how stable it is for movement on long exposures and when advancing to the meridian.. wind/ wind gusts??
How has it performed??

Thanks for sharing
Rich

Thank you Rich Yes the new image has slightly better tracking - still obviously a big improvement in the halos and diffraction though. I actually have the impression that the mount also tracks just a little bit better now, I wonder if that's because the new OTA is lighter - although the mount was in no way not overloaded before.

The wire spider seems to hold up very well for imaging. Collimation is rock solid in all orientations and as good as I left it after the first test now 2 weeks ago.
I also used to have to adjust focus slightly if I changed direction of the scope to another target. Everything is rock solid now and focus stays right where I put it, I just can't believe it

Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr

Looking very good Rolf!
I note that your strategy appears to be lots of short exposures, is that correct? To avoid having to guide the camera? Will you be trying any long exposures with this setup?

Thanks David, yes I take short exposures but it's not really a strategy as such, I just image with a modified webcam and don't have any guiding solution available so I have to keep my exposures short to avoid tracking errors etc. Up to around 1 minute seems to be the maximum I can go
I'm planning to invest in a QSI583wsg camera with proper guiding later this year and then I'll expose for as long as I can!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Well, comparing these two images certainly there is a difference and looks to bode well for the future of your new musical instrument scope

I had a look at your scope ramblings and the new OTA looks very cool by the way, you are a cleaver dude

Mike

Thank you Mike, glad you liked it The results are promising so far. Now I just need the cam to go with it and then I'll be ready for some serious imaging.
Yours look very promising too! I saw your coloured Cat's Paw image and I think it was a nice image and a promising test, but didn't want to argue with the 'angry mob' in the other thread . Testing is what it's all about with new scopes right?

But now that we both have new scopes it'll probably stay cloudy for a while ...