[David Fitz-Henr]

Originally Posted by alistairsam

Not much that can be said about it other than that it looks perfect.
I've heard of people mentioning pin point stars with refractors but I don't think you can get any more pinpoint than what you're getting with a reflector
What would you attribute the sharpness of your images to? mirror, rigidity of your CF OTA, imaging chip, mount?
Really nice work.
Cheers
Alistair

Thanks Alistair. I have basically designed the scope from the ground up and sourced the best quality components where possible and made the others. Having a rigid tube (Dream Telescopes CF sandwich panel) and high quality optics (Suchting Precision Optics and Antares for secondary), rigid focuser with no slop, and ensuring any potential reflections / scattered light are minimised with flocking / baffles are important. I also wanted a system that was easy to collimate and held the optics securely and rigidly; for instance the secondary assembly I built permits fine control on rotation (a source of frustration in many newtonians).

Originally Posted by Scorpius51

Stunning! Sharpness, detail, framing & colour are superb.

Thanks John!

Originally Posted by Stevec35

To say the least, that's a keeper! Great colour, framing and detail.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Very nice result indeed for a shake down test image David, very sharp, looks like you'll need a mozaic to fit it all in though?

On my screen the image looks clipped (?) with a jet black background that looks like it is hiding the faint fuzzies... but it could also be my screen too as I am using a less than optimal res TV monitor at the moment which decreases dynamic range .

Mike

Thanks Mike! Actually, if I'd taken more time to get the images aligned I could probably have included NGC1399 at the left edge of the field. I don't think it is clipped though; the background level appears to be around 1400 or so in each colour channel in PS, and the histograms (attached) show a small clearance at the foot of the curve in each channel.

Originally Posted by Peter.M

This image, and your whole Newtonian project has inspired me to continue my home made equipment. When I have a mount that can hold a more substantial scope I plan to make something in this size range.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks Peter, that's a great compliment and I'm happy to discuss any aspects of the project.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

That's a ripper David! You've got some really nice colour going there. I reckon you're a bit of a composition pioneer ... but I won't hold that against you . Doesn't look black clipped to me although there is probably some more faint signal in there for you to tease out. For a quick check do Image->Adjustments->Equalise.

Cheers, Marcus

Thanks Marcus! I did try stetching a little more - there is a tiny amount of extra detail but the background is quite noisy. I only took 8 subs for the luminance, and about 6 or 7 for each colour (all just 10 mins) so I had some trouble controlling the background noise.