Hi all,
I had great fun last year imaging the planets with a 6" f/8 Dob and since then I've upgraded to a manual 12" f/5 Dob and am really keen to have a good stab at the planets again this year. Managed to get my 6" results on the Bintel FB page, so a high bar is set!
I plan to image with a QHY5III462C camera (2.9um pixels) and an Explore Scientific 3x focal extender, producing an effective focal length of f/15 - which should be good according to the "optimal FL = 5*pixel size in um). Collimation will be important, so I've invested in a Catseye Autocollimator to make sure everything is as good as can be.
My plan is to do a luminance layer with the UV\IR cut filter off and then a colour image with the filter on and merge them in post.
Now we finally come to the questions at hand:
1) Given the tiny FOV of the camera at f/15, is it worth adding a coma corrector to the optical train? Or will the coma always be less than the airy disc at this distance from the centre of the optical axis? Not sure how to calculate that
2) Any general feedback on my plan? Any glaring issues? I know it will be a nightmare keeping the planets in the camera's FOV at f/15
Thanks,
Richard