NGC6726 - First Light Starizona SCT Reducer/Corrector LF
Well - many thanks to my inlaws who after a trip to the US agreed to bring back a little something from Starizona...the newly purchased SCT 0.7x reducer/corrector (LF version for the c14) that i've been trying to get my hands on for about 6 months!
Clear sky on Wednesday night, but pretty unstable after all that wind, so couldn't really do any fine collimation, spacing / tilt adjustment, but got it close enough for a 'first light' just to see how things were going by early Thurs morning.
NGC6726 is a beautiful reflection nebula in Corona Australis, and just a part of an incredibly interesting region that consists of lots of beautiful interstellar dust lit up by surrounding stars and other thick dust clouds forming intricate patterns throughout.
The wide-field view of this region is spectacular, but up close there is also plenty of detail to reveal. The conditions were not perfect for imaging at about 2700mm, so I binned 3x making use of the light gathering power of the c14, rather than its resolution.
So, what about the reducer? First impressions are very positive. The image circle is so much larger than that of the 0.63 reducer, instantly improving the overall flatness of the fov, and the quality of my flats. Additionally, the OAG was now fully illuminated providing much better guide stars (and more of them). Spacing and tilt are still to be perfected, but already I would say star shapes and spot size are better than that of the Celestron corrector and can only get better with fine tuning. Just don't think about the price...
Onwards and upwards!
C14 / 0.7 Starizona SCT reducer LF on the eq8
asi2600mc Pro / asi290mm / OAG (no filters)
ASIAIR Pro / APP & PSexpress for stacking and processing
B6/7 Padstow skies with no moon
5x 3min subs, 42x 5min subs
Dave,
Excellent image of a difficult target
Beautiful colours and so much dark nebulosity and dust
That big scope is worth it’s weight in gold , oh and the 2600MC too
I’ve tried this target on my little 6” newt and it just hasn’t got enough light grab with a OSC. A mono and filters would be a different story.
Thanks for sharing
Cheers Mark, Martin, Steve. It really is such a fascinating region to explore covering a huge area. It’s well placed in the sky right now but definitely needs plenty of integration and a nice dark sky! The 2600mc seems to do very well with whatever I throw at it. I’ll have a go with the Hyperstar at some point which is probably a more appropriate setup for this target…
Martin- yes I know what you mean! I tried this target with the c8 and could hardly get much at all. But even after one 5min sub with the c14 I had really nice colour coming through. Luckily even though the seeing conditions were a bit soft, guiding was steady and I didn’t throw out a single sub, even the subs I was using for framing! Figured I needed as much time as I could get!
OSC from the suburbs can be a bit tricky especially with broadband targets and I’m still experimenting a bit to get the best signal/noise. But I’m certainly not complaining-not after seeing a pic of your backyard!!!
Cheers Mark, Martin, Steve. It really is such a fascinating region to explore covering a huge area. It’s well placed in the sky right now but definitely needs plenty of integration and a nice dark sky! The 2600mc seems to do very well with whatever I throw at it. I’ll have a go with the Hyperstar at some point which is probably a more appropriate setup for this target…
Martin- yes I know what you mean! I tried this target with the c8 and could hardly get much at all. But even after one 5min sub with the c14 I had really nice colour coming through. Luckily even though the seeing conditions were a bit soft, guiding was steady and I didn’t throw out a single sub, even the subs I was using for framing! Figured I needed as much time as I could get!
OSC from the suburbs can be a bit tricky especially with broadband targets and I’m still experimenting a bit to get the best signal/noise. But I’m certainly not complaining-not after seeing a pic of your backyard!!!
I’ve had my 2600MC for nearly 2 years now and I’m still experimenting in Sydney, although Gain 100 seems to work better. Down the south coast in my Obs under Bortle 3 , anything goes with both Broadband and Narrowband, just set it to Gain 0 , Highest Dynamic Range and take your subs , a few mins to 5 or 10 mins.The noise floor is so much lower you hardly need noise reduction in processing, chalk and cheese between locations.
Cheers
Martin
I forgot to put it in the details but I’m pretty much shooting gain 0 as standard now. I figured the high dynamic range is most important for exposing detail within the bright core of a galaxy or emission nebula while still allowing longer subs with the c14 to get the fainter areas.
Hi David
I did construct a long post which has gone to I know not where however the guts of it was to say what a wonderful image and perhaps one of the best I have seen of this region.
Alex
