Hi all
I have been dying to get out and try my new scope and finally lastnight there was some clear sky to give it a try. Focusing was very difficult as the BRC-250 uses a helical focuser and when you turn it the camera assembly moves as well and as the scope was a long way from near focus this meant alternating between the focuser and the instrument rotator in order to stop the cables from twisting up. The focuser is very smooth but at the same time very firm so it takes a bit of turning. It took about half an hour just to get focus. Because of the camera rotating I didn't use my usual method of using one star to focus on in Maxim DL and using the inspect tool, instead I did it visually using the difraction spikes on a bright star as a guide (when out of focus the difraction spikes were split) so please excuse the image if it appears slightly out of focus. I am waiting for an adapter to fit my FLI PDF focuser in the system and when that is in things will be much easier as I can get close to critical focus with the helical focuser and then lock it it and leave everything to the PDF focuser, so at the moment the camera is not the correct distance from the built in field flattener. Anyway, enough of the excuses. I managed 8x10 minute unguded subframes of IC 410 of which 4 were ruined by cloud and after the 8th subframe that was it for the night as the clouds stayed. So this is a 4x10 minute image in Ha only. Only simple auto dark subtraction was done and no flats were applied. I have included the full widefield and an extreme close up of the Tadpoles themselves
Thanks for looking
Pictures of the BRC-250 can be seen on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk
Best wishes
Gordon
Once you get everything into focus and working right, it should look really good....as it is, you've done well with the new scope. Looking forward to some great piccies
