GSO RC images 21 May 2009

[RB (Andrew)]

...and now that I've had a look at the images, my congratulations to you.
Very sharp with heaps of detail, colours well saturated, you've done a great job indeed.

[gregbradley]

Looks to me like some Chinese Telescope makers are going to be the new Takahashi in the not too distant future and will shake up the lucrative Ritchey Chretien world.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thank Andrew for the fix up and for the praise.

Greg, you know that might be a real possibility and the bottom line is that we might get good prices on telescopes for some time.

[gregbradley]

I ran your image through some Photoshop actions and steps and the stars shrunk easily. My version may be slightly oversharpened but if you want a link to see how the stars came out I can post it for you.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Absolutely and then tell me the action step by step, thanks mate.

[gregbradley]

OK here it is- I redid it to reduce the amount of sharpening. Total time to process was about 4 minutes;

http://upload.pbase.com/image/112821714


1. Noel Carboni Photoshop action "increase star colour" one time through.

2. Noel Carboni Photoshop action "reduce star size" one time through.

3. Selective sharpening:

a) duplicate layer
b) set to "overlay" mode
c) filters/other/high pass 2.5 pixels enter
d) layer/layer mask/hide all
e) select brush tool, foreground tool set to white and black with white on top
f) rub over areas you want sharpened in this case only the galaxy dust band and nowhere else
g) layer/flatten image

Thats it.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Also Paul to put it in perspective I think your image is quite a bit better than this image I took about 1.5 years ago with an RCOS 12.5 inch, Tak reducer (I think or it may have been native F9) and STL11000M class 2 camera with Astrodon filters and 3:45 total exposure:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/96619186

Not to say the RCOS 12.5 was being used to its maximum by me but that is from my dark site which I know has awesome super dark and stable (mostly) skies.

Greg.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Super set Paul, I'll eat my words, that RC is looking very nice. Worrying is the internal reflections, but I'm sure that'll get sorted out. I tell you what, I might just save for a 12" version of this baby ;-)

Dave

[gregbradley]

What's the problem with internal reflections? Was that from an earlier post?

They could be sorted pretty easily as handling reflections would be simply:

1. More baffling
2. Flock the interior of the scope.

I flocked the interior of my RCOS and it seemed to improve it, it increased the contrast in images. I also made an aperture mask for the mirror in case of turned down edge which per the RCOS site makes for bloated stars. So perhaps you may have a little of that too. I simply got some black cardboard from a newsagent and did a cut out and taped it to the side of the mirror with little tabs turned down so the last 5-10mm of the mirror was masked.

Greg

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Beautiful set of images Paul. Can you let us in on the capture details?

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

What's the problem with internal reflections? Was that from an earlier post?

See post #31 here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...t=44533&page=2

Some of AlexN's shots have shown the reflections as well.

Dave

[marki]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Looks to me like some Chinese Telescope makers are going to be the new Takahashi in the not too distant future and will shake up the lucrative Ritchey Chretien world.

Greg.

They are turning out to be quite good indeed aren't they (dam no emoticon for standing on a chair whilst cheering for the underdog ).

Great pics Paul, I am loving your blob free results and have put enough away to buy the 10" when it finally turns up.

Mark

[Alchemy (Clive)]

REALLY NICE IMAGE

beautiful detail, tight in the dust lanes. youre going to have a great time with that scope. Bargain at under 3k


clive

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Very nice images Paul - I'm sure there will be lots of people out there in the Astro-Community worldwide very keen to see some decent results from this scope - you've provided them!
Exciting Times!!
Doug

[Matty P (Matt)]

Amazing images Paul. Definitely shows the quality of this little RC.

I had my reservations about this scope but after seeing these images, it has really changed my mind.

Now it's time to start saving for one!

Hope the internal reflections can be sorted out quickly.

[AlexN]

I think the internal baffles could be causing the reflections.. I dunno... Maybe a can of flat black paint could make all the difference.. However due to the primary being fixed, I don't know if I like the idea of pulling the scope apart... I do wonder if theres a way to test that out...

[Octane (Humayun)]

Paul,

Fantastic images. I agree with everything so far said about the Chinese manufacturers (cheap RC). I thought my mind may have been swayed by that dude that posted in the other RC thread, but, after having seen the potential here, have changed my mind.

I know what my next telescope purchase will be.

Regards,
Humayun

[Virgs]

These results speak, no they SHOUT for themselves and being there whilst the second night of testing was being carried out allowed me to see what these scopes are capable of. These little babys rock! They are a delight to use and given that Paul was using a modified Canon 40D DSLR puts it into perspective - you can now match the big boys without having to spend a huge amount of money. For those of you are thinking about entering the next level of imaging, these should be a consideration. one wonders what the results may be when we chuck an ST1100 on the back - hint hint Mark..

[Max]

Hey Paul!!

Great Images!!!!! and Great scope!!!

Regards!!!

Max

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Very nice indeed Paul...love all three and I'm turning green!

Paul