First Time w/ Meade SCT and LL0.1

[HiloDon]

Last night was the first time I used my Lodestar X2 with my Meade 8" SCT and .33 FR. I also used Paul's Lodestar Live s/w v0.1. I was really happy with everything. Paul's new stacking routine works great. Here's M51 without and with 5x mean stacking.

Here's some additional captures with mean stacking.

Here's a couple with sum stacking.

Too big. I'll post it below.

Paul, your s/w works beautifully! Thank you for making this possible. Can't wait to try out the new color X2. One thing I accidentally discovered with LL was that fine adjustment of the settings can be made by swiping two fingers on the pad and placing the cursor on the setting. Did you add that in v0.1 or was it always there? Work's well to fine tune the image.

Don

[HiloDon]

A couple more sum stacked captures.

[RobertI]

Very nice results Don! I have just got a F3.3 reducer for my Celestron C8 so this gives me a good idea of what's possible. Unfortunately I don't have the luscious skies of Hawaii!

[HiloDon]

Very nice results Don! I have just got a F3.3 reducer for my Celestron C8 so this gives me a good idea of what's possible. Unfortunately I don't have the luscious skies of Hawaii!

Thanks, Robert. When using the 3.3, it's critical to get the spacing between the FR and the sensor correct. I am still studying this because I think mine may not be quite right yet. Also, make sure that your scope is precisely collimated. Here's a good procedure:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=548

The skies I can't help you with.

Don

[DoctorD]

Hi Don

Great images - the C8 and F3.3 is a good combination for this application.

What spacing between the reducer and the lodestar are you using - I've got 20mm spacer plus SCT-T2 & T2 to CS which looks like about 50mm from front of reducer  the chip, but I do not have an exact figure for the spacing from the front of the lodestar to the chip and I seem to have more coma in the corners than you do?

Clear skies

Paul

[HiloDon]

Thanks, Paul.  My spacing from the back of the FR to the front of the Lodestar was about 52mm.  The distance from the Lodestar sensor to the front of the Lodestar is about 11mm.  That gives me a total of 63mm.  I think that's too much.  I do see some vignetting in my photos.  I found a site that will calculate focal ratio and got 2.6.  57mm would be the correct distance to get 3.3.  It looks like it's pretty sensitive to spacing distance.  Here's the site: 

http://www.wilmslowastro.com/software/formulae.htm#FR

Hope this makes sense.

Don

[Paul81]

Wow! There is some really nice subtle detail in those captures Don! Amazing!

I am so pleased everything is working well and you are getting lots of enjoyment out of the application. The little trick with the settings sliders as always been there - its a feature of the QT user interface framework.

Can't wait to see more of your posts!

[Martin Meredith]

What fantastic shots Don! The detail in NGC253 is tremendous for 12 x 10s.

Martin