New X2 mono first light

[f15p5]

First chance to give it a go in my 4.3" F7 at F7. No Filters. No post processing. It is more sensitive than the X2c I had, though also a bit more noise. First real chance to use latest LL, easier than ever once I got the hang of it. Everything done in Linear. Mount was tracking ok tonight, no guiding. I'm glad Don talked me into the mono, really like it. Here are a few of the better images. Conditions were poor to fair, lots of haze and high clouds & dew.

Richard

[nytecam]

Good work - see you're using a flip mirror :-)

[f15p5]

Yea, the old diagonal. Can see a couple of 16 mag companion galaxies in two of the images. Not bad for a 4" in poor conditions. Could barely see the big dipper stars due to clouds/haze

[Martin Meredith]

Some great captures. I especially like M51. Good to see some high F-numbers for a change! I'm impressed that these are in the linear mode too. The other modes really help but take some getting used to as the sweet spot re brightness and contrast can be hard to find.

I have to agree that the mono is a pleasure to use. The noise tends to have a non-distracting very fine grain and reduces further in a short stack.

Martin

[nytecam]

Just noticed you used your 4.3" scope - these results are amazing :-)

[Macavity]

Remarkably clean images - and in impressively short times!

Always wish they'd "standardise" camera specs between the "classic imagers"

and (uz!) video astronomers. Hard to compare quantum efficiency with Lux! 

They can be a bit reticent on chip type too! But interestingly both the latest

offering from Watec - The 910XH, and Lodestar X2 seem to use the ICX829?

About a factor of 4x up in (Lux) sensitivity on my trusty old Watec 120N+ ... 

Encouraging the things are still being made - And "reasonably" affordable?

[HiloDon]

Excellent results, Richard! I'm glad to see they finally sent you a LS that works.

LL does a good job of reducing noise if you stack. Mean stacking is the easiest to do and you can watch as the noise goes away with each stack. Three gets most of the noise and there's no perceptible improvement after five. LL will automatically put the exposure and stack info in the annotation.

It's amazing to see what the Lodestar and small scope can do.

Don

[f15p5]

Thanks guys for the encouragement and tips. I will try mean stacking next. Was real happy with tracking when scope pointing east, west not so much. 90 seconds and no drift! Wish the moon was still new, but rain tonight and tomorrow. Also really like the focusing feature in LL, really helps!

Richard

[f15p5]

I posted several more in my Gallery under 4.33" & X2Mono

[DoctorD]

Hi Richard

Fantastic images especially at F7 - glad it's all coming together for you.

CS

Paul