neil phillips

Finally got the result i knew this little 4.5 F8 Newt could produce. Been improving collimation. No wind. Seeing wasnt too bad. Was struggling with the EQ2 and the economy motor drive though. slop in the mount makes the drifting even worse. A quick process (3 or 4 hours) Will do a more careful process later. The QHY 462C camera is pretty good in my opinion. Very sensitive red and IR for a single shot colour camera The texture looks almost sandy. But with no noise. stacking about 900 frames each per the 13 panes used out of around 4000 being captured. 75% 100%

Crisp shots.

Nice work. Naturally sharp Mike

Thats a great result, I tended to try to avoid any whiteout on my images, But lately have been pushing the white levels It can make the images more dynamic. But of course like anything its a trade off. You dont get something for nothing with either approach Lovely sharpness

Thanks Craig. No not a single shot. I added 11 panes. The difficult thing is capturing with a EQ2 With no polar scope. And no hand controller. Just a single economy RA motor. The speed goes up and down like a yo yo. All the moving and placing of the image on the screen has to be done by hand by physically pulling the telescope around. With the amount of drift im getting i am losing a lot of frames, And my pane times have to be quite short. That will change when i get my Old EQ3 some dual drives. Better will be coming for sure. I am surprised at the result with all the problems mentioned and the wind. Getting a 90mm F10 Frac tomorrow. So will be fun seeing what that can do.

Hey congrats and nice shot

Not sure if its any better certainly smoother? But a more careful process. Celestron 114 Newt. EQ2 Mount with single economy drive. QHY 462C IR850 Was windy but used the pause start method

Yes i liked my ASI 290MM Wonder, what the QHY Version is like ? Will compare. Altair cameras are good i tested some. But not a mono

Hi Mike. Me too regarding the more muted colour. I really need a mono camera. Especialy when i get the 10" running again Got this camera as a general work horse but for lunar mono is better. Why oh why cant they do a mono version of this camera. at 4.5 " i was shooting 1/250 secs exposure IR850 And wait for it about 35% Gain. Very very sensitive

Celestron 114 powerseeker F8 prime focus. EQ2 mount. single economy RA drive. QHY 462C Camera IR UV Filter The bottom shot is with a 2x omni barlow The 20th Feb same gear but with 850 nm IR Filter, Also quite windy, with a EQ2 Its fun blowing around With a better mount could likely do better. But its fun with cheaper equipment you have to work for the results. These images are for my daughter as its her scope.

Cheers John

Conditions were not great. Scope not cooled. A rush job. Another good thing capturing with a brighter sky. The IR makes the sky jet black. On a side note. A Antares 1/30th secondary is now on its way from the states. Trying to rebuild my old 245mm Orion Newt. Cleaning the primary soon. Btw checked out your Mars shots. great work.

shooting in daylight fairly low. IR850 Celestron 114. QHY462C. Secondary shadow still looks offset after re collimating. Havent figured out why yet. Mirror clips were too tight. But now are set correctly.

Thanks Michael. I suspect the primary clips might be a touch overtight. If so it should improve over this first light attempt. I am amazed how these scopes perform on low power moonmosaics. Who said Celestron 4.5 " powerseekers are not really big enough for starter scopes. For the moon at prime focus i think they are great. reprocessed this slightly sharper and more carefully. Not as natural but tighter maybe.

Cheers guys building mosaics on a EQ2 With a simple RA Drive is quite difficult i am finding.

Thanks

wasnt sure exactly how much signal strength i would get at 850nm with 114mm optics. But surprisingly i had loads of headroom. Backing up the claim this camera sets new levels for IR Sensitivity. I can do better with this scope i reckon. Bit worried the clips holding the primary are too tight. Might have to check. Cheers Craig.

A 15 year old and recently restored Celestron powerseeker 114 F8 QHY462 C IR 850 filter EQ2 Simple RA Drive. 31st Jan. It was windy blowing the little scope around. Still first light after many years of neglect.

Nice Vlaiv. looks good. lovely balance

Nice capture

Its interesting Craig. I remember the fullerscope brand. 8.75 Is one of the sizes that can deliver a little more than the more common 8" Looks clear here tonight, moon 48 degrees. Been restoring a old 114 F8 Newt. Its looking good. Hope to get some images

Nice closeup. A bit dark my end. Its surprising how much detail is lurking in the dark areas, hope you dont mind, wanted to see what some adjustments could reveal. just histo and gamma adjustment. Got rid of the noise too. You may not like it. See what you think

Superb results. Some of the best lunar images ive seen with small scopes

Hi WCC. Having a lot of fun re discovering astronomy. Want to try IR with the cameras IR performance. But will likely need the 90mm frac. or the 114 Newt for that. Expecting things to improve as i go further along i hope. By the time my largest scope is running, I should have got back into it. (I forgot so much ) Looking foward to getting the other small scopes on the. moon. Should make a interesting comparison. Cheers

Hi Vlaiv Color correction is quite good. Its also heavily influenced by the heavy saturation. Here in colour. But no heavy saturation