Catanonia

OK no doubt this is a unusual question as most sane folks will go for fast F Stop and the RASA8 gives this in spades with F2 @400mm

But can you, or has anyone, put a lens on it to reduce the F Stop and increase the Focal Length ?

This lens element would have to go between the camera on the front and the corrector plate.

Just wondering if it is possible  or if anyone has attempted it ?

22 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I can see the simplicity of sticking to a smaller chip size but, for me, 400mm isn't a focal length I'd instinctively use in search of high resolution. We're at 1.9"PP which won't be very seeing dependent and makes the system a good compromise between speed  (flux per pixel) and resolution. On the other hand the RASA should have the aperture to deliver higher resolution, certainly, when you have the seeing. Your sampling rate of 1.24 is, in principle, a viable galaxy imaging resolution. I'll be more than a little interested to see what you get on small, high res targets. The idea of just swapping the camera to go from widefield to high res has to be appealing!

Olly

I will certainly try it for example on M33 Triangulum and the bubble nebula and post the results when they come into view.

That is why I went for the smaller ZWO183MC with the much smaller pixel size. No such issues for me and my RASA 8 and getting very good resolution / sampling.

Excellent write up.

I too have started the hobby again with an ASIAir Pro as I didn't want the laptop and all the associated wires from years ago.

As said, Polaris is not bang on the North, it is off to the side and so the AAP is much more accurate. But I agree, it is a pita trying to make those tiny movements. You should try it on an old NEQ6 Pro that has a heavy scope on it.

I love the meridian flip of the AAP, combined with plate solving it automatically flips and positions within a few pixels.

Get the EAF, it is well worth it.

Also for adjusting / framing an image, did you know you can press on a star and then press go on the screen and the software will centre the image on the star you pressed. VERY cool and VERY useful

Cracking image and great portable setup you have there, very compact.

Nice work Olly. Surprised you had collimation issues. Mine was pretty much perfect out of the box.

Mind you I deliberately went for the ZWO 183MC with its reduced FOV and smaller pixel sizes so I will avoid the problems on the edges and get high MP images at good sampling.

22 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Nice to see you back!  Yes, I've just joined the F2 brigade with a RASA 8, all in conjunction with Paul Kummer.

Olly

Thanks Olly  Saw a post where you had a RASA8 too. Hope you have managed to sort out the image issues you had. You will love the RASA8, see my images in the DSO image section that I got in stupid fast time after a long time away from the hobby

Sign up for the SUB F3 group  (bit of fun)

Who is imaging at F2 - 3 ?

I am currently on a RASA 8 @F2 and also have a old Boren Newtonian 8inch at F2.8

Reminds me of my days (7 years ago) when I got one of the Boren PowerNewts F2.8 (The predecessor to your scope)

Great scope and very fast, but an absolute mare to collimate and eventually lead me to giving up on astro until now due to the issues I had with mis shaped stars in the corners.

I tried everything with it and just gave up.

Now I have a new ZWO 183MC, I might try and give it a go again, if the RASA 8 will let me lift her off the mount

Anyways, awesome images, so happy you got a good one as I too have heard the horror stories about the Boren I got and expeienced and the scope you have.

Congrats and enjoy mate, welcome to the SUB F3 group

3 hours ago, tripleped said:

really , really nice!  I clearly see the pelican. What I also see (not  kidding  here)  is  a dog.  The two very bright stars  on  left  side  of image are the "eyes", contained  within the blueish area which to me looks strikingly like a dogs head.  That  jumped  out  at  me  even before  I saw the pelican. 

That is the Skull Nebula  (yes I can see a dog now, with the dark patch being its nose)

Done a SHO version. Struggling to control the bright stars, but looks ok.

Great attempt in challenging conditions.

Would love a link to an image of your mount.

12 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

Is it hiding behind that pterodactyl? 😂 

Awesome shot 👍 

Yeah it should be renamed

Got about 3 hours in 2min and 5min subs in Bortle 6 skies the other night on the RASA 8 and ZWO 183mc

Hope you like it and those who can't see the Pelican, hopefully you can in this image

Loving the speed of the RASA 8 combined with the small pixels of the ZWO 183MC.

Managed to grab 2 hours of subs (5mins and 2mins) in Bortle 6 skies and combine them together into SHO image.

The RASA @F2 allows me to sneak in some imaging in a few hour cloud break that other scopes just would not allow.

Also amazed watching the ASI Air Pro do a meridian flip, re-find my target and centre to within 2 pixels, then auto focus again, kick of the guiding again and continue to image without me having to lift a finger

Great start, always nice to get 1st lights on new kit

Nice image and well done.

Some tips would be to play a little with curves to bring up the saturation and contrast a little to make the deep reads pop a little more.

Also stick a black border around it, makes the image pop more.

Excellent image though, good data and nice and smooth

1 minute ago, vlaiv said:

Yes, before.

Thank you

Starting down my OSC  career and understand the debayer concept.

But do you calibrate with darks, flats and bias BEFORE debayer or AFTER debayer ?

If I were to guess, I would say before, but I am unsure.

Many thanks in advance

5 hours ago, nephilim said:

Well done, very nice image & processing. I also used Lukes PI tutorial for my first ever Hubble Palette a couple of weeks ago.

This is the same target I was shooting last night

38 minutes ago, Mike73 said:

Wow!! Yes I'd be happy with that as my first Hubble pallet. Congrats. 😎

28 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

It's wonderful!

Thanks.

A very steep learning curve after 7+ years away from the hobby. New kit and new processing methods. A big thanks to Lukomatico on YouTube (I think he frequents on SGL) for the tutorial on Hubble Pallet with OSC.

It has been sometime, 7+ years and loads of new kit as mentioned in the main imaging forum.

Whilst collecting data on the Elephants Trunk, I decided to re-do my 1st Hubble Image I took last night.

A lot of learning in PixInsight, but I think it turned out quite well compared with other examples on Google.

48x 120s OSC subs with ZWO183MC and RASA8 under Bortle 6 skies.

Managed to get some subs in during the clouds and I am quite pleased for this as a 1st light on the RASA, ZWO camera's and the EnHance Tri-Band filter.

Hi guys,

It has probably been 7 or more years since I stopped the hobby due to work, business etc.

But recently I decided that I needed something for myself and so took the plunge again and ordered some new kit as my Boren PowerNewt (for those that remember) was so painful to use, it really made me pack the lot up for a long time.

So a new camera, scope and accessories were in order to go on my aging NEQ6 Pro mount. So here was my shopping list

ZWO 183MC Camera

ZWO Auto Focuser

EnHance Filter + Starozona filter drawer system

ZWO 120mm guide scope and camera kit

ASI Air Pro

and to top it all off, a RASA 8

So much has changed, love the ASI Air Pro, it makes PA so much easier, has all the tools I wanted to code myself, removes all the laptops, clutter etc etc and makes imaging fun again

And the RASA 8 - WOW !!!!!!!!   F2 and I love it.

So after 6 weeks of clouds (new scope syndrome sorry) I eventually got some hours to test out the new kit on an old favourite, NGC 7000.  Back to learning PixInsight and gave me a pleasing OSC, but I wanted more.

So attached also is my 1st ever Hubble Pallet attempt which needs improvement, but for a 1st try on brand new kit after 7+ years, I am thrilled.

Nice to be back in the hobby and hopefully will hang around more in SGL if you will let me

Images were 50x 120seconds OSC ZWO 183MC with EnHance filter in bortel 6 skies in late August 2021

(lol, looks like I re-applied the star mask upside down in the Hubble, still have to remember the RASA is a mirror image of the target  :))

Heard the news last night and although we all knew it was going to happen one of these years, I was still shocked and saddened when it happened. If only everyone could have 1% of the inspiration and presence of the late Sir Patrick, then the world would be a much better place.

So sadly missed, such devotion to the amatuer cause and from all accounts, there for everyone.

My only regret is that I never got to meet the great man.

RIP Sir Patrick, the next SuperNova should be named after him.

Cat

I don't often post comments on suppliers on the forum as most have thier good and bad points. But in this instance I will break the rule.

Bern @ Modern Astronomy is by far the best supplier of any equipment I have had the pleasure to deal with.

Last night I realised that my CCD to Filter wheel adapter had eventually stripped it's threads with the amount of times I had removed and attached the filter wheel, other adapters etc over the last 2 years. Totally nromal (or abnormaly in my case) wear and tear and messing around in the dark all the time.

A quick email and another adapter is in the post for me, emails answered out of hours and brilliant service.

A similar thing happened a few months ago with a cable that was causing a problem, next day in the post and on its way to me again all late night emails.

Superb service and certainly something that all businesses large and small in all sectors should strive to follow.

So a huge public thank you to Modern Astronomy and a serious recommendation by me to everyone thinking of buying from them.

/Cat has no association to Modern Astronomy and has not even met Bern in person yet. But when he does he will be buying him a drink.

nice review and as said, a cheap interest finding intro before splashing out more cash.

Always sell it on ebay after or give it to friends / kids.