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Mars March 18th

Space Cowboy

By Space Cowboy
in Imaging - Planetary

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neil phillips

neil phillips

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Not sure Stuart tiny bit of fuzz around the cap side but blacks on analyzer might tighten that. detail looks good to me.You aint the only one with problems my home made dew shield seems to affect thermals, and i cant get a tight image with dew, took the dew sheild off got a tighter image late, when all the nice features had rotated. but by now secondary was misted and gain and exposures were hampered.I hate this dew.

But i wouldnt be too displeased with this. detail looks quite sharp to me. better than your last post i think Stuart. If your unsure with focusser, do manual and use the focusser alternataing keep refocusing during the night trying to nail it both ways. Then compare and see what you think

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lukebl

lukebl

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Nice work. Looks like you captured it at exactly the same time as my image, and I think yours shows better contrast with better detail on the pole cap. What barlows did you use? My 2x plus 3x was perhaps a little ambitious.

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Space Cowboy

Space Cowboy

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Cheers Neil, I tried focus back and forth all night as I used 3 different focal lengths from this one (powermate + ext) to powermate + 2x barlow and then pmate + 2 stacked extensions. My other concern is with the self centering eyepiece holder...when I packed up , the powermate was loose in the holder...it's taking more and more force to tighten the holder and I'm getting different readings with the laser. There could be a misalignment causing collimation issues. I need to try with the standard finger screw holder and also test the focusser with my b-mask....maybe do a star test too if seeing is reasonable.

Sounds like you were doing the same kind of fl to me Luke. There are more volcanoes showing on a later shot I did. The live view was pretty good last night though it did have that hazy halo coming and going around the disk which stopped it being very good seeing.

Thanks John!

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Asimov

Asimov

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Regarding focus. Everyone seems to have fits with focus except me lol. If it won't come to focus easily, it'll be seeing or collimation or a combination of both. Tube currents (got them right now so I'm leaving the scope to equalize out) are a pain too. Worse with newts than SCT's. In great seeing it'll just 'snap' to focus & you'll also have a fairly broad range where you can move the focal point & nothing detectable will happen. I was a 'focus fanatic' until I saw an 8/10 one night. I use a crayford, but I diced the motor & would rather manually focus.

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Space Cowboy

Space Cowboy

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Regarding focus. Everyone seems to have fits with focus except me lol. If it won't come to focus easily, it'll be seeing or collimation or a combination of both. Tube currents (got them right now so I'm leaving the scope to equalize out) are a pain too. Worse with newts than SCT's. In great seeing it'll just 'snap' to focus & you'll also have a fairly broad range where you can move the focal point & nothing detectable will happen. I was a 'focus fanatic' until I saw an 8/10 one night. I use a crayford, but I diced the motor & would rather manually focus.

Thanks John, just swapped the self centring holder for the original thumb screw version and its showing collimation way off with the laser a good 2 inches off the centre of primary. Pretty sure the self centrer has gone faulty. Got scope outside to do a test but alas the clouds have rolled in lol.

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Space Cowboy

Space Cowboy

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Cheers John! SCTs are out of my price range to be honest. I do fantasize about the 14" tracking Dob i.e Rob's but I doubt its a bit too big.

I love this scope and I reckon with better collimation it will produce far sharper Mars shots than these. My November 27th Jupiter image showed just what it can do. Stargazers Lounge - Space Cowboy's Album: Jupiter - Picture

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Asimov

Asimov

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No problem Stuart. As long as you are happy with what you're doing. As you know, I also have the 14" newt but everytime I go to choose it the 11" SCT says "pick me! pick me!" because it's lighter, smaller & easier to use/mount etc. Plus I've just spent 20 years understanding thermal dynamics in both systems.

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Asimov

Asimov

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Well, I've pretty well cracked it thermally with the SCT - Once you start thinking: 'totally enclosed system' <(to be constantly repeated) then it simply becomes a matter of application..

Newts: hate 'em thermally but once you start talking to guys like Alan Adler (google it) it gets easier..Totally open truss tubes = yes & no. No if you have ANY light sources near, like laptops..

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neil phillips

neil phillips

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Well, I've pretty well cracked it thermally with the SCT - Once you start thinking: 'totally enclosed system' <(to be constantly repeated) then it simply becomes a matter of application..

Newts: hate 'em thermally but once you start talking to guys like Alan Adler (google it) it gets easier..Totally open truss tubes = yes & no. No if you have ANY light sources near, like laptops..

Stuart and John ive been thinking about trying a optical window, theres a film you can get where the wave is pretty high 1/10th if i remember correctly. i could in theory totaly enclose the system AFTER cooldown. Just not sure if the idea would have pitfalls ? ive not heard of anyone trying this, im off to look for the film required.

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neil phillips

neil phillips

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Thanks for your comments fellas! Just going through more avis. This one is an hour later using 2 stacked extensions + powermate. Quite pleased with this one.

Upscaled 150% castrator> pipp> as2> reg6 wavelets> image analyser.

space-cowboy-albums-mars-picture16328-mars-march-18th-22-39-pipp-4000-st-as2.png

This is real top stuff Stuart, way to go

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Space Cowboy

Space Cowboy

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Well, I've pretty well cracked it thermally with the SCT - Once you start thinking: 'totally enclosed system' <(to be constantly repeated) then it simply becomes a matter of application..

Newts: hate 'em thermally but once you start talking to guys like Alan Adler (google it) it gets easier..Totally open truss tubes = yes & no. No if you have ANY light sources near, like laptops..

Thanks John I will look him up. Got a camping mat wrapped around OTA keeps out lappy light though there are open gaps where it joins onto the top part of OTA. I use a desktop fan under the primary to cool things down for about 20mins when its been in the house. Usually start imaging after 1 hour.

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neil phillips

neil phillips

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I tried that once many moons ago in a closed tube, the primary completely misted over so i spent about 30 moons trying to blow the mist off. next day dust inside the tube had stuck to the primary.Never again. open tubes might be ok i have no idea but be warned

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Asimov

Asimov

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Check this out guys. Surely you would have seen the idea though. This is the argument that's been raging for a long time: This idea, or peltier cooling for newts..

Alan is still around, spoke to him last night.

He's my thermal hero;)

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