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Buliding Speed Machine One.

ollypenrice

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I've had a hankering to do this for a while, build a double-shooter to work twice as fast. I already had both mono and colour Atik 4000s, originally to run on two mounts for different FLs and different targets. However, this provides an alternative use for the cameras. They can both work simultaneously on the same target. So meet Speed Machine 1;

SPEEDMACHINE-4-M.jpg

I used to image with the Tak in a clamshell but this proved awkward to align with the other scope, an Altair Astro 80mm triplet. I had rather underestimated the difficulty of aligning two scopes in accruate parallel. Whether a set of CNC rings for the Tak would have proved accurate enough to align automatically with the CNC ringed Atair 80 I don't know. I rather doubt it. Instead, at the carrier's leisure (rant rant!) I took delivery of a set of Altair Astro mounting hardware to be on the safe side. The Tak sits in a set of substantial guide rings on a Losmandy-fit dovetail and saddle plate. The Altair 80 has a Vixen Synta rail and saddle plate and they both sit on a long Losmandy-fit dovetail sitting crossways.

Onto the Altair CNC rings I bolted a Baader saddle plate which I already had and this carries an FLO-supplied ST80 with Lodestar aboard. Onto this goes the finderscope, canted over into a semi-convenient position, semi being about as good as it gets!

Since this little lot cost almost twice as much as my car did new I thought a handle would be a good idea and they are available in the Altair mounting package. Instead of putting it on one of the scopes I put it in the middle. Tom O'Donoghue had called in for a day so he helped me tickle up the alignments and balancing etc in between belated April showers. We used a crosshair EP and a distant natural obelisk on a mountain to the south.

More pics;

SPEEDMACHINE-1-S.jpg

SPEEDMACHINE-2-S.jpg

SPEEDMACHINE-3-S.jpg

But wait, there's more. The Tak has a focal reducer bringing it down from 450mm FL to 328mm and I have a WO ZS66 with reducer which gives 310mm FL. So to work at these FLs I unclamp the guidescope, put the Lodestar in the Altair 80 triplet and put the ZS66 where the guidescope was. It has the same Vixen dovetail foot. This is Speed Machine 1B! The catch with SM1B is that the ZS66 is not good enough for luminance or colour, it just isn't optically tight enough to contribute to Tak images other than in narrowband - which it does very well. So it will be OSC in the Tak and Ha in the 66 at short FLs.

I think the Tak and Altair 80 will be able to share the work fairly evenly.

Here's how the focal lengths work out. SM1 has 450 and 480mm and SM1B has 328 and 310. This is how they look on the Rosette Nebula.

(Anybody asking why not just buy a second Tak FSQ85 will be referred immediately to Monique, a fate I do not recommend ;).)

FRAMING-SPPEDMACHINE-L.jpg

Meanwhile, over in Belgium, Yves is masterminding Speed Machine 2. This is going to be a bit harder. The ODK 14 inch is going to shuffle sidewise on some enormous Cassady hardware to accommodate an Intes 6 inch F6 Photomak and QSI 8300 chipped camera for colour collection. The optical resolution will not match the 14 inch (nor does it need to) but the pixel scale is compatible. You can't go round putting 6 inch Maks in guide rings so, at a different carrier's even more langurous leisure (rant rant!!), a gargantuan pan-tilt device arrived along with the hightly reinforced Cassady tandem bar. I wish the Americans would get the switch to metric over and done with. They are going to have to do it one day and I have no hope of getting imperial allen keys here. The last time I asked, the tool shop owner needed a good sit down after rolling around in side slapping mirth...

CASSADY-PAN-S.jpg

Some testing under the stars is now called for, plus a day sorting out the cables and computing.

And then, of course, we need to apply ourselves to Speed Machine 3, The TEC and a smaller apo capable of collecting colour at lower resolution. Don't know what the EM200 would say about the weight, though. Buy another Mesu Mount 200? Re-enter Monique...:eek:

Olly

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

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It'll be interesting to see how you get on with this as I have been contemplating something similar as I now use an OAG for mono imaging leaving a potentially free slot on my ADM side by side bar. Just need to decide which combination of mono H9, M25C, FLT98, ED80 or WO 72FD to set up.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Thanks Michael, I'm just about to do that. I have someone coming next week. Usually it's Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade and Patak's Indian sauces and pickles that I beg!!

The cameras are now on and it does balance fine. It is still needing less counterweight than the TEC140 and guidescope so the mount should be more than happy to co-operate.

Olly

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JamesF

JamesF

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Oddly enough I was idly wondering (thought experiment only -- can't afford to actually do it) about setting up a similar arrangement the other day. I think it was seeing a television piece on the SuperWASP that put it into my head. I was being excessively ambitious and pondering having four scopes on the one mount, so it would be possible to do LRGB simultaneously, for instance.

It'll be interesting to see how well it works out.

James

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Ah yes, I know Graham as a fellow TEC worshipper!

Don't hold your breath. I've always considered the TEC my dotage telescope.

What Speed Machine 1 needs is a pair of 11 Meg Atik cameras. What my bank balance doesn't need is a pair of Atik 11 meg cameras...

Life is hard but there is an air of celebration in the house tonight for some reason.......

Olly

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m.tweedy

m.tweedy

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TV what is that. I do not understand. I sometimes watch a moving picture show of the sky at night. Ah I remember it is something my wife seems to own exclusive viewing rights on.

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NickK

NickK

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You'll probably want each camera on a different USB connection.. away from the guider and mount USB!

Love the idea - the Vixen (910mm)+Titan and SDP (670mm)+383L actually have the same pixel resolution (±0.02 arc sec).. I've been tempted to try double trouble in this way but the vixen's smaller FoV is not entirely central without some additional tweaking (adjustable scope rings needed!). Leaving the vixen to collect additional mono whilst the SDP switches the filters.. Hmm not sure the vixen is worth a flattener costing the same amount though! Guiding through the SDP using the OAG+16IC.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I'm very impressed by the Altair guide rings. The Tak is a heavy scope but these rings are pretty massive in section with cutouts for lightness, an unusual and good idea. Nothing seems to be flexing.

Olly

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martin_h

martin_h

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I'll tell you where this rig does win...mosaics!! no longer do you have to go back and shoot the whole lot again in colour after doing a 9 panel Ha run!!

user16950_pic11662_1307278241.jpg

And as for cables.....dont go there! ;)

psu.jpg

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Aha, I wondered if you'd come in on this one, Martin! Yes, doing Ha and one shot colour at the same time is brilliant. For myself the high speed mosaic is the big attraction. For guests, though, a top grade picture in a singe night may be the big temptation. In any event both are possible.

I'm thinking of sounding this out on a new thread when I've thought it through, but instead of the present rent-a-scope system, where renting a scope to take a typical me-type picture would cost 600 dollars or so, a group of people could become co-owners of a mini wasp widefield array. Each person contributes a scope and camera and pays their share of the mount. The more scopes and mounts on the array the better. (The mount gets cheaper, the image gets faster/better.) Imagine 6 Baby Qs/11 meg cameras on a 10 Micron, probably unguided. All owners share the data between them and build up the greatest widefield images ever taken.

Mods, this is not a commercial suggestion on my part, just an idea for a 'way to go' in amateur imaging. If you're unhappy please delete.

Olly

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