Testing testing - twin CCD

[Uranium235]

Now thats a novelty, clear sky and a new (well ok, used) CCD to set up and test.

After setting up the mount, and altering the balance to reflect the weight of an additional filter wheel. The first real surprise came when I plugged in the 2nd camera, as windows decided it wanted the driver disk again (not easy with a netbook). So a quick dash back to the house so I can share the DVD rom drive over the network, drivers loaded - job done.

My fears of running muliple instances of Artemis capute were forgotten once I saw the message asking me which camera to select The only problem now is the sheer amount of windows open, lots of screen clutter.

The next job was to align both telescopes, I got that reasonably close but I will need to tweak it in order to make full use of the sensor area. Also, I will require an additional Ha and another green filter to make use of the two empty slots I have. I have arranged the my filter set in the following way:

L L

R B

Ha OIII

SII G

So, just a couple of test shots - the conditions were not great, passing cloud and quite breezy which upset the guiding a few times. But later on in the evening it calmed down a bit when I turned it towards the Crescent for my first bit of narrowband imaging for what feels like ages! I can see this twin CCD system coming in very useful for narrowband imaging (I feel a trip to the Veil coming on... again!).

80ED (x2), Atik 314L+ (x2), NEQ6

M13 (including propellor)

12x300 R & B

Processed as: R/B False lum R/SG/B

Flats and Bias

Setpoint: -10

Crescent Nebula

6x450 (Ha, OIII)

Processed as: Ha/OIII False lum Ha/SG/OIII

Flats and Bias

Setpoint: -10

Thanks for looking!

Rob

[tonedeaf]

hehe very nice!

would like to see the setup on the mount -> big nice bino?

i think this would be "overpowered" if two electrical controlled filterwheels would be used -> press button...shooooot

[Uranium235]

hehe very nice!

would like to see the setup on the mount -> big nice bino?

i think this would be "overpowered" if two electrical controlled filterwheels would be used -> press button...shooooot

Thanks

I have actually thought of getting some sort of bino viewer, but it would probably have to be built. What would really make this rock is a third camera, but i have enough to keep me busy for now i think!

Another change i could make is to have two shorter FL fracs for the really big stuff. However, they would have to be cheap enough to afford two.

Next time im out I will take a couple of snaps of the setup.

[ultranova]

By the looks of it Rob I think your going to have a

killer combo, two very nice shots indeed,

The whole street must have dimmed when you turned that lot on

Paul

[ultranova]

Whoops what happened there Sorry, Admin can you delet a couple please Thanks

[Gina]

Great! When I saw a 314L+ advertised on here I very nearly bought it Then I thought about all the extras - FW and filters - sense prevailed again

[Martin-Devon]

Cracking good images Rob

[Uranium235]

Great! When I saw a 314L+ advertised on here I very nearly bought it Then I thought about all the extras - FW and filters - sense prevailed again

You were a bit slow, I got there first

My logic was that duplicating my current (and working) setup would work out cheaper than the next step up in APO terms. Remind me never to process my work on the laptop again though, seems noisy as hell on the monitor. Well, what can I expect with less than an hours subs!

[Uranium235]

I have loaded them on to the PC now and have worked on removing the noise, looks better now. Cor blimey that lappy screen is awful, perhaps I should calibrate it alongside the monitor so I know its not going to ruin my images.

[Gina]

Fantastic images there - well done

You were a bit slow, I got there first

My logic was that duplicating my current (and working) setup would work out cheaper than the next step up in APO terms. Remind me never to process my work on the laptop again though, seems noisy as hell on the monitor. Well, what can I expect with less than an hours subs!

Well done I know that if I want to go this route I'll need to be very snappy to pick up a nice cheap used item. I'm considering my next move but not ready yet. Thinking about it, you're idea of two identical scopes and cameras is good and not what I originally though of. I was thinking of the ED80 and camera lens side by side but the times this would be useful are limited whereas two the same could always be used to double up the data collection rate.

I have only just got guiding working with an OAG but now that I have I'm thinking of guiding the ED80 this way. If I can get that to work I will not need the ST80 and would have a space for another ED80 (with the widefield rig on top as now). This is something I might well do in the future. So another ED80 plus focal reducer, EFW2 and 314L+ together with assorted adapters totalling something like two grand new or one and a half second hand. A lot of time would be needed to save that much

You made me realise though that I wouldn't need to duplicate my filters - the current ones could be distributed between two rigs but I would need two filter wheels.

[x6gas]

It's a bit clumsy, but my dual rig - which I have yet to test - has the OAG & filter wheel on one scope and the other has a filter screwed to a 2" nose piece which is push fit to a 2" eyepiece holder...

I can actually screw the whole lot together using 2" threads but that means hanging my camera off the back of a 2" filter which I'm not keen to try!

My thinking is that I'd be capturing luminance or a narrowband all night on one of the scopes so don't need for a second filter wheel... Or if I ever get a OSC camera the same would apply...

[Gina]

It's a bit clumsy, but my dual rig - which I have yet to test - has the OAG & filter wheel on one scope and the other has a filter screwed to a 2" nose piece which is push fit to a 2" eyepiece holder...

I can actually screw the whole lot together using 2" threads but that means hanging my camera off the back of a 2" filter which I'm not keen to try!

My thinking is that I'd be capturing luminance or a narrowband all night on one of the scopes so don't need for a second filter wheel... Or if I ever get a OSC camera the same would apply...

Interesting point Saving the second filter wheel as well - I lkie it One camera grabbing luminance while the other grabs RGB sounds good. The luminance camera would only need an LPF to cut IR and UV plus Na/Hg LP. A parfocal filter is not needed.

Thinking about it, for NB I could make use of my ST80 achromatic scope the - CA wouldn't rear it's ugly head with a NB filter.

[Uranium235]

Fantastic images there - well done

Well done I know that if I want to go this route I'll need to be very snappy to pick up a nice cheap used item. I'm considering my next move but not ready yet. Thinking about it, you're idea of two identical scopes and cameras is good and not what I originally though of. I was thinking of the ED80 and camera lens side by side but the times this would be useful are limited whereas two the same could always be used to double up the data collection rate.

I have only just got guiding working with an OAG but now that I have I'm thinking of guiding the ED80 this way. If I can get that to work I will not need the ST80 and would have a space for another ED80 (with the widefield rig on top as now). This is something I might well do in the future. So another ED80 plus focal reducer, EFW2 and 314L+ together with assorted adapters totalling something like two grand new or one and a half second hand. A lot of time would be needed to save that much

You made me realise though that I wouldn't need to duplicate my filters - the current ones could be distributed between two rigs but I would need two filter wheels.

Not sure you would need an EFW, becuase with the dual shooter you will be changing filters a lot less often - especially if youre working on a mosaic (as I can now capture HOO imges in one shot). A manual wheel will do, the only reason I have two is because my first wheel fell victim to cold welding so I had to hacksaw the offending adapter off. I managed to get it all working again though, just a couple of ball bearings needed to be put back.

But it does help having everything duplicated. Not only for balance, but it means I only need one B-mask, one flatfield panel, and the focus will respond in exactly the same way to falling temperatures - better the devil you know

I could have just gone out and brought a telescope twice the speed of my current setup, but that would work out to be expensive in APO terms, and a very fast newt would introduce too many complications. Given the choice between double data and double speed, i'd go for the data as its more flexible and there is a loss less chance of L/R/G/Cloud. Actually, I could probably cut out L alltogether if I get a full set of RGB. But at the moment im experimenting with ditching green, just to see what I can get with R&B plus synth green.

I'd like to see someone try the Atik on an ST80 and have a real good go at something. Though I wouldnt expect to see stars similar to what you get with the 80ED might work well in places where there are no large stars (or maybe on nebulas with star subtraction?).

[JamesF]

A couple of very nice images there.

James

[AndyUK]

Excellent Job, Rob - These are superb results... Just the mere thought of having TWO imaging camera's running brings me out in a sweat! I guess this means you can do co-ops with yourself from now on !

[Gina]

Once I've collected the galaxies I want I'll take the MN190 off the mount and put the ED80/ST80/WF rig back on and check out using the OAG and Lodestar with the ED80. Then I'll try the 314L+ with FW on the ST80. I wouldn't expect to get good luminance images but RGB and particularly NB will be worth trying - with refocussing between filters. I'll need a motorised focuser on the ST80 though as the focuser is R&P with no reduction drive - very coarse indeed particularly with just 400mm FL. Currently I have it set for the QHY5 guiding which isn't critical. Have to say, it'll be interesting to see how such a cheap scope fares for imaging

[Uranium235]

Excellent Job, Rob - These are superb results... Just the mere thought of having TWO imaging camera's running brings me out in a sweat! I guess this means you can do co-ops with yourself from now on !

Cheers Andy, lol... never thought of it as a self co-op

I was just trying to find the least troublesome way of beating the great British weather. Last years lack of clear sky made me determined to make the most of what little we get (next few weeks arent looking good).

[JamesF]

Once I've collected the galaxies I want I'll take the MN190 off the mount

Bearing in mind the subject of this thread I got this far and my brain just went "... and make a side-by-side MN190 rig."

James

[Gina]

I think the poor old NEQ6 would be a bit overloaded - unfortunately. The NEQ8 looks interesting