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Dual Imaging Rigs - my thoughts and ideas


Gina

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Love the focuser Gina!

Best of luck with this. I too want to give dual imaging a go.

Plus one for the dual imaging forum BTW.

Cheers

Ian

Thank you Ian :) And yes, a dual imaging forum would be good :)
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Some more photos showing the ED80s plus widefield assembly. I have stepper motors to add for focussing the ED80s yet. This is set for widefield imaging with 105mm lenses with one ED80 used with OAG and Lodestar camera for guiding.

post-13131-0-00976200-1371068531_thumb.j post-13131-0-50475600-1371068524_thumb.j post-13131-0-15362600-1371068536_thumb.j post-13131-0-91002500-1371068539_thumb.jpost-13131-0-90380300-1371068542_thumb.j

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Gina, I don't think I've seen it mentioned in the thread, you'll need some adjuster to allow alignment of the scopes. On my ADM dual bar I use a modded SW guidescope mount.

+1 for the Losmandy too, much more secure

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Gina, I don't think I've seen it mentioned in the thread, you'll need some adjuster to allow alignment of the scopes. On my ADM dual bar I use a modded SW guidescope mount.

+1 for the Losmandy too, much more secure

Yes, I realise this and will have to see what I can devise. I might have to rethink the whole design - have to see. Once I get it set up I can see how far out the two ED80s are. I may be able to get away with using elongated holes for one of the rings. At least I have clear views to the horizon eastwards about a mile to the next hill and southwards 5-6 miles to the next hill, so can check in daytime and not need a clear night.

I'll probably wait for the Losmandy dovetail before putting the "lump" back on the mount, though I could leave it attached to the hoist with it just slackened off.

For the widefield alignment I can arrange to adjust the EFW2 mounting using either springs or rubber pads.

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Now have the ADM Losmandy type dovetail bar - thanks to FLO next day delivery :) This looks a much better proposition :) Dovetail bar secured to 10mm ali plate with 6 M6 caphead screws into tapped holes. Think that'll do :D

post-13131-0-79783100-1371215550_thumb.j

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Gina you're a DIY inspiration :D

Ordering the bits for my robo focuser (both main and helical).

Thank you :) Hope you'll post about yours - I'll be interested :)
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Been setting up the alignment of my widefield rig - with 105mm lenses. This is just using cardboard in conjunction with the tightness of the wing nuts to adjust the distance of the EFW2 form the mounting plate. Below are 3 images

  1. Taken with the gold camera and SII filter - 0.02s exposure
  2. Taken with the red camera and OIII filter - 0.02s exposure
  3. Images combined in PS without re-aligning. SII to red and OIII to green and blue.

post-13131-0-37723200-1371325056_thumb.p post-13131-0-34484800-1371325095_thumb.p post-13131-0-90337300-1371325202_thumb.p

This is near enough for me :D RegiStar can take care of it and I'll only lose a very small amount of image around the edge.

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That really is a fantastic looking rig you've put together there Gina:) Very neat and tidy and I bet it will be formidable for imaging, my hat is off to you!:)

Looking at the allignment of the two lenses you can see they are only a matter of a couple of mm off using the bottom right corner as a datum point, I bet its one of those things where if you did try and get it better it might end up worse and then you drive youself nuts trying to get it back to being as good as before :D

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That really is a fantastic looking rig you've put together there Gina:) Very neat and tidy and I bet it will be formidable for imaging, my hat is off to you! :)

Looking at the allignment of the two lenses you can see they are only a matter of a couple of mm off using the bottom right corner as a datum point, I bet its one of those things where if you did try and get it better it might end up worse and then you drive youself nuts trying to get it back to being as good as before :D

Thank you Chris :)

Yes, I had that problem with polar aligning - got it to just over an arcmin off, tried to do better and then it went to 7 arcmin off so I decided that anything better tha 2 arcmin was going to be it :D With the WF rig, I'm not going to touch anything until I've finished my WF imaging of the Eagle and Omega nebulae, scheduled for the next few hours of starry night - whenever that might be :D But for the future I want to sort out something a bit easier.

I have yet to check the alignment of the ED80s and have elongated holes for "horizontal" adjustment but "vertical" would need shims on the scope ring mountings.

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Thank you Olly :)

Good luck with your first light :)

I had proper first light on my widefield imaging rig last might - the previous time was a bit of a fiasco, finger trouble. Anyway between the clouds and the mist I managed about an hour's imaging time, taking OIII and SII to add to my Ha for the Eagle and Omega nebulae. More data would have been nice but it was a big relief to be out in my obsy at all after so much bad weather.

Here is the result of stacking and processing the data for the HST pallette.

post-13131-0-35664700-1371671425_thumb.p

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So that's the 105mm pair of lenses. The same fosussing system will work for the pair of 55mm f1.8 Super Takumar lenses as the focussing sleeves are the same size. I have yet to check that I have timing belts to fit the 200mm f4 lenses. I have a pair of idler pulleys I can use if the belts aren't exactly the right length.

Then there's the pair of ED80s. I need to complete my home made filter wheel for the 2nd ED80. For the remote focussing, I already have timing belts and pulleys plus stepper motors ready so a small job to complete that. The Arduino control box I use for the WF rig will do for that too.

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Just weighed my current dual imaging rig and it's 13 KG. That's with the WF rig with 105mm lenses. The ED80s have the focal reducers on and OAG plus Lodestar on one of them. I though it felt heavier than my MN190 :D I've been trying to remember what the maximum weight is considered to be for imaging on the NEQ6 Pro and I can't seem to find it. Anyone help please?

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It's alright - found it :) Weight limit is 25KG so half that is 12.5KG or about what I've got so should be OK. Though when/if I go to a triple imaging rig I shall need to separate the WF from the ED80s, I think.

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I have an Atik 460EX mono CCD camera on order which should arrive Tuesday so I've been looking at adding it to the widefield rig. I reckon I can add it above the red 314L+ but I shall need some way of including a filter in the light path.

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Actual dual inaging is on hold for a day or two while I use forecast clear skies (if we get them) to do some close up imaging of the Eagle Nebula with the MN190 meanwhile I'll be working on the dual imaging rig adding focus motors to the ED80s and probably adding facilities for the imcoming Atik 460EX on the widefield rig.

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looks a very tidy setup gina and that image is very nice you must be very pleased to have got it all working together, i'm also looking to go down this route with a second 80mm frac and atik 314 although i will have to buy the bits in stages when i have the spare money so it will be a long term project over the next year or so

what are peoples thoughts on the best solution for getting the 2 scopes pointing in the same place ? i know there is the guiderings option but i really don't like them and of course the sw guidescope mount but not sure if that is really up to the task of a 80mm triplet, filterwheel and camera

sorry if i'm hijacking gina

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No problem :) Thank you for your compliments :) I haven't yet decided finally on ED80 alignment but so far it's slotted ring fastening holes and maybe shims in the other direction. I'm always open to suggestions and comments. I'm not just fishing for compliments :D Though I don't mind them, of course :)

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