Gina's Esprit 80ED Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

[Gina]

I know nothing about how the internals work ect, but would some flocking not help on any surface that doesn't need to reflect photons...the first picture with the little white bits would be a prime suspect for me...

Those apparently "little white bits" in the first photo are gaps in the edge of the baffle and are simply where the daylight is shining through.  As I said above, I don't think these would cause a problem but they could be blocked up with little bits of black foam.

[Tinker1947]

Yep, i would block them as any source of light could stray in,,,,we have had the moon out this week that wouldn't help at all.....

[Gina]

Right... I have blocked those tiny slits with tiny pieces of black polyether foam and also temporarily stuck a 60mm aperture stop on the outer end of the lens cell.  So when (if) the clouds go away enough as forecast, I'll point the scope at a star field in The Milky Way and see what I get.  Then I'll take the dew shield off and remove the temporary aperture ring and have another go.  I'll probably try various filters including LRGB as well as NB.

[Gina]

Scope and all the bits are now on the mount and power and data cables all connected.  There's still cloud about though I can see a few stars well away from the moon high up and towards the west.  The moon is looking very hazy but hopefully I'll be able to do the tests.

[ollypenrice]

Sorry - don't know what happened when I edited my post - it was just a reminder that 3 objects in the light path could cause a 6-point pattern, as with a 3 vane spider on a newtonian.

Gina, the first photo shows some reflective areas around the edge - it couldn't be this I suppose 

Or did you leave the focus mask on (I'll get my coat  )

Dead right, those bright points in the top two images have 'guilty' written all over them.

Olly

[Gina]

I thought that at first.  Anyway, with them blocked and a 60mm iris I can't see any points watching live.  Here are a couple of screenshots of the Artemis Capture screen with the zoom at maximum showing the pixels.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Gina

[Gina]

Clouded up now - testing suspended

[Gina]

With the sky misting up and FWHM rising to 4+ here is a processed 5m Ha sub unbinned.  This is a screenshot of the Ps screen with the image zoomed in to show pixels.  I think we can call this a perfectly round star even if it is burned out

[Gina]

Another 5m Ha sub - FWHM has gone up to 5.  This is a the original FITS image translated to TIFF by FITS Liberator with the sliders set for no stretching viz. black at zero and white at max.  The TIFF was opened in Ps and simply zoomed in then the screen captured with the Snipping Tool in Win 7 and saved.

[Alien 13]

Looking good Gina this is a facinating thread.

[Gina]

Here are the corrosponding OIII and SII subs which immediately followed the Ha.

[Chris]

I would say that is good news for the optics, well at least 60mm diameter of the optics. Good work Gina:)

[Gina]

Well, either the 60mm iris or the blocked slits seems to have cured the problem (or something else totally unconnected)   Next thing is to determine which.  I shall remove the 60mm iris and try again when we get a clear night sky.  Hoping the problem is still gone - I don't really want an f 6.67 scope when I bought an f5

[Tinker1947]

Well its good that it seems cured by one means or another, just got to wait for a clear night.

[Alien 13]

Well, either the 60mm iris or the blocked slits seems to have cured the problem (or something else totally unconnected)   Next thing is to determine which.  I shall remove the 60mm iris and try again when we get a clear night sky.  Hoping the problem is still gone - I don't really want an f 6.67 scope when I bought an f5

 

I hope its the slits i bet there are a lot of apo owners like me on standby with a tin of black paint.

[Gina]

Clear patches of sky now and I'm on Alpha Cygnus - Ha 0.3s unbinned - without the 60mm iris and the spikes are back   So does this mean bad glass?

This is a screenshot of Artemis - zoomed in.

Downloaded image converted to TIFF and opened in PS and zoomed in.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Gina

[JohnC64]

This  is really weird.  Wouldn't that  indicate something intruding on the light path on the outside of the scope? But there was nothing visible on the earlier pictures

Have you tried visually with a hi-magnification eyepiece to see if the effect is observable visually too?

My esprit comes back on Monday  So will look up the glass to see if i can see any likely candidates.

John

[ollypenrice]

It's the reflections!!!

Olly

[Gina]

This  is really weird.  Wouldn't that  indicate something intruding on the light path on the outside of the scope? But there was nothing visible on the earlier pictures

Have you tried visually with a hi-magnification eyepiece to see if the effect is observable visually too?

My esprit comes back on Monday  So will look up the glass to see if i can see any likely candidates.

John

Weird it certainly is   Intrusions into the light path seemed the obvious candidate - but what?

No I haven't tried visually.

Didn't know your Esprit had been away John.

[Gina]

It's the reflections!!!

Olly

What reflections Olly?

[JohnC64]

Had an issue with the field rotator - (it didn't). Ed At Harrisons has been superb and has sorted it for me. A big thumbs up from me to them.    

As you have taken pictures up the glass and down the focuser, the only thing i can think of is something down towards the camera?  But as this is screwthreaded, it doesn't seem an obvious candidate.

John

[Nathan_Pembs]

Reflections off the clips?

[Sp@ce_d]

Had an issue with the field rotator - (it didn't). Ed At Harrisons has been superb and has sorted it for me. A big thumbs up from me to them.

....... snip

John

Oh dear... Still haven't got mine to budge yet either without going past "reasonable force"

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gina]

Reflections off the clips?

There aren't any clips.

[Alien 13]

I can only think that the light cone is different to what you have had before and is hitting/reflecting off  something in the telescope/sensor lightpath.