Imaging with the 130pds

[Stub Mandrel]

Not sure, I'll have a look at mine.

Suggest painting the cut end of the tube black.

I superglued a little square of brass on the flat on the tube to act as a stop.

[alacant]

7 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Suggest painting the cut end of the tube black.

I superglued a little square of brass on the flat on the tube to act as a stop.

Hi. Yep. Will get out the matt black. Maybe the tube walls too...

Not sure what you mean about the square of brass. The original tube didn't have one; it stops at a certain point when racking out anyway; puzzled!

[alexbb]

11 hours ago, alacant said:

As I removed the focuser, I noticed more seemingly undocumented screws around the focuser; the three sets of push pull screws at 120° around the barrel which look suspiciously like tilt adjusters. One set however cannot be accessed because it is directly beneath the focus knob. Anyone? TIA.

I always assumed that this is their purpose, but I didn't mess with them as I didn't need. Aren't they allen screws? I'm at work now (lunch break) and I'm not near the scope to confirm. Being allen screws, I remember that I could access them maybe with the short side of the allen key.

[alexbb]

Also, I have now one more O3 hour on the Veil for a total of 4.5 hours of O3 and 2.5 hours of Ha. I also acquired one hour of O3 on the Dumbbell 30 mins of 60s exposures and 30 mins of 180s exposures stacked in DSS with HDR stacking mode. Overstretched and very noisy. Though, it's an improvement over my last year's attempt at M27, I can't remember how much data I had, but there were just a few subs taken with the DSLR, but under better skies.

Thanks for looking,

Alex

[iwols]

omg the more images i see from this scope makes me wonder why i keep throwing money at my ed80 ds pro some of these images are excellent guys

[alacant]

1 hour ago, moise212 said:

I didn't mess with them as I didn't need. Aren't they allen screws?

Yes. They're Allen screws. I can't get rid of the tilt via collimation so I'm wondering if I could use them. Here's a light frame which shows top to bottom tilt. Focusing dead centre, it's too close at the top of the frame and too far at the bottom. I'm not sure how that relates to the sensor on my 700d. Or maybe I'm expecting too much...

[alacant]

1 hour ago, moise212 said:

one more O3 hour on the Veil

That image is becoming addictive. Amazing!

[alexbb]

2 hours ago, iwols said:

omg the more images i see from this scope makes me wonder why i keep throwing money at my ed80 ds pro some of these images are excellent guys

What do you mean by throwing money at your 80ed? What are you upgrading on it?
The 130 reflector will provide a much larger light gathering area therefore increased resolution, but having a central obstruction will also put some more light on the outer airy layers so the stars will look a little more bloated. You should get good stars with the 80ed, especially in nb. It's the light gathering time that is much longer on the slower frac in order to get the same amount of photons from the same area of sky. I was pretty close in buying an 80ed, several times, but in the end I bought a sh Canon 300 F4 L lens and I'll save for a new Esprit. But 75% of the nights I'm limited by seeing to ~2". And, btw, my 130PDS was also bought sh, only the coma corrector being new.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

That image is becoming addictive. Amazing!

Thanks! I'm hoping for at least twice the amount of integration time, but I'm pretty disappointed by the resolution. For the O3 nights I had the PHD reporting me ~2" RMS total error, for the Ha I was luckier to have a better seeing of 1.6" or so, which is still worse than the resolution of the 585mm FL and the ASI1600 sensor are aiming for. For the M27 I didn't even bother and I binned 2x2.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Yes. They're Allen screws. I can't get rid of the tilt via collimation so I'm wondering if I could use them. Here's a light frame which shows top to bottom tilt. Focusing dead centre, it's too close at the top of the frame and too far at the bottom. I'm not sure how that relates to the sensor on my 700d. Or maybe I'm expecting too much...

I would try it if I were you. Just remember how much you turned the screws so you can revert if it's worse.

[alacant]

8 minutes ago, moise212 said:

You should get good stars with the 80ed

Hi. I find the stars smaller with the pds, especially on longer snaps. On the refractor, the longer you leave it, the fatter the halos become. They're just simple doublets after all.  Maybe I got bad lenses but it was poor by comparison. I sent it back, disappointed. It did however work out of the box; the pds doesn't.  For me of course. YMMV. HTH.

[Stub Mandrel]

M27 from last night. Only about 40 subs, but the seeing & transparency was phenomenal around 1:00 am - light touch processing, it looked colourful even on the preview screen!

[alexbb]

Nice! I need to get some colour too, but I only have a window of about an hour before it gets out of my sight. And then I switch to Veil.

I might try to put the DSLR too with the Canon lens and try to get some coloured stars.

[Stub Mandrel]

Here's M57 from earlier in the evening. Nearly twice the data but deeper in the LP so not as good, the 150PL also suffers if bright stars are nearby, the full frame has a huge blob of light from HIP93017, I should flock it!

Edited May 26, 2017 by Stub Mandrel

[alacant]

14 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

it looked colourful even on the preview screen!

Superb. Persistent dew-forming-in-atmosphere haze all week here. Can't get anywhere near that clarity.

[Stub Mandrel]

Just now, alacant said:

Superb. Persistent dew-forming-in-atmosphere haze all week here. Can't get anywhere near that clarity.

Well we deserve one night of decent conditions in the UK every year!

[Chris]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Here's M57 from earlier in the evening. Nearly twice the data but deeper in the LP so not as good, the 150PL also suffers if bright stars are nearby, the full frame has a huge blob of light from HIP93017, I should flock it!

Which of your cameras was this with, Neil? I do like how flat the field is if you didn't use a coma corrector? I'm just wondering if the blob on the full frame might be amp glow?

[Stub Mandrel]

The 450D, but teh 150PL is f8 so I don't use my CC with it. M57 is a crop to only the middle third of the frame, so absolutely no risk of coma, but the M27 shot is virtually full frame APS-C.

Here's the full M57 frame after a preliminary stretch, I'm sure it's light spill from a star or some other light source:

[alacant]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

The 450D, but teh 150PL is f8 so I don't use my CC with it. M57 is a crop to only the middle third of the frame, so absolutely no risk of coma, but the M27 shot is virtually full frame APS-C.

 

Sorry, I'm lost. Could you explain where the f8 comes from? This wasn't a 130pds? Cheers and hoping you have another good seeing night.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Sorry, I'm lost. Could you explain where the f8 comes from? This wasn't a 130pds? Cheers and hoping you have another good seeing night.

Oh Sackcloth and Ashes!

I did some jupiter imaging with the 150PL last night and instead of changing to the 130P-DS I went for some smaller targets.

Either I had brain fade and forgot I used the other scope or I thought this was the EQ3 DSOP Challenge thread... you decide. They are coming to take me away now... 

[alacant]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

They are coming to take me away now.

No, no. Not you, I. I should read the thread. The acronyms beat me every time. 150L this 130P that, EQ5, NEQ, WO7... I just wanted to know how you got the shot. It doesn't matter to me if it was a 130 or not; I love the experimental side to astro photography. TIA.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, alacant said:

No, no. Not you, I. I should read the thread. The acronyms beat me every time. 150L this 130P that, EQ5, NEQ, WO7... I just wanted to know how you got the shot. It doesn't matter to me if it was a 130 or not; I love the experimental side to astro photography. TIA.

It fooled me too, you should have seen what that horrific stack looked like when I used my 130 flats instead of my 150 ones :-)

[alacant]

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It fooled me too

Hi. OK, thanks. That makes me feel a little better:)

 Getting there slowly... Is this image taken with a 150PL?  Is 150PL this? Is this similar? TIA.

[Stub Mandrel]

12 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. OK, thanks. That makes me feel a little better:)

 Getting there slowly... Is this image taken with a 150PL?  Is 150PL this? Is this similar? TIA.

Yes, although most of my 150PL shots now are planets.

The Skywatcher 150 PL is the one, the Bresser is slightly shorter FL so probably not the same.

[alexbb]

Latest additions to Veil for a total of 4h Ha and 6h O3.
M27 RGB: 23 minutes each channel.
M27 RGB-HOO: RGB above + 1h Ha + 2h O3. 2 versions.

I guess this would be all for at least a week.

Thanks for watching, clear skies!

Alex

Edited May 31, 2017 by moise212

[alexbb]

Or is this one better? This has ~one more hour of Ha. Clear skies surprise.

[alacant]

4 hours ago, moise212 said:

 

Or is this one better?

 

Hi. Excellent shots. I like this one. Probably because my brain is telling me that's what it should look like rather than pushing the boundaries. I'm the one which needs to adjust. Thanks.