5D MKIII AND VARIOUS LENSES AND SCOPES

[Coco]

Due to a run of 6 months poor weather here in the north west UK I decided to take up my old hobby of photography, I sold my Mono imaging equipment and bought a 5D MK3, it is a 20 megapixel full frame camera with a pixel size of has a pixel size of 6.25 µm.

 What drew me to this camera was the very low noise level, I have seen some web images of the 6D in action on wide field astro targets and figured the 5D couldn’t be worse if only the same..

After taking some 400mm images via an EOS prime lens I was satisfied enough to try a cheap Newtonian, along came an 8” F/4 Quattro on ebay for £260 mint so I figured why not

A baader MPCC III was then purchased bringing my setup to £400. The baader isn’t designed for full frame, in fact it’s not brilliant on APS-C ,so I realised cropping was going to be the order of the day..

Original light frame here:  https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcwclVBT01samRBSXRVag

Deep Sky Stacker Autosaved Large TIFF  file here:  https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcwclVBT01TRTd2WnRVag

Here we have a sample of a Flat frame

And 1x  60 second light frame.

[Skyline]

Have you tried using the Aplanatic Coma Corrector, which supposedly is optimised for the Quattro's, I think the design of the corrector was based on Pal Gylulai's Corrector which you can by from TS.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5836_GPU-Designed-Aplanatic-Newtonian-Coma-Corrector-4-element.html

or Skywatchers Version from First Light Optics.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/skywatcher-f4-aplanatic-coma-corrector.html

Al.

[mitchelln]

The 5D MKIII has phenomenal low light performance, so I'll be very interested to see how you get on with it The light frame is already looking promising.

I guess vignetting always will be an issue to combat with full frame, but you do have 20MP to play with!

[Coco]

Have you tried using the Aplanatic Coma Corrector, which supposedly is optimised for the Quattro's, I think the design of the corrector was based on Pal Gylulai's Corrector which you can by from TS.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5836_GPU-Designed-Aplanatic-Newtonian-Coma-Corrector-4-element.html

or Skywatchers Version from First Light Optics.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/skywatcher-f4-aplanatic-coma-corrector.html

Al.

I considered this, I was the Baader that swung me due to some posts over on Ice In Space and cloudy nights etc..

I'm still at the experiment stage, Ive yet to make some braces to go either side of the focuser, 2x scope rings would be the cheapest solution before I get the CAD package out

and design my own.. or buy a third party carbon tube..

[Xplode]

I think your flats looks good

Even if not designed for fullframe the MPCC III still works very good with full frame, not perfect to the edges, but not bad either.

6D is actually a little better at dark noise performance than the 5D III, but probably not enough that it will be seen after stacking.

TS has carbon tube upgrade for your scope http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5778_TS-Carbon-Tube-Upgrade-for-Skywatcher-8--200mm-f-4-Newtonian-Telescope.html

[Coco]

I think your flats looks good

Even if not designed for fullframe the MPCC III still works very good with full frame, not perfect to the edges, but not bad either.

6D is actually a little better at dark noise performance than the 5D III, but probably not enough that it will be seen after stacking.

TS has carbon tube upgrade for your scope http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5778_TS-Carbon-Tube-Upgrade-for-Skywatcher-8--200mm-f-4-Newtonian-Telescope.html

Klause will make you one a lot cheaper, he has the sizes for all skywatchers, GSO etc, he can deliver with the focus hole pre drilled also..

German made, higher quality than skywatcher tubes, this was the reason for picking up a cheap steel tube

http://www.klaushelmi.de/

[Coco]

Here is an image of a the owl nebula widefiled..

5D & 400L @6.7 with 77mm Ids D1

15X 60 seconds, no flats,bias or darks..

ISO 1250

[Xplode]

Thanks for posting the link

An image like that really deserves higher resolution! Post it on Astrobin.

Longer subs will give you less noise with the same total imaging time. I found that i usally don't have to use darks with my 6D so probably the same with your camera Bias are reused so i just have to take flats.

[Xplode]

I'm pretty sure Klaus is the one making the tubes that TS is selling. Nice to know since i will probably be making a custom newtonian before next season starts

[Skyline]

By the time the OP has bought a carbon fibre tube, he could have bought a new telescope with CF Tubing.

But as you say the quality counts, it will be interesting to find out how much it costs from Klaus.

[laser_jock99]

I just e-mailed Klaus about a CF upgrade for my 12" F4 GSO- I'll see what he comes back with? It would save me have to do the steel tube strengthening mod under the focuser if the price is not too ridiculous.

[Xplode]

My guess would be around 550 EUR with carbon fiber surface and holes drilled.

[Coco]

Quattro 8S & 5D MKIII  update

Went over to a mates last night, he has one of those fancy Farpoint Autocollimator's, the MK1 version, he’s got all that fancy camera aligning kit etc..

My scope was nearly there I thought, only needing maybe spacing we soon discovered my collimation was a joke!

Rotation was out slightly ( despite tie wrap mod )  tilt was there also..

Once it was sorted, I drove home carefully...

After 30 minutes of fan cooling the stars were looking great, however when I defocused the stars showed slight issues, now this could have been because we locked rear the mirror up tight for travel? I loosened the rear mirror locks and made some tiny adjustments and all good..

I think I can now look to getting the spacing correct, its showing signs that I might be getting closer to very good as opposed to perfect which isn’t going to happen let’s face it..

high res here:

https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcwdFdRNDQ5NVZWeHNUQw

[Uranium235]

Its very close now, youre at the same point I was a few weeks ago. Just one or two more tweaks and it wil be ready to rock.

Interesting to see that the farpoint collimator works so well in eliminating rotation. I might look into those, see if its worth getting. Or I can get over to your mates and get him to have a look at mine secondary as well!