Jupiter and GRS on morning of the 17th.

[Barv]

A somewhat frustrating night with dirt issues in my optical train. Leaving the C14 out to cool for longer is definitely improving things somewhat.

Cheers for looking.

Harvey

[1parsec]

Excellent detail and colour. The processing is spot on.

[SnakeyJ]

Nice one Harvey, nice smooth processing. Do you have to setup every session? Hefting a C14 up on to the mount must be quite a challenge and scary too ;-)

[neil phillips]

Nice shot Harvey

[theo]

Nicely done Harvey.  A big improvement with the processing here as well. Great job.

Pete

[Space Cowboy]

Big improvement Harvey!

[cgarry]

Leaving the C14 out to cool for longer is definitely improving things somewhat.

Yes, it took me a long time to get the thermals in my C14 under control.  Just leaving it to cool for a long time was not enough on its own as it turned out.

[si@nite]

I agree with the above Harvey processing looking nice!

[Barv]

Nice one Harvey, nice smooth processing. Do you have to setup every session? Hefting a C14 up on to the mount must be quite a challenge and scary too ;-)

No, don't have to set up everytime Jake as scope is in a run off roof obsy, but I have to pull the roof back about 3 hours before imaging, (longer if I can), to get the scope cool. I am finding that this size scope needs a lot of management. Far more than with the C11. They don't tell you that when you buy one!

Cheers Harvey

[Barv]

Yes, it took me a long time to get the thermals in my C14 under control.  Just leaving it to cool for a long time was not enough on its own as it turned out.

I agree Chris, I am going to line the scope with an exterior thermal cover and haven't ruled out putting a fan inside somehow yet. Just bought a Telegizmos cover aswell! It's amazing that you need all this when the observatory is well ventilated and must be nearly near outside temperatures inside.

Is your scope an Edge? (mine is and you can't poke anything in the focuser because of optics in the tube! 

[Vox45]

Nicely done I like it

[cgarry]

I agree Chris, I am going to line the scope with an exterior thermal cover and haven't ruled out putting a fan inside somehow yet. Just bought a Telegizmos cover aswell! It's amazing that you need all this when the observatory is well ventilated and must be nearly near outside temperatures inside.

Is your scope an Edge? (mine is and you can't poke anything in the focuser because of optics in the tube! 

I found that wrapping my C14 in radiator reflector foil had a huge impact on reducing thermal currents.  The issue was the skyward facing side of the tube easily became several degrees cooler than the ground facing side and this was enough to generate thermal currents that destroyed the performance of the scope.  No amount of cool down time would fix this, but the simple cover did.  Interestingly I also found that currents could even build up in the dew shield for the same reason - these C14s are hard work!

Initially I bought an Edge HD C14 because I assumed it was the 'best'. In my mind this was a mistake, as the large Edge models are a pain to get thermally stable because of the big lump of glass in the baffle tube prevents the obvious cooling system.

Later on I bought a 2nd hand, old non-edge C14 which I use with a Lymax cat cooler.  This setup is a joy to use in comparison, I can cool down from inside temperatures in 30 to 40 minutes and give cat cooler a quick blast if the ambient temperature changes enough for thermal currents to raise their ugly heads again.  My Edge HD C14 now gathers dust in a spare room until I can bring myself to sell it or add some forced air cooling system.

Cheers,

Chris

[Barv]

I found that wrapping my C14 in radiator reflector foil had a huge impact on reducing thermal currents.  The issue was the skyward facing side of the tube easily became several degrees cooler than the ground facing side and this was enough to generate thermal currents that destroyed the performance of the scope.  No amount of cool down time would fix this, but the simple cover did.  Interestingly I also found that currents could even build up in the dew shield for the same reason - these C14s are hard work!

Initially I bought an Edge HD C14 because I assumed it was the 'best'. In my mind this was a mistake, as the large Edge models are a pain to get thermally stable because of the big lump of glass in the baffle tube prevents the obvious cooling system.

Later on I bought a 2nd hand, old non-edge C14 which I use with a Lymax cat cooler.  This setup is a joy to use in comparison, I can cool down from inside temperatures in 30 to 40 minutes and give cat cooler a quick blast if the ambient temperature changes enough for thermal currents to raise their ugly heads again.  My Edge HD C14 now gathers dust in a spare room until I can bring myself to sell it or add some forced air cooling system.

Cheers,

Chris

Cheers for all this Chris, - very interesting. I have purchased some bubble wrap with what looks like tinned foil on either side and I'm going to line the tube with that. I don't know whether you've thought about it but I'm going to remove the 2 60 micron filters and fix up a couple of fans I think, - one to push and one to pull, - That should do it!

[Pete Presland]

Nicely done some very good detail showing.