First light Lodestar-X2 mono

[Martin Meredith]

Last night was the first chance in 2015 to try out my xmas-present-to-self: a Lodestar X2 mono, which according to these images has been gathering dust    .

This will be my weapon of choice for deep galaxy/quasar hunting, as it is quite a bit more sensitive than my Lodestar-C original version. 

The first really clear night of 2015 also turned out to be the coldest: -7C at 11pm when I packed it in. At these latitudes darkness in early Feb falls pretty late, at around 7.30, so after plonking down the mount in 12 inches of snow and armed with about 7 layers of clothing I was in for a bracing 3 hour session. Collimation was well off and I think it shows in some of the shots. The SQM meter showed sub-18 skies, which surprised me but was probably due to the streetlights reflected off the snow. These all with the 8" f/4 Quattro mounted in alt-az mode.

First target: M42. I wanted to see if the new nonlinear modes in LodestarLive v0.11 could show as much of the nebula as possible while preserving the Trapezium. Here's a 1 second exposure (first light for the X2) using arcsinh compression with the Trapezium stars resolved:

Leaving it to mean stack 1s subs, 36 seconds later I had this, with sqrt compression:

This bring out lots of nebulosity at the expense of the Trapezium. But tweaking the contrast resulted in this compromise 11s later

Next up Alnitak and the Flame in a single 1s sub. 

This looked fine on the laptop screen but looking at it now on a different screen the nebula is barely visible, so I've no idea how it will show up in the forum (try turning up screen to max brightness in a dark room ;-).

And on to Ye Olde Nags Head.  This version used arcsinh compression and is a mean stack of 7 x 30s. Same goes re image quality. I'd appreciate feedback on whether it is visible or not.

I also found an endless stack of 5s subs with sqrt compression worked a treat.

These are all unfiltered and without darks. One of the first things I noticed about the x2 is the almost complete absence of hot pixels compared to the earlier version (as reported by others), which meant darks were nearly superfluous  (you can spot the slime trails of a couple of hot pixels). The temperature might also have played a role  . V0.11 of LodestarLive worked really well with some of these bright high dynamic range shots, and with ultra-short exposures live stacking improved the view in very near real-time. 

No night would be complete without some galaxy clusters but I'll save those for another post 

Thanks for looking

Martin

[DoctorD]

mmm.....

Can I justify a X2 mono when I'm barely using my Lodestar-C

Very impressive images Martin, thanks for sharing.

CS

Paul

[f15p5]

Hi Martin,

Beautiful images, everything shows up well. My mono X2 and Ha filter just arrived in the mail, waiting for a clear night .

Richard

[Paul81]

Spot on Martin, I am impressed what the X2 picks out in just 1s exposures!

The HH is definitely visible in those shots 

[PatG]

Fantastic captures Martin! Look forward to seeing those Galaxy clusters! The Lodestar X2M looks like a cracking bit of kit, I could not resist picking one up myself at Astrofest last week and look forward to trying it out. Nice to hear that minimum hot pixels which is a bonus!

Regards

Pat

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks for your comments.  Glad that the HH shows up. Its fine on my screen when the blinds are down or in low light levels… which I guess is the point -- "live" it shows up well.  The 5s stack for the HH actually looks better in the dark than the longer exposure. I must admit I was trying to use the controls to kill off the dust bunnies, so perhaps they're not optimum for these objects.

Paul, you can always use the Lodestar-C as a guidescope   . I'm thinking of rigging mine up as an e-finder now I've finally got some finderscope brackets.

Looking forward to seeing your results with X2M Pat and Richard. I had intended to go to Astrofest but luckily I didn't because we were snowed in.

Martin

[DoctorD]

Hi Martin

I think I need a way of mounting the lodestar-C and my trusty 58mm F2 Helios lens (off a very old Zenith-E which was my first SLR!) to act as an e-finder - should allow  me to align form indoors, then all I'd need a remote focuser.

The idea of just plonking the mount & scope on the drive and going inside to set up is very appealing!

Not sure I want to get into guiding - too much like astrophotography.

CS

Paul

[nytecam]

Hi Martin

I think I need a way of mounting the lodestar-C and my trusty 58mm F2 Helios lens (off a very old Zenith-E which was my first SLR!) to act as an e-finder - should allow  me to align form indoors, then all I'd need a remote focuser.

The idea of just plonking the mount & scope on the drive and going inside to set up is very appealing!

Not sure I want to get into guiding - too much like astrophotography.

CS

Paul

Hi Paul - I used a M42 (Pentax thread) to 'C' mount adaptor from way back to couple Helios (and currently f/2 85mm Jupiter) lens to old Lodestar-M as e-finder. Expect EBay etc has similar adaptor. The Jupiter's 42mm aperture sucks in the stars and covers 4 x 3 degree fov so Helios maybe 6 x 4 degree fov.

Unfiltered the Lodestar spectral response is about 380 - 900 nm so these lenses show star bloat cured in my case with a red glass filter before the lens. I say cured but near-IR stars show some bloat at best focus but are fun finds - red/orange stars also show brighter than visual but the red filter seems to suppress my London LP as a bonus.

Aiming the e-finder is not too critical as long as the bright alignment star is generally in the middle of the displayed fov and the laptop screen is marker-penned to co-incide with main scopes view. I have markers for my SCT and piggybacked Schmidt scope as they they're not synched precisely in the same direction

Good luck:-)

[DoctorD]

Hi Nytecam

I have an M42 to CS  adapter, how do you mount your lens/lodestar combination onto the scope/mount?

I have a 50mm finder bracket that might just hold it if I can get some longer screws.

CS

Paul

[HiloDon]

Hi Doc,

Here's how I attach my Nikon lens/Lodestar to my scope. I use a 50mm finder with the objective and eyepiece removed. I put a 2" to 1.25" adapter in the eyepiece end (might have to use a couple of wraps of tape to get it to fit snugly) and leave the objective end open. Then turn it around in the finder bracket. Here are some pics. It's really a solid setup and can be easily aligned with your scope just like the finder.

Hope this helps.

Don

[DoctorD]

Hi Don

Thanks - that's just what I was looking for - I think I can rig something similar up with what I have.

I have a low profile CS-T2 adapter which takes filters internally and can get away without a T2 to M42 (although the thread pitch is different).

I also have a 35nm Ha filter - I'll give that a try should limit any chromatic abberation.

CS

Paul

[Martin Meredith]

Don, I wish I'd thought of that before investing in guidescope rings (still, they'll come in useful at some point). So the finder body is acting as a light shield and a place to attach the rest of the kit to the scope. Nice. I'd been wondering about how to attach the lens and still be able to focus etc...

Martin

[nytecam]

Hi Nytecam

I have an M42 to CS  adapter, how do you mount your lens/lodestar combination onto the scope/mount?

I have a 50mm finder bracket that might just hold it if I can get some longer screws.

CS

Paul

Paul - does this oldie help @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUcxrEQI9Q = my e-finder ?

[DoctorD]

Hi Maurice

Thats's just what I had in mind.

Thanks

Paul