First Light with ODK12

[ChrisLX200]

It's been a while with this scope sat on the shelf, no chance for serious imaging Fri night with that monster moon so I thought I would try the ODK12 to see how it behaved. It was a pretty horrible night really, dewey and some high cirrus to spread the moonlight around. I still got issues with the scope - like collimation for one thing, and the cable arrangement wasn't good so I modified it as I went along. The mount model wasn't great @ 10"RMS  but I lost so many points to failed plate solves due to that moon that I ran with it anyway.

First job was finding focus which turned out to be a lot further out than I expected, involving rooting about in drawers for various extensions. I found it though, but the flats I took earlier were made useless as a result. Neither is the camera on axis properly now as it isn't well supported. All this reminds me of the issues facing newbies when they first try imaging - a whole bunch of problems which need sorting and make it seem like astro-imaging is a black art ;-) . It will all get sorted though.

Anyway, this is the ODK12 on the mount:

This OTA I intend for smaller targets like galaxies and PNs, so first light had to be a galaxy, right? This is M82 which only shows the image scale at 2040mm f/l under truely poor conditions and using an entirely unsuitable camera (the 490EX). No Flats, no darks, mangled processing ;-) LRGB 10min subs.

So that's it, first light. Promising result but I hope for better when it's properly set up.

ChrisH

[buikimaging]

Must say, that is one sexy setup with that GM2000, wouldn't mind having that in my back yard one day , very nicely shot, great detail, nice and crisp, great job!

[cfpendock]

Nice looking piece of kit.  It will be good to see your first images with a good sky and the Moravian camera.

 

Chris

[ollypenrice]

If you can resolve the core like that you'll be laughing once you get in the swing. It looks really tight.

Olly

[laudropb]

Lovely looking piece of kit and a very nice image.

[CCD Imager]

Unguided?

[Barry-Wilson]

I can imagine your frustrations throughout the evening after waiting for such a long time for the OTA and then the weather.  That image scale really shows great potential and you have one of the best mounts to take advantage of the set up and I really look forward to seeing/reading of your progress.

Galaxy season is just around the corner . . . fingers crossed for the weather.

[CCD Imager]

Chris

You now have an identical set up to me! I ordered a Feathertouch focuser for mine and it works like a charm, although there isn't much infocus. It acts more like an astrograph than visual now

The primary is fixed. so the only collimation is via the secondary and should be easy to do, the only issue I found is that the primary to secondary distance is critical and a little off causes astigmatic stars at the periphery. The distance is set at the factory, so when collimating, take this into consideration.

Once you become familiar, I'm sure you will like the scope and the results it can achieve. I have yet to put the ODK on my GM2000 HPS, just been using my little Tak refractor, but I am being badgered to show the results of unguided imaging at 2M!

Adrian

[ChrisLX200]

2 minutes ago, CCD Imager said:

Chris

You now have an identical set up to me! I ordered a Feathertouch focuser for mine and it works like a charm, although there isn't much infocus. It acts more like an astrograph than visual now

The primary is fixed. so the only collimation is via the secondary and should be easy to do, the only issue I found is that the primary to secondary distance is critical and a little off causes astigmatic stars at the periphery. The distance is set at the factory, so when collimating, take this into consideration.

Once you become familiar, I'm sure you will like the scope and the results it can achieve. I have yet to put the ODK on my GM2000 HPS, just been using my little Tak refractor, but I am being badgered to show the results of unguided imaging at 2M!

Adrian

Clearly you're a man of impeccable taste in equipment ;-) Yes I definitely need to check collimation because the out of focus stars did not look symetrical. I was also wondering whether a focal reducer would work, probably not but I have an AP 2" reducer I could try.

Does yours have the built-in heaters installed? Just wondering if you're supposed to power them via a controller or just direct to 12V. I connected mine to a controller and got horizontal  bars on images, connecting direct removed the bars but the heating was too much... Power supply setup is no different from using the refractor (which uses heater bands of course). Ground loops come to mind but I don't know where I would start sorting that out.

ChrisH

[CCD Imager]

A reducer may well work, but will eat up in focus distance (no good for me), but I am of the opinion to keep as much glass out of the optical path as possible and there already is a flattener built into the scope.

I bought a Kendrick secondary heater directly from them) and OO installed it before I got the scope. The power cable runs down a spider leg, along the inside of the OTA and out of the rear with a 12V plug. I don't have a controller, except to unplug! What effects were you getting from to much heat? - I haven't any issues there, but I don't know the size/power of your heater. I haven't had any issues with interference on my CCD images. When you say heaters, do you have more than one?

So was your image unguided?

Adrian

[CCD Imager]

For reference, this is an image taken about a year ago with the ODK ontop of an EQ8, but I need more data!

[ChrisLX200]

3 minutes ago, CCD Imager said:

A reducer may well work, but will eat up in focus distance (no good for me), but I am of the opinion to keep as much glass out of the optical path as possible and there already is a flattener built into the scope.

I bought a Kendrick secondary heater directly from them) and OO installed it before I got the scope. The power cable runs down a spider leg, along the inside of the OTA and out of the rear with a 12V plug. I don't have a controller, except to unplug! What effects were you getting from to much heat? - I haven't any issues there, but I don't know the size/power of your heater. I haven't had any issues with interference on my CCD images. When you say heaters, do you have more than one?

So was your image unguided?

Adrian

I honestly don't know where the heater(s) are located, secondary for sure as that is the most vulnerable but I think also behind the primary - I have a temperature probe inserted in the back just behind the primary and I watched the temperature rise with the power on, it increased by 1degC within about 5 minutes so I unplugged it! Seems crazy OO don't supply some sort of instructions with their (expensive) scope... My socket on the rear face is for the fans, the heater socket is on the side of the OTA.

Oh yes, unguided of course. Stars were not quite round but the model was poor - the Moon wiped out 1/4 of the points due to failed plate-solves, I had some cable snags earlier on and had to sort that out, and balance was just a guesstimate. Despite all that the model offered 10"RMS so I just ran with it rather than re-do the whole thing. I had too many other things to sort out to worry about it ;-)

 

Chris

[Martin-Devon]

For a 'first light' with a new (enormous) scope, and under less than ideal condition, you've got to be really pleased with that Chris. Offers a lot of potential going forwards.

Martin

[Moonshane]

Excellent first result Chris. It may be artefact but it looks as though there's an incredible amount of data going perpendicular to the axis of the galaxy - like a rugby ball shape in the background?

[ollypenrice]

Why reduce it? You have that football field of a chip  and I doubt that there are all that many objects crying out for a little more field. For the two years that I was operating Yves' ODK14 I think we only ever did things that fitted easily on the (paltry!) full format CCD. I guess I do miss that focal length...

Olly

Edit, No, I don't guess I miss it. I DO miss it!!

[ChrisLX200]

I wouldn't look too closely at that M82 image really, as I said - no flats or darks, huge Moon + high cirrus giving high background, tracking not yet spot on (not balanced properly and poor model), collimation out (working on that now), cables pulling, stupid over sampling (0.3"/pxl, at least 10x the seeing), focus not great... I'm not making excuses just being practical ;-) My success on the night was that I got the thing mounted and the comms all work and there were no show stoppers, just the thought of lifting it onto the mount on my own worried me greatly until I tried it! - so that made me very happy and why I posted an image.  Now I can measure the exact back-focus distance and can work out the dimensions for mounting the Moravian G4 and the Integra85 focuser. I may take it out again later tonight (predicted clear) to see if I can get a better mount model because unguided performance depends on achieving a much tighter RMS than I had last time.

chrisH

[theo]

Hi Chris,  love the set up and this first light image is looking very good indeed taking into account the things you mention above. I will certainly be looking forward to more.

Many thanks for your comments on Gav's thread by the way, much appreciated.

 

Pete

[CCD Imager]

Chris

Sounds like a thermonuclear reaction going on with your heaters!

Your pixel scale seems off, correct me if I am wrong, but the G4 has 9u pixels? So for a 2M scope, the scale is 0.92 arc sec/pixel. My QSI camera gives 0.6 arc sec/pixel and definitely don't bin, coz you will miss those nights with excellent seeing and lose resolution.

Keep us updated on how you get on and you have spurred me to try the ODK on the GM2000

[mikeyscope]

Great looking setup ....looks like you're relegated to the garden setup too.

[ChrisLX200]

31 minutes ago, CCD Imager said:

Chris

Sounds like a thermonuclear reaction going on with your heaters!

Your pixel scale seems off, correct me if I am wrong, but the G4 has 9u pixels? So for a 2M scope, the scale is 0.92 arc sec/pixel. My QSI camera gives 0.6 arc sec/pixel and definitely don't bin, coz you will miss those nights with excellent seeing and lose resolution.

Keep us updated on how you get on and you have spurred me to try the ODK on the GM2000

This was taken with the Atik490 - not the G4. It's a temporary setup just so I can check stuff is working...

ChrisH

[ChrisLX200]

So I now have a little gizmo that allows me to control the OTA fans and heaters remotely via USB, with a couple of spare relay channels for anything else I might want to switch on/off:

ChrisH

[ChrisLX200]

I used the Wanhao 3D printer to make an enclosure for the relay PCB, and this will fit onto the scope somewhere as it's small and light. The more I use the 3D printer then the more uses I find for it ;-)

ChrisH

Edit: I should point out I bought two of these PCBs! I'm printing a box for the other one now and that will be a spare in case this one blows up... (which is what usually happens to my electronics adventures ;-) )