M13, first light with AG Optical Convergent FA14

[Xplode]

This is first light from SkyEyE Observatory with our now AG Optical FA14, a 14.5" f5 reflector.
Despite the bad collimation and no flats i'm pretty happy with this as first light for the scope.
The scope was not collimated before first light as we had to figure out the imaging train first to get correct distance for the extremely short Optec Gemini focuser with only 12.7mm travel.

 

Gear:
AG Optical Convergent FA14 14.5" reflector (1855mm/f5)
10 Micron GM2000
Optec Gemini focusing rotator
Moravian G3-16200 (pixel scale 0.67")
ZWO ASI174MM Mini (OAG)

Exposures
18x300s Lum
12x300 R 2x2
12x300 G 2x2
12x300 B 2x2

This was edited in around 10 minutes.
To spend more time on it i want some more suitable RGB exposures, 120s 2x2 is way too much signal to get out color in the stars.

 

Click for full resolution

Edited June 26, 2019 by Xplode

[vlaiv]

Nice!

And then people ask what's the use for larger reflector telescope in imaging, when small apo can do it all

 

[dave_galera]

That is pretty impressive for a first light.......

[Xplode]

Thanks for the comments

26 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Nice!

And then people ask what's the use for larger reflector telescope in imaging, when small apo can do it all

 

 

They certainly forget that smaller scopes just don't have the resolving power of a larger scope...to get small stars and increase resolution there's no way around a big reflector.
Small APO's are nice beginner scopes that allow for mostly problem free astro imaging, that can't be said about the cheaper reflectors out there that often can't keep collimation from one side of the sky to the other.

[dave_galera]

13 minutes ago, Xplode said:

Small APO's are nice beginner scopes that allow for mostly problem free astro imaging

.......they are NOT only beginner scopes but are necessary for wide field which large reflectors can't cope with unless you have huge mosaics

Edited June 26, 2019 by dave_galera

[vlaiv]

17 minutes ago, Xplode said:

Thanks for the comments

 

They certainly forget that smaller scopes just don't have the resolving power of a larger scope...to get small stars and increase resolution there's no way around a big reflector.
Small APO's are nice beginner scopes that allow for mostly problem free astro imaging, that can't be said about the cheaper reflectors out there that often can't keep collimation from one side of the sky to the other.

I was more referring to light gathering power of such scope - I mean this image is total of how much - 4.5h and over sampled at 0.67"/px, yet goes really deep - you can bin lum x2 (in software) and raise SNR x2 further, without much loss of detail or do some fancy "in between" fractional binning to get to somewhere around 1-1.1"/px.

6 minutes ago, dave_galera said:

.......and for wide field which large reflectors can't cope with unless you have huge mosaics

Actually, you can do mosaic in about same amount of time (slightly less FOV due to small overlap of segments needed, and a bit more time, the time it takes to move the mount between segments) to get the same SNR as you would with same speed smaller scope. It requires a bit more care when storing data and processing but it is quite doable.

[Xplode]

3 minutes ago, dave_galera said:

.......they are NOT only beginner scopes but are necessary for wide field which large reflectors can't cope with unless you have huge mosaics

I didn't say small APO's are just for beginners.
They are of course very good for wide field, but short FL reflectors for that too, Takahashi Epsilon, Celestron Rasa and a bunch other fast reflectors.

[dave_galera]

Yep....the bigger the bucket the more photons you can capture LOL

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by dave_galera

[dokeeffe]

Wow thats an impressive shot. You must have some pretty good seeing conditions too though. Are you at high altitude?

[Xplode]

19 minutes ago, dokeeffe said:

Wow thats an impressive shot. You must have some pretty good seeing conditions too though. Are you at high altitude?

Thank you.
It's captured in Spain at a remote observatory, altitude is around 550m

[MilwaukeeLion]

At full res I count over 20 galaxies to my eyes, just gorgeous image.