Images from Epsilon 180ed and QHY9 mono

[tooth_dr]

9 minutes ago, carastro said:

Nice images Adam.  Oh dear are you regretting selling me your AtikEFW2 ?

Carole 

Not at all Carole. I have another Atik EFW2 here, but I want 7 x 2” so going to get an EFW3 instead. More expenditure though.  The Epilson is precise, it would be too much hassle swopping filters from carousels, lining up diffraction spikes, getting spacing right. 

Edited November 2, 2019 by tooth_dr

[ApophisAstros]

On 31/10/2019 at 22:54, tooth_dr said:

Here is a 10 minute Pelican from last night also:

 

Its interesting to see the difference between alternate cameras

this one is a 5 minute Ha sub before any calibration , hence ampglow.

Roger

[tooth_dr]

52 minutes ago, apophisOAS said:

Its interesting to see the difference between alternate cameras

this one is a 5 minute Ha sub before any calibration , hence ampglow.

Roger

I do like comparisons Roger 😎 Mine is luminance, but looking forward to see what I can do in Ha. 

[tooth_dr]

On 02/11/2019 at 14:28, tooth_dr said:

I do like comparisons Roger 😎 Mine is luminance, but looking forward to see what I can do in Ha. 

Hey Roger!  I grabbed a few 10 mins Ha subs last night. This is one uncalibrated, just DPP in APP.

 

[tooth_dr]

Hi again

Last night I wanted to try out the Ha filter with the new scope.

This is IC5070 and NGC7000, a 2 pane mosaic.  It got cloudy after I swapped over to the NGC pane. 

14 x 600s right pane

2 x 600s left pane

Very little processing done in PS.

 

Clear skies

Adam.

[david_taurus83]

Jealous!

[david_taurus83]

Those really are fantastic images Adam! I really like the NGC7000 ones.

[HunterHarling]

Really great images so far. My favorite is the Orion nebula, can't wait to see it in color. Good luck with the scope.

[tooth_dr]

The Christmas Tree Nebula.

On my way to bed last night I had a duke out the window and it was clear despite the forecast.  So I quickly set up, and took a few subs in Ha.  I didn't change the focus from the previous session, so it may be slightly out, but temps were similar and the kit hasn't moved so it was close enough at 1am!

 

This is a total for 2.5 hours, from 6 x 600s and 6 x 900s sub.  Uncalibrated stack presented here.  I wanted to pick up the dark stuff at the top of the image, hence the framing.

 

CS

Adam

 

 

[tooth_dr]

Collimation !

When I bought the scope it had been collimated by Orion so I never looked at it closely.  This evening I stuck the Tak collimating tube and EP into the scope to find the secondary out of alignment. When I went to loosen the three locking bolts to make adjustments they weren’t event threaded up finger tight, just sitting loose. No wonder it wasn’t collimated any more!

I fiddled about for a couple of hours and finally got this. Too late to setup tonight for imaging, will try tomorrow.

 

 

 

[astro mick]

Exerllent as always Adam.

Lovely mono images.

Mick.

[tooth_dr]

9 hours ago, astro mick said:

Exerllent as always Adam.

Lovely mono images.

Mick.

Thanks Mick. Keep yours coming too, I always enjoy looking at them. 

[tooth_dr]

I got an hour of luminance on M45 last night, following my (successful I think) attempt at collimating the scope.  The second image is pre-collimation.  Comments welcome.

 

1) collimated

2) pre-collimated

 

[tooth_dr]

30 mins on the HH also last night in the moon light, plus seeing was awful.  I just ran a few subs off as it was clear.

[ollypenrice]

On 01/11/2019 at 00:02, Jkulin said:

HI Adam, I have always loved the images from the epsilon 180,but many say that they operate at their best with a DSLR, but you seem to prove that it works with anything. Have you tried it with your 383 yet?

I think it would be true to say that a DSLR works best with an Epsilon (see Maurice Toet: https://www.mauricetoet.nl/ ) but I can't see any reason to think that an Epsilon works best with a DSLR, at least now that dedicated cooled cameras with tiny pixels and large chips are available.

Anyway I think Adam has made a great start with an excellent, if challenging, scope.

Olly

[Jkulin]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I think it would be true to say that a DSLR works best with an Epsilon (see Maurice Toet: https://www.mauricetoet.nl/ ) but I can't see any reason to think that an Epsilon works best with a DSLR, at least now that dedicated cooled cameras with tiny pixels and large chips are available.

Anyway I think Adam has made a great start with an excellent, if challenging, scope.

Olly

Thanks Olly, I have seen so many good images taken with the Epsilon, that if money allows then it may well appear on my Birthday Honours list 🙂

[Xiga]

12 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

30 mins on the HH also last night in the moon light, plus seeing was awful.  I just ran a few subs off as it was clear.

Adam, what NB filters are you using?

Does the fast F-Ratio of the Epsilon not need specific NB filters? I think Baader do a special set of Fast NB filters for anything under ~F3.3. I'm not sure just how much of a difference they make, but it might be something to look into.

[tooth_dr]

10 hours ago, Xiga said:

Adam, what NB filters are you using?

Does the fast F-Ratio of the Epsilon not need specific NB filters? I think Baader do a special set of Fast NB filters for anything under ~F3.3. I'm not sure just how much of a difference they make, but it might be something to look into.

Just using regular 7nm NB filters.  I was aware of these but not sure how significant a difference they would make.  What makes you ask - low contrast?  Was a very big moon close by.  Dont think my wife could handle me spending £600 for the set on highspeed NB filters

 

EDITED:  /Now reading stuff like this.  Looks like some more overtime needed 

 

BAADER 2" F/2 HIGHSPEED FILTER SET

The 2-Inch f/2 High-speed Filter Set by Baader Planetarium:

Baader's new f/2 High-speed Narrowband filter sets contain H-alpha, OIII, and SII filters and are made specifically for the sensitive requirements of exceptionally fast astrograph optics, such as HyperStar, RASA, and extremely fast instruments from TEC, AP, ASA, etc. Ordinary narrowband filters generate a heavy loss in transmission because of the strong CWL (center-wavelength) shift. In severe circumstances, the CWL even shifts out of the FWHM (full width half maximum).

As a result, these filters have a CWL-preshift which flawlessly matches f/2 to f/3. Furthermore, the FWHM is enhanced. Despite the typical line broadening with such fast optical trains, these filters are still able to produce peak contrast. These filters permit the effective use of tremendously fast optics for maximum contrast imaging of emission nebulae for the first time. Compared with a regular set of narrowband filters, using these high-speed filters between f/1.8 and f/3.5 will exhibit drastic improvement.

Edited November 19, 2019 by tooth_dr

[tooth_dr]

duplicate

 

Edited November 19, 2019 by tooth_dr
duplicate

[Adam J]

12 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Just using regular 7nm NB filters.  I was aware of these but not sure how significant a difference they would make.  What makes you ask - low contrast?  Was a very big moon close by.  Dont think my wife could handle me spending £600 for the set on highspeed NB filters

 

EDITED:  /Now reading stuff like this.  Looks like some more overtime needed 

 

BAADER 2" F/2 HIGHSPEED FILTER SET

The 2-Inch f/2 High-speed Filter Set by Baader Planetarium:

Baader's new f/2 High-speed Narrowband filter sets contain H-alpha, OIII, and SII filters and are made specifically for the sensitive requirements of exceptionally fast astrograph optics, such as HyperStar, RASA, and extremely fast instruments from TEC, AP, ASA, etc. Ordinary narrowband filters generate a heavy loss in transmission because of the strong CWL (center-wavelength) shift. In severe circumstances, the CWL even shifts out of the FWHM (full width half maximum).

As a result, these filters have a CWL-preshift which flawlessly matches f/2 to f/3. Furthermore, the FWHM is enhanced. Despite the typical line broadening with such fast optical trains, these filters are still able to produce peak contrast. These filters permit the effective use of tremendously fast optics for maximum contrast imaging of emission nebulae for the first time. Compared with a regular set of narrowband filters, using these high-speed filters between f/1.8 and f/3.5 will exhibit drastic improvement.

Seems to be working ok for you with the 7nm filter so I would not worry too much about it. 

[tooth_dr]

2 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Seems to be working ok for you with the 7nm filter so I would not worry too much about it. 

Thanks Adam, do you think there would be much improvement with the other filters? 

[Adam J]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks Adam, do you think there would be much improvement with the other filters? 

It is possible to calculate the band shift at different f-ratios. I would have to look at how to calculate it, in essence the peak transmission for the filter will be shifted away from the Ha wavelength at higher angles of incidence (the path length between the filter layers changes at the incident light moves away from the normal). So the light from the edge of the mirror will be attenuated and instead of your average peak transmission being about 80% it will fall off. 

As more light comes from the edge of the mirror than the centre it means that baader are optimising for that part of the light cone and range of incident angles as opposed to the light from the centre which now becomes attenuated instead of the edge. That makes even more sense when you think about the central obstruction.  Worth knowing because a baader high speed filter will have the opposite effect on slower scopes making them less efficient and so its a bad idea to be using them above F4. 

In effect I suspect that you would benefit from high speed filters, but even so you have so much light gathering area in that 180mm mirror that even if peak filter transmission is only 50% its optically still very fast. 

Finally I would look into the reflections and other issues on the high speed filters before making a choice as I suspect that the tolerances on the AR coating will be higher. Image quality is about more than just peak transmission. I have no evidence of issues, I would just suggest you do your homework before jumping in. 

Adam 

 

[jjosefsen]

Wooof Adam. Images are looking great, that thing really sucks down photons. Can't wait to see your work when you are ready to do full color images.

[MartinB]

I have recently been using a 200mm lens, 7nm Baaders at f2.8.  I have read conflicting reports about how much signal is being lost - from none to not very much.  In real world action the data gathering seems fully up to speed and I'm not tempted to change.

[Xiga]

On 19/11/2019 at 22:57, tooth_dr said:

Just using regular 7nm NB filters.  I was aware of these but not sure how significant a difference they would make.  What makes you ask - low contrast?  Was a very big moon close by.  Dont think my wife could handle me spending £600 for the set on highspeed NB filters

 

EDITED:  /Now reading stuff like this.  Looks like some more overtime needed 

 

BAADER 2" F/2 HIGHSPEED FILTER SET

The 2-Inch f/2 High-speed Filter Set by Baader Planetarium:

Baader's new f/2 High-speed Narrowband filter sets contain H-alpha, OIII, and SII filters and are made specifically for the sensitive requirements of exceptionally fast astrograph optics, such as HyperStar, RASA, and extremely fast instruments from TEC, AP, ASA, etc. Ordinary narrowband filters generate a heavy loss in transmission because of the strong CWL (center-wavelength) shift. In severe circumstances, the CWL even shifts out of the FWHM (full width half maximum).

As a result, these filters have a CWL-preshift which flawlessly matches f/2 to f/3. Furthermore, the FWHM is enhanced. Despite the typical line broadening with such fast optical trains, these filters are still able to produce peak contrast. These filters permit the effective use of tremendously fast optics for maximum contrast imaging of emission nebulae for the first time. Compared with a regular set of narrowband filters, using these high-speed filters between f/1.8 and f/3.5 will exhibit drastic improvement.

Sorry Adam, bit late getting to this one! 

No the reason i asked wasn't really anything to do with how the Ha images looked. It was more just that i thought those using really fast optics had to use them tbh. I certainly don't think your images were lacking in contrast, even despite the fact the integration times were low. In fact, if anything i think they show that your setup is definitely working, so i don't think you've anything major to worry about. 

The real (hard to answer) question is, would the high-speed filters get you the same result, only quicker (not that big a deal, given how much aperture you have to hand), or would they give you more contrast. I don't know enough of the theory to answer that, and you may have a hard time finding real-world tests that others have done to compare to. I suppose you could always just get the Ha filter to start with, it is of course the most important one, as it often doubles-up as Luminance as well. And if you decide to sell the dual 80ED rig, then you could probably sell your current Ha filter as well to help recoup some of the cost. 

In any case, i look forward to seeing how you get on. Good luck! 🙂