First light with a StellaLyra 6 inch RC

[fwm891]

Firstly collimation is a touch off but close.

Images taken with a Nikon D5100 mono modified DSLR mounted on an unguided CEM25P. No filters used. Processing in PI: Star alignment, Imiage Integration, Histogram Transform, Curves Transform, STF and Image Crop to remove the boundary.

Sub frames: Taken @ 800 or 1600 iso, uncooled body, all subs 30s taken using a 5 second delay before each sub manually operated shutter (couldn't find the intervalometer)

Sub details in the file names.

Moon above the horizon throughout. Variable high level cloud

[Adreneline]

Wow! Excellent first images Francis!

You got off to a much better start than me with your first light. I only managed M31 and that was after an age spent getting focus; I'd also had not relised the focus unit was prone to droop.

Purely for comparison purposes here's my "first light" M31 "out of the box" - RC 6", Canon 70D, CEM25-EC unguided, no calibration frames.

Mine RC packed ready for the move but the move has been delayed (arghhhhh!!!) so I may be unpacking it again.

Adrian

 

[fwm891]

Thanks Adrian, I like your M31.

Spure of the moment last night. Came in from the workshop and thought it was clearing, hadn't managed to 'see' anything at infinity with the scope so just thought I'd aim at Polaris and see if I needed all three extension rings. Ended up with a 2" and 1" ring between the body and focuser. I too had to hard adjust the focuser to prevent any sagging.

Haven't used the Nikon for a while and I need to clean the sensor. I also need some calibration frames...

Might ttry a reprocess to cut down the noise but with on 3 or 5 30s subs the images are never going to be much better.

[JeremyS]

Super images @fwm891!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well done Francis and some lovely images especially NGC891 which I know is close to your heart. Can you use this new scope for visual or do we have to wait for a classical cassegrain if the StellaLyra covers this type of OTA in the future?

[fwm891]

8 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Well done Francis and some lovely images especially NGC891 which I know is close to your heart. Can you use this new scope for visual or do we have to wait for a classical cassegrain if the StellaLyra covers this type of OTA in the future?

Thanks Mark - As to visual I'm not sure. I'm not a visual kind of guy but I did take a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn last night. There was quite a bit of variable cloud but to me the view was worth it. Mars was still behind trees for me when I packed away.

I've found the intervalometer so I can get some longer subs and hopefully more of them.

Always liked 891 since imaging it with a friend many years ago and watching the prints develop in a darkroom...

[geeklee]

Francis @fwm891, Adrian @Adreneline Hope you don't mind me adding to this first light thread - I wasn't sure about the best place to put it but thought joining a thread may be better than a brand new one.

With mixed skies tonight I thought it might be a good chance to get the StellaLyra RC6 outside for its first light.  Collimation inside looked OK with eyecap and Cheshire - just a small tweak of the secondary performed.  These photos aren't great but this is roughly how it looked! Any tips welcome.

As usual the forecast was being optimistic and it was really challenging dodging the clouds so I didn't spend any time looking at a star test this time.

Some cloud made it into the subs, but here are two targets (M27 and NGC 457) - both 30x30s (15 minutes each) - with the ASI533.  I was breaking all the "rules"... guiding was a shocker - half the imaging scale you say? Not tonight, try 2-3x the imaging scale.  Focus was a challenge and something I'll have to work on.  Quick 5 minute process in PixInsight - to be honest more time wouldn't get more quality anyway 😁

Thanks for looking and I'm keeping an eye out for future images from your StellaLyra RC6s and the bigger RC8s in circulation.

[Adreneline]

1 hour ago, geeklee said:

Hope you don't mind me adding to this first light thread

Absolutely fine by me! What a great and encouraging start. I'm afraid I am in no position to offer advice because having taken an initial 'try it out' image of M31 (above) and had a more serious attempt at the Bubble .....

...... my RC has been packed away in it's box in anticipation of a house move.

Focus is tricky. I upgraded mine with a Baader Diamond SteelTrack and printed a bracket to allow me to attach a SW dc focus motor but other than taking one image of Mars which I'm too embarrassed to post that's all I've managed.

Good luck with your RC and I look forward to seeing more of your images.

Adrian