IC1848 Soul Nebula (w EvoGuide50 as imaging scope)

[vineyard]

Hello,

Here's about 2h24 of lights from Bortle 9 under virtually full moon skies.  EvoGuide50 w SW flattener as the imaging scope & ZWO MiniGuide as the guidescope.  Baader UHC filter used w ASI294MCPro.  60s lights, calibrated (darks, lights & dark flats).  Cropped a bit to remove processing artefacts at the edges (a v bright moon - gradients still there but this is the limit of my processing skills 😂).

It may sound crazy but I'm actually thinking about switching down a bit to a 135mm DSLR lens as my widefield.  Has anyone used a DSLR lens as a guidescope...in which case the Evo50 may actually go 🧐

Cheers,

Vin

(PS - another Q: has anyone tried a SW Evo50 flattener w a DSLR lens - I'm minded to try that to see what happens)

Edited March 7, 2021 by vineyard

[MartinB]

The Soul is clear enough to see well enough but that moon and LP are making themselves faint.  The UHC filter is probably doesn't have a tight enough band pass for what you need.  There is nothing to stop you using an Ha filter with OSC or a tighter dual band pass filter, nothing except ££££ of course.  

There's nothing to stop you using a DSLR lens if you can match it to an apropriate camera.  Not sure about using a SWO flattener with a DSLR lens, I doubt it would work.  The flatter is designed for specific optics and spacing is also important.  At the very least you might be struggling to achieve focus.

[vineyard]

Thanks @MartinB - you're right about the UHC.  I thought I'd try it to see what effect it would have - I'm surprised at how much it did but agreed not a patch on a dual-band or Ha (unfortunately I have neither in 1.25").

I'm going back & forth on FOV & rationalising kit.  Looking at the uncropped image, the actual FOV w an ASI294MC Pro & Evo50 is smaller than what Telescopius suggests - until I realised that I have to add 2x for the 4/3 crop factor on the camera?  Then Telescopius' prediction is more like what the image actually came out to be.  And so then tinkering w different lens configurations the FOV w a CZJ Sonnar 135mm @ f8 (w the 2x crop factor added) looks pretty interesting.  I also have an old 1.4x Pentax teleconverter so that takes the 135mm to 189mm before the crop factor.

And stopped down to f8 hopefully the image should be fairly flat & sharp even w/o a flattener.  But I'm intrigued to see if the flattener would still work with an incoming 189mm f/l stopped down image circle vs the Evo50 242mm it's designed for.  Will test & see.

Anyhow, if the CZJ @ f8 w 1.4x teleconverter works then I'm leaning towards maybe selling the Evo50 to rationalise kit & release some cash for a rotator for the main imaging scope.  I'm just a bit uncertain whether I'd regret losing that as a guidescope for the main 4" imaging frac (which is f8.6) - would a ZWO MiniGuide scope be good enough for that guiding...decisions, decisions.

Anyway, long rambling train-of-thought msg, apologies.

Great IC405 & tadpoles image btw!

[vineyard]

Reprocessed it w/o cropping (& w some star-reduction).  I really should have framed it a lot better.  And I wish I could figure out a way of losing some of the processing artefacts (?) in the corners.

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by vineyard