Lunar closeup Stella Lyra Classical cassegrain

[neil phillips]

Seeing was pretty wobbly. Which really speaks volumes how good these scopes really are. Doing star testing tonight i could see collimation was slightly off. Their was a slight lean. More than i thought from a cheshire and colli cap collimation. If anyone owns this scope or is thinking of getting one. Personally i wouldnt trust cheshire or colli cap collimation alone. Their is no way you can get it to the level thats needed to get the scope performing at its best. Up untill now i have been imaging slightly miss collimated. Will have to spend more time star testing. But collimation looked quite close tonight. With a nice dark central (EVEN) outer ring going around the out of focus star. Certainly in the ball park now. Though possible tweaking may happen once ive had a proper night to spend on collimation. This was a bit rushed. Wanted to get some lunar images before the cloud came which it did. The oversampling at F12 with the 178 camera. doesnt seem to affect performance in the slightest. Though having said that correct sampling will produce a tighter sharper shot ( smaller scale ) no doubt. 

Got a couple to go through. But the collimation is now enabling full size 100% to be posted. Without me wanting a somewhat tighter appearance. One can only wonder how good this scope is going to perform when seeing obliges. As is with wobbly seeing. its really pretty good. Anyone thinking of getting one of these. i dont think you will regret it. Sharper than what i remember from my meade 8" SCT similar to my true 7" F15 meade maksutov cassegrain. Actually already it just feels better. But similar. The Meade F15 mak was one of the best meade scopes ever made. Almost legendary especially in the states. Anyway Its Nearly Christmas.

Merry christmas. Have a great christmas Everyone and a happy new year. 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by neil phillips

[Franklin]

Fantastic lunar detail as always. Clavius looks so different in the changing light aspect. Merry Xmas.

[johninderby]

Very nice.👍🏻

Completely clouded out here last night. 😢

Can’t wait for the TS LED collimator to arrive although hoping for early Jan.

[neil phillips]

59 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Fantastic lunar detail as always. Clavius looks so different in the changing light aspect. Merry Xmas.

Merry xmas Franklin. Thats something that i never tire of the changing texture and tone and light. 

Cheers 

[Franklin]

2 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

i never tire of the changing texture and tone and light. 

I notice that in your images Neil, because I am only used to seeing the Moon when it's waxing. I haven't observed the waning Moon much to be honest. It's my own fault of course, being too lazy to get up early in the morning.😀

[neil phillips]

42 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Very nice.👍🏻

Completely clouded out here last night. 😢

Can’t wait for the TS LED collimator to arrive although hoping for early Jan.

Its coming along isnt it John. Starting to feel like i am getting to know the scope a bit more. There are possibly some diffraction effects from the scope. Again possibly more with slight miss collimations. 

But its so sharp even with poor seeing it produces a sharp result. Will be interested to see how well the collimator compares to star testing. When you do it. If you get a chance film the collimation. Would love to see it.

I mean a out of focus star once collimated. If the collimators are any good. The star test will not need tweaking. Because if they do. Well star testing is needed. I reserve judgment on that ? But i know one thing. Star testing is really the best. You can not get better. Its the final acid test. It doesnt matter what collimators are showing. if there is any leans on a start test it will show up. I thought my collimation with a cheshire and colli cap was good. Not so. could see a lean quite quickly with a 9mm eyepeice 

The collimator your looking at does look like it might be accurate enough.  To be determined. But with two different Cheshires, and a colli cap my eyes were not accurate enough

Edited December 24, 2021 by neil phillips

[johninderby]

Yes the thing I noticed about the scope was how sharp on axis it is compared to an SCT or Mak. Just has that edge. 

Now if the clouds will just go away for a bit. 😁

Edited December 24, 2021 by johninderby

[neil phillips]

5 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I notice that in your images Neil, because I am only used to seeing the Moon when it's waxing. I haven't observed the waning Moon much to be honest. It's my own fault of course, being too lazy to get up early in the morning.😀

Dont blame you Franklin. Though with the pandemic. i sleep when tired. Do astronomy when the clouds part. So just a case of finding any time that i can image. But as you can see. i do try quite a bit. Its keeping me sane during these hard times 

[neil phillips]

3 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Yes the thing I noticed about the scope was how sharp on axis it is compared to an SCT or Mak. Just has that edge. 

Now if the clouds will just go away for a bit. 😁

I really want to see how yours is performing. The 290mm is probably better than my 178m But i needed a large chip. So thats why i chose that. Otherwise i would have got a 290. Had one in the past. And i liked it. 

Your results should look great. You have a great camera and better mount. If theres anything i can ever help you with just pm. Youve helped me in the past. And i really appreciated it. I know a thing here and there about lunar imaging. So if ever stuck on anything. Would try and help. 

Sorry to hear you was clouded out. I only just got a few in before it rolled in. But keep a eye out. As the moon is high next couple of days. Christmas imaging not off the books my end. Unless cloudy. James webb going up tomorrow 

[neil phillips]

Seeing worsening still with this. Very wobbly 70%

 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by neil phillips

[neil phillips]

After the scope had cooled more. Tried to capture as cloud was rolling over the image affecting brightness. Very happy with how this is performing after this collimation tweak. Under good conditions i can tell this is going to be something quite special. 

Nice one FLO and nice one one GSO what a great design 60 and 75%

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by neil phillips

[chiltonstar]

A nice result Neil. Not a lot of images obtained with these scopes yet, so keep posting them. Now the Craterlets would be interesting....

Chris

Edited December 24, 2021 by chiltonstar

[neil phillips]

3 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

A nice result Neil. Not a lot of images obtained with these scopes yet, so keep posting the. Now the Craterlets would be interesting....

Chris

No not a lot of images. I have been searching. Of course only so far you can go with 7.3" of clear apeture. But for the grab and go small to moderate size, what matters is focal length and sharpness. 

This can easily be seen on screen live. with a broad and deep focus point. that in moments of calm, shows sharp clarity.  For this kind of thing GSO have a star in the making i am starting to be more confident of its abillity.

Cheers Chris

[johninderby]

I have been banging on about the potential of this scope for a while now and glad to see that others are  liking it too. 👍🏻

[neil phillips]

4 hours ago, johninderby said:

I have been banging on about the potential of this scope for a while now and glad to see that others are  liking it too. 👍🏻

Agreed John you was one of the first to alert the community to its potential. The thing i love about imaging, is you can take those moments in the feild and bring them into the living room. It is true you can make average to poor optics look reasonable. By careful post processing. But after many years experiance. With many different scopes. you get to be able to tell the wheat from the chaff. Through usage. My Orion Newtonian is a case in point. At one point i sold it. Months later i bought it back. for the same price i sold it. Who does that ? One of the best performing scopes i have ever used. Its early days. But you get to learn to read between the lines on these things. And that last session, under pretty wobbly seeing. After finally getting collimation much closer. I can tell i am in for a treat. For its size and portability. Maybe on par with the Orion. Its not often i say that trust me. Time will tell how far it can go. But again trust me. Hold on to your hats. Because under the right conditions. I think images are coming. That look like they was taken with a much bigger scope. And a superb one at that. Exciting times for me. large central obstruction

What central obstruction 😄

Merry christmas John 

And everyone. 

[johninderby]

My 8” CC is one reason I sold my 10” Bresser dob. Although the Bresser is a fine scope for a mass produced scope I simply found I preferred the CC. 

One thing I think that has held back this scope a bit is the hatchet job done on it in a certain CN review. Bias at it’s worst and just the opposite of what my experience in real world use of the scopes involved has shown. As you have mentioned real world experience can tell a different story.

And a Merry Xmas to you as well. 🎄

[neil phillips]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

My 8” CC is one reason I sold my 10” Bresser dob. Although the Bresser is a fine scope for a mass produced scope I simply found I preferred the CC. 

One thing I think that has held back this scope a bit is the hatchet job done on it in a certain CN review. Bias at it’s worst and just the opposite of what my experience in real world use of the scopes involved has shown. As you have mentioned real world experience can tell a different story.

And a Merry Xmas to you as well. 🎄

Well we can address that on here. Starting to really enjoy using it. Hopefully at some point you will get your first images.

As a guide try no barlow. Try 1/500 secs exposure. Or 2.00 milliseconds.  Slower exposure works for using less gain.  And or  less sky transparency  and or less stacked frames. But the faster exposure will help beat poor seeing more. As with all things experiment to find your own feet though

I do each peice at 70% Histogram for mosaics. It helps keep all peices even. And avoids burnout.

Gain will be around 324. A ittle more or a little less. Depending on transparency of sky conditions.

So far i think for UK seeing IR685 Filter is the one to use. AS/3 For stacking. registax top wavelet 1 for sharpening. I am stacking between 400 to around 750 frames depending on the situation. light levels adjustments. to your choice. possibly more sharpening. (mild i use image analyzer)  Some prefer deconvolution. Thats a crash course on my current process. But it varies here and there depending

Hope its useful info. To you, or anyone else on here. Getting dinner ready for a 12.20 james web launch

[johninderby]

All useful info. Thanks. 👍🏻

Drop a few pressies off then will get dinner ready. Fingers and everything else crossed that the launch goes off as planned. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

 

 

[JeremyS]

11 minutes ago, johninderby said:

All useful info. Thanks. 👍🏻

Drop a few pressies off then will get dinner ready. 

 

 

Are you basting the bird with Aeroshell 33, John?

Merry Christmas!

[neil phillips]

I am watching this coverage

 

[Mr Spock]

I think with the advent of catadioptric systems people forgot how good the Cassegrain was for planetary observation. It's nice to see it making a successful comeback.

[neil phillips]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

I think with the advent of catadioptric systems people forgot how good the Cassegrain was for planetary observation. It's nice to see it making a successful comeback.

Thank you Michael. Yes a modern twist on a older design.  Agree its nice to be doing imaging with such a telescope.

Not long now go James Webb 

[WestCoastCannuck]

Looking really good Neil!   Will be great to see what it can do in good seeing!!!

 

Mike

[neil phillips]

4 hours ago, WestCoastCannuck said:

Looking really good Neil!   Will be great to see what it can do in good seeing!!!

 

Mike

Thats my next port of call with this. Going to make a excellent mosaic under the right conditions. I knew collimation to be important. But didnt think it had that much reserve in the tank.. Great to finally have a fairly portable powerful lunar and planetary scope. Hats off to FLO and GSO for this design. Saw a direct comparison on the same lunar crater on the same night with a C.9.25 Lets just say it held its own. Remarkable 

Cheers Mike

[neil phillips]

Top dovetail switched and removed. Attached with rings. Just one dovetail. 

Section of seeing from this night.