StellaLyra RC 10; getting there!

[Paul M]

Last night was my first light with my new RC 10. It's paired up with my trusty old EQ6 Pro, which seems to be holding up. Needed the counterweight extension bar though. Something I never need with the 250 PDS Newt, even with the same hardware hanging off it. Also needed all 100mm of focus extention tubes to reach focus with mt ASO071 MC Pro camera (std 55 mm back focus).

The Sesto Senso 2 Focuser was fitted with ease.

On first light I saw that focus was poor. One corner of the frame had severe coma. The focusser couldn't handle it so manual intervention got me going.

Not processed them yet but I got a good few subs on a few subjects last night. I took some flats this afternoon which seem to work ok.

 

So another clear night tonight and I looked at the colimation. Just roughly until I get the scope back indoors to do a full workthrough. I'm not farmiliar with RC colimation but decided on old school, adjust things to see what's what. Out of focus stats told a story:

So I put my head torch on, grabbed a set a allen keys and gave the promary a tweak. It centered up quite well and focus is much. much better. The Sesto Senso can now find focus. Still not perfect but obviously, I need to do it properly.

It occured to me that the camera angle would suit M33 just nice. So as a test I set APT running a plan of 60 sec subs. This is just the live stack about 50 subs there I think.

You can see the stars are still not right.

Then I went M82, which is still running as I type. This is the ASTAP live stack again:

So after 2 astro intensive nights, I'm off to bed leaving APT running the show!

 

[Paul M]

Unbelievable run of 3 clear nights coincide with the purchase of a new telescope! Actually the 3rd night was truncated due to risk of snow showers by dawn so I bottle it on the full night unatended and packed up at 1am.

I stlll haven't gone over the collimation. That'll be next week. Looking either side of focus, my rough star collimation was exactly that, rough.

The EQ6 is maybe just at it's limit but my next priority is a proper guide scope better suited to F8 imaging. I'm currently using the Skywatcher standard 50mm finder. My PHD2 guiding graphs are actually ok but maybe won't look so good with longer f/l guiding.

So some way to go but I'm happy with my early results.

M82: 55 x 60 sec. I cropped it too much and totally overcooked the limited data in Photoshop.

 

M33: 60 x 30 sec. As above, I ain't no processing guru. This is uncropped. 

 

The Crab, M1, My favorite DSO. 60 x 60. Cropped quite a bit, Did I mention that I ain't no processing guru?

 

 

I did get a .8x reducer/flatner with the scope but I'm waiting for FLO to come back to me with a mounting suggestion.  

Edited December 17, 2022 by Paul M

[Paul M]

This here TSRCKolli doofer arrived last week. Only just got round to giving it a go.

The collimation was out when I first got the scope but I did a bit of tweaking of the primary on an out of focus star. Seemed much, much better.

I've not bothered with a focussser tilt plate so far. Here it is installed in the scope on the optical bench. 

The red light does illuminate the target but also causes glare and some reflections. I did need it for spotting the secondary centre dot but it really spoils photos.

The secondary was in need of a tiny tweak and the primary was needing some attention too.

Maybe I'm rough, maybe I'm lucky, maybe I exceptionally skilled... it took 10 minutes to do and half an hour to get a picture. Looks near enough for me. I turned off the LED to get a clear shot.

The outer ring looks non concentric but it's right by eyeball. Trying to hold my phone and fiddle with manual focus and exposure was harder than collimation.

That's assuming it's star tests OK!

[Paul M]

Finally got round to having a dry run with the new Borg 60ED guidescope. I got it second hand but then needed some clamps to mount it.

Also did some cable management. Yeah, you should have seen it before.. There is a limit to how fixed I can make the wiring due to having to set up and breakdown every session.

Was hoping for a clear sky tonight but the forecast is overcast 🙄

[Paul M]

Had big plans for tonight but so far, tonight is a disaster in recovery. 

The forecast has been great and the day seemed to be proving it right. Deep blue sky with the promise of it continuing to near dawn.

Set up in day light. Needed to get my new-to-me guidescope focussed as soon as stars appeared. But the sky was already whashing out with cirrus. Found that I need an extension to get focus, no focusser, just a clamp to grab the barrel of the ASI120 mini. I found one in the gubbins box. By now there were no stars

So I'm cutting my losses, grabbing some flats and darks ready for if/when I get a clear sky. Got a couple of breaks in the overcast and so have got the guidescope focussed.

As soon as the darks are done I'll be packing away. Satellite images show its just getting worse.

I was really hoping to put guiding through its paces tonight. I'm trying to justify getting a nice new mount but the EQ6 seems to be holding up so far and with my current rate of usable clear skies, I'm struggling to justify it to myself, let alone the MD! 

 

[Paul M]

i finaly got to use my new-to-me guide scope tonight.

guiding was pants! I recalibrated and messed about until i realised i hadnt dialed in the little 60ED's focal lenth. i still had the 185 mm for the box standard SkyWater 50mm spotter id be using. Google has the Borg as 350mm. i tried that andcrecalibrated PHD2.

A bit better than id anticipated. so far this old EQ6 Pro is a real pro.

This was guiding on M101 so quite northerly but it was still very good over at the Equator.

[Paul M]

Second night of Moon bathing for the RC10.

Currently Collecting photons from Arp 299 in Ursa Major. I saw a meridian flip was due so decided to film it. These always happen while I'm in bed or otherwise engaged so its not something I usually watch.

For some reason it paused to "regain target"?? after an initial move. So I paused the camera to see what was what and it suddenly restarted so ive edited a pause out. But it did go smoothly. Auto refocus completed and guiding restarted.