Did it!! Whoop whoop!

[Tim]

Forgive the excitement

Just got my first 20 minute pic in from my C9.25 @ f10. Nice round stars, bags of detail in the target (M1) and the image scale with the little 285 chip is great, can really get in close! I have waited over three years since I got the C9.25 to do this properly!

Only trouble is, I have taken over 20 hours of M1 in narrowband in the MN190, using subs 25 mins long. To get the equivalent detail in the C9, i'm gonna be on this for the rest of my life

As a plus point, I have an old wide angle lens on my QHY8 on the rig, and it is capturing some very wide widefields. The whole of Orion barely takes up half the frame, but lots of the edges will be wasted due to the (low) quality of the lens.

[Psychobilly]

Aint it great when a plan comes together...

Have you tried stopping the lens down a bit...? what lens is it...?

Billy...

[Tim]

erm, just one I pulled out from my O level photography days

Its a Pentacon, made in the GDR apparently. I have just taken a 900 sec sub with it and although it is on the edge of the frame, Barnards loop is well visible, so I may swing it round to do Orion with it tonight. The spacing to chip is probably wrong, but I had an M42 to Pentax thread adapter 25mm that does the job, but maybe better results from correct spacing?

The lens can be stopped down from f3.5 to f22, what would you recommend?

If I was to buy a wide angle lens purely for this application, any recommendations? I'd want good stars to the corner of the QHY8 chip.

Dilemma now is whether to do widefield orion or super close up Crab :s Just done a 1500 sec sub now with same steady results at f10, v pleased with that

[Psychobilly]

Correct spacing would help for M42 this is 45.46mm from the flange to FP...

Take it up a stop at a time...

I think SteveL had some cracking results with Nikkors...

Billy...

[martin_h]

How have you got the QHY fixed to the rig? I made an adaptor for my Canon FD lenses but cant work out how to mount it all.

[Whippy]

Congrats mate, that's no mean feat!

Tony..

[MartinB]

Well done on breaking the 2000mm f/l barrier Tim. Will be interesting to compare the resolution with that from the MN190.

I'm also interested in how you've set up the QHY8 for mounting

[Tim]

My C9.25 has a piggyback mount camera adapter on it, made by Celestron.

Onto this I put one of these

Adaptors - Skywatcher Universal Camera Adapter

With the camera mounting plate removed. The base of the adaptor is threaded for a tripod type screw. The clamp just neatly grabs the M42 to Pentax adaptor I have, although the adaptor may be too long, have to measure it over the weekend.

I'll take a pic too in daylight.

Martin, I was astounded by the size of M1 on the chip with the C9.25, much larger than with the MN190.

[Tim]

Correct spacing would help for M42 this is 45.46mm from the flange to FP...

Take it up a stop at a time...

I think SteveL had some cracking results with Nikkors...

Billy...

Thanks Peter, the bright stars certainly benefitted from the stop, lots of spikeyness around them now Taking 20 min subs with the lens now, abandoned my M1 in favour of the widefields. The light pollution is horrendous though, even with CLS in place. Just hope PI can deal with it!