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Re: mirror locks for a C-14
开云体育Thank you Samir.
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Clear
skies,
Kevin ? From: mailto:C14_EdgeHD@...
Sent: Saturday, October 3, 2015 4:41 AM
To: C14_EdgeHD@...
Subject: [C14_EdgeHD] Re: mirror locks for a C-14 ?
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Takes only a couple of minutes to install. |
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Re: mirror locks for a C-14
开云体育Hello,
You can have a look here : Best regards Christian Le 01/10/2015 12:56, ksbtk@... [C14_EdgeHD] a écrit?:
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mirror locks for a C-14
Good Morning,
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I have a 10 year old Celestron C-14 SCT that I have recently mounted on a
Software Bisque mount for the purposes of high resolution imaging of the moon
and planets, using a Skyris camera, and CCD imaging of Deep Sky Objects.
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I am in need of a way to lock down the mirror to prevent image shift during
image acquisition.
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I’d greatly appreciate any suggestions as to where to purchase an accessory
that will enable me to lock down the mirror after focusing.
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Thanks very much in advance.
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Re: OAG'ing a C14 EdgeHD with the 0.72 Reducer - questions
Gary Jarrette
Did not get the name.
Not sure on the QHY5L II but I use a similar setup to the one that you would like to pursue. By the way I make a shorter version of the KISS Gen II Focuser that will allow you to use the QHY5L II but have not really been able to check it out. I have sold two and both reports have been favorable but I myself have not been able to verify using the QHY5 yet. I have a Celestron 14” Edge with the Celestron .7x Focal Reducer. It should be noted that the .7x focal reducer adds nothing to the back focus. It is designed such that in or out it does not change the BF. My camera is the QSI 683wsg with built in 5 position filter wheel. A very sweet camera with everything built in, filter wheel, and OAG all in one small package. Personally I prefer a camera with the OAG built in as it is one less piece of equipment that has to be inserted into the optical train. This is the way to go and makes fitting everything in much easier not to mention the versatility of the camera with different front covers which will allow you to use it with a HyperStar Lens if you so desire. Note that you will not have the OAG with the shorter front cover but with a HyperStar at f2 you do not really need to guide if your polar alignment is close. F2 is very fast and you should be easily be able to get a minute and one half of exposure time which is usually plenty for such a wide field. My present guide camera is the Starlight Xpress Lodestar Gen I, my own designation to differentiate it from the X2. It is mounted in a KISS Focuser which allows you to move the guide camera in and out of focus without turning the camera round and round and twisting the wires as with the stock QSI focuser. Here is a link to the KISS Focuser, the handsome devil in the video is me. LOL I also have an Optec Pyxis LE Rotator, another very small back focus but ample rotator which is plenty for the QSI 500 and 600 series cameras and others as well. The focuser is the Starlight Instruments Crayford Style “Shorty” with .800 inch travel. All of this with the proper adapter ring from Starlight Instruments fits neatly into the 5.750 back focus distance with plenty of travel to focus with FocusMax. I have had good success with this setup but am in the process of purchasing the new Rotator/Focuser combination from Optec that they offer, the Gemini. This new focuser is very similar in appearance, and I would think design also, to the FLI Atlas with the added bonus of having the Rotator in the same package. The new combo rotator/focuser, the Gemini, can handle 22 lbs. of payload and is a positive focuser not a friction Crayford type. This new focuser has a total back focus of 2.5 inches at midrange of thickness so there is ample room to spare in the 5.750 back focus of the 11” and 14” Celestron scopes. One note on this if you are thinking about getting one you had better get your wife or girlfriend a second job as they are pricy! I do not think any have shipped but it should happen in about a month and a half or at least that is what I have been told as I am on the list. My setup below if the picture comes through. If not let me know and I will save it to a folder. Gary Jarrette US Precision 18328 E. Sunnybrook Lane Gilbert, AZ 85298 USA 602-312-8797 From: C14_EdgeHD@... [mailto:C14_EdgeHD@...] Sent: Monday, September 21, 2015 8:37 AM To: C14_EdgeHD@... Subject: [C14_EdgeHD] OAG'ing a C14 .7xEdgeHD with the 0.72 Reducer - questions I would like to here about successes or failures in using an OAG'er for a C14 EdgeHD with a 0.72 reducer and OAG equipment recommendations. I have put forth some effort to OAG my C14 with the 0.73 reducer in place. The OAG device is old and is minimalist. With that in mind, I have been able to use it a few times but it does limit my autoguiding significantly - can't properly focus OAG sensor or rotate the OAG field. I would like to invest more time to improve this method for my autoguiding setup. I would also like to update the OAG device to one with a pickoff rotator and a helical focuser. Before I spend the money and time, I would like to get some opinions on OAG guiding with a focal length of 2800mm to a small sensor (lodestar autoguider or qhyl5-II) and roughly 8.5' x 6.5' fov. Can it be done with binning2x2? My current setup has a 1000mm guide scope "on top" of the C14 and works very well except when the guidescope is perpendicular to my dome shutter. I have to move the dome about every 10 minutes to maintain a good s/n for the guide star. It would be nice to reduce the weight on the mount too. Thanks in advance |
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Re: OAG'ing a C14 EdgeHD with the 0.72 Reducer - questions
OAG?us usually?a real pain, even a pricy unit with?rotation, etc. But the usual alternative, guide scope, can be even worse due flexure. A saving grace of guide detectors is that the PSF (star shape) is largely unimportant so long as it can be roughly "focused".? An accurate enough centroid can be computed from almost any PSF?as long as there is sufficient brightness. But?it can be a problem finding a bright enough star in a small field.? So to increase the guider FOV get a cheap guider-reducer (0.5x) like is available from Orion (though that may mess-up the guider/scope focus distances).? And bin at least 2x2; 3x3 is probably better. Also, determine the shortest acceptable exp time for your main camera (via "sky limited" concept).? It may be that camera is quiet enough to take short sub-exps that avoid guide-scope flexure, in which case you are probably better off with the guide scope. If you are serious about long FL DS then an Adaptive Optic (AO) or Intensified Camera (EMCCD or ICCD or sCMOS) is almost mandatory.? Though if you have a top-notch (expensive) mount and really steady skies then you might be able to achieve high-res without such aids.? But I gave up on that a long time ago and used AO until?exploring?Intensified imaging.? You can see some results of AO and a few ICCD results at
(I am?remiss in updating that web site) Stan |
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OAG'ing a C14 EdgeHD with the 0.72 Reducer - questions
I have put forth some effort to OAG my C14 with the 0.73 reducer in
place.? The OAG device is old and is minimalist.? With that in mind, I
have been able to use it a few times but it does limit my autoguiding
significantly - can't properly focus OAG sensor or rotate the OAG
field.? I would like to invest more time to improve this method for my
autoguiding setup.? I would also like to update the OAG device to one
with a pickoff rotator and a helical focuser.?? Before I spend the money
and time, I would like to get some opinions on OAG guiding with a focal
length of 2800mm to a small sensor (lodestar autoguider or qhyl5-II)
and roughly 8.5' x 6.5' fov.? Can it be done with binning2x2? My current setup
has a 1000mm guide scope "on top" of the C14 and works very well except
when the guidescope is perpendicular to my dome shutter.? I have to move
the dome about every 10 minutes to maintain a good s/n for the guide
star.?? It would be nice to reduce the weight on the mount too. Thanks in advance |
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
开云体育Thanks Benoit :-)
Le 15/09/2015 04:13, Benoit Schillings benoit.schillings@... [C14_EdgeHD] a écrit?:
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
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Those are outstanding images Christian. This is the first I remember seeing the long chain of small craters in the Ptolemeus region. |
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
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some of the finest lunar "amateur" pics out there. ?Wow. ?Greg N |
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
Super impressive. Kind of redefines for me what a C14 can do. -- benoit On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 9:01 PM, Charles Lasnier clasnie1@... [C14_EdgeHD] <C14_EdgeHD@...> wrote:
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
开云体育Those are outstanding images Christian. This is the first I remember seeing the long chain of small craters in the Ptolemeus region.-Charlie Lasnier On Sep 14, 2015, at 2:18 AM, C14_EdgeHD@... wrote:
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Re: M16 with C-14
(sorry for the delayed response. I've been off-line for awhile) The camera used for M16 is an "Electron Multiplied" CCD (EMCCD) in which the intensification?takes place inside the CCD, as opposed to Photon multiplication separate from the camera.? Both EMCCD and ICCD (ZeroCam) work via the same principle of boosting the real signal to overcome read-noise. The M16 was taken with C-14 at prime FL (f/11).? Image scale = 0.42"/pix. Frame registration is a big issue when there are no bright stars.? Benoit and I have devised some?unusual solutions that can take enormous amounts of computing time. Benoit's favored approach can take more than a day to optimally converge!? My usual method generally takes about 2-3x longer than the total exp-time but some images require Benoit's days-long methods. Shorter sub-exps capture less seeing wander and thus result in a sharper stacked image.? Seeing wander occurs on virtually every time scale so shorter is usually better.? But bad seeing?produces?a disturbed?bloated PSF at?virtually every time scale and there is not much improvement faster than about?500-1000ms unless a de-speckling method is applied (I'm working on that).?If the detector really is "zero read-noise" then there is no S/N penalty for going too fast. As for a "product", intensified cameras are very expensive and their operating hardware and software requirements are intimidating. Benoit and I have both acquired less expensive used lab-cameras and?written?our own?camera control software. So there?is a big hurdle to overcome.??We have received interested?inquiries from amateur astronomers?but to date?no one has followed thru.? However, CMOS technology is improving to the point where there are some detectors with noise near 1e-, which starts to become amenable to these techniques.? sCMOS is very expensive but?there is new inexpensive Sony chip (incorporated into the new ZWO) that looks promising, except that it is small (pixels and detector) and only available as?Bayer at this time.? I may attempt marketing software to exploit that camera. Stan |
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
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Re: Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
开云体育Absolutely stunning images Christian!
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Clear
skies,
Kevin Dixon ? From: mailto:C14_EdgeHD@...
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2015 7:58 AM
To: destinataires inconnus:
Subject: [C14_EdgeHD] Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the
C14 ?
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Dear All, |
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Images of the moon taken on August 7 with the C14
开云体育Dear All,Please find the second part of the images of the moon I took on August 7 with my "classic" C14, a Basler 1920-155 camera and a red filter: A two-frame mosa?c centered on Plato crater : Archimede region : Lambert region (North of Copernicus) : A two-frame mosa?c on Ptolemeous region : Pitatus, Hesodius A concentric crater and Hesodius rille : A six-frame mosa?c on Copernic area. See Hortensius domes (upper right part of the image), Michilchius domes and also Tobias Mayeur dommes (bottom right of the image) : Technical information is provided here : Best regards Christian Viladrich |
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George Dunham