Image of the day

Captured by
Michael Scherman

Dual Clusters near Antares

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: jeff OMeara

September 23, 2009 02:12 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M33 again

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

I've been seriously working on automating my set up so I can get some sleep. This is an image of M33 that ran completely hands free. Now if I could only control everything from home.... Anyway, here are the details:

NP-101
G-11 Gemini
TCF-S
ST-10XME; CFW8a with astrodon gen1
LRGB - 100:50:50:50 mins all binned 1x1 (as per Roland's advice)

Comments, advice and criticism are definitely welcome.

clear skies,

Jeff

September 27, 2009 03:55 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

IC 443 Ha

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

Skies cleared for a couple of hours last night - this needs more data, but this is 10 x 10 min Ha, NP-101; ST-10XME; G11.

cheers,

Jeff

September 27, 2009 04:26 AM Forum: Refractors

AP130 F8.35

Posted By jeff OMeara
Anyone use one of these for imaging? Comments....

cheers,

Jeff

October 1, 2009 08:34 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

AP 130mmF8.35 or Mach1 GTO

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

Looking for advice / comments. From stictly an imaging point of view which rig would be best? Camera will be an ST-10XME regardless.

1. G11 and an AP 130mm F8.35 with 0.75 telecompressor (F6.3)

or

2. AP Mach1 GTO with NP-101

There are pros and cons to each set-up and I can't make up my mind. What would you do?

P.S. I cannot do the AP mount and scope (although I would love to)

Jeff

October 2, 2009 05:02 PM Forum: Refractors

AP 130mm F8.35 again

Posted By jeff OMeara
Does anyone know the backfocus of this scope?

I want to set it up in the following configuration (with 2.7" focuser)

AP 0.75 reducer (2.25")
Optec TCF-S focuser (3.5 - 4.1")
ST-10 XME CFW8a 2"nosepiece (1.75")

Two questions:

1. Will I be able to reach focus with the stock focuser in place? (on my NP-101 without the AP 0.75 reducer I had to remove the stock focuser and use extension tubes to reach focus)

2. The focal reducer FL is 700 mm and a distance of 6.9" inches gives the stated 0.75" compression. My imaging train will actually be ~0.9" longer than this. What impact will this have on the effective compression from the reducer?

I don't have the scope or the focal reducer yet to actually try it out.

Thanks in advance for any help,

cheers,

Jeff

October 14, 2009 03:33 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC 604 in M33 - AP 130 F8.35 vs NP-101 F5.4

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

I just got an AP 130mm F8.35, a beautiful scope that just barely fits in my dome. I've just started imaging with the scope (I spent a couple of nights just observing - wow!!!). I am sacrificing substantial field of view by moving to this focal length, but the increase in resolution to ~ 1.25"/pixel is immediately noticeable. I am attaching a comparison of NGC 604 in M33 taken with each scope. I always knew that I was undersampled with the NP-101/ST-10 combination, but I always thought that the seeing at my sight (which is generally poor) was my limiting factor - I was wrong.
Both of these images were taken with poor seeing (1-2/5). The AP image is a crop of 60/30/30/30 LRGB M33 image, the NP-101 is a crop of a 120/60/60/60 LRGB image. Hopefully I'll get a clear night soon to complete the full M33 image and I'll post it.

cheers,

Jeff

October 21, 2009 03:15 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M33 AP130 F8.35 First light

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

Finally captured enough data with my new scope to provide a first image. I chose M33 because I just recently imaged this with my old set-up which allowed me to make comparisons. Anyway this is 120:60:60:60 LRBG (all 5 min subs).

cheers,

Jeff

October 21, 2009 03:23 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC 891 Lum

Posted By jeff OMeara
Here is a crop of some luminance data I have collected on the AP 130mm F8.35 of NGC 891. (20 x 5 min lum)

Jeff

November 16, 2009 02:34 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Another AP 130 F8.35 image

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

Once again, life has conspired to keep me from imaging for a while. My Pathfinder was stolen from my driveway in the middle of the night, so dealing with the insurance and shopping for a new vehicle has occupied what little free time I have. Well, all is settled now and I got a nice clear night on Saturday. I wasted quite a bit of time taking an out of focus image of M1 (I inadvertently told Focusmax to focus on a very tight double star, the images aren't bad, but slightly out of focus .... live and learn). Anyway, this is 30 x 5 min of M81 luminance only, taken with my new AP 130 F8.35 riding on a G11. I've started adding some spikes on the brightest stars to hide some blooming artifacts inherent with the ST-10XME. I'm not sure if this is an approach I will continue to use, comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

cheers,

Jeff

November 24, 2009 05:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M35 with AP130 F8.35

Posted By jeff OMeara
Hi all,

This is an image of M35, that I took a little while ago. Finally processed it. Seeing was terrible and I had some trouble with my tracking that night, but Im becoming increasingly picky.

here are the details,

M35
Chertsey, Quebec 2009
120:60:60:60 LRGB; all two minute subs unbinned.
ST-10XME
CFW8a with gen 1 astrodons
G11
TCF-S (Focusmax)
AP130 F8.35

cheers,

Jeff

Funding Member

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search