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Posts Made By: ANJAL SHARMA

August 7, 2008 03:13 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

How much detail can a 5" scope provide on Jupiter?

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Well, see for yourself. This was taken on a night of exceptional seeing (July 18, 2008) from South College Station, TX. Transparency was quite poor. This was taken using my APM 130/780 LW triplet apochromatic refractor riding on my Atlas EQ-G mount. I used a Celestron 2X barlow stacked on top of a Televue 4X powermate to get the scope up to f/48. A philips SPC900NC was used at 5 fps and 0.2 sec exposure time to collect 4 minute videos. For this image, the best 800 frames out of 1200 were processed in Registax. Final image processing was done in Photoshop CS2. I'm astounded that a small apo can provide so much detail on a bright planetary target.

August 7, 2008 03:32 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

AC power adapter for Orion Atlas EQ-G?

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
I know Orion sells one, but it is 30 bucks not including shipping. Does anyone know of a cheaper alternative...say something from the local Radio Shack? Also, what voltage and current does the Atlas mount need? If I had that info, I could probably whip something up myself. Thanks.

August 28, 2008 06:06 PM Forum: Refractors

Vixen DED SS refractors

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
I came across a webpage with DSLR images taken with a Vixen DED114 SS. I know nothing about this line of refractors. Can one of you refractor gurus enlighten me? What exactly is a Vixen DED SS refractor, what aperture sizes do they come in, what type of f-ratios, price tags and can someone buy one someplace? Thanks.

September 7, 2008 07:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Central Lagoon Nebula - HOO scheme.

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Took this last night from the SHSU observatory outside Huntsville, TX. APM 130/780 apo on an Orion Atlas (EQMOD). 12x5min H-alpha and 6x5min O-III using the ATIK 16HR and Oriono narrowband 7nm imaging filters. 2x2 pixel binning employed for both H-alpha and O-III. Darks and bias calibrated, registered and stacked in DSS. Final processing and merge in PS CS2. For this image H-alpha is red and O-III is both blue and green.

Anjal.

September 22, 2008 12:16 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Central Lagoon in three different narrowband schemes

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Shown here.

APM 130/780 LW triplet apo, ATIK 16HR monochrome, Orion Atlas EQ-G (EQMOD) mount, Orion extra narrowband tricolor imaging filter set.
Guided using a Tak FS-60C and a DSI Pro.

H-alpha is 12x5min (binned 2x2), OIII is 6x5min (binned 2x2) and SII is 16x5min (binned 2x2)

Images calibrated, registered and stacked in DSS and tricolor merges and processing done in PS CS2.

October 6, 2008 08:27 PM Forum: Refractors

Field Flattener for APM 130/780 LW

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Has anyone here tried using a third party focal reducer/field flattener with the APM 130/780 triplet apo? I'm wanting to use mine for imaging with the Digital Rebel (300D) which has an APS-C sized chip, but the native field curvature of the refractor is bothersome. Has anyone encountered a similar problem and tried various flatteners such as the Televue RFL-4087 or the WO FLT flatteners with this scope for DSLR imaging? What were the results? I've tried the WO flatteners for the small scopes but the results are less than satisfactory. Any suggestions, leads or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Anjal.

November 27, 2008 05:34 PM Forum: Refractors

Star test images for a new (used) Orion ED80

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Can the optical gurus here provide me with their evaluation of the optics on my newly purchased (well, it's used) Orion ED80. I tested it with a 50 micron artificial star. Reasonably high powers were used, I had the 2" 4X TV powermate on. The images are taken with a Philips SPC900NC webcam at 20 fps (yes I adjusted my exposure time to ensure no dropped or duplicated frames). Each image is approximately 100 of the best frames stacked in registax. No additional processing of any kind was done after stacking. I took two sets of data, one was using only an Astronomik UV-IR cut filter on the webcam, and the other was using the Green filter from the Orion imaging LRGB filter set. I'd appreciate a critical assessment of the optics on this scope. Thanks.

Anjal.

December 16, 2008 03:39 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

AVA Flatfielder vs inexpensive EL Sheets for flats

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Now that I've moved to a larger chip, it's become essential for me to take good flats. I've tried the white T-shirt over objective without too much success. Sky flats aren't really possible for me as I have to travel some distance to reach dark skies and by the time I get there it's already dark.

I've heard about the AVA Flatfielder item and it appears to be just the ticket to my flatfield woes, but it's quite pricey. I believe it is simply an EL sheet in a metal holder with a digital power supply.

My question is, has anyone thought of, made and/or used a similar EL sheet based item for taking good flats?

If yes, what type of results did y'all get? Is it a viable alternative to sky flats and/or the AVA Flatfielder?

Anjal.

December 16, 2008 03:42 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Which FR/FF with Orion ED80 and QHY8?

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Anyone have any suggestions for a good focal reducer/flattener useful with the Orion ED80. The camera to be used is the QHY8 with the APS sized chip. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks y'all.

Anjal.

January 4, 2009 02:14 PM Forum: Takahashi

Temma 2 for NJP - System slowdown issue.

Posted By ANJAL SHARMA
Happy new year everyone. I finally had a chance to test the Temma 2 upgraded NJP mount at the SHSU observatory last night.

I installed Chuck F.'s Temma ASCOM driver on my notebook computer and used it to connect to the mount. GOTOs and tracking using Cartes du Ciel were bang on and I was quite pleased with the overall mount performance.

However, I noticed a general computer system slowdown during the testing period. I use the same laptop to control my personal Atlas mount using EQMOD and Cartes du Ciel and have never noticed any form of system slowdown. Has anyone else seen this behavior?

FYI, my laptop is reasonably powerful, with a Core 2 Duo (800MHz FSB 1.8GHz T5470) processor, 2 GB DDR2 memory, a dedicated Nvidia 8400 GS 128MB graphics adapter and it runs Windows XP home with SP3. Thanks.

Anjal.


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