Posts Made By: Anthony Ayiomamitis

Dear group,

Earlier today I received a Mewlon 210 flattener/reducer. However, the camera end is threaded and it will simply not accept the standard 2" nosepiece of my SBIG CCD camera.

What part do I need to mate the camera's nosepiece to the flattener/reducer?

As much as I respect the quality of Takahashi optics, this fascination and preoccupation with 10,001 intervening adapters before one can actually do any work is getting both very tiresome and silly!

Anthony.

Folks,

Can I get some feedback as to the type of screw used for the older Tak FSQ focusing wheels?

It took a very serious effort to remove the screw from the left focusing wheel so as to be able to attach a RoboFocus unit and there is some very slight damage to screw.

Thanks!

Anthony.

Dear group,

I am having trouble locating the part number of the thin adapter which goes between the Mewlon 210 FF/FR and my SBIG camera. It is threaded on both sides, one side for the reducer and the other for the CCD camera.

I do have such a part but it got stuck when I used it the other day and it would not come off. Twenty minutes later and some aggressive work with the pliers finally got the adapter loose. It is now close to being useless and I need a replacement adapter.

At the same time, is there any advice for avoiding something similar next time with the adapter mating to the CCD camera and being very difficult to unscrew? This is especially common during winter and with the colder temperatures.

Thanks!

Anthony.

Further to Drew's thread surrounding the use of his photos and without his permission, I am purposely starting a new thread which will hopefully be easy to locate in the future in the event there is interest by someone (rather than burying the links in Drew's thread).

(1) http://www.publishlawyer.com/top10.htm
(2) http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Anthony.

Hi Art,

Any possibility I can trouble you to kindly suggest to the folks at Takahashi to seriously consider the possibility of putting out a reducer for their older FSQ-106's?

I am assuming there are no technical issues such as back focus and they will not reject simply as a means to protect the new FSQ with such capability.

Obviously the folks at Tak know very well the huge number of Tak FSQ's out there and how successfully they have been used for astrophotography!

Thanks.

Anthony.

Last night I went after the emission nebula NGC 7822 in Cepheus and which forms an impressive pair with Ced 214 to its immediate south. The 7 to 8-day old moon was present doing its usual dirty work and I used the opportunity to capture some h-alpha data (12x20 min) using Baader's 7nm h-alpha filter and my Tak FSQ-ST10XME combo.

Due to a slight miscalculation on my part, I did not complete the RGB portion since the camera came very close to the pier and, as such, I only have the monochrome h-alpha version at the moment (the outstanding RGB portion will be acquired this evening).

NGC 7822 is quite impressive with lots of nebulosity and fine detail. The attached sample is approximately 50% of the original. I have never been a fan of scaled darks and I had no choice but to pursue such a calibration for the purposes of this temporary result. I will make sure I produce a suitable master dark over the weekend.

Further details available at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-7822.htm .

Anthony.

Dear group,

Last night I went after the bright open cluster NGC 2244 which is at the core of the Rosette Nebula. Both the transparency and seeing were very good and I was able to pursue this outstanding item due to general problems with my southern sky (light pollution).

Since many people prefer monochrome work, I will start out with
http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-2244-Hab.htm and which is based on 8x10 min subs.

For the colour version and which needs a repeat visit so as to tone down the bright central stars, please see http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-2244b.htm .

Details in relation to the above result are available at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-2244.htm .

I was debating about coming back at it again this evening with the
FSQ-ST10XME combo so as to get a much larger field of view but I will leave that for another day since I have longterm outstanding items in Orion and which I would like to knock of ASAP while the weather conditions are good.

I have more results awaiting processing including two planetary nebulae in Cas (Sh2-176 and Sh2-188) as well as a stunning open cluster in Tau (NGC 1647).

Anthony.

Dear group,

Last week I had very good transparency and I used the opportunity to go after the two members of the Perseus Double Cluster individually. More specifically, we have:

NGC 884 - http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0884b.htm
NGC 869 - http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0869b.htm

Each result is based on a total of two hours total exposure (LRGB @ 30:30:30:30) using 3- and 6-min subs. Further details are available at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0884.htm and http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0869.htm .

I will sit down tomorrow and entertain the possibility of a master two-part mosaic using these two individual results.

Anthony.

Dear group,

I combined my individual efforts involving NGC 869 and 884 to produce a two-panel mosaic of this especially rich part of the sky. I slightly cropped the two vertical edges so as to permit for a reasonable aspect ratio between the two axes.

The result is available at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0869-0884b.htm .... anyone wishing to see the uncropped version an do so by clicking on http://www.perseus.gr/Images/dso-ngc-0869-0884-1500pix.jpg .

Further details at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-0869-0884.htm .

Anthony.

Here is a neat review by S&T - http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/113270914.html .

Anthony.