Posts Made By: Roland Christen

Here is a link to some cool summer objects, probably the second most photographed objects. This stunning image was taken by Dave Jurasevich (optics by me own hands ):

http://www.starimager.com/Image%20Gallery%20Pages/Hydrogen%20Alpha%20Images/m8_m20_ic4685.htm

Rolando

Tiny bubbles in the sky
make me feel happy, make me feel shy
tiny bubbles make me warm all over
with a feeling that I'm gonna do this till the end of time

Tralala

Rolando
160EDF @F5.7, STL1100, HaRGB 50 minutes total exposure processed in MaximDL

Hi All,

Here is a first picture of the Mach1 production version with the new folding pier (preproduction version) undergoing PE testing using a 10" SCT. The pier is brand new, we have no pricing on it at this time. We are working feverishly to have these piers available in time to ship with the first mounts as they become available for sale. The piers are adjustable in height as well as uneven ground. There are extensions available which attach to the top to bring the height from around 30" to 52" for various scopes. The mount/pier combination is meant for advanced astrophotography for refractors in the 130/140mm size or light weight 6"ers, SCTs from 8" to 10"-11" size, Newtonians in the 8"f4-f6 size, depending on weight.

Preliminary testing of random production samples is ongoing right now with results that are very encouraging. This particular mount has a very smooth periodic error of +1.6 -1.5 arc seconds (3.1 P-P) with no PEM compensation. I suspect that with PEM on, it will track to under 1 arc sec. When I get some more data as soon as weather permits, I will post some PEMPro results so you can see how smooth the error is.

The mount and pier is very easy to set up. It takes less than 8 minutes to set up the pier, attach the equatorial head, slide the telescope tube assembly into place and adjust it for preliminary polar alignment. There is a built-in compass and level to get you close to the pole.

For daytime polar alignment the keypad has a quick routine which, along with a simple Carpenter's level, sets the altitude axis to the proper angle for your latitude. Then it's simply a matter of sending the mount to a known star (our sun), and adjusting the azimuth until it's in the crosshairs of the finder (using solar projection or Baader Solar Film on the objective). This routine takes only about 10 minutes. Once that is achieved, you will be quite close to the pole and can then pick up planets or bright stars in your main scope and begin fine drift alignment.

Rolando

Hi all,

Here is a Bubble image taken with narrow band filters (O3, Ha, S2). We used two scopes and 2 cameras. The Ha portion was taken by Gilles Cohen in France using a 155EDF refractor and ST8 camera at F7 focal ratio. The O3 and S2 portion was taken by me here in hazy Illinois with my 160EDF refractor and ST10XE camera.

There is only about 1 hour total exposure for each color, so the image is not particularly deep. It really needs about 4 to 8 times this exposure level to do it justice, and we plan to shoot more if the weather permits.

Rolando

M100 LRGB taken with 10" AP Mak-Cass and SBIG ST10XE with CFW

Rolando

We had great weather. Set up a 105 and shot into the eyepiece with a pocket digital camera. Shot through Baader filter material.

Rolando

Hi Guys,

A customer sent me this one, wondering what the make is and whether he should buy it. Seems to be some kind of Cassegrain. It certainly has an unusual focuser and some kind of newfangled fork mounting. Needs a good sturdy pier to finish it off.

Rolando

Hi All,

Here are a couple of images of the comet taken back in October. Ray Gralack took the original color image under better transparency than I have had. I added the core detail using my 10" Mak to his wide field image:

Comet Swan
image from October 28th. Cropped large version:

http://www.gralak.com/Astro/SwanRayGralakCoreAddedCropLrg.jpg

Normal size:

http://www.gralak.com/Astro/SwanRayGralakCoreAdded.jpg

Rolando

Hi all,

I spent one night doing some imaging with the 10" LX200R mounted on the Mach1. The results of the guiding are quite interesting. The mount was guiding at less than 1 arc sec rms all night long while imaging M33. The image shows a screen shot of the tracking chart over a 15 monute period in MaximDL. each exposure was 5 minutes long, with a period of about 20 seconds while the image was downloading where the mount was running unguided.

Rolando

Hi All,

I took this image a couple of nights ago here at my observatory under somewhat hazy skies and lots of light pollution. Scope was a Meade 10" LXR operating at F8.5 with AP telecompressor, SBIG ST11K camera. 20 exposures of 5 minutes each. The tube assembly was mounted on my Mach 1 mount.

Rolando