Відео

I did a nice mosaic on the JellyFish Nebula, with several nearby open star clusters and an adjacent reflection nebula using the AT115EDT and the ASI2600mm pro. I did a multi-part video on that experience. I really need to redeploy that rig and gather MUCH MORE data. Mosaics can be alot of fun. Cheers!

Thanks for the comment. I generally do my collimation with a sensor, but it can be done through the eye-piece as well. The diffraction rings are always present, but seeing will affect appearance. Love the little SCTs - super portable, good bang for the buck... Cheers!

I've never owned a Maksutov variant - sounds like you are having good fun with it! I own two 1600mm pro cameras, purchased both used over the years, quite a work-horse! Nice pairing for the rig... Cheers and thank you for the comments!

I really enjoyed capturing this target and making that video! I have a number of different videos that are essentially "astronomical tours". I have 10 images in the queue to produce. I hope you enjoy them all! I have a C8 as well, with the Celestron reducer/corrector. I have had my eye on the Starizona product, I hear good things about it. Yes, annotating an image can be done in Pixinsight. You may need to run Image Solver as a first step. Once that coordinate data is associated with your image, you can generate an annotation overlay - or a new image with annotations incorporated. Enjoy that scope!

Thanks for the comment - I was not aware of the Optec Fastfocus system - pretty cool. Cheers and thank you for sharing this information!

Gracias, Jose. Creo que si, puedo hacer uno para el telescopio Meade ACF de 14". dna.oneill@streamingrelativity.com y podemos discutir los detalles. Saludos!

Thanks for your comment. I agree, image scale is most important - the ASI2400MC pro has 5.9um btw, not 5.4. However, there are challenges to long focal length, high focal ratio, astrophotography independent of image scale, which I do speak to in this video. Undoubtedly, there is much more to discuss on this topic, and others, and I'm sure I will cover them in future videos. Side note, your 9um pixel camera paired with 6800mm focal length yields an image scale of .27 arc-sec per pixel. I don't know anything about your seeing conditions, but if I assume perfect seeing - you must be using a rig with 18+ inches of aperture. I'm jealous! Cheers.

@@AstroDNAObservatory i think I mentioned that I use binning 2x2. Image scale is twice more. I wrote about aperture as well 1 meter. As far as seeing conditions are concerned, according to Nyquist sampling theory, 0.54”/pixel supports lesser than 1.5” seeing. Yeh, I get it in Chile. 5.9um is even better. What are eccentricity and FWHM of your integrated files? My guess eccentricity could be 0.5-0.65 and FWHM 2.5” and above. Right?

Ah, yes binning 2x2 makes a difference. 1 meter aperture? What scope do you have? And, yes - that FWHM guess is about right. I typically see FWHM values for my stacked data in the low 2's to 3 range - at least with this rig. Chile - awesome! Some day I will make a trip there. Best!

@@AstroDNAObservatory I don’t own such scope, I rent it time-to-time. FWHM is usually 1.2-2.2” for that scope (price for rig is 750K+). You get 2.2-3.2” (price for rig is 8-10K). On my home rig with 10” scope, I get 1.5-2.5” (price 17-20K). If my rig was in Chile, I could easily pull 1.2-2.2”. So, why people bust themselves to get big scopes? It is not about resolution. It is all about sensitivity- SNR. So, if you had scope with F of 5, the same aperture, camera with small pixels and proper mount, dark location and top seeing; you could get the same resolution as that 1m-scope . Increase aperture twice, resolution will not change but SNR will go up, and pictures will be well better, since you will have a lot of room for stretching.

@@anata5127 well stated... Cheers!

Hola! I have been using the C11 at prime focus (f/10 no reducer/corrector), however I do own a C8 XLT and do use the Celestron .63 reducer with it. I have found that there are three primary causes of distorted stars. First is improper backspacing. The backspacing is something that is specific to your reducer and should be published information. Once you have that distance known, adjust the spacing from the rear of the reducer to the sensor. The published backspacing is a guide and you may find a mm or so in either direction variance. The second issue would be collimation, making sure your secondary mirror is aligned with the primary. You can test this by de-focusing the star and seeing if the shadow of the secondary is centered within the defraction rings. Finally, if you are seeing distortions increase with exposure time, check your polar alignment and your guiding. If you are guiding with a scope as opposed to an OAG, you may have differential flexure. This happens when the guidescope is not mounted securely or is "flexing" during guiding. Generally, addressing these three issues should resolve the star distortions. I hope this is helpful - don't give up!

Great scope, great camera. The C11 image circle will provide better coverage on the 2600MC pro - but the pixel sizes of the 2600 is smaller at 3.76. So you will have oversampling, which means good guiding will be very important. I have the 2600MM pro and I plan to hardware bin when pairing it with this scope. Another channel subscriber mentioned the possibility of software binning for the OSC cameras. You may want to investigate that as well... Thanks for the comment!

Thanks for the comment, and the question. I use NINA for my session management and for all other rigs I use ASTAP - it is fast and has always worked. But when I deployed the C11 using the much smaller planetary sensors, ASTAP simply could not platesolve for me. This has to do with the very small FOV that these tiny sensors yield with the 2800mm focal length. I switched over to PlateSolve3 and had more success. With the 2400MC Pro sensor the field of view is much larger (.75degx.5deg) and I have had no trouble. I did not switch back to ASTAP to test though - I may do that just to see how it performs. What sensor are you using with your main OTA? Cheers.

Thanks for the question - I have not tried a Tri-bathinov mask yet - though I am familiar with its design and function. I have been using MetaGuide for my "in-focus" fine collimation for sessions where it is most important. I do plan to laser cut one and experiment with it - perhaps sooner rather than later. Cheers!

Always interested in learning more about planetary - not my specialty so I am all ears! Will message you... Cheers.

@@AstroDNAObservatory sorry didnt mean to come off hard. Im always willing to help.

Not at all a problem! I sent you a note with my email address. Jupiter and Mars are next on my list so any advice that helps me prepare before November is much appreciated!

Awesome - go for it! Keep me posted...

We had a ridiculous stretch of clear nights and I had a bunch of these sequences ready to go. It was THE MOST productive September in many years. It was really serendipitous because I was going to switch out to my planetary camera, but decided to see what I could do with a full frame OSC at prime focus. When I saw the results the first night (Ring and Crescent) I decided to keep going. Certainly glad I did. Having the observatory and all of my automation really helps. I would never have been able to do this if nightly setup and tear-down were part of the workflow. Thanks for the comment!

Ahhhh, the C14 - some day...

Nice - do it! I use SharpCap for my polar alignment through the main OTA. I have not found it more or less difficult with different cameras. I have even polar aligned with a guide scope. Generally speaking, a good mount with a good guiding system will address misalignments up to an arc-minute - at least that was my experience prior to the permanent pier. Keep us posted on your C8 f/10 DSO endeavors!

Thanks for the comment and question. I actually introduced a touch of tilt into the rotation - it was a happy accident that I decided to run with. It gives the image depth and breathes life into these awesome targets. I use Camtasia for my video editing and it has built-in animation effects including rotate and tilt. There may be free software out there to do this as well. Thank you for noticing - I am glad it was impactful.

It is so funny how we are easily influenced by the documented "do and don't" and the "can and can't" of astrophotography. In the end, we have equipment that can be configured in so many different ways, why not try? What is the worst that can happen? A bad session? Its worth the experience IMHO. Glad you enjoyed!

@@AstroDNAObservatory Being an astrophotographer and struggling from a Bortle 9 location, I can only agree :-) We need to dare do things and experiment with things! :)

I added an HD8 to my collection so I could have the flexibility of f/10, f/7 and f/1.9 with hyperstar. Hyperstar makes an HD8 into a RASA and I love it.

Thank you for the comment - indeed, the mount affords a ton of rig flexibility. I really enjoy the 2800mm of focal length and the magnified field of view. I also enjoy wider fields of view with my refractors. One day a large aperture wide-field astrograph will make its way to the observatory - I'm sure!

I am very lucky in that my neighbors are farmers, so local light pollution is at a minimum. However, I am a mere 60 miles from NYC and there is a distinct light dome in the south-east. Still, I am more than happy with my dark skies! Thanks for the comment!

Good tip - will need to investigate software binning of OSC data - I have not experimented with that technique. The 2400MC is my first OSC camera. I have always shot mono, so there is much for me to learn. I do enjoy the convenience, and in the case of this camera, the larger pixel size for longer focal lengths. Thank you for the comment!

I agree completely. If it were easy - I am not sure we'd love doing it as much. Thank you for the comment and enjoy your rigs!

Cheers Kevin! Filters are very important (and expensive). It is amazing how we can easily wrap our heads around saving and spending thousands of a telescope - only to be frozen in our tracks when in comes to the cost of filters. Given that filters can be used across all rigs, we should be less hesitant! I hope your are enjoying your refractor - I will be traveling with mine in early October. There are always bargains on 8" SCTs in the CloudyNights forums!

Thank you! Its always awesome to receive feedback. Best!

Sounds great! All the best, Luis!

My pleasure! Had a nice streak of clear nights, and despite some moon shine - captured some fair data. All the best, and thanks for commenting!

Thanks, Larry! Hope all is well on your end. Cheers!

Thanks! My good friend Stephan did all the work on this one!

I'm going to need to pause and read your comment more carefully. You are raising a number of points and asking about mechanisms that I am not sure exist (secondary mirror focusing). I can answer part of this now - the part relating to the effects of thermal expansion - I generally run a trigger on HFR increase (5%) to refocus. This is helpful for DSO imaging. With planetary, I generally use contrast detection to obtain as sharp a focus as a possible - given the stacks are usually a couple of minutes long, I don't concern myself with the potential of thermal expansion in that short burst. The discussion around secondary mirror movement is odd to me at the moment, as the secondary of the SCT is fixed in a housing within the corrector plate - also fixed at the end of the OTA. Having said all that, I will re-read your post tomorrow! Cheers.

Thank you - so nice to hear! I actually have some more content coming on this camera. I have been using it with my C11 believe it or not. Very interesting results as I am imaging DSOs at f/10 2800mm. So these large pixels are coming in handy! How do you like the Askar btw? Cheers!

@@AstroDNAObservatory You are Welcome!! I can't wait to hear some more your content with this camera! That is Awesome! Your C11 with this camera, I can't to see those images! That thing is a BEAST!!! That thing looked huge next to you. My Askar is pretty awesome I have to say and I have been getting great images with my Canon 5D Mark lll. Once I get either the 2400 or the 2600, I hoping to get much better results. Thanks again for all the time and amazing info that you put into your video's!!

I agree. Very much enjoying this product. It has about a 30mm travel, so I make sure to get in rough focus while the Baader is set around 15mm. This gives me equal play inward and outward. I also always make sure my final turn on the rough focus knob is couter-clockwise - pushing on the primary mirror minimizing shifts during the session. Cheers!

Thank you for the comment! I don't have a Hyperstar setup - yet... I may try it out with my C8 and if I do, I will most certainly cover collimation. Thanks again!

Hi, Brian. In my closing I provide my email address if you are interested in the EasyCollimation Kit. All you need to do is shoot me an email at: dna.oneill@streamingrelativity.com and specify which model SCT you have - for example Celestron C8 XLT or Celestron 9.25 Edge. I will calculate the cost to ship based on your email address and shoot over a Paypal invoice for the shipped kit. This kit has gotten such a great response from the channel - thanks for your interest and thanks for your comment!-David

LOL! I rescued this dome from a prior home about 80 miles south of me. It was abandoned and in very bad shape. Reviving it took a lot of love and, well creative enhancements. One of those enhancements is an L-bracket that has to be loosely positioned on top of a limit switch inorder for the actuator arm to trigger it in the fully retracted position. This hack ensures my upper shutter can close at the end of a session. As I was fiddling with my hand over the C11, my arm brushed against it and it fell out of position. I actually cut the sound out of the video. But this is a perfect example of the frustrating stuff that happens - and distracts you - from the task at hand, collimation! Nice pickup on the UFO. Love it! Cheers.

Thanks for the ask. When imaging a low magnitude (bright) star, especially with high exposure times, everything in the image train will contribute to the diffraction pattern - even the micro lenses of the CMOS sensor. If we lower the exposure, an airy disk will emerge - provided seeing allows. Cheers and thank you!

@@AstroDNAObservatory Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

This is not accurate at all. Eye is "exactly" level with the OTA in all directions - you can't even do that accurately.

If only it were that simple... In principle, yes you want the mirrors to align, in practice this would be impossible by eye. But I suppose in really severe cases of misalignment, or during the construction phase of a DIY scope, your approach is a rational starting point! I would however adjust expectations relative to the actual results. All good, thank you for the comment!

Understood and fair observation. I don't know if there was a frame where the secondary shadow was perfectly centered in this video. When I was making the video, I did rough collimation and intentionally left it short of ideal so I could then test the MetaGuide software to see how it would behave when collimating an focused star in poor seeing. I do mention that later in the video, but perhaps I should have added an annotation when I presented the example of good collimation. Interestingly enough, the author of MetaGuide makes a case that a centered secondary shadow may not always represent optimized collimation. The star centroid, as calculated with high-frame rate stacking, in relation to coma would be best - and that is very situational I think! Thank you for watching and sharing your comment! Best.

@@AstroDNAObservatory Still nice vid. I use Metaguide for my C9.25 collimation. I assume that you remove the collimation guide while using Metaguide.

Actually, you can use the mask with MetaGuide - for rough collimation where MG is simply displaying a doughnut and you are making gross adjustments - HOWEVER, you probably won't be able to take advantage of the Red Dot guiding and centroid calculations. I think the mask will present interference. I'm new to MG so I am still learning more about how it works, but my initial impression is that it is quite sensitive (not necessarily a bad thing) and I am inclined to employ it as a final step in my "fine" collimation workflow. Something I would do when kicking off a planetary imaging session. Dialing MG in with my super small pixel OSC planetary camera took a bit and I am not convinced I got it right yet, but I am hopeful! Frank is one of the good ones out there and as a software developer, I appreciate all the work he's put into the tool. Cheers!

Thank you! The key to many of these procedures is to understand and appreciate the fundamentals!

Thank you for commenting! Glad the video was helpful. Enjoy that focuser!

Absolutely can make you one - shoot me an email and I will take it from there. Thank you for commenting!

dna.oneill@streamingrelativity.com

I was collimating in the "before focus" state. I did not make that clear and should have. And really I should have indicated that it is good practice to collimate in both the "before" and "past focus" positions. But lets pause and think more carefully about what happens when we move from inside to outside focus. The image on the sensor will flip both horizontally and vertically - including the shadow cast by any mask. So, and therefore your collimation screw adjustments will be the same - which makes perfect sense. In the end, the mirrors must be aligned. Thank you for posting that comment and picking up on that detail. I will make a point to mention this on my next video... Cheers!

The direction of the screw adjustments will will always have the same impact on the optical path. Clockwise pulls on the secondary mirror and pushes the image away from the screw. Counterclockwise pushes the secondary mirror and pulls the image towards the screw. This relationship holds true regardless of whether you're inside or outside focus.

I have seen them, tried to order one from Farpoint - never arrived. My biggest challenge has always been keeping track of the screws I'm adjusting, and direction I'm working, in dark awkward positioning. This may be an age related thing!!! Thanks for the comment!

I heard Farpoint closed. You can make one, there are online generators. We had one made with a laser cutter for our club’s 14” Edge. We align it with the screws, always goes on the scope the same way.

I think you are right about Farpoint. Will check out the templates for the laser cutter as well. Cheers!

@@AstroDNAObservatory Nice video. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 When you get around to trying a Tri Bahtinov mask, be sure to also use it in combination with Chris’ Bahtinov Collimator application. Soon to also become a N.I.N.A. plugin….

That is definitively a problem! Perhaps the corrector plate or the secondary mirror housing was disturbed in shipping?

Thanks for the comment - I recently added a PegasusAstro Falcon V2 Rotator so I can automate the rotation. Great comment - thank you!

@@gregerianne3880 The initial connection was "sketchy". What I do, as a precaution, is launch Unity first, and once unity "sees the rotator", I then connect in NINA. Sometimes I have to unplug and replug in the USB cable. Once it is recognized it will work without problems unless you reboot your PC. That has been my experience. It is really poor form on Pegasus Astro - I hope your diligence results in a fix!

@@AstroDNAObservatory Thanks, David! So, you plug the USB connector in, then launch Unity, correct?. Haven't yet gotten to the point where Unity sees the rotator, I'm afraid, so I can't even think about NINA yet. Unity sees my Mini Powerbox just fine, but nothing for the rotator. I'll keep trying! Thanks again so much for the reply.

@@gregerianne3880 try both, start unity when it is already plugged in. If it is not recognized, replug it in. Really poor experience, I know. It will resolve. I don't have that rig deployed at the moment, but I plan on setting up a travel config this week. If you have no luck with Pegasus, I'll try to recreate the issue. Cheers!

@@AstroDNAObservatory Thanks again, David. I saw something in the Falcon manual about ASCOM Alpaca that I'm going to try later today and see if that does anything to get it connected. (My rig is running right now -- I just left the rotator in the image train and rotated the camera manually but thought it would be a good double check on my back focus.) I appreciate your input! Thanks so much.