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Posts Made By: Charles Hakes

April 13, 2008 03:05 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First shot of the season.

Posted By Charles Hakes
A very quick and dirty M65 from last night just so I would have something to take home and look at. 9 minutes total, and all processing with CCDSoft and iphoto.

I spent most of the time last night on the nearby NGC3628, and on focusing and refocusing the telescope. And more refocusing. I will try to get some more processing done today, even though it isn't too high on my priority list yet. I hope to get more data on both targets in the next couple of days unless the moon is shining right down the tube.

The snow finally melted on the road, so the observatory was accessible, but when I went out a week ago, there was too much wind to do anything. Then of course we got more snow mid-week to make the road muddy again.

Enjoy. Comments welcome. Thanks for looking.

Charlie

Details:
Scope - Meade 16" LX200; mounted Alt-Az with field de-rotator; f6.3 focal reducer
Focus - JMI Motofocus
Camera - SBIG ST-10XE; binned 2x2 (~.88"/pixel)
Guiding - Meade 5"/DSI/PHD

April 14, 2008 04:03 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC3628

Posted By Charles Hakes
I went ahead and processed what I got the other night during all the focussing "issues". There was only 19 minutes of useable data there. I guess I could play with this some more, (or if anyone else wants to that would be great) but it will probably be more useful to just get some more time in. When the moon gets a ways beyond where it is, I will try to add to this and also the other two galaxies in the "set."

Anyone have solutions for large SCT focusing issues?

Thanks for looking. And comments welcome.

Charlie

Details:
Scope - Meade 16" LX200; mounted Alt-Az with field de-rotator; f6.3 focal reducer
Focus - JMI Motofocus
Camera - SBIG ST-10XE; binned 2x2 (~.88"/pixel)
Guiding - Meade 5"/DSI/PHD


April 20, 2008 02:04 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M42 Hubble colors

Posted By Charles Hakes
I haven't been able to image anything in the last week, so I dug up this from a few months ago. I had posted the Ha and SII data a while back, but once I got the OIII I was never happy with my overall processing, so I never posted it for feedback. And now I am running out of time to add more data! It looks like it might be clear enough without wind to do some more this evening (if things stay the way they are), but "wind" is forecast...

Charlie

Details:
Scope - Meade 16" LX200; mounted Alt-Az with field de-rotator; f6.3 focal reducer
Focus - JMI Motofocus
Camera - SBIG ST-10XE; binned 2x2 (~.88"/pixel)
Guiding - Meade 5"/DSI/PHD


April 25, 2008 01:26 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Any good targets for bad seeing?

Posted By Charles Hakes
The sky is nice and clear now, and the seeing is improving from "horrendous" to just "bad". What are the best types of targets for these conditions? Should I just keep adding time to various galaxies I have started and hope for the best? Look for something else? Stay home and work on processing?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Charlie

(looks like things should be better by the end of the weekend...)

April 27, 2008 11:45 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC3628 color try 1

Posted By Charles Hakes
Not much processing involved here, but I wanted to see what I had. I got a few minutes shy of an hour total last night (took 3+ hours) with not-too-good seeing, and more wind than I needed. I am just having the misfortune of posting right after Tyler's great combo shot of the same thing. Maybe with some processing (and practice doing that) I will get something worth printing.

Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking.

Charlie

April 30, 2008 01:02 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

focal reducer field flatness question

Posted By Charles Hakes
Here is a question for anyone who uses focal reducers (Jim Thommes are you there?) I don't want to completely re-invent the wheel. I guess I know that increasing the distance between the reducer and your camera gives you much wider fields, but at the expense of some really wacky light distribution. So I put my f6.3 reducer rather close to the camera, thinking that would be better. And after having it in that location for over a year (thinking I was operating ~f6.3) I figure out it is really ~f7.8. So here is the question - how much better do those focal reducers work if they are "tuned" in to the correct distance? (I assume they are designed with a diagonal in mind.) Would adding that spacer actually give me a more even field illumination? Thanks for any comments on this.

Charlie

May 4, 2008 02:56 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M51

Posted By Charles Hakes
I shot 10 minutes each of LRGB last week and got to reduce and at least start to process it yesterday. These stars were only ~3.8", but that is better than I thought the seeing was going to give me. I have some more subs from longer ago, and took some more last night that should help with depth. I will have to see which ones will work with this set. One of these nights will show up with good seeing at a time when I can get some sharper luminance. Late last night was pretty good. A big down side of Alt Az is I can't shoot at zenith, so when the seeing was getting better last night I couldn't point here, so I was back looking at NGC3628 again.

Thanks for looking and suggestions always welcome.
Charlie

May 5, 2008 05:18 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Perfect night - dead LX200 !@#$%^&*

Posted By Charles Hakes
Late light night when I was ready to go home, I was slewing to a park position and the Az (RA) motor just stopped working. Everything else appeared OK. Since it was late, I just turned it off and went home. Tonight when I try to boot the telescope it just gets to the point in the boot that says "MEADE". I am afraid something bad happened to the motor. Would that give me that message and lack of a boot? Has anyone seen anything like this? I will ask here and on the equipment forum.

Thanks,
Charlie


May 5, 2008 05:19 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Perfect night - dead LX200 !@#$%^&*

Posted By Charles Hakes
Late last night when I was ready to go home, I was slewing to a park position and the Az (RA) motor just stopped working. Everything else appeared OK. Since it was late, I just turned it off and went home. Tonight when I try to boot the telescope it just gets to the point in the boot that says "MEADE". I am afraid something bad happened to the motor. Would that give me that message and lack of a boot? Has anyone seen anything like this?

Thanks,
Charlie


May 5, 2008 01:13 PM Forum: Meade

Perfect night - dead LX200 !@#$%^&*

Posted By Charles Hakes
Late last night when I was ready to go home, I was slewing to a park position and the Az (RA) motor just stopped working. Everything else appeared OK. Since it was late, I just turned it off and went home. Tonight when I try to boot the telescope it just gets to the point in the boot that says "MEADE". I am afraid something bad happened to the motor. Would that give me that message and lack of a boot? Has anyone seen anything like this? I will ask here and on the equipment forum.

Thanks,
Charlie


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