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Posts Made By: Andrew Riehl

August 25, 2002 06:04 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Nexstar 8 GPS vs LX90/UHTC

Posted By Andrew Riehl
The nexstar 8GPS's that are now shipping out have all the latest software/driver updates. The download capablility is now there; there is just no newer upgrade to download yet; as any issues are 99.5% corrected. Not sure about the 8", but the nexstar11GPS first download will be on the web in very early september. Don't be fooled by the Meade ads, they're using example scopes/product info that is over a year old. A debate between a nexstar GPS and an LX200 GPS could go on for a long time. As for comparing the Nexstar 8GPS and an lx90, I believe the nexstar 8GPS is constructed much better and a lot more versatile, well worth the extra price in my opionion. The eyepiece deal is something to consider, but with a capable scope and your background, you'll probably get the imaging bug quicker than you may think. If I were you, I'd narrow my decision to a nexstar 8 GPS or lx200 GPS. Lx90 is a great visual scope concept, but it's just underbuilt for most higher level activities. Just my humble, biased opinions.

September 8, 2002 10:50 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

CCD to camera adapter

Posted By Andrew Riehl
What kind of camera is it? vendors include SBIG, University Optics, Adirondack Video astronomy, and many others. Depends a lot on your camera.

October 2, 2002 12:11 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

LX-200 f/6.3 "Wide Field" with Meade f/3.3 reducer

Posted By Andrew Riehl
I don't have any 'direct' experience with this setup, but I can tell you a few things about each part of it. I am a former brief owner of an 8" f/6.3 SCT. without a reducer/corrector, the photo is pretty poor. I burnt film with it using an f/6.3 reducer, yielding an f/4 system. On the film frame, vignetting was just as servere as with an f/10 with the reducer, but the edge correction wasn't as good. My 8" f/4 newt with coma correcter yielded a much, much better photo. Visually, the f/6.3 SCT didn't do as bad as they're claimed to do, in my opinion (although an f/10 with a 6.3 reducer is much better). an f/10 SCT without an r/c has a curvy enough field as it is; an uncorrected 6.3 SCT is a good bit worse. the f/6.3 scope at f/4 would give me a flatter field, but would rarely allow most of my eyepieces to focus with my 2" diagonal. bottom line, the 6.3 with a 6.3 reducer would do pretty darn good with the small chip of a ccd camera, but there are much better ways to image at f/4, especially if you want good eyepiece views as well. The 3.3 reducer is another beast, and I'll adress it in another post.

October 2, 2002 05:50 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

CCD 4 Me???

Posted By Andrew Riehl
well bud, it all depends on how much you have to spend.

October 11, 2002 01:31 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

st-2000 widefield part 2

Posted By Andrew Riehl
I cropped out the center portion at full scale to show the full resolution capability of the camera. Not bad resolution for a little over 1" aperture, IMHO.

October 11, 2002 01:50 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

cables for ccd

Posted By Andrew Riehl
IMHO, USB is the way to go by far.

October 13, 2002 03:04 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Canon D60 Andromeda

Posted By Andrew Riehl
By looking at this and your other widefield photos, I've noticed a few things about them. You believe the elongated spiky stars are due to vibrations. Upon a closer look, in one corner, the stars look pretty good, in the opposite corner, they are at their worst. If it was a vibration/flexure issue, the problem stars would manifest themselves evenly across the photo. I believe your abberation is totally confined to the lens. Most likely an element loose/out of alignment or with its optical center not matching its physical center. The stars with the mak look very good, the focal length is comparitively huge to the lens, a vibration issue would look much worse there, despite the longer moment arm. Try a new lens (preferrably a fixed focal length)

November 3, 2002 11:05 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

IC 1805 and 1848 with D60

Posted By Andrew Riehl
your blue halos are from false color generated by the achromatic camera lens. Minus violet or similar light yellow filter will help, but will likely also skew the rest of the color info.

November 25, 2002 04:54 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Celestron Nexstar 11" GPS

Posted By Andrew Riehl
newest versions are best of course; Hand control version 2.x and Motor control 4.0. The one problem I had with mine (a failed hand controller) was fixed by celestron overnite via a fedexed new controller. On the chance something does go wrong with the n-11, it WILL actually get fixed.

November 26, 2002 05:31 AM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

astrophotography

Posted By Andrew Riehl
I dug this out of my archives, I think its along the lines of what you're looking for...It's an Eyepiece exposure of saturn through an 8" newt on a night of perfect seeing. As it is here is pretty much how it looks on the print. (except probably cropped some, I can't remember) Actually, the print looks better (better contrast/ color balance/saturation), this is a cruddy negative scan, but is otherwise untouched.

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