It's the simplest things...

[calan]

...that makes a nerd smile.

If anyone tries to tell you that it's not worth spending the money on quality optics, just slap them in their silly head.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a parracor II for my F/3.9 astrograph, and the difference in resolution and detail is astounding (not to mention the coma correction of course).

I was shooting one of my favorite targets, Abell 426, with a very tight FWHM filter to get only the best frames I could on a windy night in suburban OKC. After 2-1/2 hours of total exposure (10-second subs), I saw something unexpected. When I zoomed in on a small area, I was able to clearly see two galaxies almost perfectly hidden behind foreground stars.

This is a screen capture directly off the SC window...not even an actual image file.



http://www.jcsautomation.com/temp/hidden_galaxies.png

[Menno555]

That is indeed very cool
And I recognize the nerdiness. Capturing 20 hours of M106 @f/10 and processing it is cool and all. But capturing that hard to capture faint, tiny galaxy does give much more "satisfaction".

Menno

[timh]

that makes a nerd smile.

So -as a true nerd - you now have me imagining a bar chart plotting the range of hobbies and interests versus some objective index of nerdiness. I am afraid that we astroimagers are all right up there alongside the train spotters, experts on electric pylon design etc

Really like that image btw -- and can well understand the satisfaction of seeing such perfect round stars and subtle detail. It is rare that I can get my Newtonian (plus paracorr) tuned up to better than ~ r= 0.95

Tim

[calan]

It is rare that I can get my Newtonian (plus paracorr) tuned up to better than ~ r= 0.95

Tim

Same. I have an Orion 8" f/3.9 astrograph, and have been fighting a lot of little things that all add up (and being in a windy city suburb doesn't help). I still have a few issues I'm dealing with and trying to nail down, but the parracor alone turned it into a whole new scope.

Main priority right now is a new focuser, if I can ever get hold of Ron at Moonlight.

[calan]

Here is a good comparison of the scope before and after the parracor, under very similar conditions just two nights apart.



http://jcsautomation.com/temp/able_426_compare.png