Double cluster and IC342 -testing a new set up
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2024 10:34 pm
After a 6 mo break from imaging (to finally get on with the decorating 
) one clearish night (01 Feb) to check out my newly acquired mount
Second hand Ioptron CEM40 mount with old Zenith star WO 110 mm F 7.0 triplet apochromat reduced to F 5.5 and flattened with a WO Flat6IIIA 0.8x reducer/ flattener, ZWO UV/IR cut filter.
~ 180 x 20s exposures (total 1h) at unity gain, AS 1294MC camera - no guiding, dithered every 2 frames using the Sharpcap ASCOM tool. Processed in Pixinsight as a CFA drizzle x1 integration and using RC Blur Xt and Noise Xt.
Nothing remarkable about these images but I was really quite pleased with them - all the new kit working as it should (new cables, computer, USB and power hubs, mount etc) - especially for just 1 hour images on a fairly poor night with unsteady seeing (hence the short 20s exposures).
I should also acknowledge that it is really down to BlurXt deconvolution that the double cluster image shows a flat field with round -- and correctly coloured -- stars right to the edge. Even after optimising the reducer/ flattener distance to the WO110 I could never eliminate misshapen stars out in the corners - the software sorts it out completely - even to the extent that I seriously wonder whether optimising the optics even matters so much nowadays when the software is so powerful that it can compensate so well ?
Tim
) one clearish night (01 Feb) to check out my newly acquired mountSecond hand Ioptron CEM40 mount with old Zenith star WO 110 mm F 7.0 triplet apochromat reduced to F 5.5 and flattened with a WO Flat6IIIA 0.8x reducer/ flattener, ZWO UV/IR cut filter.
~ 180 x 20s exposures (total 1h) at unity gain, AS 1294MC camera - no guiding, dithered every 2 frames using the Sharpcap ASCOM tool. Processed in Pixinsight as a CFA drizzle x1 integration and using RC Blur Xt and Noise Xt.
Nothing remarkable about these images but I was really quite pleased with them - all the new kit working as it should (new cables, computer, USB and power hubs, mount etc) - especially for just 1 hour images on a fairly poor night with unsteady seeing (hence the short 20s exposures).
I should also acknowledge that it is really down to BlurXt deconvolution that the double cluster image shows a flat field with round -- and correctly coloured -- stars right to the edge. Even after optimising the reducer/ flattener distance to the WO110 I could never eliminate misshapen stars out in the corners - the software sorts it out completely - even to the extent that I seriously wonder whether optimising the optics even matters so much nowadays when the software is so powerful that it can compensate so well ?
Tim