Hi Ted -

I am scared to change setups.  My old mount was a real keeper, and the OTA had a great mirror.
It was very nerve-racking to sell what I know to be a good setup. 
But I really needed a smaller rig, as I have to drive 2 hours away to do my imaging and observing,
so I threw caution to the wind and put this together. 

The good news is that both of the refractors are fantastic.  The bad news is that the mount has to go
back to Meade.  It has a very large amount of slop in the RA axis, which does not seem to stem from the
worm gear adjustment.  Having had several Meade products, I am not suprised - every Meade mount I have
owned had to go back to the factory at least once to get it to work right.  I really wish Meade would start
doing a better quality check on their gear - it certainly would save the consumer alot of hassle, and save Meade
some expense of shipping/fixing things.  I think that with Meade, you get a good product, you just have to send
it back to them a few times first.   

Oh well - guess it will be another month until I can test this rig out for photography.

-Jake

Hi Ron -

It has been awhile!   

It's raining here right now, most likely my fault for buying a bunch of new equipment!
Sorry to hear you won't be enjoying the clear skies. 

I do have a few critters running around here - a good old sweet dog, and an ornery cat.

I really hope this will be a good imaging rig - I think between the two refractors, I should
be able to do a number of objects!  Believe it or not, this is more portable than my
previous setup - altbough I must admit I am going to miss that pretty orange:


-Jake

Hi Dave -

It seems to be plenty steady for it.  It's the same tripod used with the LX200's.
The mount is also bigger than it looks!     I was expecting it to be a bit, um, smaller!

Now I have to find out how well the mount tracks for photos - I'm keeping my fingers
crossed that it is a good one!

-Jake

Hi Guys -

Seems like it has been pretty dead around here lately. 

I recently decided to change my setup and go with a refractor rig
instead of my newt/CI-700 combo.  I have switched to a LXD650 mount
with a Meade 102ED  (f/9) and a Vixen ED80sf (f/7).  I am also considering
getting a reducer/flattener from William Optics for this rig.  I also have a new
Canon Rebel XT on order.

I have not yet been able to test the rig photographically, but visual use has
so far been a real treat - Mars has been wonderful in both scopes even from
light polluted LA.  My hope is that this will be a slightly easier setup
for me to haul out of Los Angeles for imaging. 

-Jake

Dave -

I am using an SBIG ST-4 with a guidescope, and my CI-700 mount. 
The ST-4 works as a "standalone" autoguider, so I don't need a computer
to run it.   

-Jake

Wow Rick, lots of stuff here!

That will be a real treat to observe Mars through the refractor this year.
I agree that it looks way cool - there is something very pleasing about a nice
refractor (both to look through, and look at) - it looks like a "proper" telescope!   

That theory is really interesting about focal ratio vs. S/N.  I have always understood
the traditional film model.  This is one of the reasons I stay with my 8" f/5 - good
photographic speed, and reasonable image scale and resolution at 1000mm FL.  I have always tried
to choose my imaging targets based on my image scale. 

I read your explaination, and the article.  I can't argue with the results, and the theory
is starting to make sense to me - it is totally a new idea to me, and is fascinating.  One thing
I am still trying to understand is the statement Stan Moore makes:

"Focal length (and thus f-ratio) has absolutely no effect on the number of photons collected and delivered."

While this statement is absolutely true, the part that sticks with me is that although the same number of photons
are collected for a given aperture regardless of focal length (and f-ratio), isn't it also true that by increasing the focal
length of a given aperture, the distribution of photons per given area decreases?  In other words, by increasing image
scale per a given aperture (i.e. increasing focal length), isn't that effectively decreasing the amount of photons hitting each pixel per second, because although the same amount of photons are collected per an aperture, a longer (slower) focal length is distrubuting those
photons over a wider area?

I am not doubting the theory at all, just trying to understand it better.  It is good news for me,
as I purchased a 4" apo a few months back (and boy do I love it! ) that is f/9.  I bought it
to use as a visual instrument, thinking it would probably be to slow to use with my camera. 
I would love to use it for imaging - it would give me a slightly wider fov than the 8", and would
inherently give me a much flatter field, so that I wouldn't have to worry about things like my recent
brain-fart of forgetting the paracorr.      Do you think that I could obtain some nice images with
my apo and digital rebel?

Also, your pelican looks reallly great! 

-Jake

Ok - please tell me that you have at least looked through that TEC 140...   

That's a really great scope - your current setup looks really "together".   

Last weekend, there was a man up at Mt. Pinos who had an 8" TEC apo, setup with
binoviewers.  I looked through it - talk about a deep space refractor!  I have never
seen an 8" apo before that - let alone looked through one.  It was an experience.   

It made me a believer in the TEC optics - I am sure you will love that scope!

Your image looks wonderful - there is alot of color depth you have captured, especially
in the dark areas of the nebula.    It really has a natural look - your processing is superb!
I notice a small diffraction spike on the brighter stars - any idea what is causing that?

Fantastic job!

-Jake

I have no new images to play with, but was going back over my M08 and thought maybe
a cropped version would be more aesthetically (sp?) pleasing - kind of a detail shot without
the coma.  What do you guys think?



-Jake

Thanks guys!   

Ron -

A "paracorr" is a Televue product that corrects coma in fast newtonians such as mine.
It is very useful in making the field "flat" when imaging. 
Are you still having troubles with your wedge and PEC?  I was hoping you had that
licked.  I hope you are able to image some of the summer objects soon. 


Ted -

Thanks!  Mine is just the standard Rebel - I don't have the guts to modify it and risk losing it. 
I have been happy enough with it's performance unmodified - but it sure would be fun to have
one of those Hutech ones and do Ha imaging like Rick and Steve! 

Rick -

Thanks.  I have been using the "sun" WB setting lately, and making sure that it saves the image
as "Adobe RGB" in the camera - I think it helps me get better color balance when going into PSP.
Looking around the web, I think many folks could get better reds with the DRebel if they used
longer exposures and higher ISO's.   I typically image 10min exposures and can get usable reds. 
I also often use higher ISO's - I  can get pretty clean results up to
ISO800.  ISO1600 can be useful too, but more images are needed in the stack
to "clean up" the image.  I think many folks just aren't using long enough exposures and/or high enough ISO
settings with the Digital Rebel - it still has alot of potential, even though it is "ha challenged".   

Do you ever image with the 10d anymore? 

-Jake

I took this image last Saturday night.  Conditions were great: good seeing and transparency.  The guider was working great, but my brain wasn't - I forgot about my paracorr until after shooting the images!     So please excuse the coma!

This is 6, 5min images at ISO400 - taken with the digital rebel and my 8" f/5 newt.  Processed in PS.

-Jake

That's fantastic, J-Yves -

It looks like your sky-90 and Ha is a great combo!

-Jake

Ted -

That looks just fantastic!  That is a ton of work, but your efforts
really show in the image.  It has great depth and color - gives
me the feeling I could fall into the image.

I have never done multiple nights on the same object - how do you make sure
the object is centered and oriented the same way as the previous nights?

Great work -

-Jake

You can say that again!  Amazing to think you can capture such detail during a full moon on
such a faint object!  I wasn't able to get half that detail during a new moon in dark sky country.

Superb work as always, Rick.  Your processing brings out tons of subtle shading, and looks very
natural to my eyes.  This is really a wonderful photo!

-Jake

Wow, thanks guys - I guess it is better than I thought.!

I actually didn't expect to have much of an image at all, and was mainly using this as a
test set of exposures just to see how the camera would do on such a faint Ha object. 
I would still like to go back and try this one again.   

I am still suprised at how well the mount/autoguider did since wind gusts were buffeting
the scope pretty good, and I would see the correction numbers jump - but the autoguider
kept on going - it was pretty neat. 

I am still tempted to adjust the histogram to darken the background a little more - I might post a slight
reprocess and see what everyone thinks - I generally have a tendency to overdo that, so I need to be careful.

Ron -

I shot this at my local dark sky site, Mt. Pinos.  Don't give up on your DR - there is plenty of hope for it.
It makes a dandy astro camera, and is capable of capturing many deep sky objects.  Just remember that on
faint Ha objects such as this, it will not do as well as a dedicated astro CCD.  It does much better on galaxies,
clusters, and brighter nebula.  I hope to see some deep sky shots from you soon!

-Jake

Not sure I can offer any tips - it looks great to me!

That is a really interesting looking nebula, and is nicely framed.  Do you know if it is
visible visually?

-Jake