Major upgrade - Phase two - Takahashi SKY-90

Here's my new wide field scope, the Takahashi SKY-90.

I'm not going to do an in-depth review here, just some general observations.

Great service from Green Witch, good price as well as it came with the clamp, which is important for balancing. If you're going to spend a couple thousand you want the right stuff.

It was well packed in a triple boxed box. Although Green Witch did inspect it before sending it out.

First impressions out of the box... wow! This is a class act!. It feels really well made. I'm scared to touch it. The adjustments are so smooth and the fits are perfect.

I managed to bolt the clamp to my spare AS-GT small dovetail bar and stick it on the mount. There seems plenty of room for balancing once a DSLR camera is slung on the end, it feels just right.

Shame its cloudy tonight, although I did have a quick look at next doors TV aerial... and very interesting it was too.

Saturn & Titan - 20th April 2009.

Average to fair seeing, 4 x Imagemate LRGB.

Saturn & moons.

Bad seeing again, C9.25 @ prime focus, red filter, DMK.
Left to right; Enceladus 11.9 mag, (Saturn) Rhea 9.9 mag, Titan 8.5 mag.

Closer with a 2.5x Powermate.

M3 re-processed.

Re-processed today with a bit more colour in the stars.
BTW this was taken with my C9.25 and f/6.3 reducer.

... and with diffraction spikes.

Quick test of Canon 50D with M3.

Just a quick test tonight, M3 - 8 x 15sec frames @1600ISO, unguided.
(I was going to image Saturn with the DMK but the seeing wasn't up to it).
The battery was getting low so I only managed 3 darks, bias and flats. AC adapter is on its way.

Dramatic sky for Canon 50D.

A 4 image mosaic processed in CS4.

Canon 50D noise vs 400D.

Not a very scientific test here.

I took one 30 second dark frame on the 400D @ 1600ISO RAW and the same on the 50D @ RAW, SRAW1 and SRAW2.

Here are the results after running them through the Canon DPP program, adjusting the exposure up to full and the top curves to 100 brightness, 87 contrast to show the noise. I then reduced the file size in saving, (which did affect the images a small amount by introduced blotches in the 50D shots).

Canon 400D, 1600 ISO, RAW, 30 Seconds. (see the internal amplifier glow in the bottom right).

Canon 50D, 1600 ISO, SRAW2, 30 Seconds.

Canon 50D, 1600 ISO, SRAW1, 30 Seconds.

Canon 50D, 1600 ISO, RAW, 30 Seconds.

Major upgrade - Phase one - Canon EOS 50D

As part of the 'Major upgrade' I upgraded my Canon 400D today for a Canon 50D. Very similar to a 40D, just newer with a few changes. I won't get into whether it's better than a 40D (I've seen many an argument on forums), but it's a step upgrade from my 400D.

Cayley Plains again.

The seeing was not very good today, a lot of shimmering, but here is the Apollo 16 landing site again 24 hours later. You can just about make out the white deposits from South Ray crater.

The white smudge just below the centre of the image.

Below is a panorama that I've produced from images taken by the Apollo 16 crew of South Ray crater. Credit ALSJ

Who's Idea was it not to visit this crater?

Don't forget this... 100 hours of astronomy.

100 Hours of Astronomy is a global astronomy event from 2 to 5 April when you can discover the Universe with the rest of the world! A project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

Saturn re-processed from 14th Feb 2009.

I thought that I'd have a go at re-processing my Saturn from Feb. with 1.5 x re-sampling in Registax 5.0 and a different colour balance in CS4.

Quietest Sun seen in almost a century.

There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days.
Although sunspot counts will pick up again soon, "possibly by the end of the year," to be followed by a solar maximum of below-average intensity in 2012 or 2013.

Credit NASA

Apollo 16 landing site.

The Cayley plains is just left of centre. The Apollo landing site is almost dead centre. Just in between the gap of those mountains.
This is a 4 image mosaic, taken with C9.25, 2.5 x TV Powermate, red filter and DMK21AF04AS. Processed in Registax 5 and CS4.
The seeing was average.
I went out the night before to collimate the scope after all the fun and games with the secondary mirror and guess what? it didn't need any :-0

4 x Imagemate frame:-

Here is a reference image from Clementine data:-

... and a view from the ground:-

Link to large mapping camera image AS16-M-0162.

Secondary mirror problem.

Hmmm... I had a problem with my secondary mirror on my C9.25 last night.
I went to collimate and found that the whole secondary mirror assembly rotated!!
Oh my gawd!
This is not very good for collimating, because I know that the mirror has to be in a particular position in respect to everything else on the scope.
I posted a message onto the Cloudy Nights "Cats & Casses" asking for help, and got a reply back straight away from 'Uncle Rod Mollise' telling me how to take the corrector plate off to tighten the assembly. Thanks Rod.
Sleeping on it though I thought I'd have a go another way.
I thought that if I could pull on the assembly whilst turning it in a clockwise direction, it might just catch enough to tighten... and guess what? bingo! it worked.
Phew!
All I had to do was make sure that the assembly was aligned correctly and I would be back in action. I just need to re-collimate ;-)

Here's a picture that I took a couple of years ago showing the correct orientation with respect to Bob's Knobs (NB. I think the indent positions pertain to my scope only, looking at pictures of other scopes, the positions vary):-


Corrector plate removal instructions. (In an emergency do not break glass)

1. The corrector must go back on in the same rotational orientation as before USUALLY the small, engraved serial number on the corrector goes to three o'clock. Maintain the original orientation of the secondary holder.

2. If there are shims present around the edge of the corrector, these must be replaced in their original positions--mark 'em.

3. When you are done, do not tighten the corrector retaining ring too tight--just finger tight.

4. DON'T BREAK THE CORRECTOR AND DON'T DAMAGE THE SURFACE OF THE SECONDARY!

Blast from the past - Clavius 20th Sept 2008

Going through some of my old files, I found this Clavius from last year that I've never processed.

New Moon 27th March 2009

Managed to capture this new Moon just before the clouds caught it.
85mm Canon EOS 400D, 400 ISO.

Venus 18th March 2009

Here's one that was taken the other day, that I've only just got round to processing.
Probably the last Venus, this side of the Sun for this year.

Saturn & Titan 20th March 2009.

Transparency wasn't very good tonight, so I thought I'd image Saturn and Titan at rather a high gain for the DMK, (because of the low light level).

Saturn 18th March 2009.

Here's an animation of the storm on Saturn. This time it isn't a Moon.
The timestamp was 21:36 to 23:14 UT

Below is an L-RGB image taken at the start of the session.

Saturn 18th March 2009.

Above average seeing tonight, this is a quick process of more to come.

Amazing Hubble Saturn images.

Quad transit of Saturn's Moons.

Credit Hubble.

Saturn 15th March.

Venus 16th March 2009

Getting slimmer.

OT: White Horse Hill.

Here's a panorama taken from Dragon Hill just below the White Horse, which is just up the road from us.
Larger version here.

Below is the Google Earth view.
Which to my brain shows the opposite relief than what is intended, just like craters that turn into domes on the Moon.

Venus 14th March 2009.

Wow! that was tricky to find in the glare of the Sun even with my scopes GOTO. It doesn't help that my finder scope is slightly out of focus to my eyes and not adjustable.

Saturn 10th March 2009.

Couldn't get very good colours tonight, very odd.
The seeing was average again.

Luminance channel.

Venus - 8th March 2009.

Again it looks really nice in the EP against a blue background, huge!

The Moons Northern region - 5th March 2009

Here is a view taken from NASA World Wind Clementine data of around the corner.

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel - 5th March 2009

Copernicus and ejector - 5th March 2009

9 image mosaic. C9.25, 2.5 x TV Powermate, red filter. Best 350 from 1000 frames, processed in Registax 5 Beta and Adobe Photoshop.

Orions Sword & Belt.

Taken with my Canon 400D and 85mm lens, piggy backed onto my C9.25 mount.

Plato in shadow and the Alpine Valley.

Venus 4th March 2009.

Dashed out in between the rain to catch this.
The seeing wasn't up to much and Venus is getting really low in the sky now (so there's lots of rubbish to see through). I thought I'd play around with the DMK camera Gamma settings to see if I could bring out a bit more of the crescent.

Saturn 1st March 2009.

Another night of poor seeing, was clear though ;-)