First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

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gabrieli
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First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by gabrieli »

This first session in mediocre seeing was a good chance to refine some mechanical issues with this setup. I decided to use only the 250 mm Daystar ERF since that is the unknown quantity compared to the Aries 265 ERF which Valery has demonstrated so effectively on this forum.

There were some minor changes to the C9.25 tube. I replaced the original handle at bottom rear with a larger one at the top side. I found the original handle’s position would make the tube “yaw” when being carried. The new handle gives the tube a more stable feeling when carried with one hand under the front cell.
erf.JPG
erf.JPG (3.75 MiB) Viewed 1492 times
I made the finder into a pinhole sighting device with a translucent plastic disc at the eyepiece end
for fast disc location.
finder.JPG
finder.JPG (800.98 KiB) Viewed 1492 times
I also decided some time ago that the filter housing should be braced against the front cell of the scope at opposite sides of the cell.
brace.JPG
brace.JPG (2.44 MiB) Viewed 1492 times

The next image shows the “in focus” extension at the scope's back end at 4600mm.
whole.JPG
whole.JPG (1.38 MiB) Viewed 1492 times
back end.JPG
back end.JPG (1.07 MiB) Viewed 1492 times

The images cry out for a more narrow bandwidth and require more processing to bring out contrast.
A lot of rapid transient detail is visible in the image when gamma is set to “0” with some very fast shutter speeds 5 - 9 ms for surface features. This setup included a 2X Powermate for a focal length of 4600 mm.
29wc.jpg
29wc.jpg (672.65 KiB) Viewed 1492 times

Better seeing will certainly be necessary to extract finer quality images at full aperture but in mediocre seeing I’ll make an 8” mask for this scope for less than ideal conditions (most of the time). I also will try the PST module in the near future.


Lou


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm on C9.25

Post by ffellah »

Very nice first result with your new set-up.

Franco


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by Carbon60 »

Shows lots of promise as this is a good first light image.

Nice.

Stu.


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by marktownley »

Nice setup and interesting results! Jolly good idea with the belt and braces fixing approach with the cell on the OTA. A couple of things from experience, get some opaque tape around the flange opening on the filter tilter, it will be letting in light atm and reducing contrast a bit, also explore the different settings on the quark, you look to be off band to me, with a 2x telecentric you will be somewhere blue side of the centreline, so, try a few more notches clockwise. Apart from that the image seems typical of the sort of thing I get with the HaT when the seeing isn't playing ball.


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by nickatnight »

That's an excellent first light! Love the setup. Your bracing makes me feel ashamed. I've been using Gorilla Tape to help secure the cell on my scope. Boy am I ghetto. I think I'm going to upgrade to velcro sometime soon.


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by marktownley »

nickatnight wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:04 am Your bracing makes me feel ashamed. I've been using Gorilla Tape to help secure the cell on my scope. Boy am I ghetto. I think I'm going to upgrade to velcro sometime soon.
Ha ha! You sound like me Nick, the next thing you'll go the whole way and use some cable ties also ;)


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by Derek Klepp »

Lou looks promising and thanks for the detailed setup pics.


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by gabrieli »

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone.
Mark: I'll try another tilter next time (Daystar Interference Eliminator) that has no air gap when secured (rotates along a spherical path).
I'll also play with the tuning settings on the Quark and use a 2.5X Powermate as well.

Lou


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Re: First light with Daystar 250mm ERF on C9.25

Post by edobosz »

Looks like a nice setup. Wish you all the best seeing to take advantage of the resolution.
Ted


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