Spent half an hour polar aligning with ASIAir.
And then took some images with my Canon 200mm f2.8 wide open, stacked some 30s, 120s and 160s shots automatically by the ASIAir, no dark no bias, unguided. Some of the shots were damaged by dew.
Just a test shot.
I forgot that I have tested the 8" SCT amd I pulled out my 85ED to test.
I would say it's rock solid, focusing is easy.
But the cleaning job of the 120mc was not very successful, patches of dust could be seen everywhere. This aging camera is only USB 2.0, leaving a lot to be desired.
I shall play some DSLR deep sky wide field shots, leave planet and lunar imaging aside first, since I felt myself bitten by the equipment bug again, it's not healthy.
Time to give a pause.
I have got a much bigger tripod since the old one is too light and thin, it even falls down twice!
Got a clear sky briefly tonight after much rain, but it's still windy, so it's a test of the stability of the setup rather than an imaging session.
I have slewed the Meade 8" SCT around, and the setup remained stable, no sign of tipping over. I won't say it's rock solid, but it's definitely a stable setup. Good enough for manual focusing, but of course, the resuilt tonight is not good enough, most likely due to the wind.
Take at prime focus, I didn't pull out any barlows for it does not make sense under such wind!
The tripod is inadequate for the 8" SCT, so I went back to the 85mm ED scope.
Focusing is still a bit hard, but not impossible, so the result is better than before. Will keep trying...
I got a iOptron HEM15, mounted on Meade 8" SCT on it but my tripod was not doing well. In order to prevent it from tip over, I spreaded the leg but it introduces even more vibration. Accurate focus is difficult if not impossible.
Just to keep the results, all out of focus apparently:
Shall try again soon, maybe try a smaller scope first, and then move to the 8" SCT again later when I got a better tripod.
A failed observation, very sad:
Some shots taken with my Canon 100-400mm:
Carefully aligned the corrector again, recheck collimation, windy night but far better result.
I will certainly spent more time on exercising the technique.
I did collimation around a month ago:
2005 and 2006 (GMT+1), seeing rather bad since Jupiter was still quite low.
I could see low frequency seeing disturbance even at 50x.
Anyway, it's enjoyable to resume bigger aperture imaging after all those years, something like 20 years ago!
Catching the last dose of summer.
1313 (UT+1), with reducer:
My 8" white light filter arrived, but the collimation seems no good, all images failed badly.
1036 (UT+1):
Switch back to my H-alpha setup:
The Sun is very active today.
1106 (UT+1), taken with a reducer:
Really need to fine tune the collimation of the 8" SCT, I did try before but it seems not going well.
First Jupiter shot of the Meade 8" SCT
Just an exercise, and to try out the flip mirror.
This is my new setup, the small chair and bench were both DIY projectors, they're helpful as some astronomy equipment too!
Close up with 2x Barlows:
Mosaic of two frames:
I made a solar finder and this is the first trial, much quicker and simple to use, no need to crank my neck and to stand the glare of the bright sun.
1520 GMT+1, this is a failed shot, couldn't be stacked in avistack but asivideostack managed to do it partially.
Finally push up the exposure, 1527 (GMT+1):
Cloud moving around, can't really make any decent image, just a record.
1048 and 1050 (GMT+1), Ranger at prime focus, Solarmax 60 with BF10, ASI 290mm
1229 (GMT+1), exposure pushed up to show prominences better, taken with 2x barlows:-
1226 (GMT+1), AR3310 taken with 2x Barlows:-
1223 (GMT+1), taken with reducer, slightly drifting to allow full disc after stacking:-
1122 (GMT+1), taken with reducer:
I'm glad to announce that my BF10 was repaired successfully!
In business again!
Scanning around the web, and found some other possible solutions. Better yet, they might offer better solution than Meade, which will get rust over time again.
Send an email to https://beloptik.de/, got a slow but positive response. The cost is slightly lower, and I don't have to send my BF10 there. That possibly account for the price difference, since I'll have to replace that ITF myself. But it seems not too hard.
Good me luck, I really want to resume H-alpha imaging.
Actually, |I don't have to process this image but since it might well be my very last shot, why not just keep it as a record?
The view is very great with my eyes, just very bad with the camera, guess what.
The exposure had to be very long, I believe my blocking filter has heavy rust.
Naked eye view tends to be a bit too bright for H-alpha, but then it's prettty dim now. Therefore, it's still good enough for the eye, but it's already too dim for a cmaera.
I have sent email to Meade to see if they can help, but the chance probably slim.\
I would keep the filter for visual observation, and it still works out great.
I might sell the azgti mount, for it's more liike for imaging the sun., maybe selling that ASI too.
