©2008 Richard Murray
Notes: Here's a couple of unprocessed test images I took last night with my new 66mm Doublet APO. I was having trouble achieving focus until I put a 20mm extender in the optical chain which finally did the job.
What I like about these images is the wider field of view, but most important the stars are nice and round right to the edges of the image. So there's no dreaded vignetting going on. Also because of the short focal length (about F4.7 with the 0.8focal reducer) the ccd exposure times can be shorter. The left image was taken with an Ha filter for 4 minutes and the right image with a red filter for 3 minutes.
More images soon . . . .
Date(s): 8-20-09
Object(s): IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula in Cepheus and M31 the Andromeda Galaxy in Andromeda
Telescope: Megrez 66mm SD Doublet APO, WO 0.8 FR/FF
Mount: LX90
Camera: Atik 16hr
Guiding: Lx90 8" SCT, DSI Pro, Phd Guiding
Filters: Ha 6nm, Red
Exposure: 240 sec Ha, 180 sec Red, Binning 2x2
Processing: CCDStack - Quick DDP
Location: Burke Ave. Observatory, Three Rivers, Michigan
