Ad Astra Observatory

>I keep making attempts at narrowband imaging, but I haven’t been able to
>make it stick yet; one downside to a DSLR is that you need 2” accessories,
>and finding a filter wheel or similar for 2” filters is almost impossible.

>The “wheel” part is not really what I’m interested in; I mostly don’t want
>to have to remove and reframe in between shots. My processing software
>isn’t up to the task of de-rotating when I inevitably pop the camera back
>in askew.

I’ve seen some pretty decent H-alpha images down with DSLRs, but I kinda

wonder about the practicality of doing narrow band imaging with a color
camera. Seems like efficiency would fall way off, compared to a monochrome
CCD. Still, like I said, I have seen some really nice wide field images
done with a 13nm Ha filter. And, I’m big on working with what you have in
hand.

>Richard Crisp (who lives in Castro Valley) gets some insane photos despite
>his suburban location. Of course, his equipment is top-notch. But getting
>rid of light pollution doesn’t seem to be a problem when you’re grabbing

>light in 3nm swathes. (:

Yeah, Richard’s stuff is pretty inspirational. Definitely got to love
narrow band imaging……even on those moon lit nights when others are in
watching sitcoms.

>Honestly, for lunar/planetary, you could probably mount that monster OTA
>on the GM-8. You don’t really have to worry about tracking accuracy all

>that much, and although the GM-8 would probably complain about it, I’m
>sure it could keep Saturn in the FOV for long enough to grab several
>thousand frames of it, especially at 30-60fps.

Well, actually, the GM8 is rated at about 20 pounds capacity, a bit more if
it is a compact load. The Cave OTA weighs more than 40 pounds — thick
wall fiberglass tube with heavy duty rotating rings. In truth, the Astrola
mount is pretty adequate for lunar and planetary…..with a bit of patience.

>did Atik and Artemis merge in some way? I noticed that the Atik 16 has a
>very particular looking case on it.

Yeah, the Atik ATK-16 and ATK-16HR use the Artemis camera electronics and
hardware, but are produced in Portugal. The HR model with the 285 CCD is
pretty popular and has a pretty good performance track record. Will
probably be my next CCD camera. The down side is the 285 CCD is not as
sensitive to H-alpha compared to the ATK-16.

Cheers,

Jim
Livermore