Just got hold of a Williams Optics Reducer IV and was keen to try it out last night. Quite pleased with it although it took some fiddling to get the CCD to lens distance right. I calculate it turns my Meade 127 from f7.5 to f5.5
CLS CCD filter
Unguided
180secs x 20
QSI 583 binned 2x2
Processed in Maxim
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8535/8667020997_1074be6471_b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21876521@N03/8667020997/)
M101 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21876521@N03/8667020997/) by jim_mehta (http://www.flickr.com/people/21876521@N03/), on Flickr
Very nice Jim
That looks promising Jim from Orpington, just wondering why the last few images you have posted have been unguided.
Carole
Hi Carole, I have an encoder on the mount that keeps the tracking accurate so provided I do a good polar align I can get away with 3 min subs unguided. I made a mistake on my calculations though, the reducer is taking me down to f6.2 (not f5.5!) Still worthwhile though.
That's a great image Jim. The arms of M101 are notoriously faint and difficult to image but you have succeeded well there.
I think the background ia just a tad too black for my liking. However the stars are nice and sharp though with possibly a very slight elongation vertically. The focal reducer seems to be working well.
Nice one!
Mark
Looking very good Jim for unguided image - as Mark says background is too black. Nice wide field & like the galaxy bottom left... Nice - John
well done jim. galaxy with moon around as well
Thanks. Yes agree about the background, I have a tendency to over do it. First time I've tried 2 x 2 binning and quite pleased with it. Considering the seeing conditions in Orpington at 1 x1 I'm doing 1.41 arcsec/pixel which is really oversampling. At 2 x 2 it's 2.82 arcsec/pixel which is more appropriate and coupled with a wider field and the CLS filter hopefully means I can do some more targets at home.