First Light with WO ZS 66 APO

[Mike]

My first image since 25th October 2005 !!!! (not entirely true i've done a few since but they have all been disasters due to various gremlins).

Went out last night to test the new scope. Wasted over an hour trying to get the GoTo to work. For some strange reason it was only after putting the time in UTC instead of BST that it worked, despite the "Daylight Savings?" option.

Anyway, finally managed to get it to point at the right things and did a few tests shots then went for some longer shots. The transparency was not good last night which meant the images are a bit noisy. I also didn't do any dark frames. Also it was a very light sky all night, almost like a sky during a full moon. There is a very slight distortion at the corners, but it's hardly noticeable.

Found the scope to be nice to work with. The 1:10 focusser makes getting that precise focus nice and easy. Would have liked 2 screws to hold the filter wheel in place instead of just one. One isn't sturdy enough really and there was slight flexure in the nose of the filter wheel but it is unlikely to pose any problems.

The ability to rotate the entire rear end of the scope once the filter wheel and camera are attached was a blessing. It made composing the vdb142 shot a breeze.

Here is a quick test shot plus the two longest shots I did (I did a few others and discarded them), both are half an hour (6x5m) in Ha. IC1396 "The Elephant's Trunk" is a very dim object that I would like to revisit. I think it needs around 2 hours in Ha as a minimum. It would be nice to do in the winter in narrowband and perhaps do it over several nights and get about 4-5 hours per filter.

Anyway, here you go......... (Links to full sized images also included)


M57 - The Ring Nebula - Planetary Nebula in Lyra
60 second test shot to show the Field of View of the ZS66 - First light!





NGC7000 - The North American Nebula - Diffuse Nebula in Cygnus - 30 mins in Ha (6 x 5 mins)



Click here for full sized image - http://amateur-astronomy.org/images/NGC7000Ha20060622Large.jpg


IC1396 (vdb142) - The Elephant's Trunk - Dark Nebula in IC1396. IC1396, a large emission nebula in Cepheus, in which the Elephant's Trunk is embedded is huge. It is approx. 135 x 165 arcminutes across (one for the D70 one night I think) - 30 mins in Ha (6 x 5 mins)



Click here for full sized image - http://amateur-astronomy.org/images/IC1396Ha20060622Large.jpg

[Fay]

Mike,

Your images are super, really clear. You should be pleased with them.

Fay

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi, for test images there pretty good I'd be happy with them.  I did notice that the field is not flat and maybe that will be an issue if you get the Nikon on it, or John with his EOS.

If I get a change I'll do the elephant trunk with the ED80 and an Astro Physics .67 reducer and see whats its like because it will be within 20mm of the focal length on the ZS.

But it is at least nice to see you got out, see you later.

[Mike]

Yeah the field isn't competely flat,  but it is only right at the edges that it becomes noticable. I am going to test Tony's focal reducer tomorrow and presuming it fits, etc. (and we have a clear sky) I will see what it looks like with that on. I was going to test the Nikon last night but couldn't find the adaptor, then it showed up right were I looked several times before; AFTER I had packed away !

Yeah i'm pleased I got out too. It has been a long time since I have had the time to do some imaging, especially during the week. I look forward to doing some LRGB and narrowband work with it.

[JohnP]

Hi Mike,

Very impressive first light images.. Like I said last night I want to give the NAmerican ago with my EOS & a Ha filter through the ZS66 - Now that I have guiding sorted I hope to be able to try some reasonably long exposures. Vigneting will be an issue though because I'll be using 1 1/4 inch filters etc. I can't afford the luxury of a 2-inch Ha.

I've noticed that the field isn't perfectly flat as well - I'll be interested to hear how you make out with Tony's focal reducer.

Good to see from images from you at last... Long may they continue - lets have more.......


Cheers,  John

[Whitters]

Nice images Mike, that is a very nice scope.

[Rocket Pooch]

Mike,

I had a play with the JPG (FIT would have been better) and tweaked it a little.  If these images are a little bright its because my monitor has not been calibrated.




I'll do another workshop on Photoshop processing so you can see how to get the detail out of DSO objects.

[JohnP]

Like Wow...! Don't know what you did Chris but I would have to say that these two images rank as the best ever submitted to OAS... Need some colour now.

John

[Mike]

Wow! Nice one Chris ! You will have to let me know how you did that !

[Rocket Pooch]

I took the high res images and software binned them 2x2 in AIP, then exported them as BMP to PS8.

I then adjusted the levels to get the dark and light bits about right.

I created a duplicated layer.

I applied a High Pass filter (would also work with un-sharp mask) to the image.

I flattened the image.

Applied a slight unsharp mask for the finer detail.

I then removed noise using Dust and Scratched at 16%, using Fade under edit in PS.

And saved it as a JPG again.

[Tony G]

Is that all,
in future i'll send all my images to you so you can do the same, even the holiday snaps

Tony G

[Fay]

Chris,

I nearly fainted when I saw how great Mike's images came up!
Please have a Photoshop training evening, I missed the last one.

Fay

[Whitters]

Sounds like a great idea if you are up for it Chris.

[Mike]

Chris - How about making the members evening in August a photoshop processing talk ?

[Rocket Pooch]

Err with Greg in the audiance? I'm not sure I'm as good as that?

But if he promisses not he heckle I'll give it a go, but some of the processing was done in AIP not PhotoShop, having said that IRIS does the same thing and thats free.