Ritchey–Chrétien enjoyers thread

[harsh matrix]

my god

whoa

dude

i need to shoot bubble neb too

smh

that is not blurx'd

rip

okay yeah i agree with you

i think it is pinched optics

the stars have gone full triangle mode now

💀

[crisp flower]

Xddd

[frosty shard]

did someone say GREEN

[harsh matrix]

no

my internet has gone turbo poop speed

notice the glorious lack of flats based artifacts

[frosty shard]

i hate you

[harsh matrix]

I have yet to try broadband

i cant speak too much on it lol

what i can tell you is the flats for Sii and Ha look sketchy

here's Sii because it's more exaggerated.

there's ringing around the center of the frame

[frosty shard]

Way, way better than any flat I've ever taken at least lol

[harsh matrix]

i think this could be part of why my flats dont correct the corners with a reducer

[harsh matrix]

LOL

this was done with my flat panel too

which means i am even more surprised that it worked

part of me feels like I am looking at a Hubble image

this thing is so small in most telescopes too

i never thought i could pull it up this close, and still see an incredible amount of detail

bruh i hope the H-alpha from tonight is enough because i want to go all in on Sii and Oiii already, i am excited

[frosty shard]

I've never noticed that loop in the Fish Head

[harsh matrix]

wait you mean the big dark arc across the top?

[frosty shard]

This thing

it's almost like a solar prominence

[harsh matrix]

ah

[tight lodge]

But, but... short focal length and large sensor formats = sharpness

[harsh matrix]

yeah i hadnt noticed a lot in this image before

that included

[tight lodge]

Where were you yesterday when the nerds were fighting about weather you're sharper at low focal length or high focal length

[harsh matrix]

but it shows up in subs so i saw it right away lmfao

[harsh matrix]

LOL

ngl anyone saying youre sharper at shorter focal length is wrong in a resolution sense

[tight lodge]

Yep

[harsh matrix]

all of the little micro structures in here will not be visible in what my redcat images for instance

yet that 250 mm ballpark is widely considered to be very "sharp"

[frosty shard]

You're back. Wanna see what I think is causing my flats problem?

[harsh matrix]

btw this is some kind of big bok globule or elephant trunk structure

[tight lodge]

What is it?

[frosty shard]

It's my M56 to M54 adapter, which has a glossy finish internally

[tight lodge]

Wanna know a trick on how to fix that?

[frosty shard]

Get a different adapter?

[tight lodge]

No

[tight lodge]

Wire harness tape

My focuser draw tube is flocked with that

[frosty shard]

That's actually brilliant

[tight lodge]

You're welcome

[frosty shard]

I sent a message to High Point about the adapter since it's just badly designed

[tight lodge]

Also... I just realized the extremity of our pfps

[frosty shard]

U rite

[harsh matrix]

this thing looks insane

I am glad I waited until I had another 4" of telescope to work with

jfc

I think I see a herbig haro object and a bok globule here

[high aspen]

mines worse dw

[high aspen]

was this with an rc w-out the reducer?

[high aspen]

[tight lodge]

Tonight I might be lucky and I can image

Quick question. Do I get about 3h of RGB on M31 oooor... do some NB on anything else

[tidal hearth]

M31 Ha

Like me later

[tight lodge]

already did

[tidal hearth]

I wonder what m31 looks like in sho

Hso*

U dont need more then 25…

[tight lodge]

the infill is 20%, but the part is so thin that the walls mesh together so, might as well call it 100% 😄

[tight lodge]

This should reduce the Dew issues right?

[high aspen]

setting it on fire will

[high aspen]

that scope looks very astrograph

[tight lodge]

well... it's onlt able to be used for imaging. so that does make it an astrograph

[high aspen]

wha

how it not able to be visual use?

other than ig the focuser got an af

[tight lodge]

it can not reach focus with eyepieces

[high aspen]

a

how did you do that?

cc?

[tight lodge]

shorter focuser drawtube so i have less protrusion in the tube... that however gives me just enough focuser travel to run AF but it does not have the range for what eyepieces require

[high aspen]

ah

[frosty shard]

There is one correct answer, and it's not the Newtonian.

[high aspen]

lightweight ✅

long focal length ✅

sharp ✅

[frosty shard]

I was joking at first and then I realized the 10" Newt is gonna have significantly higher mounting demands

[high aspen]

its over 13kg 😭

i would get an 8" but not a 6"

[frosty shard]

RC? Or Newt?

[high aspen]

rc

[frosty shard]

I think the 8" is absolutely worth holding off for

[high aspen]

what you mean?

[frosty shard]

The optical prescription is better, especially if you want to do visual

[high aspen]

ah

[frosty shard]

Smaller CO and faster focal ratio

[high aspen]

i couldnt tell if you were saying to get or not to get 😭

[frosty shard]

Do you want an OTA that'll do visual?

[high aspen]

nah

i dont really care about visual

[frosty shard]

Well it's an option with any RC. Some imaging Newtonians are also capable of visual use, but it's a bit more complicated

Mostly with eyepiece positioning, which can be awkward

[high aspen]

yea, some dont wanna reach focus

or too fast for a sharp image

[frosty shard]

This is just referring to the ones that are capable of being used visually

[frosty shard]

You can still use a coma corrector with your eyepiece

[high aspen]

ya ik

[frosty shard]

Newts are going to be a better choice for comet hunters tbh, unless you have a truly massive sensor and field flattener to pair with your RC

I would love to get a Mak-Newt someday

[high aspen]

get 2 medium formats and glue them togetherr

[frosty shard]

I doubt it'll be able to evenly illuminate one, full frame is the max GSO RCs are designed for

[tight lodge]

On that one I will have to contradict you. The 10" Newton is gonna mop the floor with that poor 6" RC

[frosty shard]

In terms of light gathering, of course. But is it practical to mount

[tight lodge]

To that mount? No. To ours? Like a glove

[frosty shard]

I would need a counterweight, but yeah

I'd probably want to permanently mount anything past 10" though

[tight lodge]

I still don't understand why you're not using one

[frosty shard]

My guiding's plenty good without it

I'm limited primarily by sky quality

And I transport my rig without a car most of the time, so keeping everything light is a huge priority

[tight lodge]

11lbs extra😭

[high aspen]

attach one of those lenses people use to enlarge fim images

you could defo use it for that perpose

[harsh matrix]

Thats why I want to create a brain child 10" f/5 based newt

I have the EQ6R that doesnt seem to care what's on it

[harsh matrix]

yo @frosty shard I just blinked last night's subs and noticed some super weird stuff

so if you remember, the stars looked like triangles

um

it very well could have been some slow moving air currents

i dont know how or why

what's interesting is the shape of the stars change at the same time the flaring on them changes, and the distortion "rotates" with the direction the flaring moves in

this has to be the weirdest thing ive ever seen

it very much looks like a heat plume of some sort, especially because it very slowly moves throughout the course of the night

[frosty shard]

I assume you saw big changes at the meridian flip?

It's likely tube currents, but perhaps not if they stay constant all night

[harsh matrix]

Yeah the distortions to the stars flipped with the scope flip

The tube current thing kept moving in the same direction after the flip

[harsh matrix]

Nah the thing is, is it wasnt constant

It was evolving as the night progressed

That's by far the most convinced ive been of experiencing tube currents.

[harsh matrix]

@frosty shard you should shoot fish head

2.33" FWHM for the whole frame and 2.21" for a 2500 x 2500 pixel box in the center

[frosty shard]

I would, if there weren't clouds everywhere...

[harsh matrix]

man

fire them

[frosty shard]

I wanted to pull the RC out tonight for Halloween outreach but nope :(

[harsh matrix]

yeah i wanted to shoot tonight

got scrud

ye we got no tilt

point of interest

will be monitoring this particular spot while i get more data

i dunno what channel it is in

but it looked like there was a Herbig Haro object at the tip of the spire on that mountain to the left

i feel like i unlocked the full power of this scope

the only downside is i need more integration time

[frosty shard]

You know I actually might shoot the core or the cusp of the Heart instead since you got the Fish Head

[harsh matrix]

holy flippin balls

[harsh matrix]

do it

do it do it do it

your seeing is about on par with mine

that will be nuts

i always wanted to image that part

good god

no blurx!

I think there's a bow shock on the star

I wonder how many other people have captured this specific detail

tons of little things starting to come out now

full SHO mode

okay not quite lol

[frosty shard]

Preliminary framing

[harsh matrix]

[frosty shard]

I can't shoot broadband with my current adapter but I can definitely try narrowband

[frosty shard]

@harsh matrix HPS got back to me. I have no idea how this tech found my flats to be clipped...

They're definitely not, I looked over all of them

[harsh matrix]

uhhhhhh

[frosty shard]

That has to be a post-stretch histogram

[harsh matrix]

can you drop one of them into siril or gimp or something

and look at the histogram

because i am thinking what you are thinking i think

i think they tampered with them

[harsh matrix]

yeah

I uh

I think they tampered with them

i would send that screenshot right away

[frosty shard]

I realized I sent him a bad example of an affected image though; I sent the recent NGC 2403 data when I should have sent the full moon IC 342 mosaic attempt first. This makes it very obvious something is wrong

[frosty shard]

Already did that

[harsh matrix]

yeah send that

[frosty shard]

That's included too

[harsh matrix]

although you probably already have

yeah

[frosty shard]

Hopefully Apertura/the OEM revises those adapters to have a suitable finish

I think they sent out upgrade kits to CarbonStar 150 users at no cost (to address some design deficiencies)

[harsh matrix]

I may see the herbig haro still

potential

i dont have enough data to tell if it's the tip of the spire getting illuminated or if the line is 2 jets

[harsh matrix]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/975845011260309587/1434069959931199570/Fish_Head_Day4.png?ex=6906fd3a&is=6905abba&hm=3bbbd2ed9f12c475867541e4031458c3b6ba04f6032091969ac032206b842972&

[frosty shard]

The color variety is fantastic

I don't often see those deep blues in SHO

[harsh matrix]

yuuuuuuup

[harsh matrix]

fr

this fish head will be a banger because of how colorful it is

also, redcat shot this at the same time as the RC8 was doing fish head

first night out with the second rig running

it's almost 2 hours per channel, 10 minute exposures

with the redcat

the dang thing is so sharp that a lot of stars just look like overly bright noise 💀

[frosty shard]

MSGR reference?

I mean it's an image in its own right but I figure it's good material for that

[harsh matrix]

I could

[tight lodge]

Lesson learned... do not image during Halloween

[quartz meadow]

ummm fireworks?

[tight lodge]

Wind

[quartz meadow]

oof

[tight lodge]

Ugh... with that guiding... and for only 6min 30s of integration... i think is alright

[high aspen]

why dust scared of the spikes

[tight lodge]

Because fat secondary spider

[high aspen]

chonk

[high aspen]

is pleebees best shot broadband?

[tight lodge]

Yes. Is a broadband target😅

[high aspen]

thought so

[quartz meadow]

you can shoot Ha on it tho if you either want to put a lot of effort into it or have really really dark skies

[high aspen]

what the 😭

[silver ibex]

And to think that there's people that remove the magenta stars... look how nicely they fit SHO

[harsh matrix]

@silver ibex

[high aspen]

[tall summit]

Finally got a dew shield for my setup! It was out of stock forever

[frosty shard]

Do you need one?

[tall summit]

Not for a dew really, more for a stray light

@frosty shard my neighbour's backyard lights are pretty rough

[frosty shard]

@tall summit unrelated, are you using any of the M56 adapters that came with the scope?

[tall summit]

Not at the moment, rn my cam is attached to a reducer. But I was when I was shooting at native FL

@frosty shard you mean these right?

[frosty shard]

Yup

They're glossy on the inside right

That's been ruining all of my flat frames

[tall summit]

I guess, somewhat

[tall summit]

Its not smooth though, it has a sorf of microthreding machining

[frosty shard]

That reflection is causing my flats to overcorrect

[tall summit]

This sort of looks like compression ring reflection

[frosty shard]

Idk if Apertura changed the design between when we got the scope

There are no compression rings in my setup

the gap is due to my OAG

[tall summit]

Gotcha

I had a baffle issue with mine

Had to get extension

[frosty shard]

I was so worried my baffles were bad

[tall summit]

Highpoint scoentific actually went above and beyound on that

Did a ray tracing and 3d printed test baffles etc, just off of my support ticket

[frosty shard]

I did sent HPS a support ticket on the adapters because that is a design flaw, they really should be matte on the inside. Hopefully a revised version comes out

[tall summit]

I wasnt even the original owner who bought it from them, their warranty is solid

[tall summit]

Have you tried blacking it out with some black matte paint?

[frosty shard]

@tight lodge suggested using wire harness tape for flocking

[tight lodge]

It works amazing. I use it for the interior of the focuser draw tube and some annoying shiny screws around the sensor

[frosty shard]

I could also try the M56 to M48 adapter with my OAG's M48 to M54 adapter to see if it's able to block out some of the light

It might cause a little more vignetting but the 533 is small enough that it shouldn't matter

[tall summit]

Is there a link?

[tight lodge]

You can just search cloth wire harness tape on Amazon and you find what you need😅

[vapid patio]

@harsh matrix hows it going

[frosty shard]

@tight lodge I flocked the inside of my adapter with felt and that seems to have killed all reflectivity

Can't image tonight to see the results, but hopefully I can check it out tomorrow or Tuesday

The only issue I had is that it turns out my adapter is so smooth the adhesive has a hard time actually sticking, so I hope it doesn't randomly fall off during an imaging session

I still decided to get a different M56 to M54 adapter because I found one that's knurled and that should make it significantly easier to remove (or flock if needed) than the Apertura ones

[harsh matrix]

good

this is the current project that is in the works

getting more Sii and Oiii tonight, probably not worth it with how bright the moon already is but i have the skies

i think it's worth bolstering them now while i have some clear nights instead of chancing it later

i will start shooting more Ha on the night of the full moon and the one after

10 minute H-alpha elephant trunk sub

from redcat

[undone sedge]

this is so cool

part of me wants to frame up heart for the rest of this week while the moon makes california impossible

[harsh matrix]

[frosty shard]

Even with narrowband filters?

[harsh matrix]

well yeah the moon is within 15 or so degrees of the california neb about now

[undone sedge]

it'll be right on top of it

[harsh matrix]

the intense light will cause problems

[frosty shard]

Oh just lunar distance

because I was gonna say, I think the California Nebula is more luminous than the Heart

[undone sedge]

is it?
thought i could scrape by with imaging it monday then swap targets tuesday

[harsh matrix]

oh yeah nvm you are more correct

it isnt as advanced as i was thinking it was

[undone sedge]

yea

[undone sedge]

actually i bet even 45 degrees of separation might be too close on monday...

[tight lodge]

Use a drop or 2 of superglue

Also... how a smooth shiny surface other than the mirror sounded good when the designers made the telescope?

[vapid patio]

Didn’t realize it had so much detail

[frosty shard]

Emission nebulae become insane targets with an RC man

I thought I would be galaxy hunting mostly when I got my rig, but nah, turns out RCs also slay on emission nebulae

[undone sedge]

i find that close-up views of rather large nebulae are super cool when composed right - on any longer focal length scope

[high aspen]

proofs?

[frosty shard]

Does it count if the nebulae are in another galaxy lmao

[high aspen]

nebula are better in another galaxy

[frosty shard]

Well honestly my IC 10 image is my pride and joy right now

It might be a dim little chicken nugget but it is such a cool target

[harsh matrix]

same

i knew it would be a banger just because nobody really images it up close

[frosty shard]

(and it is the first time I've done a 30 hour integration)

I'm literally writing my own processing tools so I can get better images from the data

But really I'm just happy to share this dataset with the world

I might reshoot all of the IR data now that I've solved the flat frame issue btw (or at least I hope I did...)

[harsh matrix]

NGC 604 in M33, B&W is unprocessed

[high aspen]

i love that

[harsh matrix]

bro this scope is nuts

[frosty shard]

The RC8 is a rig you can keep for life tbh

You'll never run out of things to shoot with it

[harsh matrix]

yup

oh yeah flame neb from bortle 3

even with the low integration and high noise reduction, it is still super detailed

[harsh matrix]

and I cant quite think of a better example than this

[high aspen]

so sharp

im hopefully gonna get a tracking mount

soon

i will be overweight

so amma have to get bricks to weigh down my scope

[undone sedge]

i feel like i should get an RC with photometric filters to help me with research lol

bc i can't be up all night, every night doing research

future investment, though.

[high aspen]

yus

i want photometric filters eventually

[undone sedge]

our seeing doesnt support using anything larger than my 100mm fracs for astrophotography but it's just fine for research data

[high aspen]

yus

[harsh matrix]

Fr

I want some photometrics for the future

Plus doing some Sloan style galaxies is cool

[undone sedge]

i realize though i’d probably want a 585 because im not sure how well a 571 would work with the I-band filter

need to check the QE vs our ATIK

[harsh matrix]

Where does the I band begin again?

[undone sedge]

oh okay it’s relatively comparable because the Atik has an abysmal QE

[undone sedge]

700-900nm

[harsh matrix]

Oh that will be okay

It wont be amazing and out of this world but it will work well

[undone sedge]

asi2600 (left) vs atik 16200 (right)

[harsh matrix]

Ah well

Looks about equal

[undone sedge]

atik goes up to 60%

the scales are different

but in the NIR it’s about equal yeah

[harsh matrix]

Wait are you sure you didn't get the graphs labeled backwards?

[undone sedge]

oh wait

bruh not me confusing my lefts and rights

[harsh matrix]

😭

[undone sedge]

i think the 2600 has slightly better QE in the i-band

[harsh matrix]

2600 has better QE near 700 nm and then the drop off is about the same

[undone sedge]

yea

[harsh matrix]

oh yeah @frosty shard we are 12 hours into the Oiii integration and still no flat issues

something is definitely up with the reducer

probably how it reacts to light pollution

that or the vignetting is so aggressive that you cant fully correct it

[silver ibex]

Who here uses the Apex?

[harsh matrix]

me

i think thats it

[silver ibex]

Opinions, compared to shooting at native? Main reason being that I wanted a faster system, and a native RC would actually be slower at F/8. I'd also enjoy a bigger field in general

[undone sedge]

i've largely given up using my .75x svx reducers
fixing tilt on them is awful

[harsh matrix]

the pluses are the increase in speed, it is noticeable, the wider field makes for some very tasty framing options, the color correction is perfect across the entire field

[silver ibex]

I wouldn't doubt that from Starizona, I'm super satisfied with what I already got from them

0.65x is a lot too

F/8 becomes F/5.2

[harsh matrix]

the negatives are: camera end is M42, not M48, causing aggressive vignetting at the corners (appears to be uncorrectable), it seems to limit the FWHM sharpness that the scope can achieve, fixing collimation and off axis astigmatism can be very challenging at times because of the abrupt light drop off in the corners

i had a couple of other downsides that i cant remember atm

those are the big ones

[silver ibex]

Good to know, thanks

[harsh matrix]

this is significantly less noisy than before

[harsh matrix]

yup

makes me both love it and hate it at the same time

the good news is that because it caps the sharpness, you can never really feel bad about bad seeing because sometimes you quite literally cant tell

i found through my M16 project that if you 2x drizzle, you can recover some of the lost detail potential as well.

It's not all bad.

yeah i think there's a herbig haro here

it got clearer

bow shock

maybe bow shock

[high aspen]

hairy big haribow?

[stiff mason]

Are you gonna process it properly or nahh

[harsh matrix]

already working on it

[stiff mason]

Oh ok cant wait

[harsh matrix]

needs more Sii and Oiii still

hopefully one more night, tonight, will do the trick.

i need one night of banger seeing too

there is not a cataloged HH here

there's a star cluster here

the fish head has a suprisingly small amount of cataloged objects

[frosty shard]

Huh. I was expecting to be taken a bit more seriously considering how obvious the problem is.

I'm just gonna try shooting IC 342 tomorrow under a full moon and if the issue is fixed it'll be abundantly clear that the problem is the adapter.

[stiff mason]

Fix the stars 😭

[high aspen]

honestly wouldnt be suprised

[stiff mason]

And the contrast

Like it looks washed out

[frosty shard]

Come on...the overcorrection issue is because the center of the flat frame is becoming excessively bright...and that is due to an internal reflection caused by a glossy adapter. I mean I even attached an image showing the ring of light it creates

[high aspen]

not ringy or light enough

[vapid patio]

might havbe to take a look aty some

[vapid patio]

do you have a photo of what the problem is im curious

[frosty shard]

the Apertura M56 adapters have a glossy internal finish which can ruin your flats

[vapid patio]

oh yeah ofc

wonder how he cant see it lol

[high aspen]

forced customer service incompitence

[harsh matrix]

I hate to tell you

Im not trying to win any awards with that specific process

In general im gauging where the data is at

Not doing anything serious and over the top with it.

[stiff mason]

Bruh

[harsh matrix]

There's nothing wrong with the stars.

[harsh matrix]

they absolutely can

they just want to refuse to acknowledge that they made a mistake

it is pretty simple

[undone sedge]

lookin good so far

[harsh matrix]

Yurp

[frosty shard]

It's not even HPS's fault

so I don't see what they'd stand to gain from that

[harsh matrix]

Apertura is HPS's name brand

Their reputation is tied to Apertura, and Apertura's to HPS.

Regardless of how you look at it, this will reflect negatively on them in one way or another.

Refusing to do anything about it reflects worse on HPS's end.

Simply put, they stand to gain to not lose money through this.

[frosty shard]

either way, they've gone out of their way to address greater design deficiencies (like with the CarbonStar 150), so it surprises me that they're not taking the finish of an adapter seriously, which is pretty trivial in comparison

ah well

hopefully the flocking paper works

[harsh matrix]

it is baffling I agree

I don't understand why they could do that but not address an issue with those adapters

could it just be the sheer number of adapters they have to replace?

because that glossy interior finish is not restircted to just that M56 to M54 one btw

it's on all 3 of the ones they provide with the scope

[frosty shard]

Oh yeah it's all of mine

[harsh matrix]

not only do they have to fix just the one

they have to fix all 3

and then do it for everyone

[frosty shard]

The thing is, it's hard to find M56 adapters in general

If Apertura sold (matte) M56 adapters as a set I'd have gotten some spares

[harsh matrix]

i would have too

that's what took me so long to sell off the carbonstar

it was those adapters

i had nothing else and couldnt find a whole lot else

[vapid patio]

oh well maybe lets hope hes just new or somthing

[high aspen]

pimk star :3

[silver ibex]

I will not tolerate any type of negative things said about magenta stars any longer

[tight lodge]

The stars are perfect.
The only purple stars you should clown are the ones generated by a frac shooting broadband

[stiff mason]

I don't see the difference between these pruple stars and the ones you get from chromatic aberration

[high aspen]

ir stars are the best

[stiff mason]

Agreed

[high aspen]

they so blue 🥺

[high aspen]

not the best examlle

but kinda works

[frosty shard]

Nah those are cool too

[high aspen]

it depends how bad it is 0_0

[silver ibex]

One it's an optical issue, one isn't

And purple fringing looks way worse

[tight lodge]

Are they?

[high aspen]

that isnt bad

[tight lodge]

Buuuut... nit good either

[stiff mason]

Still doesn't look good

[high aspen]

oh god, its worse than on my phone

[tight lodge]

Well... the whole image is false color. It does make sense for the stars to have the wrong color as well 😅

[high aspen]

golden stars :3

[tight lodge]

ugriz stars are the best. No discussion

[silver ibex]

It does

[high aspen]

not seen

[stiff mason]

Sure but what about the contrast

[tight lodge]

Not my image FYI

[tight lodge]

Nobody cares about the stars in SHO😂

It's all about the structure

[stiff mason]

No i literally mean the image is washed out im not talking about the stars anymore

[tight lodge]

Which one are we talking about now? The Fish head in SHO or the crescent in ugriz

[fringe delta]

riz?

[stiff mason]

Fish

[tight lodge]

He ain't done cooking

[stiff mason]

😑

[tight lodge]

What?😂

[stiff mason]

I thought he finished

[tight lodge]

Naaah, Vel just likes to tease us😂

[frosty shard]

Forgotten rig shot I just processed

[harsh matrix]

I said it still needs more data

Im not sure how that translates into done.

[harsh matrix]

not really

i just like to post progress

[harsh matrix]

this is chromatic aberration

these are SHO stars

chromatic aberration has much more artifacting with white cores

SHO stars have more color

chromatic aberration stars typically have blue, massively bloated halos, SHO stars are focused perfectly and they are primarily magenta, and they are ocassionally orange.

plus a chromatic aberration ridden image will have smeared blue everywhere

SHO images will not, and typically if you see smeared blue, it is likely not well captured Oiii.

sometimes just straight up bad processing.

Chromatic aberration is an artifact of refracting optics, SHO stars are the product of the SHO palette. Completely different things with completely different appearances.

[frosty shard]

@high aspen my IC 342 framing

[harsh matrix]

Redcat diffraction spikes lmao

[oblique sun]

what did you do

[undone sedge]

imaged in NIR

[frosty shard]

Touptek featured my rig

Also! It appears I have nuked the artifact out of my flats

We'll know for sure if the issue is gone when I finish imaging

We cookin tonight boys

[undone sedge]

my umi is finally cooking as well

winds are blowing in from the south so seeing is actually good tonight

[harsh matrix]

YEEEEEAAAH

[vapid patio]

Holy crap the detail I can see from here

Tomorrow is my redemption day fellas

[tight lodge]

Did you notice this bubble nebula?

[harsh matrix]

i dont think that's a bubble lol

[tight lodge]

Kinda looks like one

[harsh matrix]

blurX

[frosty shard]

That does look like a cavity in the nebula. I guess it could be that bright star illuminating the inside (Gaia DR3 513657786292622848)

If that is the star ionizing the nebula

[high aspen]

o dayum

[bleak tapir]

Radio Controlled scope

[tight lodge]

Radio controlled radio telescope. Recipe for disaster😂

[bleak solar]

My new focuser is on its way! Hooray

[frosty shard]

🦀 FLAT ARTIFACT IS GONE 🦀

[frosty shard]

4 hours (2 per panel) under the full moon in H-alpha

Noisier than Manowar, but I'll take it because there is no evidence of undercorrection

[quartz meadow]

Melotte 15?

[harsh matrix]

now get like 5 more nights of data

[tight lodge]

Minimum

[high aspen]

waw!

[silver ibex]

The GSO 10" trussed RC is looking like a decent option ngl

[silver ibex]

Apparently they run a Zygo on the mirror???

That's kinda insane for GSO lol

[high aspen]

what that :3

[frosty shard]

Ideally when the moon isn't at 100% of its power...

[silver ibex]

https://www.zygo.com/products/metrology-systems/laser-interferometers

[high aspen]

is it just a thorough check with an inteferometer?

[frosty shard]

Makes sense considering even my 8" RC is optically amazing

[high aspen]

i wonder if the 6" will also be sharp

sharper than a 6" skywatcher newt anyways

[frosty shard]

Most likely

[high aspen]

if i dont upgrade my mount i may just upgrade my scope bc its lighter

then i dont have to spend almost £700

[frosty shard]

The thing is, RCs are relatively easy to correct on-axis. The challenge of the design is having spherical aberration and coma both null out at the same mirror spacing

[high aspen]

a

[frosty shard]

If you have a small enough sensor though you'll never notice if the coma is not exactly nulled at the spacing that nulls spherical aberration

[high aspen]

585 :)

[frosty shard]

I estimate like 1/12 wave RMS on-axis

for my OTA

[high aspen]

so if you have a big sensor you may have to fw the spooder?

or primary

bc difficul

[frosty shard]

For the mirror spacing? It's set at the factory but it is also relatively easy to determine with an eyepiece or Ronchi grating

[high aspen]

oh

[silver ibex]

Unless skypoint is lying the 10" has 1/12 lambda on the primary and is tested with a zygo interferometry test and then tested again and collimated on the bench

Promising

[tall summit]

I want RC8 so badly

there is always tons or Casses for sale out there, RCs, not so much

[frosty shard]

I'm a bit surprised tbh

Just because there are so many folks ragequitting RCs because of collimation issues

[tall summit]

I consider myself pretty lucky catching 500$ ebay deal for Carbonstar RC6 with the reducer

[tall summit]

I had a few VERY rough nights with mine, trying to recover from seagull-shaped stars, plus being brand new to the hobby at the time

[high aspen]

are you enjoying it?

can i see some more of ur photos

[tall summit]

I am enjoying it. Plus at F6 its reasonably fast

[frosty shard]

New flat (left) vs old flat (right). What a difference.

@harsh matrix sending this to HPS

[high aspen]

use it at f9 :3

[harsh matrix]

do it

if they deny it then theyre stupid

[high aspen]

"your honour, nuh uh"

[frosty shard]

also @tight lodge thanks for catching the ghost pupil artifact in my flats

[high aspen]

you the person that likes alt colours arent you!!

[tall summit]

🙂 guilty

[tight lodge]

So I guess I have to track down some reflective surfaces in my telescope as well?😭

[frosty shard]

No that's me

[tight lodge]

Me too... I like weird

[high aspen]

also me too then :)

[crisp flower]

The hanir Andromeda is just

Dont think ive Seen that before

[tight lodge]

You're referring to the IR continuum one? The IR750, IR685, Hα?

[high aspen]

its perferct

[crisp flower]

Yess

[frosty shard]

Yeah that is straight fire, just wow

[tight lodge]

Thanks

[stiff mason]

Btw what was the issue

Was it the reflection from that adapter

[frosty shard]

Oh yeah it definitely was. Flocking it solved it

[stiff mason]

Nice

[frosty shard]

No more undercorrection

2 panels stitched together perfectly

[stiff mason]

Now i gotta solve my problem of not being able to dither 😭

Why does this hobby have to have so many problems

But i think i know the issue I'm like 60% sure its the stiff gears in my DEC axis

But that doesn't explain why the RA has issues too could be wobble in my balcony like the natural frequency of the building is a few arcsecond so i hope thats the problem or else I'm gonna have spend hours figuring it out and probably never figure it out

[high aspen]

pretty :3

[crisp flower]

Awesome!

[frosty shard]

@harsh matrix I think something didn't click with the tech who responded earlier, but it did now

[harsh matrix]

Good

[harsh matrix]

something is making these images come out looking completely different from how they look on my screen

washed out again

and not as saturated

i got it near clipping in saturation on my screen and this doesnt look like it is that close

[tight lodge]

I'm seeing it from my phone and I can say that the colors are a hair undersaturated

[harsh matrix]

Same on mine

Wtf

Nah bro this

Something is playing games with me

[tight lodge]

I increased the saturation to 100% on my phone😂

[tight lodge]

I increased the saturation to 100% on my phone😂

Bruh... discord makes me want to have a lobotomy 💀

[tight lodge]

I might deflock the secondary mirror spider. Those diffraction spikes are kinda lane

[frosty shard]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Astronomy_images_from_Wiki_Science_Competition_2025

There's the Wiki Science Competition running until the end of the December

Turns out I was too early in submitting the IC 10 set, but I might image the heart of the Heart Nebula for the competition

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ritchey–Chrétien_at_Kickapoo_Valley_Reserve.jpg

Put this one up though

[frosty shard]

What color profile are you using? This image is just sRGB, so if you have color management enabled, it may look vibrant in some places and washed out in others

Color management is pretty confusing tbh

It's caused me several headaches

I just stick to Display P3 for everything since all my devices support it

[frosty shard]

Well, I might have a slightly different flat frame issue

but I'm not sure if it's that big of a deal

[high aspen]

looks like nematodes out of focus on a michaelscope

[frosty shard]

I didn't dither at all for photometry last night and I wouldn't shoot under these conditions (empty starfield and full moon)

[bleak solar]

is it normal that the stars appear a bit smudged when I use an OAG?

I mean the stars from the guide cam not the other camera

[frosty shard]

Yeah, I mean for one you're not using an IR cut filter I assume

[bleak solar]

nope

I do not, your honnor

[frosty shard]

(to be clear you don't need one)

but the prism does introduce chromatic aberration

[bleak solar]

ah okay!

I thought something was going wrong!

Thank you so much

[undone sedge]

for y'all's enjoyment

[frosty shard]

I can't believe I actually got it

Warning: plenty of flickering

I was wondering if the eclipse would be detectable in any way in the images, but nah

[undone sedge]

gonna try combining V-band and this G data

[harsh matrix]

Same

[harsh matrix]

Fr

[harsh matrix]

sRGB

[undone sedge]

binned it so it's easier to read

[fringe delta]

i read the y axis label as reflux

[frosty shard]

yeah we were measuring my heartburn level photometrically last night

[fringe delta]

what caused the dip

a tums?

[silver ibex]

What am I looking at sir

[versed roost]

planetary transit

[frosty shard]

Images from my photometry data. I tried to see if the eclipse would be evident at all, but nah

[frosty shard]

I stacked all my frames and I'm left with one big question though

Where the hell is the walking noise

there was supposed to be earth-shattering walking noise

(I didn't dither for this dataset)

Seems like my sensor has pretty good pixel response uniformity

I guess this implies I can dither a little less aggressively

[undone sedge]

the primary eclipse of an eclipsing binary, actually

part of my research

via TESS

[high aspen]

woa

[versed roost]

sick

[versed roost]

whats that tiny dip on the left

[undone sedge]

the secondary eclipse
when the small star (red dwarf) goes behind the larger one (g-type, sun-like)

[high aspen]

mini guy :3

[undone sedge]

itty bitty

iirc the primary star is estimated to be ~1.2 solar radii (from the gaia telescope, no idea if it's accurate since the binary nature of this system is a recent discovery from my project) - from our math the secondary should be ~0.2 RSOL

i actually made this little graphic comparing them when i was working on my poster presentation

approximate colors from their (rough) temperatures, too

[high aspen]

[bleak solar]

what is that? ATLAS?

[frosty shard]

Photometry frames from my own scope

[bleak solar]

nice!

I am gonna shoot it too soon. I am working on a uni project regarding 3I/ATLAS

[frosty shard]

By it do you mean 3I/ATLAS or Hemera?

That was data for an eclipsing binary (see #1427782559726833684)

[bleak solar]

oh sorry. I just looked at the video didnt read the other messages yet... we talked about 2 different things 😅

I meant 3I/ATLAS

[high aspen]

what meant to be there?

[frosty shard]

I was wondering if I could see the eclipse of the target star (in the center) but it's not visible, especially with the changing background

[high aspen]

a

[undone sedge]

yea from my experience the decrease in the number of counts isnt visibly noticeable unless you're actively checking the number every time a new exposure comes in

i have noticed that i get a little less counts (photons) during the eclipse vs outside of it matching with a ~5% brightness drop

gotta match up the HFRs in the subs you compare though, since seeing will affect things

[vapid patio]

WGATWE LOOKNIG AT

[vapid patio]

mosaic?

[frosty shard]

TIC 403027066 (codename Hemera)

[vapid patio]

wider than my redcat

[vapid patio]

planet?

[undone sedge]

eclipsing binary

[vapid patio]

star?

ooooooooooo

[undone sedge]

see above :)

[vapid patio]

ooooooooooooh

thank you

[high aspen]

tessa :3

how do you get those graphs, do you use python and astropy?

[undone sedge]

yea this one was python with the lightkurve plug-in

i plan to use python to get light curves from the data i capture at some point too - for now that's done in AstroImageJ for convenience

[high aspen]

ill have to look into that

yees

looks interesting :3

[harsh matrix]

Redcat

Single frame

[high aspen]

recal moniror

[tall summit]

I never finished my 4 panel mosaic on the Heart

I started with only 10% overlap, not knowing any better

[silver ibex]

@frosty shard after seeing this framing I'm even more tempted lol

[frosty shard]

Coma Cluster?

[silver ibex]

Precisely

[vapid patio]

really dang i have alot to look forward to

[harsh matrix]

yes really

[vapid patio]

how much timer

[harsh matrix]

18 hours 10 minutes of Ha and about 6 hrs of Sii and Oiii

[tidal hearth]

533 Sensor?

[high aspen]

square nebula

[frosty shard]

Yup

[high aspen]

woa

[tidal hearth]

585 for me :/

[high aspen]

ehats ur fl?

[tidal hearth]

Thats an askar 103 so 700mm

[high aspen]

damn we close

im 675

[bleak solar]

It came 🤩🤩

[harsh matrix]

these aint blurx'd

nah okay im using a custom sRGB color accurate profile for my monitor

discord uses some sRGB standard and Pix has a profile that matches it perfectly

that's what is going on

my images look significantly moodier and more contrast-y on my monitor than on discord or instagram

[harsh matrix]

okay

THIS is about where I normally set contrast

and saturation

[high aspen]

happens to me tooo :(

[tight lodge]

@stiff mason does it still look washed out?

[tight lodge]

I think I'm in love with it. Can I use it as wallpaper on my phone?

[stiff mason]

A bit but I'll take it

[vapid patio]

But my 585 is around the same framing

Was that with 533? Or 2600

[harsh matrix]

Not washed out = clipped then

We are not clipping anything

[harsh matrix]

Btw

None of the surrounding region is empty space

There's nebulosity everywhere which means the black point will be higher regardless.

[high aspen]

rc with spherical mirrors cant hurt you:
rc with spherical mirrors:

[frosty shard]

As a palate cleanser, here's a real RC that's on the spacecraft Lucy

[high aspen]

thas hawt

[harsh matrix]

Ew

[high aspen]

why is it so short :(

[harsh matrix]

TASTY

[stiff mason]

Thats not how it works you dont need to clip it to improve the clarity of the image if your image is washed out that just tells me you didn't stretch the blacks enough and also not to mention clipping the blacks a bit will only clip the noise not any detail although thats up to a point

Most of the time 0.5% to 1% will clip the noise

[harsh matrix]

Thats how it works with where it is at right now

Push it any farther and it starts clipping significantly.

The blacks are already inky black on my phone and my main monitor.

[stiff mason]

Ok then nevermind

[harsh matrix]

It looks a little washed out on my second monitor and that is because the blacks on the monitor arent a true black

Its not true black on my main or phone either but both dang near shut those pixels off.

It could be a screen thing on your end.

Or still even a stupid color profile issue

[versed roost]

it looks quite bright on my oled screen

[harsh matrix]

oof

i dont have an oled

mine is still an LCD but it has much better dynamic range than most LCD's

Also like I said above, most of the region around the Fish Head also has nebulosity so it shouldn't be all black.

The dark band cutting across the image is supposed to be though, and that is the darkest spot in the image.

[versed roost]

i mean it also looks good to me

i think u could push the shadows a lil further but if its close to clipping on ur screen idk

screen variation #1 enemy of photographers

[stiff mason]

Yeah could be tbh

[high aspen]

i wonder what blue + orange looks like

it should make indigo

in the brighter regiona

so amma have to try it

[high aspen]

@frosty shard that galaxy so bright i can se it with 0.4s subs

(the core just barely)

[frosty shard]

Which galaxy?

[high aspen]

c5

my seeing is awful tonight tho

a lotta blinkies

[high aspen]

i love ir

ir is life

[harsh matrix]

@frosty shard this is how my camera is interfacing with the focuser

[frosty shard]

Wow, the Baader adapter is that good huh

[harsh matrix]

Yes

This is the one for the takahashi

M56 x 0.75

It threads onto where the old compression ring was perfectly

And it gives me the extra back focus i need to be able to reach focus with the reducer

A match made in heaven tbh

Also @frosty shard like I said before, it always returns the camera to the exact same position it was in before, relative to the mirrors

No collimation shift.

I just did a filter swap and cleaned my 571 sensor, then put the reducer in

The scope is in perfect collimation still.

Not even a slight shift present.

[high aspen]

minimak

[frosty shard]

delet this

[high aspen]

:3c

[harsh matrix]

[high aspen]

without correction

[harsh matrix]

Holy spherical aberration

[frosty shard]

Even with the corrector there would be so much 6th order spherical aberration

Unless the mirror was made significantly elliptical

[high aspen]

spherical greg

i think i accidentally gave it a non spherical primaer

[frosty shard]

At that focal length I doubt the spherical aberration would be significant

Actually wait

It might be worse because the secondary doesn't cancel the primarly like it would in a Cassegrain

[frosty shard]

@high aspen I wrote a module that implements a mirror whose profile is a conic section (with an optional hole suitable for Cassegrain primaries)

With a bit of math you should be able to make an RC with the proper conic sections in phydemo.app

[harsh matrix]

2x drizzled the native data for fun

this is post blurX

[high aspen]

o:

[harsh matrix]

i found something even more irritating about pixinsight

[tight lodge]

Please do tell

[harsh matrix]

Pixinsight has the supposed ability to embed the color profile I process in to the image file i save

[high aspen]

why dont people make telescopes like this?

[harsh matrix]

but the only formats that actually get the profile embedded, and therefore are properly displayed, are JPEG and TIFF

💀

[high aspen]

:/

[harsh matrix]

PNG does not get the color profile i process in which is why there is always some kind of desync between Pixinsight and every platform i post on

same goes for the grayscale display settings

which is part of why contrast gets messed up

[tight lodge]

Welll... with TIFF there's a caviat with windows. Because windows considers TIFF as raw linear data and nukes the colors. JPEG looks like S. Hmmmm... I never had issues with PNGs exported by PS. What if you do the final color touches in PS and then export

[harsh matrix]

Thats what I think i will be doing moving forward

I noticed the same thing

[high aspen]

i do my finals in gimp

gimp is the goat for making images look correct

-# when i can be bothered

[tight lodge]

Personally i hate Gimp. looks like PS but it don't behave like PS

[high aspen]

D:

gimp > ps

[tight lodge]

Never😂

[high aspen]

hehe

[high aspen]

conical greg

i think the greg does actually use conics if i rememer correctly

[high aspen]

thin rct

it squish :3

[tight lodge]

@frosty shard @harsh matrix You know what would make an RC the absolute king of the food chain? Isogrids

[vapid patio]

I will forever glaze this image

[high aspen]

understandable

is the focus curving upward a characteristic with all scopes?

[high aspen]

yk how you used blender for an rct sim

im gonna 1 up you

and make it in this sim

my pc busy tho

[high aspen]

@frosty shard i got it!!!

its so underwhelming but i did it!!!

this is probably one of my cleanest sets too

[high aspen]

i think i got some background galaxies too

i got 3k more images to add

[harsh matrix]

@tight lodge the reason why photoshop's exports looked better is because they were exporting the adobe sRGB color profile which matches with discord, instagram, and every other program under the sun

photoshop was never utilizing the color profile that my monitor is using

[high aspen]

blur vs nonblur, how u guys feeling?

theres like no diff

[harsh matrix]

there is no difference

[high aspen]

there is

left has slightly less detail

may as well go with right lol

[harsh matrix]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/975845011260309587/1437203959654650077/Test.png?ex=691263fd&is=6911127d&hm=a410ac2c02fd7e5719dedb9be3964c17545ee8d854d7f051d1c4826e3c8fd05c&

okay this is what happens when my monitor color profile properly embeds and i set the contrast to a "dark enough" point

see how the blacks are clipped now?

this is why I keep it slightly higher

thanks

okay it is clipped on LCD's

especially older ones

it isnt clipped on my phone

[high aspen]

neother

[frosty shard]

Some LCD screens use 6-bit color per subpixel instead of the full 8-bit range in the file itself

[vapid patio]

'holy crap

[harsh matrix]

@frosty shard I can take NIR flats with my panel

[stiff mason]

Looks fine to me ngl

[harsh matrix]

it definitely isn't on my screen but i found OLED users dont see any issues so...

some problem with my monitor being able to display shadows

[frosty shard]

I assume your exposure times are longer than in any of the RGB filters?

[harsh matrix]

only slightly

[frosty shard]

Oh mine are like 10x longer in NIR

0.1 s in RGB, about 1 s in NIR

[frosty shard]

What device are you using again?

[harsh matrix]

a tracing panel off of amazon

[frosty shard]

Different LEDs with different spectra I guess

[harsh matrix]

0.78s for NIR vs 0.16 for red

[frosty shard]

Oh this is pretty much in line with me

[harsh matrix]

😩

the Sii and the Oiii are pretty mottled unfortunately but i suspect that is the nature of this object

this looks insane on my phone

it's still slightly undersaturated on it, but perfect on both of my computer screens, discord, and IG

i will take it

[stiff mason]

There we go good process

[stiff mason]

Id say its bit oversaturated

[harsh matrix]

someone else is saying under

and not enough contrast

it's personal taste at this rate

im not going to cater to everyone

[stiff mason]

Yes

[versed roost]

looks fantastic to me as well on my oled

contrast and sat are fine

[undone sedge]

over, under, flipped over, broken down 2 miles away….

[harsh matrix]

@frosty shard first time really imaging a galaxy LOL

[harsh matrix]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/975845011260309587/1437321292050071642/C23_1hr.png?ex=6912d144&is=69117fc4&hm=06cafe4087463974637241e3946a8b95f562c91420b45ab1d15240bf92ac051c&

[high aspen]

blacks arent clipped

[high aspen]

[desert locust]

I need someone to convince me to get a rc for galaxies and planetary nebula over a newtonian

[tight lodge]

You need both Newtonian and RC

[desert locust]

wdym

[tight lodge]

I mean like... you buy a newtonian and then you buy an RCT, ot the other way around. Your choice

[desert locust]

oh

ill just buy a newt first i guess

[tight lodge]

How big?

[desert locust]

8 inch f/4

[tight lodge]

You might be questioning weather you want an RC or not after you get that telescope 😅

[desert locust]

why

[tight lodge]

Well... you already got big aperture and better sampling😅
With an RC it's rare to take advantage of its resolving power

[desert locust]

ah, ok

[tight lodge]

I love RCTs don't get me wrong. But most of the time you're limited by the seeing and usually oversampled

[desert locust]

especially with a 585

[tight lodge]

Not to even mention.

Probably with an RCT you can use one of em CCDs with brick sized pixels😂

[high aspen]

i wanna get a 9nm pixel sensor

[frosty shard]

BLASPHEMY

[high aspen]

rct

[frosty shard]

How do I love my RC? Let me count the ways:

• Zero coma natively
• Zero chromatic aberration (because the coma corrector required for a Newtonian will introduce some)
• Probably the best amateur design for shooting IR or UV
• Minimal field distortion (Newt + coma corrector might also be good depending on the corrector, but RCs were designed for astrometry, which is great if you want to stitch mosaics)
• More compact than an Newtonian of equal aperture
• Collimation might actually be easier (it's more complex, but tolerances are higher than those of a fast Newt. I haven't ever collimated a fast Newt though)
• Excellent optical quality judging from the samples here (less than 1/10 wave RMS accuracy)
• It's actually a beast for visual observing, get a 40 mm eyepiece and you can bucket light with a Cassegrain

[tight lodge]

Still better

[frosty shard]

Oh, and aura farming.

[frosty shard]

Is that a GSO RC optical prescription?

[high aspen]

mines build in industry standard software

[tight lodge]

So how that makes it different from the Ray tracing in Blender?

Both softwares use ray tracing 😅

[high aspen]

get intimidated by my graphs!!!!!

[frosty shard]

Is this a classical Gregorian (parabolic primary, elliptical secondary?)

[high aspen]

yup

[high aspen]

heres it sped up

which causes quite a bit of issues

(look the graph)

600mm fl for a 50mm mirror 😭

[frosty shard]

How come there's a nonzero wavefront error at the center

[high aspen]

this ones primary is like 20cm big something

[high aspen]

oh wow its bad

[high aspen]

ive managed to make the spots better by pushing it to f20

idk abt the wavefront tho

its from 0.05 - 0.1 basically now

[frosty shard]

I assume you have tools for conics?

[high aspen]

look far right

[frosty shard]

Shouldn't the secondary have a larger conic (>–1)?

[high aspen]

uhh

ill check

primary is parabolic

secondary is ellips

[frosty shard]

The conic constant should be between –1 and 0 (exclusive) if it's elliptical

[high aspen]

yea, just saw

lemme fix rq

oh yeaa

[frosty shard]

That should account for your on-axis wavefront error, fingers crossed

[high aspen]

thats helpin

[frosty shard]

One thing I want to understand btw is how you can derive the conics for aplanatic Gregorians and Ritchey–Chrétiens

I feel like there must be some beautiful geometric insight hidden in there somewhere

[high aspen]

yea

ive managed to get the spot size down below 40um

wavefront still isnt 0 :/

@frosty shard

it turns out it was averaging out the spots

to decide the fl

imagine actually having a star that sharp irl

would be crazy

[harsh matrix]

iris neb in NIR

only 2 and a half hours of data with a near full moon

the moon does affect it, but not much

this was shot by my redcat

[stiff mason]

Yooo i wanted to see how that would've looked thank you