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astromaster

My passion is astronomical photography; I prefer deepsky and wide field.

22 april 2010:

New entry: robofocus.

Installed on Takahashi 106ED nFSQ.

28 march 2010:

Meade 8" LX200R sold out; new entry GSO RC 8".

1st chinese telescope in my hands.

25 june 2009:

Atik 4000 Color.

9 may 2009:

Orion starshoot autoguider has arrived. It is the replacement for MZ5: same HW but more robust drivers (I hope!).

8 april 2009:

Focal recucer f/3,6 Takahashi for FSQ has arrived. Quality is superior respect with competitors, and it's already evident in the packaging.

22 january 2009

My new mount: Bellincioni's Alpha.

6 december 2008:

In yearly Forlì astronomic market I've purchased a new Magzero MZ5 startracker; Sbig ST4 has been retred! I hope that bigger chip and smaller pixel size will help a lot.

I've purchased also some adapters and some 2" Astronomik filters: UHC, CLS and a Red one.

After few months and a lot of experiments, MZ5 Have been sent back to seller. No way to eliminate malfunction: camera disconneced from USB without any reason. I suppose some weakeness at driver level, which makes impossible to control the camera under MaximDL in a reliable way.

OTA

On 4 December 2007 I purchased the 106 Takahashi FSQ f / 5, also known as New-Q. It represents the absolute top in its field. It shows a clear superiority over all other similar refractors, in terms of technical solutions, mechanical precision , overall solidity, and in general construction quality. We will see if maintained expectations mainly in comparison with its legendary predecessor; this version should perform better in teh IR facilitating its coupling with CCD and modified DSLR.

Celestron C8 starbright - f 200mm - ƒ2000mm

I don't want tp spend too many words for what is perhaps the most famous OTA in the world. I own it since '93 and I used it more and more, especially with the focal reducer (see below). For photography it is not exceptional but works honestly.

New: Since I bought my Meade LX200R, I use C8 as tracking optics or, better, my son Salvatore use it to understand if he is really inetersted in astronomy.

On 11 April 2007 Meade LX200R 8" arrived, just few days from order (thanks to Plinio for the interest). Compared to C8 my expectation were: a more comfortable focusing system; less coma on the focal plane; primary mirror lock; easier secondary collimation procedure. When I write I have checked all the improvements compared to C8. To be noted that the secondary looses collimation exactly like the C8, but making use of famous Bob's Knobs (thanks to Meade secondary mirror suspension springs) the collimation is easier than C8 even if you are not particularly trained to perform this operation. The instructions attached to Bob's knobs, I must say, help a lot to learn the correct procedure for use.

Vixen ED102SS f 102mm - ƒ660mm

For years (since '96) it has been the best among my OTAs. Both observation and photography have ever fulfilled my expectations.

Bad news: the accident I suffered on December 15 2007 has completely ruined the ED lens: I hope to be able to use as tracker, soon or laterto find a replacement lens.

Telephoto lens

Pentacon f 500mm - f /5,6 - 42x1mm screw.

Impressive to see but not exceptional performance. attacco a vite 42x1. Impressionante a vedersi ma non eccezionale come resa ottica sul digitale. Praticamente non lo uso più

Pentacon f 300mm - f /4 - 42x1mm screw. Great! With the 24x36 film gave me great satisfaction. I expected the same with DSRL, but shows a strong blur in the blue channel.

Pentacon f 200mm - f /2,8 - 42x1mm screw.

Big reputation lens, quite perfect at that time. I bought as second hand for little money in a marketplace in Turin since the mechanism of the diaphragm was damaged. Then I dismounted and I completely removed the diaphragm. In the 24x36 film gave me pinpoint stars also in the frame corners. With DSRL has the same problem of 300: blue component out of focus.

We must say a few words on the label Pentacon. Hyena based in the then East Germany, suffered the constant fluctuation of the quality of its products and the purchase of these items resulted in a bet. I have won two out of three!

Nikkor f 105mm - f /2 bought as second hand in December 2006. Landscapes an Portraits are spectacular. We will see how it scrapes with stars.

In late February 2007 I bought as second hand the Nikkor 80-200mm f / 2.8. In principle zoom lens are out of my prefernces. But the reviews that I read about this have convinced me , and some tests confirmed it is really valid in astrophotography.

MOUNTS

Losmandy G-11.

The unstable mount of my first telescopes has convinced me that a solid mount is a 'must'. This is even more true if you want to do astrophotography. I blessed the money invested in this mount, using all possible combination pair of OTAs and lenses, without ever having problems. Problems are lack of micro movements and the 'hardness' when blocking AR and dec axes. With the recent acquisition of electronics and engines FS2 ESCAP I have practically solved the first problem, the second is resolved with the adoption of leaflets (see picture). In addition (but this is a characteristic of all equatorial mounts) load balancing is critical, especially on dec.

Tripod is a stange shape, cumbersome but solid. After a couple of years I have begun to make some changes to optimize the use of space and minimize the amount of flying wires. First I put inside the tripod a switching transformer with 220V input which provides 5A at 12V in output. For safety, I stoppered the bottom with a circular panel on which there are: the main switch, the 220V input, an auxiliary input for 12V from car battery, and a 12V output for any need. Then I 'hung' to the sides the ST4 and the FS2. When I bought Nilon D70 I put into the tripod also the power supply for the camera and a micro-USB hub with four ports. As you can see there is no more space!

In 2007 Forlì astromarket I purchased the Geoptik dovetail system to install two tubes in parallel rather than overlapped. The system seems very user friendly and will allow me to reduce the total torque significantly reducing the lever arm. Balancing will be more challenging; It's possible vibration resonance in the presence of wind (with this system, the telescope looks like a giant tuning fork). We will see the evidence on the ground.

Vixen Super Polaris.

It's ideal for portability and robustness. It performs very well even with a well balanced C8. Motors and control box have to be appreciated for a very low power consumption (at 16X each motor absorbs 150mA at 9V), and therefore can operate safely with six alkaline batteries; stuff of another era.

Tripod is light and sturdy; when folded occupies very little space. I used so much that I had to rebuild the top cover (see picture). In my opinion all today's light mounts are inspired by this successful Japanese.

CAMERAs

Nikon D70.

I waited for it a couple of years since my Praktica BT100 died. I bought mainly a camera to get photos from portrait and landscape, and only after I tested it on astronomical subjects because Internet was exploding with DSLR astronomical images. It will never rival with a good astronomical CCD but can give unexpected satisfactions.

A camera body which I'm very fond is the Olympus OM-1: in my opinion the best film camera body for the astroimager. With interchangeable focus slides, manual mirror leverage and horizontal fabric curtains (sweet shooting, virtually vibration-free) it was very appreciated by ecveryone. I don't use it since I decided to stop with 24*36 film, but it has a fixed place in my heart.

In the first half of October 2007 I purchased of the famous Canon EOS350D. I sold the obvious that this machine has clearly benefits greater than any other DSLR in amateur astronomy. I immediately made test photos with same landscape and portrait subjects taken with the Nikon D70. Result was pitiful for the Canon: The D70 is the top at every juncture. In large part I think the gap lies in the lens supplied with camera: the Nikon one, although is an entry-level, has the look and sound of a well done object; Canon one seems an accessory to a toy ... in short, much lower quality.

That encouraged me to modify myself the camera to remove the IR filter. This is not painless for the functionality of the machine because once the IR filter is removed, the focus is not responding correctly and the calibration of white is totally wrong. Pratically you can't use anymore the camera for normal photography. I know that there is a replacement IR-filter from Baader Planetarium (at a not insignificant cost) which provides good response in the red channel and allow 'quite' normal camera performace for daylight photography.

Then: I made the open heart operation, preceded by a thorough study on the Internet, for the proper procedure to be performed. I chose to follow the recommendation and procedure found in Ashley Roeckelein site: It's the most clear and detailed. As exception I have not included a slide replacement in palace of IR filter, and I left the chip nude as it is.

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