CCD Project 2013 part #8

Baader 1.25" narrowband filters (with two other filters for other purposes) for the second SX mini filter wheel (which was sent back for repair) arrived today. Waiting for clear night now...

CCD Project 2013 part #7

Starlight Xpress Trius SX-694 CCD-camera arrived today!

Plastic case:

Camera itself all alone inside the case:

Pure H-alpha

CCD Project 2013 part #6

Almost there. These cables (actually only one is enough and the others are spares) are for the the Loadstar when used with SX mini filter wheel. Using right angle cable minimizes radial diameter of the whole package which becomes especially important when pointing telescope up into the zenith. I bought these cables from eBay (Hong Kong).

Black and white

NGC 2237

M31

Cold long night at the tower

IC 405:

M51:

M101:

CCD Project 2013 part #5

This might be a show-stopper. One magnetic sensor is missing. The wheel rotates forever when powered on. I'll send this one back for warranty replacement.

Update two hours later: I just received my second wheel and see that one sensor is "missing" there too so it is normal. But the first wheel is not working anyway so I'll return it.

Update three hours later: When carefully looking at this already faulty device I noticed that off-axis prism is broken too. So this device was totally broken from the very beginning. Very bad luck this time.

Update four hours later: Second wheel has been installed with Astronomik LRGB and H-alpha filters and this wheel rotates like charm. I've been playing with bigger SX wheel so far and these are superb.

Weekend images

NGC 281

I was testing 20 min. subs with this:

CCD Project 2013 part #4

These parts are for SX mini filter wheel OAG. Female C-mount cups were hard to find and I had to order mine from eBay China. Everything went smoothly and the goods arrived very quickly in one week without postage fees or any other additional expenses. I am positively surprised, really!

CCD Project 2013 part #3

LRGB-filters (1.25") for my first SX-wheel arrived today and were installed alongside with one Ha-filter. Second wheel will be installed with four narrowband filters (H-alfa, OIII, SII and H-beta) and CLS light pollution filter for pure luminance. In this first wheel H-alfa (12nm) is nice to have as fifth filter in order to fill all five filter positions and to boost for example star forming regions in galaxy images.

Astronomik L-RGB and H-alfa filters:

IC 1805 in Cassiopeia

CCD Project 2013 part #2

The Saga continues. Today I received the following parts:

- Starlight Xpress Lodestar Autoguider (mono version)
- Astronomik 1.25" CLS CCD filter
- Baader 1,25" IR Blocking CCD Filter

Filters and Lodestar in a very small case:

SX label:

Narrowband Messiers in Moonlight

M42 (Orion Nebula):

M1 (Crab Nebula):

Latest space wonders

NGC 2237 (Rosette Nebula):

M42 (Orion Nebula):

IC 1848 (Soul Nebula):

NGC 2264 (Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Nebula):

Sky objects in color and monochrome

The Dome

Northern Lights revisited

Northern Lights

IC 1805 (Heart Nebula, Sh2-190)

This emission is seen high above in constellation Cassiopeia.