Seletek stepper motor FSQ-106ED adaptation

Two not so common filters

Yellow coloured filter on the right is suitable for exoplanet hunting but what about this U-filter?

Ramping up new systems

I have slowly started purchasing new hardware building blocks for the new system. The old one will be rebuild, an additional spare system will be created and one totally new system will be designed.

Focusing on focuser

Just got yet another focuser. This one should be really good. Select Armadillo 2 controller with stepper motor, internal and external temperature sensors, mounting plates for FSQ-106ED and robust software drivers and applications.

Re-defined imaging setups

Setup #1:

• Takahashi FSQ-106ED w. Reducer QE 0.73x
• Starlight Xpress Trius SX-814 (3.69um 3388 x 2712 pixels in a 12.5 x 10mm array)
• Seletek Armadillo 2 focuser
• Starlight Xpress filter wheel 7x1.25" w. Astrodon 3nm Ha/O3/S2 + LRGB
• SX-OAG w. Lodestar

Setup #2:

• Celestron EdgeHD 8" w. Celestron 0.7 reducer
• Starlight Xpress Trius SX-694 (4.54um 2750 x 2200 pixels in a 12.5 x 10mm array)
• FLI PDF focuser
• 1st Starlight Xpress Mini Filter Wheel 5x1.25" w. Astronomik LRGB + Ha
• 2nd Starlight Xpress Mini Filter Wheel 5x1.25" w. Baader Ha/O3/S2/Hb + Astronomik CLS
• 3rd Starlight Xpress Mini Filter Wheel 5x1.25" w. Baader UBVRI photometric filter set
• SX Lodestar

Setup #3:

• TS Triplet 102/714mm f/7
• TS 0.8x reducer
• USB_Focus focuser

Playing with white balance

WB set to "Sunlight":

WB set to "Tungsten":

Canon EOS 5D mark II, Samyang 8mm f/3.5@f/5.6 ISO 800 30s

Some progress

Finally I was able to balance and align EdgeHD 800 on NEQ6 Pro. After that I ran over twenty vcurves with FocusMax and finished by measuring focus offsets for photometric UVBRI-filters.

EdgeHD 800 ready to go:

 Reducer 0.7x, FLI PDF focuser, SX Mini filter wheel with OAG+Lodestar and SX-694:

Vcurve run:

Collecting vcurves for new equipment profile:

Twins

BackyardEOS:

BackyardNIKON:

Now the only thing which is still missing is clear sky without any clouds...

Very very wide angles

Lack of clear skies has forced me to dig camera bags and start thinking "How about taking pictures of different clouds?" ;-)

Two Samyangs:

8 mm fish-eye produces circular image on full frame sensor:

14 mm is quite wide angle too:

Fast and wide 24mm f/1.4 is best for Auroras: