· Get a Cloudy Nights T-Shirt · Submit a Review / Article Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums Privacy Policy | Please read our Terms of Service | Signup and Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu… uh, User You are not logged in. [Login] Entrance · Main Index · Search · New user · Who's Online FAQ · Calendar Equipment Discussions >> Cats & Casses Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all) Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light       #5422364 - 09/15/12 01:32 PM Attachment (179 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I managed to get first light with the new Planewave 12.5" CDK from my backyard in Oakland last night and am pleased with the preliminary results. Equipment: Planewave CDK 12.5" @ f/7 Astro-Physics 900 GTO mount SBIG STL-11000M C1 camera Astrodon Gen II Luminance filter Astrodon MOAG off axis guider SBIG AO-L adaptive optics unit running at both 5 Hz and 0.5 Hz Manual focus based on visual inspection of star images only Conditions: Seeing 6/10 Pickering Transparency 3.2 NELM (based on SQM readings) Casual polar alignment based on Losmandy PAS only--likely within 15 arcmin of pole, but no better Collimation based on Cheshire and laser only--no stars used for collimation First, let's get some caveats out of the way. This is a first light report, and I have not in any way "optimized" the system yet. I performed a basic collimation using a cheshire eyepiece and a laser collimator, but have not given the scope a final "tweak" under the stars. I believe there is still some work to do on this--I think the secondary is very slightly off center, and the focuser probably needs a bit of shimming as well since rotating the focuser shifts the laser onto and off of the secondary spot. Also, please keep in mind when comparing CCDInspector results on different scopes that the percent field curvature is only valid for comparison across similarly sized CCD's. A value of 20% curvature with a 35mm chip might be more like a 5% value with a smaller chip. Finally, I haven't yet gotten the autofocus working, so focus is very rough--based simply on a visual inspection of diffraction spikes on Vega--trying to make them as narrow as possible. O.K., enough caveats and explaining away of imperfect results... Let's get to what I found. First, a CCD inspector measurement of a 5 minute subexposure of M15. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422372 - 09/15/12 01:39 PM Attachment (161 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   As mentioned, there is still some work to do, but the FWHM numbers are pretty good for a rough pass (measured value across the frame was 2.2"). I'll get on the collimation and tilt issues. Curvature is quite reasonable--the Planewave does well across a 35mm imaging circle, but it is not a perfectly flat instrument. I believe this is consistent with Planewave's own charts from their website for field curvature. I was getting 2.1" FWHM on stars in the center and 2.3" FWHM on stars in the extreme corners with no sign of astigmatism in the corners--stars there looked just as round as in the middle, just bloated. Better collimation and focus should slightly improve all these numbers. By the way, I measured 18% vignetting in the extreme corners which is also consistent with Planewave's published statistics and is easily addressed with flats. Here is a stack of 6 total five minute exposures of M15, resized for display on Cloudynights. Only processing was calibration (darks, flats, bias), curves adjustment in Photoshop, and a black point setting via the levels tool. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422374 - 09/15/12 01:41 PM Attachment (109 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Here is a crop from the middle of the frame at 100% Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422376 - 09/15/12 01:42 PM Attachment (81 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Here is a crop from the top-center of the image showing what a stretched, bright star looks like. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422380 - 09/15/12 01:44 PM Attachment (75 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Not quite as round as I'd like... Definitely some work to be done on the collimation. Here is a 100% crop from the top left corner. The frames were dithered, so you might notice a slightly darker band where there was no data from some frames. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422384 - 09/15/12 01:44 PM Attachment (42 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   And top right... Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422385 - 09/15/12 01:45 PM Attachment (26 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   And bottom left... Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422389 - 09/15/12 01:46 PM Attachment (33 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   And bottom right. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422401 - 09/15/12 01:52 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Overall, a very promising first result. Interestingly, I shifted M15 slightly off-center so that I could get a guide star bright enough to allow me to try the AO-L at a range of frequencies. Within the limitations of just six subexposures, it didn't seem to make much difference whether the AO-L was running at 4.5Hz (0.2s exposures w/ some latency) or at 0.5Hz (2s exposures). The image with the best FWHM was with the fast refreshes. Second best was with 2s exposures. Third and fourth were short exposures, and 5th and 6th with longer. FWHM measurements in CCDInspector ranged from 2.18" in the best exposure to 2.4" in the worst. Perhaps a slight advantage under these seeing conditions for faster refreshes? Hard to know for certain. Lots more experimentation required. Next steps are to try and fix the minor collimation issue, perform a Rodier test (just to satisfy myself that the optics are reasonably good), and look at whether there is any residual tilt that needs to be addressed by shimming the focuser. I'm very happy with these preliminary results, though. Post Extras:       David Pavlich Transmographied Reged: 05/18/05 Loc: Mandeville, LA USA Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422418 - 09/15/12 02:08 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Pretty impressive, Jared! Collimation is pretty close now. How's the CDK to collimate? David Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: David Pavlich]       #5422432 - 09/15/12 02:20 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   It's less finicky than my 10" RC for collimation--likely due to the spherical secondary mirror. Post Extras:       GlennLeDrew Postmaster Reged: 06/18/08 Loc: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5422582 - 09/15/12 04:18 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Easier collimation is definitely due, in part, to the spherical secondary. Having no discrete optical axis means there is requirement for centration, outside of fully intercepting the image-forming light cones. If the secondary is oversized, it can be appreciably off center and no injury to the image results. Simply tilt as required. Post Extras:       Nezar H member Reged: 08/11/11 Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: GlennLeDrew]       #5422752 - 09/15/12 06:44 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   hi jared , really great result .. have you tried to use the telescope for visual use, if yes ; please let me know how do you find it? i may go with the CDK24"! as all in one telescope .. Almost all in 1 ! thank you. Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Nezar H]       #5422775 - 09/15/12 07:03 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I used it visually for a few minutes, but it was really just to get the finder scope and main scope collimation. I also took a peak at the ring nebula, and it looked fantastic. I'll give you more of an answer on your main thread. Post Extras:       djnct sage Reged: 11/26/05 Loc: CT Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5423090 - 09/15/12 11:14 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Looks terrific- congrats and best wishes for your new scope! Dan Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: djnct]       #5423654 - 09/16/12 12:15 PM Attachment (67 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Managed to get the collimation tweaked last night and shimmed the focuser very slightly. Seeing conditions were a bit better, and I managed to get FWHM stars under 2" on a couple of my luminance frames. Wahoo! Here is the CCDInspector report... Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5423655 - 09/16/12 12:16 PM Attachment (99 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Here is the image... Post Extras:       astroRoy professor emeritus Reged: 07/09/11 Loc: Southern Oregon Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5423664 - 09/16/12 12:21 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Beautiful. I just shot this the other night and I can see from yours that my focus is still a little soft. I'll use yours for a guide - and a goal! Nice work, wonderful processing, awesome setup. Roy Post Extras:       Jared Post Laureate Reged: 10/11/05 Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S. Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: astroRoy]       #5424028 - 09/16/12 04:17 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks for the compliments, Roy! Post Extras:       pop super member Reged: 02/11/05 Re: Planewave CDK 12.5" First Light [Re: Jared]       #5424116 - 09/16/12 05:24 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Very nice picture. Why you change AT10RC to this CDK 12.5? It is a lot more expensive scope but less spot size and have dedicated flattener? Thank you very much for your nice and useful post. POP Post Extras:       Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all) Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Extra information 22 registered and 32 anonymous users are browsing this forum. 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