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New to me Solarmax 90 etalon, Full Disk 5-12-2022

Started by hopskipson , May 14 2022 04:22 PM

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3 replies to this topic

#1 hopskipson

Skylab

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Posts: 4,038
Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Loc: Queens, New Yawk, Light pollution Headquarters!

Posted 14 May 2022 - 04:22 PM

It's been a while since I've been able to do any imaging but I have been acquiring some new equipment. I found a Tucson-era SM90 on Astromart. It needed repair and Lunt suggested a shop in Tucson. It took about a month and a half but I have to say it was worth the wait. It shows chromospheric details with no tilt and comes on band with minimal tilt. Of course, the weather and my schedule didn't match but I managed to squeeze in some time on Thursday. Visually this is as good as it gets lots of contrast and uniformity. I use it on an ES102ed with a 30mm blocking filter. I captured these with an ASI1600mm. I think I have to lower the histogram fill as the ARs seem to get blown out.

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#2 MalVeauX

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Joined: 25 Feb 2016
Loc: Florida

Posted 14 May 2022 - 04:30 PM

Nice discs James!

Uniformity has issues, might just be tuning, the last image has a central band, and the first two have two off center hot spots, I'd be curious to see if this is tuning or if its uniformity is just like that. Hard to find these old etalons. Very cool you found someone who could even attempt to repair!

Very best,

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#3 hopskipson

Skylab

topic starter

Posts: 4,038
Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Loc: Queens, New Yawk, Light pollution Headquarters!

Posted 14 May 2022 - 05:07 PM

Nice discs James!

Uniformity has issues, might just be tuning, the last image has a central band, and the first two have two off center hot spots, I'd be curious to see if this is tuning or if its uniformity is just like that. Hard to find these old etalons. Very cool you found someone who could even attempt to repair!

Very best,

Thanks for the comments.

Time was very limited and seeing made it hard to tune and find the sweet spot. I noticed the banding once I started processing in ImPPG. Learning a new system will take a few more, longer sessions