12 replies to this topic

[hornjs]

Not sure what I've done to deserve all this nice (~100F) weather but another cloudless, windless sunny day in Billings.  Seeing was 4/5 again today.

 

Today's learning revolved around the new Lunt DS unit I got in the mail.  The Rafcamera adapter came MANY months ago and the whole setup was pretty easy to put together.

Imaging train went Altair front Derf, Omni 120xlt, 80 extension, 50 extension, player one erf, quark chromosphere, rafcamera adapter with Lunt 40 ds unit inside, zwo 432 with tilter.

I had to bump up the gain and exp a touch as SunRick outlined in his older oft referenced thread.  Typical Ha settings for me are gain - 205 exp 5-6ms.  With the DS my gain was 225 and exp up to 16ms. 

I played with the tilt tuner a bit and will need to experiment a bit more.  It was just so dang hot out I didn't want to bake anymore whilst fiddling.  I have some really bad unevenness in my DS

setup.  I tried flats but didn't seem to help too much.  I believe there is a strange reflection going on somewhere in the train that isn't flat calibrating.  When I image the limb, I see some bright looking columns off to the side (off sun limb).  These don't disappear

with dialing the thumb wheel on the Lunt unit.  Maybe I need to get rid of the internal erf as a separate reflective surface?  

 

Usual setups:

WL:  Altair planeta 101/11, Altair wedge, Baader continuum, zwo 462, Apertura 2.5x, Altair 5x

CaK:  Planeta, Lunt CaK wedge, zwo462, Apertura 2.5x barlow

Ha:  Omni 120xlt, Altair D-erf, quark chromoshpere, player one erf, Lunt40ds, zwo 432

sharpcap, autostakkert, imppg, pixinsight

 

 

All these at 5x:                                                                                          CaK AR3738 at 2.5x:  

   

 

 

 

Edited by hornjs, 10 July 2024 - 11:03 PM.

[Jaimo!]

It does not look like a good reason to leave the Lunt on alone.  The combo image is outstanding (Quark + Lunt)!

[Jim Waters]

I agree with Jaimo above.  Outstanding images hornjs..!

 

Consider yourself lucky.  Phoenix is ranging from 116 to 119F in the shade for the last few days.

[C0rs4ir_]

Hi, the unevenness is coming from the Quark, as its visible on the Quark alone image. It is not on band, too. Hopefully you can adjust the temperature knob to optimize it.

The ds is then amplifying this unevenness. My guess.

[hornjs]

It does not look like a good reason to leave the Lunt on alone.  The combo image is outstanding (Quark + Lunt)!

 

Yeah, I like the DS image as well

 

I agree with Jaimo above.  Outstanding images hornjs..!

 

Consider yourself lucky.  Phoenix is ranging from 116 to 119F in the shade for the last few days.

Thanks Jim!  Yeah, I am not sure what I would do at 119.  Certainly not setup or be outside lol.

 

Hi, the unevenness is coming from the Quark, as its visible on the Quark alone image. It is not on band, too. Hopefully you can adjust the temperature knob to optimize it.

The ds is then amplifying this unevenness. My guess.

Yeah, I have an uneven quark, that much is known.  Flats were doing a good job, but much harder with the ds added to it.  I still think there is a reflection somewhere.  I will post an image of the "columns" of brightness I am seeing.

And I have the knob set to max CCW (-5)  I need a couple more clicks in this heat but just don't have it.  My light is green though during imaging.  

[C0rs4ir_]

Yeah, I have an uneven quark, that much is known.  Flats were doing a good job, but much harder with the ds added to it.  I still think there is a reflection somewhere.  I will post an image of the "columns" of brightness I am seeing.

And I have the knob set to max CCW (-5)  I need a couple more clicks in this heat but just don't have it.  My light is green though during imaging.  

Ok, so it wants to be cooler.. then you can try to get better energy rejection like the Antlia 2" erf.. but hard to tell without seeing images from all the knob settings.

But apart of this the ds definitive provides good images.

Edited by C0rs4ir_, 11 July 2024 - 03:08 AM.

[rigel123]

Hi, the unevenness is coming from the Quark, as its visible on the Quark alone image. It is not on band, too. Hopefully you can adjust the temperature knob to optimize it.

The ds is then amplifying this unevenness. My guess.

I agree with this too, and the DS does improve the image a lot.  It looks like you got a great etalon from Lunt.

[gstrumol]

You're in the groove now, Jeff! Excellent images  

[hornjs]

Ok, so it wants to be cooler.. then you can try to get better energy rejection like the Antlia 2" erf.. but hard to tell without seeing images from all the knob settings.

But apart of this the ds definitive provides good images.

So when I originally purchased it (December) I was using it with a WO GT71.  It was certainly more on band at CCW -4 setting. 

When I moved up to the Celestron Omni 120xlt, I thought the extra aperture was providing too much heat to the quark, causing it to shift off band.  

-5 CCW makes it better but not quite.  So I got a front mounted D-erf along with a player one internal erf i front of the quark.  Still looks off band to me. 

I figured if the external temperature was causing that much problem, the light would never turn green?

 

 

I agree with this too, and the DS does improve the image a lot.  It looks like you got a great etalon from Lunt.

Yeah I am excited once I get it fine tuned

You're in the groove now, Jeff! Excellent images  

Thanks Gary!

[LYAstro]

The quark settings don't seem to be in the optimal frequency band.

[Jamez]

Those are an outstanding set of photos. Just wonderful. Looking forward to seeing when you get it really tweaked ! :-)

Best

[C0rs4ir_]

So when I originally purchased it (December) I was using it with a WO GT71.  It was certainly more on band at CCW -4 setting. 

When I moved up to the Celestron Omni 120xlt, I thought the extra aperture was providing too much heat to the quark, causing it to shift off band.  

-5 CCW makes it better but not quite.  So I got a front mounted D-erf along with a player one internal erf i front of the quark.  Still looks off band to me. 

I figured if the external temperature was causing that much problem, the light would never turn green?

Hm too much red shift then. So either cooling it down somehow or reducing the f-ratio. Tilting is not an option sadly. First option is not so easy (you can check by turning it off and see if contrast improves during the cooldown process) and second option will broaden the fwhm.

 

The green light just says a stable temerature has been reached for a heater setting. The heaters are not calibrated for each etalon it seems, they just offer some temperatures in which Daystar estimates the etalon will come on band. Sometimes this is not enough temperature range.

Edited by C0rs4ir_, 11 July 2024 - 11:20 AM.

[hornjs]

Hm too much red shift then. So either cooling it down somehow or reducing the f-ratio. Tilting is not an option sadly. First option is not so easy (you can check by turning it off and see if contrast improves during the cooldown process) and second option will broaden the fwhm.

 

The green light just says a stable temerature has been reached for a heater setting. The heaters are not calibrated for each etalon it seems, they just offer some temperatures in which Daystar estimates the etalon will come on band. Sometimes this is not enough temperature range.

Thanks for helping me think through it.  I'm going to put it through the range of settings again and see if I can figure out what I can do.  Will start off, then heat and go through the settings.