2016/11/10 Still Struggling ...

Received a new reducer/rotator design (super great customer service !)

Have a reasonable good focus ...

But still get egg shape stars on some corners...

And it rotates with the CCD (main lens and reducer don't rotate)

This is the one CCD face "up"

Rotate CCD to "left" 90 degree

Rotate CCD to "right" 90 degree

Still need to find out why ... ;-(

10/8/2016 Test New Equipment

Tested my new refractor at my backyard last night.

Pointed the scope to zenith (90 degree), takes many 10 sec exposures with L filter.

Imaging with my STT-8300 CCD, guiding is on with very smooth guiding curve.

The focuser is tighten too.

Here are some diagnosis images:

(1) You can see egg shape of stars at the top-left and top-right corners. 

(2) If I rotated the CCD to 90 degree, the egg shape stars are now at top-right and bottom-right corners.

(3) If I rotated the CCD to 180 degree, the egg shape stars are now at bottom-right and bottom-left corners

(4) If I rotated the CCD to 270 degree, the egg shape stars are now at bottom-left and top-right corners

I also point the scope to 45 degree and see if there is any flexure on the imaging train. The egg shape stars are still the same. I also tighten the focuser very hard so it should have nothing to do with flexure...

Veil - Narrow Band

First time using PI to combine different channels. Combined 2 nights, 8hr Ha + OIII 20min subs.
Pretty happy with this result.
More detail at http://www.astrobin.com/263408/

7/4/2016 BLM - Comet C/2015WZ and UGC 10491

Not a pretty picture but I really enjoy digging out the faint stuff from this 120sec exposure. I was trying to image this faint and small comet (5.5"), but found a weird shape of fuzzy. Turns out it is a galaxy with interesting shape.

FSQ-85 with 0.76x
SBIG-8300M
120s with L filter
Only process with flat and some stretch...

7/4/2016 BLM - Imaging Veil Ha 4hr

Consider this is my first official night out to image with my CCD. Joined 3 other friends and do an all nigh imaging. The image above is not fully processed yet, will need more NB data. 12 sub, 1200sec each with 7nm Ha filter.

BLM is kind of in the middle of nowhere ...

A couple images of our setups...

There are some bullets on the ground... kind of scary...

Still learning SGP

Jing Wee took several very amazing Milky Way images for me !!

6/5/2016 - First Saturn Image

Seeing was no good and most of my AP friends are at BLM imaging deep sky objects... :-(

I was too tired from the camping trip (company offsite event) so decide to just do something in my front yard. Even feel too tired to move the setup to the backyard !

 Never image Saturn before so still learning...

5/29/2016 SJAA RDCO Private Viewing

Weather has been bad since last year. Finally we have a relative clear weekend.

There are about 20+ scopes there and most of them doing visual.

I take my FC-100 out the first time.
I setup close to Ryan (my friend) who has a very nice 10" Dob.

This is also the first time I use DSC (digital setting circle).
It is like cheating as star-hopping is no need now.
I look at the following objects from 9:30pm to 12:00am.
M3
M53
M64
M80
M107
M84
M86
M87
M88
M91
M100
M85
M59
M60
M58
M90
M89
M49
M61
M99
M98
M51
M63
M94
M101
M106
M4
M9
M12
M10
M5
NCG4762
M19
M62
M57
M56
M29

There is also a 8inch refractor there !!

The sky was OK dark but not very transparent.
I am not sure if I trust the SQM reading from my iPhone.
The milky way is not visible...