this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
77 points (100.0% liked)

Astrophotography

1707 readers
27 users here now

Welcome to !astrophotography!

We are Lemmy's dedicated astrophotography community!

If you want to see or post pictures of space taken by amateurs using amateur level equipment, this is the place for you!

If you want to learn more about taking astro photos, check out our wiki or our discord!

Please read the rules before you post! It is your responsibility to be aware of current rules. Failure to be aware of current rules may result in your post being removed without warning at moderator discretion.

Rules




If your post is removed, try reposting with a different title. Don't hesitate to message the mods if you still have questions!


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Last year, I had my mirrors tested optically because I was never 100% content with even my "sharpest" results - there was always a feeling that there was an unnecessary bit of blur in the raw data.

Happily, the 20" mirror itself turned out to be quite good (not perfect, but at Strehl 0.89 and lambda/10 it is completely within spec and not worth refiguring) - however, the secondary turned out to show a frankly ridiculous lambda/2 (!) astigmatism. Since it was also on the small side for use in deepsky imaging (4" mirror on a 20" F/4 scope) I opted to replace it with a 5" diagonal from Ostashowski optics. The terrible weather in Western Europe in the last 6 months prevented me from doing any real testing (or even reinstalling the telescope in the observatory...) until now.

However, the 19th & 20th of March were finally "good" - good seeing (by our local standards...) and on the 20th, transparent skies.

This allowed me to finally stretch the renewed scope's legs a bit, resulting (among a mass of other still to be processed data) in this 62 megapixel mosaic of the Lunar North pole at 0.08"/pixel

Check out the full resolution image on https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartcentral/53618375534/sizes/o/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Gnomie 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That is a very sturdy observatory. Did you manufacture all of the metal parts yourself?

[–] bdeclerc 3 points 7 months ago

No - found a local metalworker (specialising in metal staircases and metal gates for properties) - the design was based off of a wooden concept designed by an engineer friend with astronomy experience. Because of the type of scope and mount, I wanted a low wall and not just a roll-off roof. I got inspiration from a local public observatory which has a big observation platform housing a 24" scope and a bunch of others where the entire roof and sidewall rolls back, but the final design is very different - I'm super happy with it, it's extremely sturdy yet can be opened with one hand.