The focus control on a Schmidt Cassegrain is a small knob on the back of the telescope; when you touch it, the whole thing vibrates, image shakes and focusing is not easy. So I have bought a Celestron Focus Motor.
Fitting it was very straight forward, the motor came with all the adjusters needed to replaced the manual focus. I managed to leave out a tightening grub screw which meant that at first, when the motor turned, the focus knob didn't, but once the crew was tightening, everything worked.
The software was the biggest nuisance. Celestron has a new combined scope/focuser driver but that didn't work. The older driver seemed ok but the utility kept disconnecting when I was trying to run a calibration. In the end, running it from within Astrophotography Tool (APT) seemed to cure all ills.
I have made a bigger Bahtinov mask that can fit over the dew shield, making it easier to check focus that way. There is a utility in APT which helps you check whether focus si sharp with the Bahtinov mask on. So, I have tried using this, as well as the Focus Aid and Auto Focus Aid in APT. The point of focus seemed very similar. I have also entered focus offsets for the different filters, which APT will apply automatically as each type of filter is used. I have yet to check the R, G and B offsets via the Bahtinov mask though.
So, this is the first image made with the new focus motor attached. Focusing was easier, though it is a bit of a slow process at the moment due to my inexperience.
This image of Messier 63, the Sunflower Galaxy, is based on the following subs, all at 180s:
44 L
25 R
20 G
22 B
Darks, Flats and Dark Flats were used for calibration.
L and RGB were processed separately in PS. On combining the two, all I did was to use Hasta LA Vista Green filter, which seemed more effective than trying to Colour Balance.
APOD: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across. That's about the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Known by the popular moniker, The Sunflower Galaxy, M63 sports a bright yellowish core. Its sweeping blue spiral arms are streaked with cosmic dust lanes and dotted with star forming regions. A dominant member of a known galaxy group, M63 has faint, extended features that are likely star streams from tidally disrupted satellite galaxies (just visible in the lower bottom right of the galaxy). M63 shines across the electromagnetic spectrum and is thought to have undergone bursts of intense star formation.
Fitting it was very straight forward, the motor came with all the adjusters needed to replaced the manual focus. I managed to leave out a tightening grub screw which meant that at first, when the motor turned, the focus knob didn't, but once the crew was tightening, everything worked.
The software was the biggest nuisance. Celestron has a new combined scope/focuser driver but that didn't work. The older driver seemed ok but the utility kept disconnecting when I was trying to run a calibration. In the end, running it from within Astrophotography Tool (APT) seemed to cure all ills.
I have made a bigger Bahtinov mask that can fit over the dew shield, making it easier to check focus that way. There is a utility in APT which helps you check whether focus si sharp with the Bahtinov mask on. So, I have tried using this, as well as the Focus Aid and Auto Focus Aid in APT. The point of focus seemed very similar. I have also entered focus offsets for the different filters, which APT will apply automatically as each type of filter is used. I have yet to check the R, G and B offsets via the Bahtinov mask though.
So, this is the first image made with the new focus motor attached. Focusing was easier, though it is a bit of a slow process at the moment due to my inexperience.
This image of Messier 63, the Sunflower Galaxy, is based on the following subs, all at 180s:
44 L
25 R
20 G
22 B
Darks, Flats and Dark Flats were used for calibration.
L and RGB were processed separately in PS. On combining the two, all I did was to use Hasta LA Vista Green filter, which seemed more effective than trying to Colour Balance.
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| Messier 63 The Sunflower Galaxy |
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