From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>
Date: April 11, 2009 9:36:48 AM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Meade f3.3 FRs...
Mark;
You can' remove "Black Edges" with Flats (note I said BLack not Gray or slightly darker, BLACK). In fact, if you have more than about 20% brightness variance across the field, you should fix or reconfigure the optics as your likely going to get very poor results.
And since the Guide Prism will be in the "Black Edges" area, you get no light there, which means you are much more limited (likely only 4th mag stars) in what stars you can use for the OAG.
And it IS a big deal, if your losing 20 or 30% of your field of view due to vignetning with a 640x480 pixels, that's a lot of pixels lost.
But do what you want, it's your money.
Milton Aupperle
--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@...> wrote:
Milton, It says in the "Dome Flats" section of the linked article that
vignetting is present & that a shadow was cast on the chip but
that..."In practise this isn`t a huge deal as it is only on the upper
5% of the image & can generally be flat fielded out without a
problem.." This is surely a good application of your "Flat Frame
Correct Movie" option, although obtaining a flat frame the same size
as the movie in question may be difficult- I don`t know- I was hoping
you`d have some insights..! As for the back motion, can`t this be
solved by having an extender tube on the nosepiece of the imaging
camera as I`ve already been using with the Flea 2 & the f6.3 FR? You
may be right I`ll have further problems with co-inciding the focus of
the 2 cameras? I was going to buy one of these f 3.3 FRs to experiment
with it unless I heard a good reason I`d be wasting my money & I think
the expenditure going on these parameters (above) may be OK after all.
I guess I`ll never know unless I try it in practise! Mark.
On 11/04/2009, at 6:38 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:
Mark;
On 10-Apr-09, at 10:21 AM, Mark Gaffney wrote:
Hi Milton, following on from my message to you privately today I`ve
been re-investigating f3.3 focal reducers. I got a good deal of
advice on these on the SCT user group a while ago & I think the
consensus was that the new version of the Meade f3.3 FRs were OK
but the older version was a bit suspect?I may have it the wrong way
around. I`ve been looking at this link I believe you sent me;http://benedict.isomedia.com/homes/cvedeler/scope/focal_reducers.htm
This is the place I got my Antares f6.3 FR & looks like a good deal
for them; http://www.agenaastro.com/Meade-f-3-3-Focal-Reducer-and-Variable-T-Adapter-p/ofr-me-3.3fr.htm
What do you think? Mark.
What do I think? About what am I supposed to offer an opinion on?
Pricing?
It's pretty clear the drop off on the edges of a F3.3 adapter is
excessive, and you get a lot of distortion too. And you may not have
enough back motion to get both cameras into focus. Lasltly, the drop
off on the edges will negatively affect the star brightness of the
Pick Off Prism on the OAG too for an F3.3.
Hope that helps..
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#916, 742 Kingsmere Crescent S.W.
Calgary Alberta T2V2H8
1-(403)-453-1624
milton@...
www.outcastsoft.com