This isn't the first attempt, and it all ended up in the trash... This is a difficult object that requires good atmospheric conditions. I have a city in that direction, and when the sky is poor, something low-contrast and colorless emerges.
Full calibration with about 25-30 frames each.
Captured on April 11 and 15, 2023.
Everything comes gradually. At first, you get something blurry that looks like a galaxy, and you’re as happy as a child. Then it seems sharp, and you’re jumping for joy again... Now I see the flaws and just adjust.
What I’m getting at is: April was a month when the sky was clear almost every day. You shoot and don’t notice that the telescope is misaligned. Then in May, I figured it all out and tuned it—twisted the focuser, adjusted the mirror. The stars became about 20% sharper: they went from 2.9–3 to 2.4–2.6. I noticed that the tube is, let’s say, pretty flimsy—when you insert the laser into the focuser and wiggle the focuser, the dot jumps all over the place. So basically, I need to reinforce the focuser assembly. I have a month; I’ll get it done.
As for a field flattener, I’m not thinking about installing one yet.
The tubes on the SW are a bit flimsy. I reinforced the area around the focuser with fiberglass composite. I also modified the focuser itself. It helped a lot.
10 Jun, 2023
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