With the new QHY600 full frame mono cam now in hand,
the Stellarvue SFFX-2 flattener installed on the TMB 130SS,
and a new set of 50mm Chroma LRGB & SHO 3nm filters populating the filter wheel,
the time came to see where we stand in terms of tilt, backspacing, vignetting, etc
I had just shot a test image with the new flattener and the ASI2600MM camera set up.
The star shapes seemed very good with the APS-C size chip, image here
https://www.astrobin.com/xic33w/which made me decide to mount the QYH600 without initially messing with the backspacing.
The 50mm filter wheel was loaded with the Chroma filters, and mounted to the QHY600.
Missing a needed adapter (it's always something...), fortunately my friend Dave Erickson who was helping me at his house,
has a nicely equipped machine and optical shop in his garage.
In 10 mins on the lathe, he quickly cut down another spacer into the needed dimensions.
Decided to shoot the Pleiades again with the new camera rig so I can compare,
and there are lots of stars in the field so I can look more closely at factors like tilt , backspacing, etc.
Of course the neighbor had his megawatt flood lights on in the backyard, and he was out of town, so I had some fun dealing with some gradients.
So here it is, a tiny bit of tilt (which I don't think I will attempt to correct),
vignetting was 0.8 in the corners, so not too bad.
The back spacing is a little bit too close. I will add a 1mm spacer next and see where we end up.
BlurX corrected the stars in the corners a little bit, so that helps.
I cut the resoution down for this post, since the file size is huge!
Overall I'm very happy with the flattener, the QHY600 and the Chroma filters.
I noticed the Baader CMOS RGB filters on the 2600MM showed the slightest halo around the super bright stars. The Chroma RGB filters improved upon it, costly but better....
Thanks for looking,
Clear Skies
Pete
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