Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  IC 3476  ·  M 88  ·  NGC 4468  ·  NGC 4474  ·  NGC 4501  ·  NGC 4516
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M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test, andrea tasselli
M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test
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M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test, andrea tasselli
M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test
Powered byPixInsight

M88 RGB - New Rig Field Test

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Description

So this is a "New Rig" test, don't expect any fireworks here! I'd have preferred testing with some well known nebula but, as I have already targeting M88 with my other rigs it seemed appropriate check the boradband performance of the camera, together with the other new equipment that I was itching to get going. Overall I'm quite pleased on how the rig behaved, with few glitches along the way, possibly because I'm quite new to this N.I.N.A. thing and semi-automation in image centering and acquisition (no autofocusing as yet). However, the centerpiece of the test is on how the scope a TS Photon 150mm f/4 together with the SharpStar MPCC coma corrector and the camera, a Altair Astro 533c were performing as an ensamble. The coma corrector performed admirably considering that 3/4 of the test shots were carried out with a 3-month old collimation of the newt (then I recollimated as it seemed to show an asymmetry if field correction, which proved to be real) . I'm also pleased to report that despite the huge lever arm (~ 20cm) the whole imaging combo remained rather stable in various point positions. I'm, however, on the fence with regard to the AA HyperCam 533c. Its raw performance is quite good and its read noise very low together with no amp glow. Software side, unbelieveably their own supplied software wasn't working properly with the camera, although this is a minor issue as I'd be not using it for imaging anyway (am using NINA for that). The test was carried out without any filtering and supposedly the camera comes with in-built UV/IR rejection window. Looking at the raw star images I couldn't fail to spot a worrisome reddish central spot in brighter stars and rather "neutral" colour in the galaxies, meaning the colours looked rather bland when the image is significantly stretched. Which means, IMO, that there is a IR leek from the AR window. I'll have to test this hypothesis with a couple of IR-pass filters and see what happens.

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