usingan astrodon monster m o a gwitha takahashi f s q-106 n（usingan astrodon怪物m o gwitha高桥f s q - 106 n）（12页）.docVIP

Using an Astrodon MonsterMOAG with a Takahashi FSQ-106N Frank Barnes III December 15, 2007 Taking guided CCD images with a telescope/camera combination presents unique challenges in every configuration. Some are easy to overcome, some not so easy. One goal of taking a good astro image is to produce round stars. When using one telescope/camera for taking the image, and another telescope/camera for guiding the imaging combo, movement between the two systems can cause stars to be elongated in the exposed image. Because the two telescopes can and usually do “flex”, (differential flexure) and have many places where this flex can occur, it can be hard to find and eliminate. Another issue is guiding behind your filters. When using a SBIG dual chip camera, and imaging through the clear filter, your guide star may be bright enough for good guiding, but when the blue filter is used, the star may be too dim to guide on. It is even worse if using narrowband filters, as they attenuate the guide star many times more than the blue filter. Every telescope has a certain amount of usable “Backfocus”, or the distance behind a defined spot on the telescope where the image plane (in focus point) exists. At that point, the camera chip needs to be perfectly square with the optical path to prevent distortion of the image. If your image train components are shorter than that distance, then the focus tube (refractor) will be extended to place the chip at the focus point. With today’s large chip cameras and even larger filter wheels, the weight that must be supported by that extended focus tube can easily top 8-10 lbs. This can cause the focus tube to “flex” as the telescope tracks across the sky and this can cause the chip to become tilted on the optical plane resulting in distorted stars especially in the corners of the chip. Here is an example of focuser “sag” as I rotated my camera through 180 degrees. Note the changing collimation and curvature numbers in the top left corne