Last night we had perfect conditions and so I set up my brand new 10Micron GM 1000 HPS in the garden and mounted my Pentax 75/500 APO on it.
First as described in the manual:
What surprised me a bit was the fact that the mount was still quite massive next to the stars during the second 3-star alignment. Then 3x refine star. After that prism out and my old 20Da in. Focus and then drive to M88.
>> The object was PERFECTLY in the center of the field of view!
5 minutes UNGUIDED at 400 ASA gave PERFECTLY ROUND stars. Then slew to M13 in Hercules. Again, this wonderful object was PERFECTLY in the center of the field of view! Although M13 was not yet high above horizon, the exposure of 5 minutes UNGUIDED at 400 ASA again resulted in PERFECT ROUND stars.
The proud price of the mount is justified in any case. The buyer gets with the 10Micron GM 1000 HPS an extremely accurate, perfectly manufactured mount, which is ideally suited for the most demanding photographic purposes. I will create images with 10 minutes exposure unguided at the next opportunity and am convinced that this wonderful mount will also master this challenge!
The good weather period had to be used to tackle the almost unbelievable exposure time of 10 minutes WITHOUT GUIDING.
After a first failed attempt, which is to be searched in an insufficient Alignement, it went yesterday night again to the work. I used my Pentax 75/500 and for the shots my aged Canon 20Da.
On the telescope I did NOT use a prism on recommendation of Mr. Risch, but used the crosshair eyepiece directly. The accuracy is thus - as the results of the night show - drastically increased. In order not to break your neck when looking into the crosshairs, a webcam or the video output of a digital camera could also be used.
Procedure:
I had mapped 12 stars at the end (see display). It would be important to mention that during the alignment the function "DRIVE/Dual Tracking" is switched off. During the photo session itself, this function must be switched on again!
The following result (see pictures on the right) really surprised me!
I exposed the Leo triplet first for 5 minutes unguided. And afterwards full 10 minutes! If you imagine the precision that such a long exposure time requires without guiding support, the result is extremely amazing.
As soon as the 10 minute exposure was finished, I parked the mount and looked at the result on the 30 inch screen. The result: In both cases (5 min SOON as 10 min) I was gifted with point-like stars to my amazement (see pictures).
Upgrade: GM 1000 HPS on own column with TEC APO 140
The 10micron 1000 HPS - the masterpiece of precision engineering - manages to image absolutely point-like stars even at the magic exposure time of 10 minutes WITHOUT GUIDING. However, this requires a perfect alignment. At this point I would like to thank the Baader team for their exemplary support and assistance!
(translated Team Baader Planetarium)
