The Orion 10" f/3.9 Astrograph
Main page for images and equipment
Updated 8/28/16

This page is devoted to our new instrument, shown here at our Payson location observatory mounted on the Astrophysics AP1200 mount. Also mounted is the six inch Cometracker astrograph and a 80mm guide scope. The new 10" f/3.9 system is to supplement the 12.5" f/5 setup which swaps out on the same mount. The primary reason for getting this superb instrument was to image comets that are of naked eye brightness which never fit in the small field of the 12 inch, and the 90mm SV80 refractor does not have the resolution for this once or twice a year opportunity. Also, this instrument provides a larger 1 degree field for deep sky imaging and there are many objects such as NGC2174 that simply were too big to fit. The fast f/3.9 will be a chore to keep collimated, but with the Baader MPCC coma corrector the results so far have been very good and have demonstrated some very superb comet images.

            
 Here are
            a few more images of the setup:

            

            

            
On the left is
            the flat fielding box I made for the 10 inch, it evenly lights
            the field with four white LED's and some diffuser. It workes
            quite well, the vignetting in the 10 and 6 inch scopes can be
            completely removed with this setup. On the right the flat box
            is mounted on the 10 inch for taking flats. Exposures are about
            half a second for bin1, and .1 seconds for bin2 for a 75% histogram.

 
And now here are some selected images with the new 10" astrograph:
 

            

First Quarter Moon
close ups with 5x
7/12/16

            

Moretus
Start of a extensive 
series of Lunar images
with the new 10" and
IR pass filter
6/13/16

            

Lunar images in 1.5/5
seeing with the 10"
4/18/16

            

Comet Linear 252P
4/2/16

            

Comet Catalina US10
3/26/16

            

Lunar images in moderate
seeing with the
5x barlow
3/16/16

            

M65/66 in Leo
3/16/16

            

M44 galaxies
3/12/16

            

Comet Catalina US10
3/10/16

            

Comet CG in Leo
2/14/16

            

Lunar images in moderate
good seeing with the
5x barlow
2/20/16

            

Jupiter with resolved
moons with 10"
2/22/16

            

Comet Catalina US10
1/12/16

            

NGC2174 in Orion
2/9/16

            


            
Horsehead Final
test with new 10 inch
2/8/16

            

IC417 flat field
box test
2/2/16

            


            
Horsehead speed 
test with new 10 inch
1/31/16

            


            
Comparisons with Jupiter
with the new Orion
Planetary filter set
1/16/16

            
 
Comet Catalina US10
1/12/16

            

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
with star sprays
2/15/16


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