Spent the whole of this morning up to 3:00 p.m. swapping out Sky90(3) for 200mm lens(3).
The top image shows the imaging head of the array, whilst the image below shows how the array sits on the Paramount ME. For the moment I have the side-panels off the head so I can tweak the collimation on 200mm lens(3), but once collimated, the side panels will go back on.
So what can we see in the imaging head image? The bottom two scopes are a pair of Sky90s with f#4.5 reducer/correctors, filter-wheels and Trius M26C CCDs attached. The odd-looking black thing in the centre is the counterweight for all the cameras, filter-wheels and anything else stuck on the back. Top left in the black box section is the recently installed Canon 200mm lens with Astromechanics focuser and 2600MC Pro CMOS camera. In the top right hand side port we have an 80mm William Optics refractor which is the guidescope with a Lodestar guide camera on the back. On the top of the black box, we have several intruders that the array did not originally include. On either edge is a Canon 200mm prime lens with Astromechanics focuser and 2600MC Pro CMOS camera. In between the 200mm lenses is a wide-angle viewscope which allows rough alignment for when the kit hasn’t been used in a while.
In the lower image showing the whole rig you can see how the (very heavy!) imaging head sits on top of the Paramount ME which is the beast that throws this lot around the heavens.
Final jobs to be done include getting a new set of V-Curves for the new 200mm lens so I can focus using FocusMax, and also collimating the new 200mm lens rig. Then I need to align all 3 x 200mm lenses so that when I stack all the images together from each camera they fit together as well as possible without any nasty gaps/rotations. Alignment itself can easily take a whole evening. But if we continue to get clear evenings I can get on with it as the phase of the Moon doesn’t bother me for setting up focusing and alignment.
