As you will be aware from all the stuff I have written below, I am very busy looking at old data and also upgrading the rigs, in order to move into a new era of imaging, where hopefully I will be turning out work that is an order of magnitude better than you have ever seen from the NFO. Best laid plans of mice and men.
Working a lot with Noel Carboni over the last couple of weeks, looking at old data, something strange became apparent. Recent Hyperstar data had a very faint halo on the image that was fairly difficult to process out. We hadn’t seen any sign of a halo in earlier images. So what’s changed?
Earlier images were taken with the Starlight Xpress Trius M26C OSC CCD, and recent images have been taken using the ASI 2600MC Pro OSC CMOS camera. What’s the difference that might cause a halo issue? Well the M26C has a slightly smaller diameter than the 2600MC, but that really shouldn’t be an issue. However, the case of the M26C is of course BLACK, whereas the casing of the 2600MC Pro is that very nice shiny anodised RED colour. Oh Oh. This won’t cause any issues in a “normal” imaging rig of course where the camera sits on the back of the scope, but with the Hyperstar where the camera sits on the front, in front of the optics, we have a problem. So I have just spent the last half hour taping up the outside of the 2600MC Pro with black electrical tape (there is almost more black tape than telescope now to be honest) and I fully expect that annoying halo to magically disappear. Looks like it is going to be a clear (and freezing) night tonight, so it won’t be too long to find out. Fingers crossed.
