Scope status, may 2022

lukas_demetz

Hi guys,

now that I am back from Namibia I woul dlike to post some updates on the systems:

Namibia iDK20

So before I left back in April to Namibia, I got the (bad) message that the scope hit the roof (or was it the other way round?):

Ouch.
So how do you fix a broken carbon truss tube with only three days of lead time? Well, we added a supporting part in steel to get it straight again, and glued it together. Problem solved.
Plenty of recollimation was needed, and the planned rebalancing aso took place in this time.

The shutter needs to be re-tightened (a spring in the shutter used by FLI needs this from time to time)
Update on 8th may 2022: Shutter has been re-tightened, but it is now not opening correctly. Awaiting further instructions from FLI
Update 11th may 2022: Shutter has been shipped by FLI via express service. Shall be in Namibia and mounted within the 22nd may 2022.
Update 20th may 2022: Shutter is in Windhoek and cleared customs, we are waiting for release after confirmation of duty payment 🙂
Update 23th may 2022: Shutter has been swapped, should operate normally again

Status: Operating normally
Potential issues: Sometimes the derotator is not correctly derotating. This happens sporadically if it has no connection to the scope driver. Usually not an issue. ~~Shutter is not opening correctly, a bright center with no illumination around it.~~

Namibia ASA H8

This has been once again a long story. Dissatisfied with the issues we had with the Veloce 200 - mostly reflections, but also suboptimal resolution - I have been able to grab one of the last ASA H8 hyperbolic astrographs. As it turns out, this was sort of a testing device made by ASA with a very particular mirror. Spot size has been measured on the optical bench with 2.4 micron RMS (!). So expectations were high when in a first step the system had been swapped with the Veloce at the end of march 2022.

While pretty good, clearly there were collimation issues and what not. My job has been to clean up the cabling, get the correct distancing to the corrector, and then dial in the collimation. It took me five nights and days, and it really drove me crazy. Until we figured out that the QHY camera is introducing the tilt, which we "fixed" with some distancers in one corner.
From this:

To this:

So is the collimation perfect? No, not completely. The camera is missing a real tip tilt adapter, so it is impossible to dial it in correctly. We will swap it with a Moravian camera in the future, which should be a benefit anyway.

Note to all: Using bin 1x1 now yields sharp images, and could be said to be the "correct" binning to use. Only the frames are so huge (120MB each) that it might hurt your computer while processing 🙂
**Update May 11th 2022: New Moravian C3-61000 camera has been shipped. Awaiting a custom adapter, and then will somehow get this to the scope. This shall solve once and for all all collimation and tilt issues.
Update 19th may 2022: We got the new Moravian camera, now just waiting for the custom adapter and then will ship to Namibia.

Status: Operating halfway normally
Potential issues: Autocalibration not active due to memory issues in MaximDl. Tilt is somewhat variable. Huuuuge downloads

Namibia RC360

The RC360 is our first customer supplied system. This will be a concept we will apply for quite some systems.
This one has been installed at the beginning of April 2022, and is truly exceptionally collimated and working very well. It is planned to be a photometric system, but we are waiting since several months for the respective filters.

Update (20/05/2022): The autoguider has software issues, and has for now simply been disabled. We are waiting for a swap with an ASI camera to see if the issue gets solved.
Update (27/05/2022): Autoguider is working again after we replaced a USB cable.
Status: Operating normally
Potential issues: Photometric filters not yet available, ETA mid-june

Namibia FSQ106

At the end of april 2022 a FSQ106 has been setup in Namibia. We are still testing and tuning the system, and I'd expect it to go online by the end of may 2022.
Status: Internal testing
Potential issues:

Spain Veloce 200

In the northern hemisphere, we have our Veloce operating "normally", but due to a bad weather streak it was basically dormant since february. We have a new camera ready (with the IMX455 chip) which will be installed as soon as we get the missing filter wheel.
Status: Operating normally
Potential issues: Focusing is sometimes an issue

Spain CDK500

Regrettably the weak point of this otherwise world-class system is still the dome: The shutter broke the third time within a few months, and we are waiting for a replacement motor for the dome shutter.
A new camera is planned as well, again a Moravian C3 with the IMX455 chip.
Status: Unusable due to dome shutter
Potential issues: Focusing is sometimes an issue.

New Mexico Dream Astrograph

One of our other partner systems is sitting in New Mexico, and is delivering exceptional images. Personally I also like being able to image "during the day" from Europe 🙂

Status: Operating normally
Potential issues: none known right now

fernandoyang

Hello Lukas,

Thank you for days of hard works to bring these equipment for us to use.

But the tilt problem of the H8 is more obvious today... 😅

lukas_demetz

@fernandoyang Yes, this is depending on the position. The connection filter wheel <-> camera is absurdly odd, and it's where I had to insert some shims to correct for tilt of the chip. We will solve this once and for all with a new camera in a few months, but until then we'll have to live with it. It's a shame that QHY won't produce a real connector instead of this dovetail stuff. It simply doesn't work with such big small pixeled chips...