Ngc7606 with the IDK20

candrzej

Hello to all

I finally succeeded the process of ngc7606 with brand new flats kindly provided by Lukas today.

This object is a SB ac type galaxy located into the Acquarius constellation. Plenty of faint objects too, especiallly at the bottom of the image with one or two (?) a galaxy groups.

I hope you will like this view as I do 😉

Technical data

AG Optical IDK 20"
Caméra FLI Proline 16803
Luminance 40 exposures of de 300s (1x1)
Colors : R 12x300sec, G 12x300 sec B 12x300 sec (binning 2x2)
Temperature CCD -20°C

Full frame available here https://www.astrobin.com/a9uk5t/

Clear skies

Christian

lukas_demetz

Well done Christian!
Finally got rid of those dust donuts, eh? 😉

candrzej

Thanks Lukas, yes the brand new set of flats was very helpful indeed 😉

What about the new mount for the IDK? i have read that a new mount was planned to replaced the ASA.

Regards

Christian

candrzej

Thanks Lukas, yes the brand new set of flats was very helpful indeed 😉

Regards

Christian

lukas_demetz

Hi Christian,

well, yes, as you may have noticed the last ₁₀ days or so we had repeatedly issues with the mount. Basically, the DEC axis is at some point going nuts, and it looks like the internal encoder rotated somehow. So, once the axis gets to a value above 360 degrees (which, well, should not be possible) it thinks that it needs to turn back and starts spinning the axis in a (trust me) spectacular rotation. We got to about one rotation per second (!!). Long story short, we were lucky that the OTA itself is unharmed, but we do need to send in the mount for deeper checks.

But these take time. Dismantling the system, packing, shipping and fixing, and all the other way round, will take at least 6 weeks or so. What shall we do? I didn't want to keep the system for months in a unusable state with unknown times.
Luckily, we did have an order of a Planewave L-500 mount - the one planned for the upcoming dome in Namibia. Although it was scheduled to be mounted in april 2022, the mount is available and will be shipped tomorrow (monday) to my place in Italy, where I will add some needed tools and send it down to Namibia.

So, we will put the iDK 20 on the Planewave mount in a few weeks from now. The downtime should be minimal, as we will basically move the optical train over to the new mount, and only aterwards dismantle the ASA 😀

candrzej

thanks for your feed back Lukas, I removed my question in my las post as I found your post about upcoming changes for the equipment in 2022. The benefit with the L 500will be no more meridian filp to manage and certainty to get the same filed whatever the OTA position regarding the meridian...

My best wishes for this updgrade and happy to be back this winter with new images.

Regards

Christian

lukas_demetz

Hi Christian,
correct. We would work in alt-az mode with the (already present) derotator. I am also looking into integrating the rotator so that one can rotate the field as needed. Once I saw the L-500 in Spain (which, btw, shall be operational by the end of this week) I am very sure that this mount will be a mayor step forward. Damn is it quick 🙂