First Light - FL ProLine v M51

Folks - I recently acquired a Finger Lakes ProLine imager with a Kodak 1001E CCD.

As it stands, I'm awaiting various adapters to correctly attach a filter wheel and the PDF focuser. At the moment I'm getting strong vignetting but the adapters should help.

I've also a good deal of work to do in terms of calibration frames. So far I've only taken darks and not many of them.

As part of the process of getting the imaging train up and running, I shot a few galaxies last night at -46 deg C (the ProLine can go -65 below ambient). The vignetting was very evident as were numerous dust motes and what I think are a couple of column defects.

So, take a peek at M51 and let me know what you think.

www.astroshack.net/gallery/galaxies/M51.php

Dave

Superb image Dave! Great resolution and detail!
Slight background gradient in the image around the galaxy though and some of the stars look just a tad too sharp. However, these are minor comments.

For first light, I'm pretty impressed by this beast of an imager.

The vignetting is pretty bad (the galaxy main just fits inside its circle) but that is only because of my temporary method of attachment to the SCT. In fact, the image you see is heavily cropped (about 40%)

I might take a few flats today in preparation for tonight. I'm expecting the correct adapters by mid April - then I can get the filter wheel and PDF working too.

In order to get rid of the sharpness you see, I guess more data (longer subs) will be the solution. That'll help the processing and reduce those 'artifacts'.

I'm pleased with the roundness of the stars too - I'm assuming that means I don't have any major coma issues and tracking was good. I also seem not to have any major collimation issues.

All in all, I think I can be satisfied with progress so far.

On an aside, my first hour or so was spent tracking down a few asteroids. I have a confirmed mag 17.6 so far with hopefully a lot more to go.

Dave

Grand image Dave, like Mike said the background has a gradient.
The stars seem good as does the focus and the galaxy detail, you're definitely onto a winner setup there.
i see its 85 images of 30 second exposures, is it possible to go for something like a longer exposure like a few minutes to catch the out arm area?? or does sky glow come back and bit you.

Dave - the vignetting is terrible. That's what the gradient is. I have new adapters on the way that will hopefully help.

I was just trying it out last night, hence the short subs. But I'm trying another favourite tonight with 2 minute subs - we'll see! Initial indications are that the visibilty of the vignetting decreases with increasing expsore.

One worrying development is the appearance of rather a lot of what seem to be defective columns...

I'll keep you posted.

Dave