Introduction | Photos | References
On this page I present photos taken with the Atik Infinity camera on December 7, 2017.
The following photos were my third attempt with the Atik Infinity camera.
Since the Heritage 100P is designed for purely visual observation, the camera does not come into focus with this telescope. However, this can be remedied by using barlow lenses or focal extenders that move the focus point in the direction of the telescopic tube.
I tried out this opportunity on this day with a cheap 2 x Sky-Watcher Barlow lens and a 2 x focal extender from Explore Scientific.
With my third attempt on December 7, 2017, I firstly wanted to clarify whether I would be able to come into focus with the camera on the Heritage 100P and, if not, whether this would, as described, be possible using a Barlow lens or a focal extender. In the case of Barlow lenses / extenders, a magnification factor of two would result in doubling the focal length, but the light intensity would also drop by two f-stops. The first effect would be welcome, at least for small objects such as the Ring Nebula or globular clusters, but the second would be less welcome, as exposure times would quadruple.
At first, the new test showed that the camera indeed cannot get into focus on the Heritage 100P, because the focus point is too far inside. Secondly, both a 2 x Barlow lens (Sky-Watcher) and a 2 x focal extender (Explore Scientific) moved the focus outward far enough so that the camera comes into focus on the Heritage 100P. My first experiments were done with a cheap Sky-Watcher Barlow lens, but then I also tried my Explore Scientific focal extender (although I originally thought that it was too heavy for the Heritage 100P), because when I was using the Barlow lens on the Dumbbell Nebula M 27, I was not able to achieve acceptable results. After all, with the focal extender they were not significantly better ...
Basically, one has to say that with a Barlow Lens / focal extender, objects appear distinctly "fainter" than without one. Here, in addition to the loss of light caused by the Barlow lens / focal extender, the surface brightness may also play a role, because the area is four times as large due to the magnification.
Overall, it can be said that the Atik Infinity camera can be used on the Heritage 100P with a Barlow lens / focal extender. The magnification is even slightly above that of my Explorer 150PDS (800 mm vs. 750 mm focal length), but the loss of light is immense. Therefore, I do not know yet, whether I will go with this solution. I would use the tele extender, which I expected to perform better than the cheap Sky-Watcher Barlow lens, but the differences between the two are not as big as I had expected, based on the low quality of the Barlow lens. A test with the Explorer 150PDS is still on my waiting list...
In the following, I present a few examples of the results achieved on December 7, 2017 (although they are actually very modest ...), which I saved as JPG images from the Infinity program and post-processed a little bit. Overall, these shots are fainter than the first ones, although I exposed much longer, but they are, at least, a little bit sharper. Nevertheless, focusing still remains a problem for me... The shots with the focal extender seem to get, at least, a little more out of the fainter objects, and the sharpness seems to be a bit better overall. But this was not a serious comparison test for the two "extenders"...
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M 57 (Ring Nebula in Lyra), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 15 (Pegasus), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 56 (Lyra), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 27 (Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
I created the "more aggressive" versions later, therefore the sections are different. The Barlow lens versions show vignetting in the original files.
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M 57 (Ring Nebula in Lyra), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 15 (Pegasus), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 56 (Lyra), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
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M 27 (Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula), unprocessed |
Ditto, post-processed |
Ditto, more "aggressively" post-processed |
I created the "more aggressive" versions later, therefore the sections are different.
