First outdoor tests were made on Feb. 3. Allthough the moon was there and polar-alignment was bad, it was possible to image some deep sky objects. First was M42 which is of course quit bright, but then I was astonished to see 8k M51 with spiral arms with 8 second integrations in the softwares finder mode. Not overwhelming, mainly because ice was forming on the chip when it cooled down. Meanwhile I have made the LDC-modification, which reduces dark current by more than an oder of magnitude.
First results follow.
All images were exposed for 120 seconds and a dark field was subtracted. The new LDC was on and a focal reducer was used. Globular cluster M3, jpeg, 7k Spiral galaxy M65, 1.5 x zoomed detail, jpeg, 5k Spiral galaxy M66, 1.5 x zoomed detail, jpeg, 5k Two problems bothered me when the images were made. First, several streetlights which are covered by trees during summer, are lighting my observation place and caused the steep background gradient in the images, visible from the down left edge to upper right. Second, cooling was something around 0 deg Celsius, because the problem with condensations and ice still remains.