Here some of the first images I took with my Atik 460 mono cam. All using a Canon 70-200 mm, f2.8 telephoto lens set to 200mm and 1.4x teleconverter and an Astrodon H-alpha 3nm filter.
Because I had a clear night, I wanted to take some pictures quickly. I didn't have the proper adaptor to connect the Canon lens to the Atik camera, so I just mounted both the camera and lens with ADM ring sets all set tight on a dovetail bar. I then set the spacing to give about 44mm of back focus. The gap between the lens and camera lens exit was "sealed" by wrapping electrical tape around the opening. As for concentric alignment between the center of the lens and camera, I used some measuring calipers and eyeballed the optical alignment to the best of my ability.
In my haste I forgot the stop down the Canon lens BEFORE I removed it from the body, so all images were obtained at full aperture of 2.8. Also, the 36nm filter was held in with two o-rings inside a t-thread 20mm spacer. Mounting was an IOptron ZEQ25 using an old 200m FD Canon lens as a separate guide scope with an Orion SAG Pro eyepiece camera using PHD Guiding.
Amazingly, the pictures came out quite well for a somewhat quick and dirty imaging system.
Compare the Atik 460 Rosette Neb image vs the image taken with Canon Ti4 mod DSLR shown in Part 2 of this post. The DSLR image also used a 3nm HA filter. It took me over an year to get this limited quality picture. Some of my early narrowband Rosette / DSLR images were not so good. With the ATIK 460, I had a better picture in 20 minutes.
At present, my mod DSLR is taking an extended rest, while the ATIK 460 is enjoying the limited number of clear nights that are available. Comments are always welcome.
Topic: Atik 460 mono - First Light Part 1 (Read 8378 times)
