NGC6543 in V band - 1 second exposure.
M57 in V band - 5 second exposure
Jupiter in I band - 0.01 second expsoure.
All images obtained using the VATT 1.8m telescope @ f/6.7 atop Mt. Graham, AZ using the Galway Ultra Fast Imager (GUFI) L3CCD science camera. All images are full frame - @ 3' x 3'. Seeing was poor ( > 1.2 arcseconds).
4 comments:
Nice images. Can GUFI be used at the faster focal length for a wider field? What's the FOV in the mode you were shooting? I suppose I could get my calculator out and figure it out myself.....
Jim - GUFI is a 512x512 array with 16 micron pixels. VATT is a 1.8 meter F/10 system natively. The camera has a focal reducer in the optical path now - providing it a 3'x3' field of view. Without the focal reducer the field of view is 1.4' x 1.4'. It is not designed for larger field of view - as I said in the post the field of view I used here is 3'x3' - the largest it can provide.
Hi Dave,
I'm the person who conceived the GUFI instrument and supervised its development. So I am absolutely delighted to see you getting these fine results. Its versatility - from long deep space exposures, to continuous rapid planetary framerates - is nicely illustrated.
You also have the distinction of being the first "3rd party" user of GUFI (i.e. someone from outside the Galway development team), and Leon obviously did a fine job in writing a clear user manual and training you in!
I noticed that you used a V filter for those planetary nebula snaps. You might not have been aware that the currently installed focal reducer is optimized for the near infrared (I band); but we also designed an optical-optimized reducer. You would get even better results in V band (especially on-axis) had this other focal reducer been put in. However, swapping between the reducers involves dismounting the instrument and changing internal spacers, so we prefer to leave it in one configuration for extended periods. A third possible mode (no reducer, native f/10) is also possible, again by using different spacers, if a finer pixel scale is desired.
Ray Butler
wow that's amazing!
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