Starizona Night Owl - .4x SCT Reducer Corrector
*** Currently Unavailable - Working on new regular and HD versions for 2023 ***
With the 0.4x focal reduction factor, the field of view becomes 2.5x wider and exposure times are reduced by 6.25x! This allows you to capture amazing detail with very short exposures.
The above images of M1 and M97 were taken with the Night Owl reducer on a Celestron 9.25” SCT using an inexpensive ZWO ASI290MC uncooled color camera.
The Night Owl 0.4x Reducer uses a 4-element optical design to provide excellent image quality over a 16mm image circle. The backfocus distance of 38.5mm allows the use of many popular one-shot-color CMOS and CCD cameras. It can also accommodate the Starizona Filter Slider for use with many monochrome camera models, and there is enough backfocus for a filter wheel with some camera models.
The focal reducer is housed in a 2" diameter body and will fit into any standard 2" visual back or focuser on the rear of an SCT. The camera side connection is a standard M42 T-thread. There are M48 threads on the telescope side for using a standard 2" filter.
A sensor larger than 16mm diagonal can be used but must be cropped to a 16mm format to keep good image quality. This image of M33 was taken with the Night Owl reducer and Celestron 9.25” SCT with a ZWO ASI294MC camera cropped to a 16mm diagonal.
Monochrome cameras can be used with the Starizona Filter Slider. (Some cameras can use a filter wheel depending on the backfocus required.)
This image of the Orion Nebula was taken with the Night Owl reducer on a Celestron 8” SCT with an Atik 490EX monochrome camera using H-alpha and OIII narrowband filters. Total exposure time is only 10 minutes.
Adapters
As with all field-flattening reducers, the backfocus distance of 38.5mm must be maintained for the best performance. For example, if you are using a ZWO cooled camera with a 17.5mm backfocus, you would need a 21mm T-thread spacer. This adapter is included with the ZWO cooled cameras. For other camera combinations, you just need the right T-thread spacer to put your camera at the correct distance from the reducer. Contact us for help in choosing the right spacers.
