Cruxarea

[raymo]

30x40secs 50mm Yongnuo f/3.2 ISO 1600 Nano Tracker.
Has lost some sharpness downsizing.
raymo

[rustigsmed]

Excellent! nice one Raymo!

Russ

ps great to see you imaging!

[carlstronomy]

Raymo, great image as usual :)

[raymo]

Thanks Russ and Carl, limited to the nano tracker now; all my other gear
is gone.
raymo

[ChrisV]

Nice Raymo. You should be able to put up higher res shots like this - impressive.

[blink138]

good to see you back imaging raymo!
pat

[raymo]

Thanks Chris and Pat. Nights clear enough for AP few and far between over
winter here.
raymo

[xelasnave]

Great effort Raymo.
Your approach is inspirational.
Alex

[Mickoid]

Nice wide field. Nothing wrong to be limited to the little Nano Tracker Raymond. It's so quick and portable you can easily take advantage of those clearings in the clouds this winter. By the time those clouds have thought about ruining your exposures, you've already taken them and put your gear away!

I wouldn't know that shot wasn't taken with your camera piggybacked on an HEQ5 if you hadn't told us otherwise. Your guiding looks good for 50mm at 40 seconds. It's now time to take the plunge and if weight permits, give some longer focal length lenses a go!

[raymo]

Thanks Alex, Haven't had much time for AP lately, with some fairly major
health concerns with she who must be obeyed.
Hi Michael, My polar alignment is still hit and miss, still working on it, I
would like to try fitting a polar scope to the side of the tracker. I am at
present using the Vixen Polarie device with mixed success. I have tried
at 135mm, but the 55-250mm is fairly slow, and the ball joints have to be tightened up really tight to handle the weight, and I'm afraid of stripping the threads. I did manage some subs at 100secs with the 50mm on one
occasion.
raymo

[Mickoid]

I hope your better half is OK and her health improves Raymond. I made a steel plate that my Nano Tracker sits on, attached to that I have a 6 X 30 finder scope from a telescope that I picked up second hand for around $30. I line the Nano's peep hole and finder's cross hairs on a distant object during the day, then at night simply sight Octans through the finder placing the cross hairs on or close to the SCP and I'm good to go. I have managed 40seconds using a 500mm mirror lens on a number of occasions so that's not bad. The peep hole is useless for long exposures with anything over 24mm focal length.

[rcheshire]

Very pleasing image Raymo.

[raymo]

Thanks for your good wishes Mick. I'll have to come up with something similar to your set up, or it will drive me up the wall.

Thanks also Rowland.
raymo

[cometcatcher]

That's awesome Ray! Glad to see you imaging again too.

[PKay]

Raymo. Imagine capturing the entire Emu at that resolution. You would have to mosaic the images of course.
It's amazing how many people out there have never actually seen it.

I would be willing to get one printed (have a mate with printer that can do unlimited length).

[skysurfer]

Nice picture for such a simple mount !

[raymo]

Thanks Skysurfer; its unfortunate that my sub lengths are limited by street lights and LP. The mount is capable of far longer subs.[3 or 4mins @50mm].

Peter, I would like to do a full Emu, but having always used JPEGS and
DSS for all my extremely basic processing, I have absolutely no idea how
to use processing software, let alone how to create a mosaic. After more
than fifty years of film AP I couldn't tackle the intricacies of digital.
raymo