We have a run of clear night weather predicted for this week, hopefully right through to the next weekend. It started Friday night and Saturday night both of which I was unable to take advantage of but I got out Sunday night from about 7:45pm till 11: 20pm.
Sunday 8/7 Temp about 2*, no wind after evening katabatics died down. Seeing and transparency excellent for a suburban location. CBD LP apparent but less than usual due to the clear air.
Objective was to refine my alignment and get more pix, longer exposure, more frames. Also I picked up an older white USB PC keyboard to see if it was any better to use in the dim red light in the Ob than my black keyboard, Verdict --Definitely !!
Tried to do a 2 star alignment and seemed to be ok but had a lot of drift when I tried to stay on target. Strange when it was so good last time I used the system. gave up til later when there would be a better choice of stars to use.
Swung round to Saturn, NW sky. Drift still a problem although the GoTo got within a few degrees of target. Very stable air and I got down to a 4mm plossl before it became to hard to keep stable ( 312x ). The TMB 6mm (208x) & 9mm (138x) were best and I think I've proved my GSO 2x Barlow is a dud. Every time I've used it on any EP it all turns to crud.
Able to see the rings and the planet\ring seperation clearly but not able to discern any bands or other features. Managed to spot Titan but no other moons confirmed. Biggest and best I've seen Saturn.
Swung back up as Shaula\M7 region was clearing the trees on my eastern side up at about 80*. Mounted the DSLR on the accessory bar with a lens set at 55mm, f5.6, ISO 800 at 20 seconds for some widefield. Started squeezing off frames while manually correcting for the drift while I tried to determine in which direction it was all going wrong. Squeezed off about 140 frames of which I've got about 2 groups of about 40 that are usable.
( I am actually quite pleased with one group of only 9 frames to be posted a bit later ).
I still can't quite figure out where my alignment has gone all askew. My problem is partly not having an east or west horizon of any significance, just this slice of north to south sky which limits target selection during alignment. I am going to take SK II off the mount and put the 80 mm and a camera on bar with an upright corrector. Maybe then it might start to make sense a bit and it will give me more room to move while adjusting things. It just puzzles me that a week ago the drift was minimal and last night it was quite apparent.
Nonetheless it was a good night and again the advantage of having the Ob is just amazing. I think I would have given up astronomy if I'd had to setup and get this frustrated every time. I stiil enjoyed waving the binoculars around while the camera ran.