first light RC 10-yes it's good old M83 (again)

[graham.hobart]

This is really first light with RC 10 and stock focuser + unmodded Canon 1000D.
I had several technical issues that I won't bore you you with but suffice to say I got two hours out of about five with images being taken.
I actually set it up for the SXVR H9C camera but started on M104 and the image scale was great but so were the focusing issues!
Found it easier with a big DSLR chip till I get my focuser upgraded.
Any way here is just over 2 hours of iso 800 x 5 min subs from the new CF RC 10 big bazooka!
First image DSS and STartooled then iPhoto, second same but converted to B & W.
Cheers all!
Graham

[lazjen]

GSO RC 10? If so, yeah I found the stock focuser a lot of work to get right and keep right. Changing to the moonlite dropped the aggravation massively.

How are you guiding with this setup?

Also, I look forward to seeing the SXVR H9C images you get.

[graham.hobart]

This was guided with a modified finder and lodestar, may explain blobby stars ?
How do you find the off axis guider ? Worth a shot? Sadly new focuser may well wait a few months.
Sxvr looks like a good combo but I wish tsx camera add on would support it-the ascom tsx interface for the camera on my w8 machine freezes all the time!

[lazjen]

They might be a bit blobby stars, but for 5 min exposures I personally probably wouldn't complain too much if I got those results. :)

I find the oag to be good once I get it setup right. I'm not sure if it's because I use a DSLR or not, but I have to take the ST-i off before I can take the DSLR on/off (it physically obstructs). The most annoying bit is getting the right position for the ST-i on the stalk to ensure focus (or close to it for PHD2 to work). I'm getting better at guessing the right distance now though, assuming I have everything else set up correctly.

I do have difficulties getting guide stars sometime (especially from my backyard), but as I refine things I improve my chances. For example, I normally use 1 sec exposures for guiding, however I've recently been experimenting with 2 or 2.5 sec instead. More exposure means more chances of a useable star.

I can't compare this oag setup to anything else (other than no guiding), as I went straight to this for my first guiding setup.

Shame about the software problems. Do you have a win 7 machine you could try it on instead?