FINALLY imaging again

[LewisM]

After an almost EXACTLY 4 month hiatus, I am back in the saddle tonight. Not as perfect as last night, with SOME passing cloud (SLOW passing at that), but the seeing seems easily a 7/10.

Using the Tak FSQ85 and FLI ML8300 OSC (using an IDAS LP filter on it tonight) for their first times, all riding on the Vixen GPD2 mount. I have to say the Tak is really sharp, but as usual, needed a kilometer of spacers... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR - will Tak ever make a sensible length drawtube????? The FLI is.. well, beyond words. In a word, simply phenomenal - and to think I almost bought an SBIG ST2000XM instead.. ay yai yai!

Had initial guidescope problems - first time using the William Optics helical focus guidescope. Will be reverting to my converted Tak finder again tomorrow, as I simply cannot space the WO precisely for my Lodestar without making a custom locking ring. The Tak conversion just works out of the box :)

Then MaxIM refused to stabilise guiding, even though the calibration plots were perfect L's. Odd. So, fired up good OLD PHD, and bang, been rock solid for the last hour. Doing 10 minute subs, but may crank that up to 30.

Here's the 5 minute test shot for framing (moved it some later) - scaled down from original

[LewisM]

And voila, CLOUDS!

Insert expletive

[codemonkey]

haha. Exactly. I got everything set up and right when I went to take my first L sub, I lost my guide star... looked up, clouds. Ended up clearing over here, but it didn't look like it was going to at the time so I packed up. If you're a night owl I'd suggest trying to wait it out... good luck!

[Octane]

What do you mean by not stabilising guiding? What does the graph look like?

I just popped in to bed (had been capturing data since astronomical twilight, as I do each night), and thought I'd log in to the pier computer to see if everything was going well. I jinxed it: guide star faded messages! I went outside, and, it was pea soup.

Did it end up clearing at all? I parked and went to bed. I figured 3-4 hours of data was better than nothing! Thank heavens for automation.

H

[LewisM]

Didn't clear enough to bother. By 3 am, there was still chunks of cloud around.

MaxIM couldn't lock because I had a guidescope issue. Resolved now. Oddly, PHD2 also failed, but the original PHD locked in solid.

[hotspur]

Looked clear before we went into have tea,but came out to see lots of cloud,took till 8.30 pm till it cleared a bit.

Managed to test my newly acquired mod'ed canon 40D,seeing was not great.But had not used any imaging gear for a very long time-the observatory desk top had died,so used lap top to control the gear.

Is there any other options to control auto guiding than orion PHD ? I managed to get it all going.But every so often in would go off the rails,my graph looked horrid.Maybe the Vixen skysensor 2000 and its motors are just to old for all this modern stuff.Even though the graph can look so fine,when magnifying images,I can see the stars are not perfectly round.

Anyhow here is a couple of subs,really pleased with this mod'ed 40D.

[LewisM]

Chris,
Good stuff! And great to see someone else also rigidly mounting their guidescope with Borg rings - I relented and tried guidescope rings last night - what an absolute nightmare! Back to Borg I went this morning.

Here's my 40 minutes worth on Corona Australis. Not much yet, but I'll get there, eventually. This is WITHOUT any calibration frames (no darks, bias or flats), and the original was much bluer before I tined it down (the LP filter I use is quite cyan cast).

[DavidTrap]

Don't think you've got a lot to complain about Chris??? They look pretty good to me.

Maybe you need to slightly unbalance the rig so it's always pushing on one side of the gears. Maybe the gear mesh needs a bit of attention - Mark and I fiddled with it a coupe of years ago, but if you haven't used it much in that time, it might have some sticky points. I don't think there is a problem with your computer.

Pity tonight is a bit cloudy, I've been battling collimation all weekend and I think I might have it looking ok just now...

DT

[hotspur]

Ah... that would be it David,I do need to slightly unbalance the rig,and keep in mind it should be pushing.I have the rig quite balanced at present.

Thanks David:thumbsup:. Yes, pleased with these one frame images of the DSO's.

Was going to have a go tonight,but fair amount of cloud about.

I'd like to have a crack at NGC 7000 in Cyngus.Not sure what exposures to start of with 5 minutes? or longer? apparently its a tricky object.

[DavidTrap]

You've got a nice low northern horizon Chris, so you've got no excuses for avoiding the North American nebula. I think I did image it with my DSLR, so it would have probably been 5min subs.

DT

[ZeroID]

Have you had a look at MetaGuide ?
I've only just started playing with it ( thanks to cloud interuptions ) but it sorted out my problems and was very stable first (read 'only') time I tried it.
Gets some good reviews and the ZWO is better with it.

Now I've just got to find some cloud management software that works and ....

[hotspur]

Will look into that,be interesting to see if there are any other options other than orion PHD.

But thinking about David's advice, re rig slightly off balance so motors are pushing,was likely the issue-as when I tried NGC 7000,everything was perfectly balanced AND the way the scope was pointed at that object-it was low-the rig was pointed rather flat,there would have been very little unbalance.Something to keep in mind for these low objects.Bl--dy cloud came in last night,and the moon and work will bugger the rest of week up.