The Power of One

[Atmos]

Last night I'd planned on hitting the Horsehead for an hour of Ha while the LMC crossed meridian. I got off one sub, my mount dithered and then it started playing not so nice.

I haven't quite figured out why yet but with my new (cheap!) laptop my mount doesn't like imaging near meridian flips and the horsehead had only just crossed meridian to the north. I never had this problem with my Macbook but the ASI1600 doesn't much like Parallels so its all compromises :/

This is a single calibrated 300s Ha shot. I had planned on 12x300s but my mount wasn't liking that sky position (I think I need to fiddle with some of the PID parameters) and increase the stiffness. Mechanical mounts can certainly be more plug and play at times when you don't have to worry about electromagnetic parameters :P ONLY becomes a problem around meridian or if I stomp the ground to hard around it so it gets stuck in an over corrective resonance, hence, I think it needs to be a bit stiffer :)

Quite happy with my single frame :)

[Camelopardalis]

Nice one Colin :thumbsup: I find with the 1600 once you more than a dozen or so subs the noise really smooths out.

[Atmos]

I was planning a 12x300 which although not a lot of data certainly helps smooth it out considerably.

[strongmanmike]

Aaaah technology......and why I love my nuts and bolts problem free NJP :face: (touch wood)

Nice looking single frame though :thumbsup:

Mike

[Camelopardalis]

Hey Mike, I hear Nokia is going to put the 3310 back into production...you'll be able to replace your mobile phone now :P

[strongmanmike]

I think I had one of those...:question: ..wonder if it would be able to control my NJP...? :lol:

Mike

[SimmoW]

Nice curtain Colin. What gain are you using? Im on 75 right now, gives 15 min subs quite nicely.

[Camelopardalis]

Probably :lol: doesn't it have a clock drive too?

[Atmos]

Only changed laptops very recently (gone dedicated astro lappy) so I guess I just haven't put enough effort into optimising yet :P
There is something to be said about the well built geared systems, they can be as simple as setting it down and turning it on :P



I'm using Unity at the moment, I find it is a good compromise at the moment PLUS it is in the dropdown menu for selection and that makes it good for me. The easiest to select ;)




The NJP may be ancient now defunct technology but it still does a good job, not like the Nokia 3310 ;)

[Camelopardalis]

Hey I'm not knocking it, if ET can call home using speak and spell...

[codemonkey]

That's pretty awesome for a single sub, Colin!

[Maurice]

Very nice Colin.

[Atmos]

Why I end up with so many single frames of things I don't know but here is a single frame of NGC 3372 :)
Although I only have something like 3% vignetting there is a remarkable difference in contrast between flatted and non-flatted. Or maybe it is just calibrated in general :P

[RobF]

Looking forward to more on the horse Colin!

[glend]

Well if you lived around here your single frames could be due to the fact that's the only amount of time available to image. I am so frustrated by this weather pattern that has been hanging around since before Christmas. I have just given up on tonight after playing cloud tag for hours, and of course it was wonderfully clear until 9pm. Grrrrrrr! :screwy:

[kkara4]

geez Colin, this is epic! only a single sub? would you mind sharing what sub length and gain was?

[Atmos]

Running Unity (Gain 139) and 300s :)