Nereid and 1st light with my new ESATTO 2-inch robotic motorised focuser.

[Dennis]

Friday 18th October found me outdoors for 1st light with my new ESATTO 2-inch robotic motorised focuser, manufactured by PrimaLuceLab (https://www.primalucelab.com/astronomy) (Italy) and supplied by Sidereal Trading Pty Ltd (https://www.siderealtrading.com.au/) (Victoria).

The suburban Brisbane skies were hazy with some thin, high cloud and although I pointed the ‘scope with ASI1600MM Camera at Nereid, a magnitude 18.7 satellite of Neptune, I had low hopes of recording the faint signal through the cruddy skies.:question:

I got lucky and after 180 frames at 30 secs, Nereid just poked its head above the sky noise.:)

The 1st time I operated the ESATTO 2-inch robotic motorised focuser, I got the fright of my life, as I thought my EM200 mount had spontaneously performed an uncommanded slew, as the motor sound was very similar. It was very confusing; my ears heard the motor sound of the ESATTO, but my eyes were expecting to see the mount slewing, which of course it wasn’t.

It took a few microseconds to reconcile the contradictory signals from my auditory receptors and visual cortex before I realised it was the ESATTO motor and not my mount that was making the Maserati-like purring sound.;)

Loving the red bling.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Retrograde]

Very nice Dennis.
Congratulations on first light with the focuser. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks Pete, I appreciate your comments.:)

I have been used to processing CCD images with applications such as CCStack and ImagesPlus which I have found to be excellent.

However, CCDStack keeps crashing when I try to process (load) between 180 and 230 ASI1600MM (4656x3520 pixel) frames so I did a bit of reading up of PixInsight and it solved my problems.

The Batch Processing function just gobbled up 230 frames and produced a much cleaner looking result, where Nereid was very obvious, so I am now a PixInsight fanboy.:)

The attached files are full resolution crops from the output of PI.

Cheers

Dennis

[Domol]

Wow, i didn't know we can image Neptune's moons of Mag19th! What program is being used to work out the star magnitudes in the mono picture? Thanks :)

[Dennis]

Hi Domenic

I used SkyTools 4 Imaging.

Here is a screen shot of the "Interactive Atlas" showing the Type of object (Stars, Galaxies, Galaxy Groups...Minor Planets) you can select to display Labels for, and then the Density of those Labels from Very Sparse... to All, so it is quite a flexible interface.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

Wow that's awesome, a brilliant executed plan and new focuser and you are a pixinsight fan......

[Dennis]

Steady on Dave, I now know how to run the "Batch Preprocessing" Script so early days yet.:)

All I have to do now is to learn about dithering, as the EM200 auto-guides so well that I end up with lot of Fixed Pattern Noise in my image stacks.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tulloch]

That's a really impressive rig, and a great result using it.

Andrew

[Dennis]

Thanks Andrew, I appreciate your comments.:)

A few evenings later, whilst waiting for Uranus to rise, I slewed to Neptune / Nereid and grabbed a few shots. What a difference.:D

This time, Nereid really popped out of the background, it's trail was so distinct. On that occasion, there were no thin, wispy clouds and some recent rain had settled the airborne dust from burn off and general air pollution.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Wilsil]

Hi Dennis, are still using the Esatto?
I am thinking of getting one as my standard focuser can't hold the weight and I need an autofocuser.
If so, what is your experience with it since you got it?

[Dennis]

Hi

My gear has been languishing and collecting dust for the last few months but on the occasions I have used the ESATTO Focuser previously, it has been accurate, reliable and IMO was an excellent investment.:)

I have used it during testing with NINA and Voyager in our garage in the daytime and there were no issues arising during those limited tests.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis