testing testing :P

[mill]

Ok i was guiding last night thru a OAG thru the ED80 and this was the first time it worked :cool::cool:
Did a shot of Eta (yeh i know it is like a old shoe or hat :P ).
The guiding went well with the G11 and Gemini 2 but only thru the Ascom driver :(
Not a fine picture because of Mister moon at 99.8%.
Just happy that the off axis guider works for once :)
Large pic here: http://martinsastro.net/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pid=93#top_display_media

Small pic below.

[multiweb]

Wow! Very cool shot. Very nice details in there. :thumbsup:

[mill]

Thank you Marc :)
I myself think that it isn't that good and i need more time on it.
I am just happy that i got the Gemini2 guiding pretty good after all the problems i had.

[TrevorW]

Is this the guiding you mentioned before through ASCOM with pulse etc turned off

Also just wondering what's causing the star elongation in the top left bottom right

[mill]

Yes it is Trevor.

The star elongation is because of coma with the ED80.
I didn't use a field flattener.

[TrevorW]

Cheers Marty

have not been able to try this myself as yet, been cloudy here for the last week as well as the moon being full

[mill]

I imaged with the moon full :)
Just try to get it working mate, you don't need a very clear sky for that :P

[multiweb]

That's a very good field without a flattener. What's your CCD diagonal?

[mill]

Marc the pic is 3348*2496
The chip is 17.96mm*13.52mm
The picture is very slightly cropped.

[multiweb]

That's 22.5mm diagonal. My QHY8 is 28.4mm. I'd never get a field like that without flattener. I had to get a WO P-FLAT IV. That's why I want to get a QHY9 with a much smaller sensor.

[h0ughy]

nice shot there - i have the G2 with the titan (not used yet and still new in box). I plan to use my existing G1 brains and controller with the Titan until they get the bug sorted out on the G2

[mill]

I have a WO P-FLAT III here but i can't use it when using the OAG :(
The QHY9 works bloody well and even when it is 25C it can make -20C.

[Paul Haese]

That field looks pretty good Martin. Only slight curvature showing in the corners only. Stars look pretty round so I would say you have the guide parameters pretty well licked. No field rotation either (well done), just the pure data to view. Probably your best guided shot yet I would think.

What is the duration of the exposures? Try subs of about 15 minutes (if you have not already). This will tell you if you have it all working well. OAG is way better than using a guide scope.

[mill]

Thanks Paul.

These are subs of 5 Minutes luminance and 200 Seconds RGB
Going to Port Fairy this easter and hope to shoot some stuff from a very dark site and with way longer duration.
The OAG works well but it was a lot harder to get it parfocal with the QHY9.

[Paul Haese]

You won't look back Martin, this type of guiding is so much more hassle free. Look forward to see more images from you.

[gregbradley]

Great stuff. Look at those wonderful round stars!

It took me quite a while to get my OAG working. I was put off by not being able to get it to focus. I managed it eventually.

They are very good and the way to go.

Greg.

[mill]

Yep getting close to beeing in focus was done during the day and the fine focus during the night.
Once set and then forget :P

Martin.