Finally some consistently clear weather and I have managed to get the EQ8 up and running. beforehand I just used a goto dob so to say I have found making the move from 20 second subs on the goto system to 5 mins on a GEM with a 12" newt, challenging is an understatement.
When you don't know what you're doing- handling a 12" scope isn't really recommended
they are big units, plenty of times I was thinking I should have started on an 8" or ed80 but what can you do when you've got some aperture fever
.
Also, had trouble early on, a property two doors down had a new flood light drowning out most of the sky. later in the week I had luckily managed to convince them to turn it off
so lucky they were receptive. with the high humidity and flood light it was making for some serious gradients.
I had to modify the MPCC so that spacing was better with the OAG. spacing seems to be ok star shapes appear to be altered due to tilt (or protrusion of OAG stalk
. but on the subs its one side affected after meridian flipping it evens it out to both sides
I am going to have to find a way to better secure the moonlite to the tube.
EQ8
canon 600d (astro modified)
TSOAG9
lodestar
MPCC
bintel 12" f4 reflector
3 hrs predominantly iso800 300 secs and some iso 1600 240 secs (crop).
anyway i'm rambling, I process on a laptop so its a surprise to see what it looks like on a normal monitor. it appears a bit brownish
and probably a strong gradient still shining through still. Might have to look into gradient removal software.
anyway sooooo happy to finally produce an image
and now I'm kinda up and running i'll have to look at cooled cameras.
higher res
https://www.flickr.com/photos/803366...n/photostream/
and high res repro
https://www.flickr.com/photos/80336656@N07/14918432590/
any tips / comments will be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Rusty