[Dennis]

Hello,

Well the forecast was for rain, the skies were clear and although the stars were twinkling, I decided to set up the rig for Jupiter, go to bed and get up again at 3:00am.

I actually awoke around 1:00am so crept out of the house and powered up the rig. Whilst waiting for Jove, I thought I’d try the DMK on a galaxy, M83 to be specific. A quick GoTo and crikey! There she was! Very dim and indistinct compared to the same exposure, 30 secs, using the cooled and more sensitive SBIG ST7 CCD camera.

I banged off an avi that comprised 10 x 30 sec frames and then headed for Omega Centauri. Just as the mount arrived after its slew, so did the clouds. A tantalising wait and I managed to squeeze off 10 x 15 sec frames. Hmm, I wonder how Registax will handle all those stars?

Anyhow, the time for Jove arrived, as did the clouds, so in the end, at 5:12am, I managed to grab the only ToUcam avi of the session.

Overall a very pleasing session, albeit a bit frustrating due to the clouds. The long exposures on the DMK are nice, but I'll stick to the more sensitive, cooled ST7 for DSO's.

Cheers

Dennis

C9.25 with F6.3 R/C