[BlackWidow (Mardy)]

Well I have only ever listed one other picture just a week or so ago taken when I got my guiding working (finally). It was a wide field shot taken with my Canon 300D piggy backed on my LX200 10".. I have been a bit shy about uploading pictures as I see some really really good ones here and don't want to show something that is really rubbish. It's taken so long to get this all to work I could not hold back the excitement when I go a shot that really looked like somthing. All my other shots have looked like spilt paint with shooting stars. You know the ones that look somthing you could only call Art.

However it has taken me near 2 years to get to this point where I have the guiding working and I now understand the software and hardware enough to start using my QHY8 to get some shots. I have all of things that I have purchased that just did not do the job. I think I am now down to conditions and my ability.

This is my first pictures taken a few nights ago. I took 17 lights at 180sec, 17 bias and 17 flats. Only 6 of my lights were not too bad as the wind was moving my scope and messing things up, so I just stacked the 6 of my best shots. My stars are not so round as a result, but all I could do was work with the best I had at the time. I was just pleased that I have been able to get some sort of image at last and think things will be looking up from here (little pun)

I have met a really nice helpfull guy on IIS that has been helping me with my setup, and it’s thanks to him and this site that I have at last got to this point. Thier are some really nice people on this site and it has really been an asset to me. As you get older it takes longer to learn.. Where was I? Oh yea...

I have allot to learn about processing and I am getting some assistance with that also. I think once I get some good clear conditions with no wind, my images may get better I hope... This really is a lot of fun apart from the nights of anger, frustration, hardware abusing and tantrums..

Thanks for looking and to all those that have offered help and advice in the past... At last I am rolling...


Regards
Mardy