Imaging with Lx90 8" alt/az and DSI II Pro unguided

[aworley (Alex)]

Hi All,

Just wondering if there is anyone else out there imaging with an LX90 8" alt/az (or polar) and DSI II Pro.....

I understand totally that I cannot get long exposures and have found good success to date in mono, stacking 15 second exposures to get a total of 50 mins exposures in one night on M83 and NGC 5128 (bit shy about posting them but will if anyone is interested). I use darks and flats and stack in Deepskystacker as have found this the simplest and cheapest (free)! But am having all sorts of trouble getting colour due to field rotation problems. I have even tried over a couple of nights, but that is a bit 'hit & miss'.

So, just wondering if anyone else is using the same setup and could give me some hints or alternatively, is it better to get a wedge? (I did see the thread on wedges and was interested in the comments, and I am not for the moment trying to get exposures above 30 secs or so because I live very near Sydney Airport!)

Thanks
Alex

[aworley (Alex)]

A big thanks to Elmer (www.stargazer.id.au) for his help on getting me polar aligned.

For anyone interested, here is my first ever polar aligned pic. I took NGC 2997 after a couple of nights of learning how to polar align.

Alex

http://tinyurl.com/6jf7wh

[astroturf (Bryan)]

G'day Alex

Thats a good effort, makes me want to brush the dust off the DSI & have another go with the LX90, have you fitted a wedge to achieve that shot & did you image it from near the airport or out in the bush?
I think I met you down at Bargo 4 weeks ago when it all clouded over
might catch up another nite

Cheers
Bryan

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great image Alex. Well done.

Peter

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Bryan,

That is the Alex you and I met at Bargo the other weekend before we got clouded out.

Alex - very nice, now stop teasing and give us some colour please

Oh and yes I am back from SPSP. A huge weekend and sorry for going off topic.

Regards
Wayne

[aworley (Alex)]

Thanks Wayne/Bryan,

Yep its me!

Bryan - yep taken from near the airport - I really struggle with light pollution, so am limited to the exposure times. I fitted a standard Meade wedge to the LX90 and worked like mad to learn how to polar align with help from Elmer and reading all the posts here and on the DSI & LX90 sites.

Wayne - mate, if only I could get colour! I have got R,G,B, but need photoshop to combine together the channels with the L and need to take better flats to handle the light pollution. I have played around in Iris and ASIP to no avail...I have PixInsight LE, (the free version), but the free version doesn't have LRGB merge, maybe I should download the trial version and see what I can do.....cloudy this week......

Thanks again, I am sure we'll catch up again! Looking forward to going to Bargo to try out the wedge....

Alex