I have been off the imaging trail for a while with a series of distractions - work -family - faulty equipment - clouds etc. Finally managed to sort out all the gear again and get my autoguiding to a reasonable level. Last night I tried my Shoestring GPINT with an updated version of PHD (v1.5 pre 2). This means I can make guiding adjustments at less than 1x siderial rate - I hope this will lead to better performance...anyway attached is my test shot. Any suggestions as to the best rates to start out with for DEC and RA? (I tried .7x on both for this shot).
Not perfect but not bad (for me that is). Reduced 50% from full scale it is a stack of 13*5mins at iso1600 at f9. Processing, stacking in IP and PS.
I was pretty happy with the re-processed version - I would love to get a bit more out of it still...I am getting the autoguiding beastie under control better but so far my image is better than it was when constructed from unguided 30s last year...fewer longer, subs - less time to process, lower iso means better dynmic range and less noise (faiter details) but oh boy it is much more more time to setup...oh for a permanant observatory/shed/pier ....
Clear agiain this arvo - I have hear the stars calling...
Played with my CGE filter on this object last night - but the results were dissapointing from am imaging pov...
