Tip with regards to the Orion Starshoot Autguider

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Don't get caught out by this sneaky trick like I did (and apparently 13 other people according to Mike @ Bintel lol). When you get the unit, you have the cap, which screws onto a female thread to protect the CCD. Now, the main thing is how do you attach the autoguider unit to the guiding scope? And that was exactly my question. I rang Mike, and he told me over the phone that (and this is how I understood it), you don't unscrew the actual protector cap from the unit, but just above the base of it. Well, I got home from work, unpacked the unit and tried, no luck. I took the attached image so I could Email Mike @ Bintel and show/explain the cap (just in case I got something different from the norm). I then realised that the top section of the cap is soft. Brain thinking, I put my finger inside the cap (making it like an oversize thimble) and pushed gently up. Off came the rubber sheath, revealing the connector goodness.

A fool I felt, but happy that the puzzle had been solved. Orion doesn't mention this at all, and it's a shortcoming imho (something Mike agreed with me on).

Repeating my lesson here, hopefully it helps someone else out.

Dave

[Octane (Humayun)]

Dave,

Haha, sneaky!

Congrats on the shiny new toy.

Looking forward to seeing what you can produce.

Regards,
Humayun

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Saturday is the night *fingers crossed*

I was REALLY tempted tonight, but decided it wasn't wise since I want to get over this cold for the weekend. I'm planning to image Sol, M8, M31 (that time of the year) and if I stay up late enough, M45 and M42. M16 will be for another night, as will Tarantula and Tuc 47. I'll have to charge the battery for the laptop on Friday, as well as all my camera batteries :-) and also the Celestron powertank too now that I think about it. Not taking any chances.

Please weather - be good to me!

Dave

[Octane (Humayun)]

Dave,

A suggestion -- don't bother with chasing the targets in the western sky. You will end up frustrated when you find that you've been imaging for a couple of hours but are getting washed out images. M16, et al., are a little too low at this time of the year. Being up north, you may have better luck with M31 and M33. That's just my opinion, though!

You're on the right idea with 47 Tucanae, LMC, NGC 2070, SMC. You could also go for your very first fuzzy with NGC 253.

Try and avoid the temptation of imaging lots of things in one night. Spend your time setting up, get your polar alignment and drift alignment down pat, then, choose a target, and devote the rest of the night to it. You will be very, very satisfied.

Regards,
Humayun

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Sage advice. I'm just all excited that I got all this good gear, and have no excuses not to start getting some half decent images of DSOs. M31 is looking good from Brissie around 10.30ish (about as high as it'll get I reckon). I have very memorable views of 47 tuc from Leyburn 5 weeks ago. And also Tarantula. I'd forgotten about NGC253, great suggestion.

M8 is something I've wanted to nail for a while now (along with M42), so it's still very tempting, even if it is low in the West.

I'm going to think this over carefully during the remainder of the week and come up with a battle plan

Thanks again.

Dave