first images with ED80

[adman (Adam)]

Last night turned out to be ok. I was able to get out some new gear and test drive it. My most recent purchases were an ED80 and some better (Losmandy) guide rings. Why did I put up with the old ones so long...

I tried to get pulse guiding going through EQMOD, but someone will have to explain it to me - I couldn't work it out for the life of me. Took me hours to work out that it wasn't actually driving the mount at all, and trying to calibrate in PHD was taking ages. Turns out it was actually calibrating on the stars drift , which goes a long way towards explaining why the dec graph looked so horrible!

My little mount definitely likes having less weight on it (6.5 Kg with all gear minus counterweights) - it was the best guiding I have had yet.

I have attached pics for comments (please..!). Can someone tell me whether the guiding graph is good bad or indifferent as I have nothing to compare it with apart from my own previous limited experience.

Also would appreciate feedback on focus/guiding from M7 image. I think the stars may be a little to big/bloated??

Thanks
Adam

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

hey mate,

your guiding looks okay, where you using the finderguider? or another scope?

the focus looks fine because the fuzzyness between the full saturated star and where the star ends isn't bad at all, and you have captured some dark dust lanes. so thats all good.

[rcheshire (Rowland)]

I'm looking forward to even getting close to that. Nice round stars.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by adman

Also would appreciate feedback on focus/guiding from M7 image. I think the stars may be a little to big/bloated?

Guiding's great so is focus. You just need a FF now and you're cooking!

[adman (Adam)]

Thanks for the comments everyone - much appreciated.

Brendan - i was using my 70mm achro as the guider. I have found the finder guider a little fiddly, and I'm not really sure why. I think the image scale might be too small and it seems to be hard to calibrate in PHD. It's probably something I and doing/not doing - any suggestions?

Rowland - hang in there, and it will all start to come together. i started this process last August, and i am only now just getting images that i feel happy with. Scaling the scope down from my 200mm newt to the ED80 has made the biggest difference i think - no longer overloading the EQ5.

Marc - any suggestions which FF works best with SW ED80?

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by adman

Marc - any suggestions which FF works best with SW ED80?

I've used a WO P-Flat IV with my Orion ED80 with some success. Not sure what you'd use with the SW though.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Like i said for the finderguider PHD isn't a good program to work with as it takes far far to long to calibrate. Use maxim for that and itll be ready to roll within 3-4 minutes.

To be honest, using maximdl is better all round program to use and far more powerful. keep it up

[Hagar (Doug)]

Not a bad image at all. Guiding looks very good and I can say that almost everyone on the forum would be happy with a graph like this one.
Focus may be a bit off but still quite acceptable. The next step for you is to further your skills in processing to bring out the star colour.

All up a great beginners image. One to keep and repro-ed when your skills improve. You could try just lifting the colour saturation a bit and see what happens.

Well done, Keep at it.

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

Like i said for the finderguider PHD isn't a good program to work with as it takes far far to long to calibrate. Use maxim for that and itll be ready to roll within 3-4 minutes.

To be honest, using maximdl is better all round program to use and far more powerful. keep it up

I've tried maximdl a couple of times but i can't seem to get a decent image using the QHY5 - very pixelated. It looks good though. Another learning curve...

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

I've used a WO P-Flat IV with my Orion ED80 with some success. Not sure what you'd use with the SW though.

I am happy to just crop the outer 1/4 for the time being.....

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by Hagar

The next step for you is to further your skills in processing to bring out the star colour.

It sounds easy when you say it fast!