Thanks Jen - I just need to get the tracking sorted and I'll be right. I don't think the beers were helping the cause but it made for a nice relaxing night after a week of work!
I've gone back and not been as hard on the processing. I've also tried to get rid of some of the ISO noise - why did I go to 3200?? Could it have been the beers?!
Thanks Jen - I just need to get the tracking sorted and I'll be right. I don't think the beers were helping the cause but it made for a nice relaxing night after a week of work!
yeah i seem to have the same problem imaging, tracking and a few cans seem to be quite a task but very enjoyable but the picture looks amazing till ya wake up in the morning and say oops that wasnt as good as it looked last night hehe
yeah i seem to have the same problem imaging, tracking and a few cans seem to be quite a task but very enjoyable but the picture looks amazing till ya wake up in the morning and say oops that wasnt as good as it looked last night hehe
Hmm that takes care of the myth that woman are very good at multitasking
I don't really know what I'm doing either, ie I'm still learning. However, I'm sure that I was multi-tasking on Friday night though - drinking and imaging!!! I've decided to do the Kevin Costner thing - build the scope and the images will come! That's the fun of this passion, waiting for that image to come!!
Hey - good effort both of you. I have been tearing my hair out a bit the last month trying to get some decent images. I think I am battling my mount at the moment - its only an EQ5 - although I have taken it apart and lubed and tuned it to within an inch of its life, I think I might be asking too much of it with the 8" on it plus guidescope, cameras etc.
The first time I had it all hooked up, I got a great shot of eta carina and I thought huh, whats so hard about this!? Since then, I haven't been able to image anything but those small squiggly lines that seem to be everywhere over my part of the sky....
Its like golf, so many variables, and when you hit a straight shot, you are never quite sure what you did right.
you can change a few things around it will balance your scope up a bit better. The orientation of where the focuser lays (to the side on yours) roll it around till its pointing right down when the scope is in its Park position. when you strap the ccd to the side it offsets the weight from the centerline.
the other thing is why don't you use your finder like a guide scope? chops the weight to virtually nothing and runs like a dream. I guide my f4.7 10" sw dobsonian on a eq6 with this.
Guiding is the only way to go to get those images really starting to move.
I've been having real problems deciding where I should put the finder scope. I used to have it above the scope but there were times that I couldn't see through it, even with a step ladder! So I thought "easy, I'll just swing down beneath the scope." Unfortunately when I tried this out on Friday night, I was continually banging my head on the newt!!
I'll give your configuration a try next time I've got the scope out. As for guide scopes, I'm still deciding the best way to go with this but did consider the finder scope route after seeing it mentioned in one of your previous posts. The ST80 you can see attached to the newt was put there as a second scope, lower to the ground, so that my boys could look through something while I was looking through the big scope. No more hassles or moaning with "dad, when can I have a look?"!
hahaha... i know that feeling my boy is 6 years old, i just gave up trying to share the scope so nowdays i just have the camera plugged in and take 1-2 min photos. with my laser pointer i have attached to the side of the finder foot he says i want to look there. so i go there and all good! I found it heaps better too to show people things via this method because it takes time to learn how to look though a telescope most people who just what to have a look get frustrated and don't bother from there.!
The finder thing is hard too i know i have the 10" up on a EQ6 so generally we call it the 10" gymnastics finals you end up with arms legs and hands everywhere just to balance lucky i'm youthful still!
if you do become interested in the finderguider drop me a PM.
but very enjoyable 
hey listen here you 
