First light QHY-8/MPCC/GSO-12

[kinetic (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Octane

Steve,

That's looking marvelous.

Do you use Photoshop? If so, use the File -> Automate -> Photo Merge command. It should seamlessly blend the images together for you.

Thanks H for the tip. I don't do mosaics that often so when I do
I usually can't recall the app I used to do them
I know once I used a SONY stitcher my brother had with his DSLR
package and it worked wonders.

Originally Posted by Octane

Also, I'm so glad to read the middle line in your signature. That is my very thought -- which I've made known on here on numerous occasions.

Amen , brother

[kinetic (Steve)]

Seeing was very good this morning but what ruined it
was a persistent axis problem with the GSO focuser
and Baader MPCC/ QHY8 combo.
At such a short F ratio either collimation and / or off
axis tilt in the image train is still causing this trailing of stars.
By rotating the entire QHY-8 I can minimise it but not totally
eliminate it. The result here shows the tilt at about the halfway
point of the severity.
If rotation changes the level of this tilt, does that mean it's
NOT collimation?

Steve

[kinetic (Steve)]

This image is from the 24th when there was a first
quarter moon. Still playing with misalignment issues
with the QHY-8 and MPCC in the GSO focuser.
I have run a heap of results through CCDInspector and
they all seem to agree with some misalignment and
definitely bad collimation.
Collimation is good to the eye but that's not good enough for
fast Newts. Apparently the tolerance on-axis for my F5 is
less than 1 mm! Not good timing, so many unbelievable 2944s
posted lately

Steve