Same old M104 / M83, different dude.

[Escortitis]

Hi all,

Just throwing up my last two efforts. These are my first real attempts at galaxies. I'm having guiding issues ATM which are reducing my data by about 50%, only using 10 out of 20 exposures at best which is really annoying. Even with those 10, I'm still getting bloated stars which I think is related to poor guiding, I'm not sure. Any advice is welcome.

300D, 12"Newt, no filters
M104 - 9x240sec flats,lights, darks
M83 - 11x240sec f,l,d

Cheers,

George

[iceman (Mike)]

Very nice! Looks like the guiding is an issue - due to balance maybe?

Great to see some more images through a GSO 12".

[Antu]

Very nice images, but I think they're a little out of focus. Am I right ?

[spearo (Frank)]

well done George,
you can tell the 12" is a real light bucket !
the images are pretty good despite the short exposure time.
I agree with Mike, seems to be a touch of trailing, probably just enough to make it look like focus is out, which, if it is , would only be out by a tiny fraction.

I take it you use the toucam to autoguide.
Might have something to do with balancing but possibly also the aggressiveness (not enough) of the guiding software?

you'll get there for sure
(i just had similar issues this weekend past until i ensured the weight imbalance was a bit more pronounced on the rising part of the gear to ensure the worms sit properly or something...
I was accustomed to a certain weight differential with my previous mount the CG5 but now with the G11 I had to make it a little more pronounced and the trailing i was getting (very similar to yours in early attempts with autoguiding) disappeared.

Also played around with aggressiveness in PHD (autoguiding software)
hope this helps
cheers
frank

[Escortitis]

Thanks again for comments

With what I know (cant remember what I did for the other 5 mins!) I think I'm happy with the balance Mike, SBS was tough to get right, RA is ok but I will spent sometime on DEC when the weather clears. Still trying to work out which way to load the DEC axis.

Yes Antu, still clumsy in the dark! Somewhere between putting the light box on and finding the target, it's all gone wobbly. DSLR focus is helping me, and I've just rebuild my el-cheapo focuser to get the slop out, I hope to improve.

Thanks Frank. I have played with the settings in PHD, however it wont show improvement until I get the the ToUcam and the 80mm connected better, I've recently worked out that as the mount rolls over, I may be getting some fine movement of the guide cam because of the cables pushing back up against the cam, hard to pick all this stuff up in the dark! I might add some more imbalance also and see if all this helps. Out of interest, what f/l guide scope do you use, and what do you set the aggressiveness to? And if you have a 'reasonable' PA, what do you have the DEC settings on?

Thanks all,

George

[spearo (Frank)]

George,
I set the settings pretty much to default. I use a C9.25 at F10.
I adjusted the aggressiveness to 107 percent on my last run and it seemed to help
one thing I also found out was that my autoguiding imaging train had some loosness in it. Though I'd tightned things, over time possibly due to changes in temperature and general vibrations etc? it became loose so I now ensure that it's all tightened up, all screws soliid etc.

best of luck mate
keep em komin'
cheers
frank