The weather finally cleared on the Sunshine Coast and my mate and I thought we would attempt the ridiculous. We attached our schools 12" Dob to our EQ6 Pro using 2 caravan gas cylinder holders and added a few Kg of weights to the other end.
AVI that was taken was 60 seconds at 5 frames per sec using phillips Toucam 840 through 2.5x powermate , stacked 160 using Registax and can't wait for Jupiter.
Thank you all for the encouraging comments. It was a great night. I am about to post an image of our set up under equipment discussions. Web can not wait for Jupiter to rise. We collimated just prior to taking the AVI's. Our enthusiasm got the better of us as we tried to see if we could achieve focus with my canon (not happenong) but will use this set up for planetary and moon only. I was relieved at the end of the night after packing up that my weight bar slid back up the tube as I almost expected it not to after having 30Kg on it. Both are keen to get to some dark sites Ron so we hope to see you soon.
Our next challenge is dust on the mirror. If anyone could refer us to info on cleaning the mirror would be great on a 12" DOB.
I think its fair to say I won't be putting a guide scope on it as I don't think I'm brave enough to go any further. I imaged tonight between clouds with my normal W/O 110 and guide scope with 10 Kg of balancing weight and no problems.
It was a great night and I can't wait for some more AVI's but also being able to look at some DSO with this scope tracking so you get a chance to see some real detail as compared with the DOB's base. I still love the base for ease of use. Thank god there were two of us there on the night cause I can't see how I could set up with one. Anyway fun times.
