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Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:20 pm
by Graeme1858
First job of the afternoon was to sweep up after the builders we've had in this week laying some block paving. Big mistake, plagued by dust bunnies in images later on! Next job was to balance the rig and new guide scope with a milk bottle half filled with water, weigh the bottle and cut up some lead roof flashing to fix to the end of my counterbalance arm. My new counterweight worked out nicely!

It's all starting to look like a proper rig now! Except that the dew shield no longer fits due to (pun intended!) the guide scope mounting bar getting in the way.

Image

After sun set I loaded the last pointing model in CPWI and slewed to a few Messier objects to add to my collection (viewtopic.php?f=91&t=4900) whilst waiting for the January challenge to rise in the east. I set up PHD2 and it connected to the mount and the camera but was unable to track for very long. Traced that down to a loose thread on the guide camera nose extension.

Then APT decided it was unable to control the mount to plate solve. There was quite a bit of cloud gathering so I pointed the telescope at NGC2359 using CPWI and after getting PHD2 going I dabbled with a few test shots and histograms. Then set APT to take a set of 50 x 120 second lights at ISO800. The guiding seemed to be behaving itself. Then I just captured 10 darks and 50 bias because it was late and cold!

Here's the result:

Image

Stacked in DSS, processed in Startools.

So no Norse god's helmet but lots of nice round stars! All in all a good night. The rig is balanced, I added to my Messier list and the guide scope works a treat! All I need to do now is get to the bottom of the mystery that is ASCOM!

Regards

Graeme

Re: Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:31 am
by prowler75
Sweet looking imaging setup you have going, Graeme!
Good luck with working out the kinks with ASCOM. I have no experience I can share there. I've only done some simple astro-photo and have pretty much cemented my preference to visual.

Re: Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:34 am
by Juno16
What a fine looking setup Graeme!

That rig looks like a dso machine,

Thanks,
Jim

Re: Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:16 am
by bladekeeper
Nice looking rig, Graeme!

Re: Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:46 am
by Lady Fraktor
Can you not cut a notch to go around the upper plate?

Re: Kent UK 12/01/20

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:06 am
by Graeme1858
Lady Fraktor wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:46 am Can you not cut a notch to go around the upper plate?

The dew shield heating element is where the notch would go so unfortunately that's not an option. It will have to go over the top bar I think because having it in a more forward position as in the photo caused some serious vignetting. I might have to run the router across the top of the end of the bar first to reduce it's profile at that end.

Regards

Graeme