Moonlit Andromeda

[SkyHiker]

This is my first image with the OnStep controller last night, and the main goal was to debug it. The night before it showed terrible streaks. Debugging it showed that the streaks were in DEC, and I'm still debugging that. I simply pulled unplugged the DEC motor cable and went ahead.

G11S with OnStep and DIY SL Worms unguided, Fuji X-a1 @ 6400 ISO on 6" Comet Hunter Mak-Newt, 178x30s lights, 24 flats, DSS (stack and first edit), Windows Live Photo Gallery.

While a moonlit night is not ideal, I am pleased because the stars are much sharper than usual, so once I get the kinks out of OnStep it will work really well.



I should also mention that I experimented with a DIY spring loaded worm. You can buy them from Losmandy but you have to send the mount in I believe. It's a matter of pushing the outer worm block in tangentially, and in radially, I did this with a rubber band and a sheet metal clamp. It worked apparently though I need to make a more final assembly.

[MariusD69]

Awesome! Well done! Indeed, the stars are perfect.

[Ed217]

Impressive on any level!

[BABOafrica]

Impressive, Henk. You're closing in on your target. I remember back in the old days how you said you wanted to do a perfect image of this galazy. You're getting there.

I think the Moon spoiled this one somewhat.

Joe // BABO

[Hankmeister3]

Ahhh, so you're "moonlighting" again, eh Henk? That's a great grab of M31 for a moonlit sky. Moonlight always plays havoc with my captures of DSOs given where I am in my single-frame/Stakker-lite AP efforts. When the skies are right and the Moon isn't a factor, I'm going to try to get some 15 to 20 frame stacks of lights only. I think I'm to the point where I can better process such stacks with the PhotoStudio 6.0 software I have. If I can get 45 minutes to an hour's worth of data, I think for me that will be the cat's meow. The multiple hour APs can be stunning as evidenced by the many AP posts here at TSS, but it's just "too much" more me. This is just where my head, heart and physical body are, at this point, in my renewed interest in AP.

[SkyHiker]

Ahhh, so you're "moonlighting" again, eh Henk? That's a great grab of M31 for a moonlit sky. Moonlight always plays havoc with my captures of DSOs given where I am in my single-frame/Stakker-lite AP efforts.

Thanks, the original stacked image looked green with orange, at first I did not bother fixing it. First I tried Gimp, which got me nowhere. Then in Windows Live Photo Gallery, a few moves of a slider, and tadaa, colors fixed. Powerful tools can be horrible for simple things.

The multiple hour APs can be stunning as evidenced by the many AP posts here at TSS, but it's just "too much" more me. This is just where my head, heart and physical body are, at this point, in my renewed interest in AP.

You look pretty young in that picture, what's the problem? Oops my own picture is more than 10 years old, I need to update it.

Thanks everyone else too for the nice comments. I look forward to the time when everything works as can be expected from a G11S and I can move on to some more challenging targets, get an astro cam, do NB etcetera. I fixed one thing in the OnStep system, I forgot to set the microstepping to 1x in slew mode. I don't see how it's related but everything sounds pretty good from just listening to the motors, I will test and debug some more and try again tonight no matter how much the Moon is shining.

[Juno16]

That is an awesome M31 Henk, moonlight or not!

Nice work with the colors. Really pleasing.

The stars are crisp and sharp. Very nice!

[Bigzmey]

Well done!

[SkyHiker]

Regarding to the DEC motion problem I mentioned, it is solved. I had assigned the DEC step pin to one that was already taken so by fixing the pin map the problem went away. I look forward to taking a lot of images now that the G11S has been tamed.

[helicon]

Looks great Henk. Fantastic shot.

[TheButcher]

Very Nice Henk!

[Gordon]

Congratulations Henk on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!

app.php/article/9-27-2020-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

[Graeme1858]

Nice M31 Henk.

Congratulations on the APOD.

Regards

Graeme

[Makuser]

Hi Henk. A very nice Andromeda Galaxy image, even with the moonlight. Beautiful stars, colors, and the companions M32 and M110 show up well too. Thanks for the view of your work Henk, and congratulations on winning the TSS APOD Award today.

[helicon]

Congrats on winning the APOD for today Henk.

[SkyHiker]

Wow thank you all for the nice comments, I feel honored to have a new APOD.

The funny thing is, this was meant to be an OnStep debug and practice session, after I noticed the streaks in DEC I disconnected the DEC cable and went back inside trying to figure out what was wrong with my OnStep setup. I expected the fog to roll in any time but what the heck just leave it snapping away and meanwhile figure out what's wrong inside, I did not take the trouble to start autoguiding.

However I had done my polar alignment routine fairly accurately, and noticed the focus was better than I could ever recall having, just looking at the LCD. So I will do this religiously from here on, snapping the stars can be done in 1 second so why not work a bit harder on that. I suppose the G11S really has a leg up compared to the AVX so it can bring out the sharper focus. I hope I can repeat this, and why not, the equipment is good.

[TheButcher]

Congrats on the APOD Henk! Very Nice!

[Greenman]

Hi Henk sorry to be late at the party. Nicely done both on the image and APOD.

[STEVE333]

The stars look good Henk. Hopefully you can get all the bugs out soon.

Steve