M51 take 2

[Mac]

I had hoped to get 5 hours on M51 last night. However Murphy was in the neighborhood and I had a setting in the scheduler wrong, as a result the image was not centered.

Half way through, a Meridian flip occurred and the image was of course, up-side-down but also off-center. So I was unable to integrate the last two hours of data.

48 x 4 minutes under 50% illuminated Moon, Optolong LP filter with the new Orion .8 reducer that I received yesterday.

[helicon]

Great pic Mac and I really like how you have highlighted the other galaxies in the field of view.

[Mac]

Great pic Mac and I really like how you have highlighted the other galaxies in the field of view.

Thanks Michael, Astrometry.net is a great resource. Upload your image and it outputs the image you see.

[Mac]

[Shabadoo]

That's cool!

[Hankmeister3]

Very nice, Mac! I like the annotated image, too. I'll be posting my M51 grab later today along with M13 from 4/1/2020. Nothing spectacular, but my first galaxy grab with my Meade 10inch f/10.

[Mac]

Very nice, Mac! I like the annotated image, too. I'll be posting my M51 grab later today along with M13 from 4/1/2020. Nothing spectacular, but my first galaxy grab with my Meade 10inch f/10.

Thanks Henry. The annotation is great and helps me to remember what many of them are.

I need to create a place to catalog and store the pictures on my website. Look forward to your images.

[Juno16]

Very nice and bright Steve!

Waiting for this target to get a bit higher over the light dome to image it for my second time (since last year).

Yeah, Astometry.net is cool and fun!

Nice work!

[Mac]

Thanks Jim, I had another hour+ of images upside down and couldn't be aligned.

I am just getting the hang of this scheduler and didn't have a check box ticked to repeatedly plate solve until the image is within a set amount.

[Juno16]

Thanks Jim, I had another hour+ of images upside down and couldn't be aligned.

I am just getting the hang of this scheduler and didn't have a check box ticked to repeatedly plate solve until the image is within a set amount.

Very important check box for sure!

APT by default plate solves to 50 pixels which works good for me.

I’m sure that your apps are similar, but between PHD2 and APT, there are probably 500 different settings to master!

[Mac]

Thanks Jim, I had another hour+ of images upside down and couldn't be aligned.

I am just getting the hang of this scheduler and didn't have a check box ticked to repeatedly plate solve until the image is within a set amount.

Very important check box for sure!

APT by default plate solves to 50 pixels which works good for me.

I’m sure that your apps are similar, but between PHD2 and APT, there are probably 500 different settings to master!

Yes it is. I need to work on rotation of the camera to match prior captures hoping to integrate the new frames.

[Juno16]

Yes it is. I need to work on rotation of the camera to match prior captures hoping to integrate the new frames.

Camera rotation will be an issue for me for future whenI re-image a target. I wish that the ED102 focuser was indexed for reference.

I need to come up with something.

[mbocca]

Jim,

I wonder if a 3D printed part would work well as an indexer. Print something with the correct profile and attach it just below the thumbscrew for setting the angle. The thumbscrew could be the index position and put a variety of scribes on the printed part.

Mike