goose35

Hello All Been a while since I last went out, due to cloud and timing of the clear nights, all ways when im on morning shift. During this time I’ve done a system swap from my Olympus E-510 to a Canon EOS1100D. got same kit off the bay, 2 zooms and a flash gun. Now have to get the old stuff sold. Saturday 12 September Got a few hours in last night, Visual only with the 150p on the EQ 3-2, with new motor upgrade. M39 open cluster The perseus double cluster M103 open cluster All were stunning especially the double cluster. It amazing how rich Casseopia and perseus region is. On each of these I gave first light to my new EOS 1100D. I was most impressed, I was getting 2 min tracked subs on the mount. I also gave first light to the Baader MPCC mk 3 which was excellent. I didn’t do any calibrating frames as I was only giving a few exposures to see how long I could get on the mount and I was expecting clouds. Im looking forward to giving the whole imaging setup a good run now after those results. I think the target has to be the double cluster. Im on afternoons this coming week and a week off after that so Im also going to get the camera with the 70-300 lens and do some tracked wide shots on the EQ3-2. steve

Hello All Saturday 8 August Got the new ZWO120mm-s on the st80 as a guider atop the astromaster 130eq Went after M52 All went well apart from the backlash in Dec causing a drop off the chart. Had to up the correction time to 999ms (max) had a massive saw tooth pattern but it was bringing it back. So ive proven that the mount is guidable. Got a good image with round stars in the middle so I just need to fix the coma. Got the baader MPCC to try out once ive moded the astromaster to a 2inch focuser. Well pleased sofar Monday 10 august Set the ZWO 120 MM-s as an all sky cam for the persieds. Couldn’t spend much time on it as I was on morning [removed word] so I run from 10 til midnight. I captured many aircraft but I also got the ISS and a couple of meteors in a 15 minuite run Sat 15 August Just had a visual evening tonight. I did try the Baader MPCC on the e-510 attached to the 150p. I was surprised I achieved focus with over an inch to spare (wondering what the pds version gives now) Had an issue with the spacing though and the coma corrector going on the tilt as I tightened the lock screws on the focuser. I need around a 12.5 spacer to get the required 55mm from the focal plane of the camerato the CC shoulder. Just shows how everything is geared for canon/Nikon and nothing else (bigger deeper bodies) So im thinking now can I utilise the 150p as an imaging scope rather than mod the 130eq Hmm allways something to think about and or buy J