Good first guided target this weekend?

[rocketandroll]

So....

After months pf pfaf, I finally have a guiding rig assembled :-)

Gonna be giving first light to my shiny new Megrez 72 tonight or Sunday if either are clear here on the east coast... and trying guiding with the Synguider for the first time.

So...

Anyone got any suggestions of good targets to try and hit?

I ideally want a nebula, having done M31 the other week... something that will be showing some detail with perhaps an hour and a half to two hours of 5min or so subs at f6 and ISO800 with a modded DSLR.

I was thinking the NA was a good bet given how comparatively bright it is... are there any other viable targets?

I have reasonable views to the north/north east and not too bad to the north west... so somthing in that direction, or straight up in the band of the milkyway (maybe something else in Cygnus?) would be a good bet? They'd also give a lot of potential guide stars :-)

Suggestions?

Ben

[Psychobilly]

Having read your other post... and it's something that I usually do myslef... I would make life "easy" and go for somethign with a brightish star in the FOV...

The Gamma Cygnus Nebs spring to mind as you can use Sadr (Gamma Cyg) as your guide star...

This will give you an easy guidestar handy if you need to tweak focus with the Synguider to find and lock before moving onto dimmer guide stars...

Make sure that you adjust the exposure though once you have found it to make sure it's not saturated...

Peter...

[rocketandroll]

Having read your other post... and it's something that I usually do myslef... I would make life "easy" and go for somethign with a brightish star in the FOV...

The Gamma Cygnus Nebs spring to mind as you can use Sadr (Gamma Cyg) as your guide star...

This will give you an easy guidestar handy if you need to tweak focus with the Synguider to find and lock before moving onto dimmer guide stars...

Make sure that you adjust the exposure though once you have found it to make sure it's not saturated...

Peter...

If you look at the test pic I put up in the thread whining about the Megrez, you'll see I had that exact same thought :-)

It was that or use the garnet star and do IC1396.

Want to know the Synguider works with stuff that HASN'T got a bright star in it too though :-)

Ben

[Depraved]

andromeda is getting quite hi up now E/ENE

[rocketandroll]

andromeda is getting quite hi up now E/ENE

It is, it's on my list :-)

As I mentioned in my first post, I did M31 with a 200mm lens a few weeks ago and it came out pretty well, ideally I want to do a nebula this time...

Sadr region looks a good bet to try first... even a 30 sec sub showed a little nebulosity at 800ISO so at 5mins or so i should get a result of some kind.

Just got to wait for a 2" diagonal and a field flattener now so I can A: get the guider to focus and B: get a half-acceptable result from the Megrez! :-(

And tomorrow night is looking clear too!

Ben