I am no longer a CCD virgin!!

[swag72]

So last night decided to finally out the Atik 314L on the scope! I was a little concerned about all of this spacing lark, so thought I'd primarily try out the focus and check that I could get it focused.

I think it was a success. I found Artemis capture a little clunky to start with, and had to constantly refer to the starters guide, but as it's a new programme that's fine, it will come.

I found Vega and decided to try to focus. Using the FHWM I only managed to get down to 5.20 and it was jumping about all over the place. So put the bahtinov mask on to see whether I really was getting focus and it seemed that I was. There was some high wispy cloud last night, so seeing must have been playing havoc with me. Spacers all tightened now, so that nothing will move.

Feeling very adventurous I decided to get the camera orthogonal. Up came Al's Reticle (great little programme for that!) and after only a few minutes had the camera singing to the tune of the handset, excellent. Went to M31 just to really check, it was a little off centre, so using the handset and the loop button, I could move it easily to the middle.

Tape now on the focuser and reducer so that it goes on square again. A couple of exposures on M31, no tracking and just using the L filter so that I could see SOMETHING. Yep, that came out fine too, I could see the core of M31 and a little more.

So, all in all, a useful night albeit no images acquired.

I just had to tell someone how it all went as hubby wasn't too interested in my exuberance!!

[Stephen]

Well done

[ncjunk]

Well done!

Ccd is so much easier than dslr in my opinion. There was a fair bit of high whispy cloud here last night as well, absolutely no good for imaging but ok for a bit of testing.

Can't wait to see some of your efforts with this, they should be good!

Enhorabuena!

[steelfixer]

what capture programe are you using Sara?

thanks

Graham

[ncjunk]

what capture programe are you using Sara?

thanks

Graham

..she says Artemis Capture in the text.

I have used that and found it not too bad.

[swag72]

Thanks all - Yes Artemis Capture Graham.

I may have a play at some time with Maxim. I used it for DSLR capture and it worked OK. I'll see how I go. At least I have the benefit here in Spain of being able to spend a whole night messing about and trying different things, without thinking that I've potentially missed my only imaging night in 6 months!!

Would the wispy clouds Neil have caused the poor FHWM, pretty unclear bahtinov mask picture and the jumping about on screen?

[ncjunk]

Yes, if you´re imaging and the little whispy swines come in you´ll notice the noise go up in your images (and galaxy, or whatever, will start fading) and you will start getting iffy guiding.

oh and poor FHWM.

I get it with mist and you can also notice it on nights that have more moisture in the air. (I have ha a couple of nights where the seeing has been very poor but it looked quite clear during the day...not sure if it was smog or water particles)

[Stephen]

I like Artemis, Maxim scares the poo out of me I guess at some point I should make an effort to use it properly .....

[ncjunk]

You don´t notice these things when you start off, not that you´re new on this imaging malarky!, as you´re just happy to get an image and see it. But you´ll easily start seeing slight differences in the subs and that one night was poorer than another.

[ncjunk]

I like Artemis, Maxim scares the poo out of me I guess at some point I should make an effort to use it properly .....

Maxim is quite good but it took me ages to get used to it and there are still things it does that I haven´t looked at or am not using (but could probably help me out).

I need it as I have an automated setup using ACP and ACP requires maxim as it sends scripts to maxim for controlling it. When it works it is great but if there are problems it is normally down to the hardware.

I liked Artemis capture as well, if you are going to be sat next to the scope with PHD then Artemis capture is all you need (or with remote desktop)

[Earl]

So far I have got on the best with Nebulosity.