Modest M81 / M82

[samtheeagle]

Last night was my first time out in ages that was really satisfying, so I'm feeling very happy today Clear skies, and a nice warm night to be out, coupled with everything working for a change made it a real pleasure to be under the stars. I've been going through a few growing pains recently as I have got some new guiding hardware as well as new software for guiding and image capture. The combination of these has led to me having a couple of very frustrating sessions which left me feeling rather despondent about this whole imaging malarky So this image represents a bit of a breakthrough for me with me new gear...

Nothing spectacular I grant you, but the guiding worked well enough (tho not quite perfectly by the looks of the stars), and I got my head around a few more things that AstroArt 5 does, so all in all I'm extremely pleased with the result. This is a stack of 30 x 120 second subs with darks and flats applied. This is just a crop from the original image of course, as these targets are pretty small in the FOV of a ED80 / 350D combo.

Things didn't start out so well, I had major difficulties with my DSI guide camera, which I had thought were due to it not getting enough power from my netbook. But my newly acquired powered usb hub didn't help matters at all Turns out it was the usb cable I was using! No idea why, I use an identical one for my EQMOD device, and that has always worked ok, the DSI just hates this cable. I switched to a different one that one the face of it feels cheaper and of lower quality, and the camera sprang in to life!

Another wee issue I hit was related to AA5 triggering a mirror lock up on my 350D. With the custom function enabled on the camera, and the appropriate (I think) option set in AA5 the mirror lock up process worked fine, but at the end of an exposure the subs failed to download. All I got was a small black window with a green cross in it. Giving up on mirror lock up got me rolling, so that's something I need to revisit, that and introducing a pause between subs to allow the sensor to cool off.

I'm having fun trying to figure out how to process the data today with AA5 Flats are not working properly for me atm, they just don't seem to be having much of an effect. In the full frame I'm left with a lot of vignetting as well as dust bunnies. When I inspect the master flat it seems ok, I can make out the dust bunnies and gradient, so I've got something to figure out there... All good fun

[Gina]

I think that's a good start There is one hell of a lot to learn in this game that's for sure. It's a steep learning curve but good fun most of the time. I'm feeling a lot happier this evening as I've just fixed my 1100D, the sky's clear and hopefully will remain so for tonight. I too have had ages without being to do any imaging and will be much relieved when I can get some in again.

[samtheeagle]

Yeah, it was really only a test session, so I wasn't expecting much from only an hours worth of data. Good to shoot a new target tho, never gone after these little fellas before. At the moment I struggle to get large amounts of data as I'm time limited due the setting up and battery life. Once my obsy is online and I'm all mains powered up I hope to be able to really go for it

EDIT: Congrats on sorting out the 1100D btw! What an epic adventure you have had!

[Quatermass]

Thats a great job so much to learn in all this sometimes its just really nice to be able to get out there and enjoy some quality time under the stars regardless.