Up and running at last.

[laser_jock99]

I finally have (most) things up and running in the observatory at last since embarking on the project in 2009. The final piece of the puzzle was to get the autoguider rig working. To this end I bolted my two refractors together, one as an imaging scope the other as a guidescope (in fact they can swap roles if a wider view is needed as they are both apochromatics). The guide camera in use is an Opticstar PL131-M running via PHD autoguiding software.

It me a couple of hours to figure out how to get it working (there's no mention of the mount calibration phase in the PHD quickstart guide) but once up an running the old EQ6 (hardware upgraded to a HEQ6 GOTO) seemed to perform really well. The longest tracking test being a 10 minute exposure so far.

M31 Andromeda 10 minute single sub through Altair Astro Starwave ED80

IC1396 Cephius 10 minute single sub through Altair Astro Starwave ED80

[David Smith]

Some great images, can't wait to see what you can do when your really trying! Glad it's coming together for you.

[TheThing]

Brilliant looking set up and excellent results.

Congrats.

[Gina]

Love your M31 - great detail

[astrosathya]

Hi,

What is your opinion about the Opticstar PL-131M? I bought one three days ago for my HEQ5-PRO. Any detail will be much appreciated.

Astrokumar.

[Delboy_Hog]

Nice kit and lovely pics too! Hope you get some clear skies to reward all that hard work!

[laser_jock99]

Hi,

What is your opinion about the Opticstar PL-131M? I bought one three days ago for my HEQ5-PRO. Any detail will be much appreciated.

Astrokumar.

It is not as sensitive as I hoped it might be. Finding a bright enough guide star can be a problem and I have ended up using integration times of up to 10 seconds (I curently have no way of pointing the guide scope off axis). But when you do lock on to a suitable star it does work okay.