First autoguided images

[laser_jock99]

Got some early results from my first foray into the world of autoguiding, guidescope used was Skywatcher Equinox 120ED, guide camera Opticstar PL131-M, imaging scope Altair Astro Starwave ED80 + focal reducer/field flattener, imaging camera Fuji S5 Pro. All shots are single 10 minute subs. I'm quite pleased with the tracking and roundness of the stars.

M31 Andromeda

IC1396 Cephius

M11 Scutum

And finally Sadr, Cygnus looking through the thin high cloud that put an end to the session!

Picture of imaging rig.

[ultranova]

Very nice start to guiding, with some cracking shots to get the ball rolling, looking forward to seeing the next photos

Well done Paul.

[Anweniel]

Awesome, especially for single shots. That pier looks immense from that angle!

[Gina]

Great shots

[SJJ]

Great start well done..

[Sirius Bizness]

That's a big and expensive guide scope! Great images. Looks like you've cracked autoguiding.

[nightvision]

Great images and a mega guide scope! Is this your low LP site? Did you get the 131 and PHD working OK?

So that's guiding at F7.5 and imaging at about F5.6, seems to be working very well. I wonder what the pros and cons would be for reversing their roles? This is really interesting as I was considering using my 100ED F9 + reducer for guiding with the Opticstar AG130.

[nightvision]

Just realised that the images are single 10 minute! That Fuji super CCD certainly has low noise or is it the built in noise reduction? Checked on dpreview and it seems very impressive with the noise reduction on and the colour noise is good even with it off: http://www.dpreview....ujifilms5pro/17

[laser_jock99]

Just realised that the images are single 10 minute! That Fuji super CCD certainly has low noise or is it the built in noise reduction? Checked on dpreview and it seems very impressive with the noise reduction on and the colour noise is good even with it off: http://www.dpreview....ujifilms5pro/17

In-camera noise reduction was switched off for these images (I was told it no good for astro-images but I've never tested the theory). I did use a speckle reduction in post processing to get rid of obvious hot pixels & specks- but ultimately I should be stacking short exposures.

Regards the guidescope- I'm only using the Equinox 120 as a guide scope since these are the only refractors I have on this site. My theory is that a longer focal length guide scope should give better tracking if longer than the imaging OTA? I have tried the scopes both ways round and they seem to track well either way though.

[farunj]

Wow!! Those are amazing!!