NGC6960 via ST80 Achro

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I'd like to sing the praises of this cheap and cheerful little 'scope, so I offer you an image.

Its not big and its not clever, but its very much to my taste. (it gets a little bigger if you ckick on it) I ended up swapping the imaging camera from the main 'scope to the guiding 'scope as the seeing was abysmal and the dew was even worse. My 200mm Newt. primary dewed up for goodness sake, how soggy a day is that?

Started off with the intention of having a curry and a load of beer because the forecast was for clouds and potential rain, so I'd done the curry and had a good start on the beer ration, when I happened to pop outside to refill the glass recycling bin. Clear as anything!

Shed lid off, Klevtsov one star aligned and aimed at ..

Aaarghh! No menu for tonight. Starry Night fired up, whats next? M27, done that, M57, done that, Bubble Neb. - in a tree, Crescent Neb., done that. Steve's 5? Why not? (nearly full moon is why not)

Set it going and went indoors to chat with the guests (Saturday is social curry night at chez Klevtsov ) but the lappy was on the table mirroring the shed machine. All went wierd, signal losing to noise 2 nil, and getting worse. Checked, no clouds, left it for a few more subs, but no better.

The Tal secondary had dewed up and it had all gone wrong. The guide 'scope had dewed up so that the guide star was miles away, goto messed up and all the rest of the bad things had happened.

After a hairdryering, the Tal recovered a bit, but it was getting late and the seeing and the risen moon meant I wasn't doing galaxies tonight.

Had a go with the new Fusion webcam at the moon, but that crept into a tree, so I swapped the 16HR into the ST80, shut off the guiding and left it going at 2 minute subs and 2X binned to get the Witches Broom that you see here.

The clouds arrived before the moon cleared the tree and before I had enough subs to make a good go at the Broom, but I grabbed what you see here in the alloted time anyway.

Not bad for a cloudy night. I wish they'd get the forecast right every now and again.

Kaptain Klevtsov, tired but happy

[steppenwolf]

KK, its done a remarkably good job for you on this image. I use my ST80 for guiding too but I have also used it for imaging when I have wanted a wide field - lovely little 'scope to handle too, in fact on the day my gear arrived, I was more excited about opening the box for my ST80 than I was for the 'oil drum' that was my 10" Newtonian!

[lunator]

KK

thats a good pic

glad you got some imaging donew despite the clouds.

It was supooesd to be clear here last night but the cloud came over just enough that I cound see clear skies low in the North east but it was impossible to observe.

Cheers

Ian

[CELESCOPE]

worked out well that one KK and some delicate detail showing through , nice one mate and nice to see you out getting something again

Rog

[MikeD]

Nice work, and well done on keeping at it and getting a result.

Mike.

[centroid]

That's really nice, and goes to show just what can be done with with 'budget' Achromat.

I never did use my ST80 for anything other than guiding, and your result comes as a bit of surprise.

Nice going!!

Dave