First night with CCD

[kirkster501]

Managed to get some subs last night after my polar alignment problems. By the time I got going and aligned it was midnight and need to be heading to bed because of work. today.

Cannot get AT to work with "Ascom camera" no matter what I do. AT does download and solve the image from the CCD but then just hangs "centering" and scope does not move and AT locked up. It does work with a 3 second .fits sub as a file though.

In the end I grabbed 4x 1 min LRGB lighs, unguided and uncooled on M27. no flats or anything, did not have time. Will have play later.

Slow progress but progress nonetheless

[TrickySpot]

it clouded over in Nottingham as it got dark:( Otherwise I would have been out. Whole East of country under cloud now...

Plate solving is such an incredibly powerful tool. No need for alignement with an EP at all. Polar align, get an approx focus, select an object, plate solve. Fine focus. Job done. Imaging.

Thats why to me worth the effort of getting AT set up correctly. I am still downloading the 4202-xx series, the ones that solved the image for Simon.

Plus one for plate solving! My CGEM is out permanently though, with 2 x telescope covers.... Switch on, move to index marks, do a quick align (no stars), slew, take a 10 sec exposure, plate solve, sync, reslew, image! I'm ready to image before it gets dark enough :-)