My 1st image in over 2 years and initial test for the Box Observatory

[beamer3.6m]

I have finally managed to get things working in the box observatory!

I have been having trouble with PHD2 and the calibration steps and in a fit of annoyance I decided to turn off DEC guiding completely.

Weirdly this resulted in an almost instant calibration of west/east and no backlash issues and the longest sub I have ever managed at 600 seconds.

Question:

Does this mean this it is actually an unguided shot and have I just been very lucky in my DEC set up to not have to use DEC corrections in phd2?

This is my resulting image which is a simple stack of 4 subs (1 x 90 secs, 1 x 120 secs, 1 x 300 secs, 1 x 600 secssecs). Total stack time is 18 minutes 29 seconds and I used DSS to stack but this is also new to me. It will win no prizes but it is a start.

I know flats are needed etc but this was a test. Whats' the verdict:

1. Is the guiding ok?

2. focus?

I am not even sure what part of the sky this is!!!

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate thats a cool image ,your guiding  looks good and focus is ok,well done. thanks for sharing charl.

[Cozzy]

beamer3.6

Guiding and focus look ok.

you do have coma in the corners.

you have answered your own question with regards to unguided / giuded ( resulted in an almost instant calibration of west/east and no backlash issues and the longest sub I have ever managed at 600 seconds.)  

If you run your image through astrometry.net it will tell you what you have in your image.

clear skies

Tim

[Grotemobile]

That is very good. Focus &

guiding, seem to be  ok, as

far as I can see.

Steve.

[laudropb]

I am no expert , but the stars seem to be elongated all in the one direction.

[baggywrinkle]

Guidance and focus are good, just some distortion at the edges.

[damnut]

Bit of edge distortion, and if you adjust the levels you will make it blacker!. Keep at it !

[kalasinman]

[Pompey Monkey]

I am no expert , but the stars seem to be elongated all in the one direction.

No they're not!

They are generally all directed to the middle of the image indicating, as others have said, coma.

[beamer3.6m]

Thanks guys.

I was not expecting such positive comments.

I appreciate coma is a problem and I need to get a come corrector as this was taken with the 130pds which is known for this issue.

I am still a little unclear as to how I managed 10 minute subs without DEC guiding. Can someone explain this please in very simple terms. I have been tearing my hear out with PHD2 for over a week now and nothing was working until I just clicked the DEC guide - NONE option - in frustration.

This seem counter intuitive to me as I thought the need to guide in DEC was essential.

I did run the Polar Align from the handset (usually use EQMOD but swapped it out for the PA) a number of times and it suggested my PA was pretty good. I cannot recall the figures.

Fingers crossed it works again!

If it is all working I can now concentrate on working out how to use DSS (I was a Registax man previously) and plate solving - how many nightmares lay ahead!!!

[kalasinman]

About the DEC guiding, or lack of it. If PA is good and pixel scale not extreme, DEC guiding shouldn't be critical as DEC never changes. However, if you use the "auto" setting in PHD2, DEC can dither back and forth trying to correct something that is ok. This is why many find it useful to set PA off a bit and then try DEC guiding North only or South only. One will work well without the dithering (not the good kind).