To trail or not to trail

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Following on from the no eq DSO challenge thread I thought I would have a go at seeing what my Virtuoso mount could do. Using my manual approach barn door I can with my 85mm lens on my dslr can get tight stars at 15 seconds so I set this as my target. 

The Virtuoso was set up in the same place as I use normally and set for my location (or so I thought see later). I did make sure the base was level I used a two way level gizmo. Pointed the camera upwards and a bit west.

The first image a crop below is a 15 second jpg and I expected perhaps better shaped stars.

So next turned the Virtuoso of and took another image, clearly tracking was working look at those streaks!

But I have never used a tracking mount before and I don't know whether it's my setup or the first image is actually what would be expected from those taking part in the no eq DSO challenge.

But was my latitude 51 degrees which I had googled but actually I should have used the alt of Polaris which was for me 48 degrees?

I can't actually get in a position to see if the camera was pointing at Polaris to confirm my latitude setting, only have one slab to set the chair up on the rest is decking and the slab is right by the garage wall. So is using the latitude of Polaris what I should have done and would a 3 degree difference maker my stars stretched. Anyone any thoughts please?

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I confess to being a pixel peeper lol. If it were not so cold and I had spoted the potential bad latitude setting I would try again. I'll keep the thread and update it when I get another chance to try and compare results. The Virtuoso is a lovely mount and easy to use and I love being able to manually move it. It works for me it is table top it goes on a chair and I sit next to it.

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A cup of hot pepper mint later and I think I'm being way too picky.

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To help me get the latitude right I'm going to use a red dot finder locate polaris then take the RDT off and mount my camera and then fine tune so Polaris is in the centre of the view and then tell the mount and set latitude.

On the other side there is a large flat spot as that foot is not adjustable and that is where I put my three way mini spirit level.

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Clear night after a bit yesterday so had another play. The rdf worked well I then put the camera on instead and got Polaris dead centre and set my latitude. What I wanted to point at was just in the murk even at over 50 degrees. Was a better try but as I only want to run on batteries they went flat I think my Bluetooth testing  previously ate them. Given Lee is using batteries with a heavier 150p star discovery just for tracking and is up to 20 hours and still going batteries suit me.

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I can report that the RDF worked a treat, I then swapped it for my camera and 85mm lens and fine tuned Polaris to being dead centre of the fov displayed on the 7 inch tablet and then set the latitude on the mount again.
This time I managed to get 30 seconds with out trailing while pointing completely the other side from Polaris. I didn't try longer because I assumed rotation would show but I think I should next time I get a chance to play.

Mount clutches I have a feeling that perhaps even though I was mindful of just tight enough I think on reflection considering a brand new set of batteries, and a very light load, are near dead that there must have been too much resistance and consequently load placed on the batteries to track. This I will try next time with a lighter feel.

I do wish that they had put three leveling feet on the base not juast two as I have to fudge a spacer to adjust the third leg to get level.

In the mids of processing the image so we will see what comes out from it.

 

 

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The results of last night's go.

M44 Beehive Canon 1100d EF85mm lens 2 inch Baader Neodymium filter on Virtuoso mount 30 seconds at ISO 1600 at f5.6

16 lights, 3 darks, 35 flats, 40 bias stacked in DSS and processed using StarTools

 

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What did I learn today... Ah yes... I must not do the clutches up as much as I thought I needed too I had them too tight no wonder it ate the batteries so quick. Also learning there really is no point trying to use the camera if the Moon is up plus I think the sky was not really as clear as the weather report made out.