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Sometimes I really hate this hobby

Ant

By Ant
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Ant

Ant

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Then you have nights like tonight that make it all worthwhile.

:hello1:

I added the 2" Focuser to the newt today - that was fun. 2 hours of grinding - a large scratch on the tube :x where I slipped.

Then I Set up in the garden and showed Jamie the moon. The collimation wouldn't be much further out if I had thrown the mirrors into the garden from the bathroom window (leaving the tube in the garage :D ) - thats something to do on a cloudy night!

So set everything up... hooked up the ToUcam to the newt and the 300D to the ED80. Took me a little while to get it working (typical bloke - didn't read the instructions).

So I have PHD Guide software and the lead that comes with the PRO mount - thats all. Nothing extra.

I realise that this is pulse guiding and not ideal.

Finally got it working. Got a guide star on the chip and clicked on guide. It guided... took a 2 minute shot - no hint of a trail. That's pretty much the longest exposure that I've ever taken (up to that point).

Then decided to move position and take a shot of something that actually had more than a few star in it.

Moved over to M57, wanted to use a brightish star for guiding, will try fainter and fainter stars as I get better at it.

Wen't through the same routine as before, click LOOP, then click on star, then STOP, then on guide. Nothing... Red flashing screen, guide star lost.

I did this many many times. Started to get cross (it was working now it isn't :? ).

Then read the instructions and it mentioned that the first time you click on a guide star PHD does a calibration test at the start.

I forced PHD to do a calibration on the new star and it worked a treat!

:cheers:

Here is a 5 minute exposure, focus is not good, framing is also not great, but it's a 5 minute exposure :D so who cares.

6546_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

One happy Ant

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SteveL

SteveL

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Then read the instructions and it mentioned that the first time you click on a guide star PHD does a calibration test at the start.

I forced PHD to do a calibration on the new star and it worked a treat!

RTFM always tends to help :D

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Ant

Ant

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Bah, I never read the manual.

PHD has fairly comprehensive help pages, but has an "Impatient guide" or somehting like that. That was all I read to start with and it is all you need (untill you move the a different area of sky.

The image attached below is really not good. It was taken from the camera, into paint, resized to 25% and posted. I guess that paint seriously compresses JPG's?

So that I could get to 5 minutes the ISO was set to 100.

This is so worth the lack of sleep.

Ant

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Ant

Ant

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Cheers for the comments guys. Can't tell you what a releif it is to get this far!

The image I attached is truely awful - nothing like the one I downloaded from the camera. Paint must destroy image quality.

Ant

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Ant

Ant

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OK set everything up from scratch again today.

It took about 25 minutes to get all the software working and talking to each other. I think with a decent laptop you could do it in 10. Takes my laptop about 10 minutes to get into windows.

Have learnt something else tonight. When there is no star in the FOV with the webcam the display in PHD is like very rough static - almost like digital inference. As soon as a star pops into the FOV it goes away very strange.

Also my tip about changing the COM ports from COM1 to COM2 and back again wasn't required tonight - but I had to press the centre button on the graphical direction pad before the left/right up/down would work.

The scope is outside and completing a 10 minute sub test :D

I hope that I have NGC7000 in the frame - but I doubt it.

Ant

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Ant

Ant

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The reason for the pessimism Ron, is the fact that I spent some time the day before aligning the two scopes.

But I then found that the methos I had used to hold the scope in place didn't allow much adjustment. So I tried an alternative method (which didn't work) and put it back the way it was. But I didn't align the two scopes.

This fact didn't enter my head untill I started to pack the kit away. DOH!

The image is attached below, there are no trails - which for a 10 minute exposure is like a dream come true. I am so amazingly happy it hurts. :D

I feel like I have a new lease for astronomy - I now want to set up, I do not feel stuct in the rut.

Anyway enough of the ramblings, here the image. It was taken with the ED80 / 300D combo with a sky and moon glow filter (that one I can't spell :) ), guided using a 6" F5 reflector, using PHD to control scope and DSLR Shutter to control the camera! Camera set to RAW mode and ISO100(lowest setting).

6574_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

I have NOT managed to get NGC7000 - but look at those stars :D. I have not processed this image in any way - opened the RAW file in PSCS2, saved as JPG and resized 25%, then saved again.

Ant

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Ant

Ant

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Now that I've taken the test shots and managed to repeat the setting up and it all worked twice.

Next time I will actually go for an object to image, take time to frame properly. But with the light nights (and me loving sleep) I suspect it'll be a month before I venture out again!

Cheers for the kind words.

I couldn't agree more Martin, for me it ranked up there with seeing M13 on the laptop screen (through the ToUcam) for the very first time.

Ant

Ant

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