1st guided image: m101

[ottUp]

I've been working through the learning curve, for what seems like a long time. Years, if I include the selection of a better mount and tuning it for stability.

Last night was my first attempt at a long autoguided exposure, M101. This was a total of 60 minutes, 5x1, 5x5, 3x10, with darks and flats.

SXV-H9 on an SV80S, guided by a Lu135 on a Pronto, all via Maxim.

Much more still to do. Tuning mount, tuning guiding, starting to get to know colour filters, etc. Fun!

- Richard

[glennbech]

Nice pointy round stars and a bright core for a relatively dim object :-) Looks like you did it. Great work! How do you take your flats?

[Petervde]

Great result, Richard !

Tell us a bit more about your workflow: which software do you use to achieve this result (Maxim only?).

Peter

[ottUp]

Thanks, gents. Here's what I'm doing so far:

• 
  [li]Mount is a

G11 with the upgraded "high precision" worm gear (not the new oVision worm block - although that is tempting) and much tinkering.[/li]
[li]Imaging through a Stellarvue SV80S with an SXV-H9 camera. No filters yet (I have a filter wheel but am putting that off until I am comfortable monochrome).[/li]
[li]Guiding scope, mounted side-by-side on a dual dovetail plate, is a Televue Pronto. [/li]
[li]Home-made guide scope plate and mounting rings.[/li]

The guiding camera is still an experiment - this run was using a Lumenera Lu135 (which is really a low-light video camera I use for planetary work). I'm not sure I'm satisfied with it yet - it's a little insensitive for this.

All control and image processing was Maxim DL (new version 5). Guiding output to the G11 via a ShoeString GPUSB guide convertor. This is not a permanent installation, so each evening involves re-doing polar alignment, and I've been using the Polar Align feature in PEMPRO for that - it makes it quite easy.

The flats were done with a recently completed home made light box (construction journal here).

This is hard! It makes me appreciate even more the amazing results I see people achieve.

- Richard

[Psychobilly]

Great first autoguided image and some really nice kit.

Billy...

[Paxo]

Nice image Richard, well guided with nice round stars. PEMPRO is a nice piece of software, I've tried it with the evaluation and shall be purchasing the full version v. soon. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Steve..

[Sam]

That's a very nice image indeed Richard! I know what you're going through having just started autoguiding myself (though your setup is very very nice!! )

Sam