M106 - Very much a long WIP...

[coatesg]

I've been continuing to work on my 14" double truss newt - recent activities include mounting a PC (a Gigabyte Brix - pictured) on the scope along with power distribution - I now have it down to 2 wires between scope and the floor (SBIG ST power cable and 12V) which much reduces drag/snag type situations. I also found and corrected an issue with the Moonlite CR2 (I was a bit shy in the Crayford tension, which gave rise to play in the drawtube).

Fixing that, and sorting out balance issues and tweaking up the polar alignment has helped enormously in getting much tighter stars - here's an example of my guiding last night once I'd sorted out the right calibration steps for PHD2 (this at native 1582mm FL with an OAG using an ASI120MM). 

Also, I've been using a trial of SGP to try and rationalise the number of bits of software in use - it's quite a learning curve (!), but I managed to get 75min of data to fall out last night until the clouds stopped play. So here's M106 in CVn (along with NGC4248 and some other much fainter and distant galaxies - at full res for pixel peepers...) - 25x3min Lum using an ST2000XM. t's a bit noisy in places as it needs more signal, but that's not the scope's fault! Processed in PI, but haven't got anything to shoot flats sorted out (yet...: I just got a 600mm LED panel light to mount in the dome for doing flats). I would quite like a good clear run to get a full set of data here (and flats to follow!)... 

All in all, this looks like justification for embarking on this project from the early days of starting rebuilding the original Orion SPX350 - it's taken ages really, but I think it should be worth it from these early results. 

One happy astronomer

[Allinthehead]

28 minutes ago, coatesg said:

One happy astronomer

I bet you are. Great stuff. This will be a cracker when finished.

[MikeODay]

Nice result and thanks for sharing the details about your scope and progress.

[swag72]

Wowsers!!! This looks fantastic  

[cfpendock]

I only just saw this.  Well, that scope certainly works.  Well done - you should be well satisfied with all your work.

Chris

[coatesg]

Cheers everyone - I grabbed a load more data on this this week. I just need to sort out taking some flats... Job for a cloudy night next week I think.