First (successful) night out with ASI178MM

[Ags]

I had some struggles last night with my new AZ GTi not tracking but after a firmware update it tracks beautifully now, and gotos often put the target on the chip. I added a Wratten #8 between the ASI178 and the ST80 to reduce the chromatic abberations and it seemed to help a bit. M13 delivered the fireworks.

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by Ags

[Ags]

Some more pictures from last night.

M92, overlooked because M13 is so close by. 33 4sec fames.

M57, I did a 2x digital zoom for this one (37 5sec frames):

M27, AZ GTi goto got this one straight on the chip (40 7sec frames):

M81 and M82 (not so successful because they were low in the Amsterdam light dome). 35 8sec frames:

61 Cygni (first star to which we measured the distance). 120 500ms frames, much lower gain:

[Martin Meredith]

Congratulations on a great first time out! I agree that M92 is sometimes overlooked. I like to look at several globs in succession in a session because that really brings home the fact that they are all quite different.

Martin

[Mike JW]

Totally agree with Martin about M92 and it makes for a lovely outing to go globular hunting both direct visual or using EAA. Then for the real challenge, try sketching them to the same scale to understand the differences.... I have yet to take up that challenge. A challenge that one day I hope to take up using the EAA technique is to capture the Palomar Globular Clusters.

61 cygni is a real favourite of mine - just cannot resist a visit if I am having a doubles night as I did recently.

Have fun. Mike

[Ags]

61 Cyg was a deliberate choice - I figured the stars were not too bright with very little blue to cause bloat, so I hoped I would be able to capture the pair with a clear separation.

[Helen]

That looks a great fun night Ags 😎  What software are you using?

Helen

[Ags]

I am using an ST80, AZ-GTi, Berlebach Report, and ASI 178 MM. To control the mount I am just using the synscan Android app, and live stacking is done via SharpCap. I don't want to make things more complicated, but I want add SharpCap plate solving to get targets reliably centered.