got him...m1

[Keithp]

Hello All, for what feels like the first time since I built the observatory we have clear skies here. It's 02:46, I'm crouched down typing this as I image the Crab Nebula, not done that one yet. I'll post up what I get tomorrow.

Reminder to self, get chair and table next.

I've actually got auto guiding working for the first time so as much as anything it's a test to see what the kit will do.

Next step is eqmod control with the computer

Regards

All

[Keithp]

Well the best night I've had in ages, little bit of the fluffy stuff around 01:00 then clear all the way. Still got the roof off letting it evaporate any dew left in there. Close that later.

In the end I went for 4 targets, not so much as a dedicated 1 image all night type of session. So I got M31, M1, M42 and IC434. Thats Andromeda, Crab Nebula, Orion Nebula and the horsehead.

The autoguiding seems to be working well. After I moved to each target it then calibrated itself and was away. Much better than non guided, in DSS very little shift between the stacks as they go together.

I think what puzzled me before was how far back the imaging camera has to be and the timings...course started off on .2 sec loops and found it difficult to locate a guide star. Then it dawned on me upped it to .5 and a lot more became visible...doh!

It's been that long since I've done any post processing I think I'm gonna have to read all the tutorials again. I'll post what I've got a little later after I've had a play. Don't think it will be too good as I didn't really concentrate on one target all night.

Regards

All

Keithp

[Keithp]

Here's one of the 300 second exposures of M42. Still working on M1. Although I spent more time on that than any other I'm not getting very good results. Probably need alot more to see any detail my best efforts so far have resulted in a slight orangy smudge with very little detail. Any one else with experience on M1 got any advice.

Regards

All Keithp

[Keithp]

Here's a cut from the M1 tiff. No processing after stacking. All as I've done is loaded it into Paint .net to cut this portion out and save as a tiff. Not very good on closer inspection. I think I need some (a lot) more data.

Any one want to have a go a teasing some more out of it?

Regards

Keithp

Cut2_M1.tif

[anthony]

The M42 is spot on, very clean and good stars.

I had a look at M1 and that is a very different story. I don't think it is a stacking issue from what i saw. Looked more like a collimation issue

[Keithp]

Cheers for that Anthony. I must admit my other suspicion may have dew on the secondary, but I'll certainly give the colimation a once over as well. I had checked it a few nights ago and with it being pier mounted didn't bother this time.

Regards

Keithp