M42 test of my kit and me

[philjay]

The clear night forecast and long awaited finally came and clouds cleared away by 19:00 but there was still a gusty wind which could make guiding bouncy but I was happy to be just setting the kit up and playing. So if I got an image out of the session that would be a bonus.

 

So to reduce the wind resistance a tad I set the tripod up at its lowest which make polar aligning interesting.

 

Imaging was going to be with the ED80 (half my binoscope) and Atik 314L+ with SW 0.8 reducer, this I had set up previosly with correct spacers.

 

With the ED80 all set up and polar aligned, next was to test eqmod out and do a 3 star calibration through my favourite planetarium programme Skymap Pro 11, sadly no longer suported but still a bosting programme.

 

All went well and I got an accurate enough goto with 3 stars. So I swapped over the diagonal; and eyepiece for the camera assembly.

I had fitted a motor focuser previously  and ran an extra long lead to my comfy position inside the balcony door where my lappy resided.

A few tweaks got reasonable focus and away I went. PHD ran straight away on guiding and I settled down to taking subs on M42 as my first test back into dso imaging after too many years break.

 

The wind didnt help matters as the stars started off as eggy but eventuallyt settled in later subs as the wind died down.

 

I ran 20 360 second subs then 10 120 second then 10 60 second subs so I could composite an image and get some detail in the core.

 

All went well and the cloud kept at bay until the end of my session. The only glitch was the wireless gamepad stopped working after awhile, this turned out to be faulty as it was draining batteries in one session, serves me right for getting a used one from a dubious source.

 

Still, all went well and I got a half way reasonable image out of it. I still miss an observatory where everything is set up and to hand but once I streamline the gear and workflow I shouldn't miss it too much.

Edited March 17, 2021 by philjay

[+Graham]

That has turned out rather well there Phil.

Good colours and loads of detail.

[+Bino-viewer]

I'm sorry, but i'm afraid i can't see the image Phil.

 

For some reason, unknown to me, Dropbox images won't load properly for me.

Grahams are the same.

 

It showing as a grey panel, flickering slightly, with a small blue ? in the centre.

At the top left it says in small print :    spacer.png

 

Maybe @Craig has a better idea....?? Although i suspect the problem may be mine.....

 

(i'm using Apple iMac , 2016, runnning Mac OS 'Big Sur' version 11.2.3 and Safari version 14.0.3)

[Craig]

10 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said:

Maybe @Craig has a better idea....?? Although i suspect the problem may be mine.....

 

I'll drop you a PM to diagnose the cause so as not to derail this topic.

[philjay]

 

Ive turned the lights up a bit on the image as the first post has lost some of the wispy stuff by being posted on here. Lets see if this improves it.

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by philjay

[Peter Shah]

Thats lovely Phil