I was mostly heading out, not expecting it to be as clear as it ended up being, to do some fine collimation work and focus scripting in Maxim. However, it just was so clear that I figured I’d do a couple hours of imaging instead, even though the seeing, as has been continually the case recently, wasn’t good. I had to leave early however, as I had a busy Sunday ahead. So, here’s the AT8RC mounted on the CGE-Pro, Parsec 8300M, motorized filter wheel, ATFF field flattener, and motorized MoonLite CS, setup, pre-wiring:
Here’s my FocusMax focus run from 9PM.
21:00:47 21:00:47 System: MySystem 21:00:47 ** Beginning Focus run ** 21:00:47 LS: -0.072583 RS: 0.072609 PID: 9.76 NFHFD: 10 21:00:48 Move direction: Out 21:00:48 Temperature = 16.0 21:00:48 Filter number = 0 21:00:48 Current position = 6419 21:00:48 Focus Start: 6453 21:01:07 Target star found at X = 1719, Y = 1304 21:01:07 Focus exposures will be 0.11 sec 21:01:11 Position , HFD , Mean Best Focus , X , Y , Flux 21:01:11 6453 , 7.47 , 0 , 1712 , 1317 , 1106068 21:01:11 HFD < NearFocus HFD 21:01:15 6409 , 6.31 , 0 , 1709 , 1319 , 1109319 21:01:15 On the wrong side of focus 21:01:22 6047 , 25.41 , 0 , 1710 , 1320 , 1023097 21:01:27 6153 , 18.33 , 0 , 1712 , 1321 , 1281629 21:01:27 On correct side of focus 21:01:27 Move to Near Focus HFD 21:01:31 6268 , 11.19 , 0 , 1708 , 1319 , 1088295 21:01:31 ** Starting Near Focus ** 21:01:31 Position , HFD , Mean Best Focus , X , Y , Flux 21:01:31 6268 , 11.19 , 6417 , 1708 , 1319 , 1088295 21:01:35 6268 , 9.74 , 6407 , 1708 , 1320 , 1047245 21:01:38 6268 , 10.85 , 6409 , 1708 , 1321 , 1052828 21:01:41 6268 , 10.99 , 6410 , 1708 , 1319 , 1158818 21:01:44 6268 , 11.17 , 6412 , 1707 , 1321 , 1035770 21:01:48 6268 , 11.98 , 6414 , 1706 , 1319 , 1170274 21:01:48 Best Focus is: 6414 21:01:53 6414 , 6.62 , 6414 , 1708 , 1319 , 1247415 21:01:53 Position = 6414 Avg HFD = 6.62 21:01:54 Focusing Completed 21:01:54 Focus time = 67 sec
I took a 15 second exposure in Auriga, at 9:56PM (the bright star in the center left is Phi Aurigae), which was fairly straight up and dense:
I ran this through CCDInspector, which gave me:
Good enough. I decided to skip fine collimation and just see what M106 would look like at 480s with 5 subs LRGB each. I wasn’t expecting much at all, especially as I started imaging it fairly low in the sky, while the 1st quarter Moon was still up. M106 would hit 88 degrees at 1:08 AM, and the Moon would be just setting then, but I had to pack up before that.
So here’s M106 (and NGC4248).
Specs:
- 480s x 5 LRGB each, for 160mins total, L binned 1×1, RGB binned 2×2
- 10 darks 1×1, 10 darks 2×2
- AT8RC (1625mm focal length, f8)
- CGE-Pro
- Orion shorttube 80 and SSAG guider with Maxim guiding via ST-4 to the mount
- quick and dirty processing in Maxim and PS CS4, levels and curves, HLVG, Carboni’s Tools, unsharp mask
