Iris Nebula

I have made a few modificationss to my motorfocus system that was on the 90mm. I have extended the plate and made a 90 degree turn so it can fit the 110. Well it works. The weather not so favourable though. A small patch of sky to the north was still clear. So I had my first go at the Iris nebula. Recently imaged by a few other Breckland society members. I managed an hours worth of data in 5 minute subs. This is a cropped image from the SXV-M25C. I am not happy with the colour though. The blue needs to be stronger.

M33 The Triangulum Galaxy.

 The weather recently has been quite good. Forecast was excellent and clear the whole night. No work either for me this week so I decided to go an all nighter. Happy that the mount was working fine, I decided that 10 minute exposures would be the order of play. My Eastern view is excellent and suffers no light pollution so should not be too detremental of the Canon 40D in noise. I managed to grab 220 minutes in total in 10 minute subs. As this is a test for the new set up I have yet to take 10 minute darks, so no darks subtraction. Stacked in DSS and processed in Imagesplus I am pleased with the result. Pic 2 is a reprocess by fellow Blogger Andrew via his pix insight software. Considerable difference in detail. I may just have to invest in. Just not sure if I have the time at present to learn a whole new processing pathway.

First test of the mount

Having completed the set up and install of cables etc. time has come to test the mount from it,s initial switch on. I aimed at a familiar target and let PHD do it's set up. My first test shot was a 10 minute exposure this would have been a personal record in itself. The second was 20 minutes and the third 30 minutes. to say the least I was very excited in seeing an image appear like these on the screen.

I am very pleased with the initial results and I want to look into recording the periodic error, using the data from that to guide more accurately.

I used the familiar Canon 40D as the imaging camera, I am of course used to it's set up and user friendliness. I would restrain myself and set up the starlight express when I am happy everthing works.

It appears everything is working well.