Well, the forecast held true and I was able to get first light on the new camera!
Took a while to get the camera and guider focused properly – the moon was washing out many stars – but once that was done all things were go! I had a bit of a headache when the filter wheel wouldn’t respond and exposing just gave me a message that it was waiting for the wheel…. After much head scratching I finally realised that I had two instances of Maxim running! D’OH!I
Setting up the guiding for the RC is something I have been trying to do for ages so last night I had that opportunity. I got it better than I have had with this scope, but it’s still to much of a yo-yo for my liking. Polar alignment is not quite right I think and now that I have a guider capable of video as well, I might well do the PEC.
So, last night was a success I think! Collimation was pretty good (might need the merest of tweaks) as was focus. The moon was at 1st quarter so lots of wash-out, but the camera’s worked perfectly! I do know that I’ll need lots of flats (!) but everyone says I won’t need darks, which will be great!
Here then is a test image from last night. A random starfield in Cassiopeia – probably not the best choice as it was low in the West, single 300 second exposure, clear filter binned 2×2.
Roll out the next clear night 🙂
