Category Archives: Astrophotography
iTelescope – M83 LRGB Image
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Messier 83 Observation data (J2000 epoch) Constellation Hydra Right ascension 13h 37m 00.9s[2] Declination −29° 51′ 57″[2] Redshift 513 ± 2 km/s[2] Distance 15.21 Mly (4.61 Mpc) [3] Apparent magnitude (V) 7.54[4][5] Characteristics Type SAB(s)c[2] Apparent size (V) 12′.9 × 11′.5[2] Telescope Aperture 500 mm Focal Length 2262 mm (f/4.5) Imager: … Continue reading
Spent some time Polar Aligning, had trouble so took a quick pic with the SBIG ST-i
Tried to polar align my mount finally and just had issue’s
I’m going to go back out again tonight I hope and try again.
after homing the mount I slewed to Rigel and it was nowhere near where the scope was pointing, it was in the right part of the sky but was many degrees off, this seemed strange, I check my Lat/Long and date/time all where good. went into the TCS control panel and reset all the mount settings and still no good. after several hours and loosing all feeling in my fingertips I gave up for the night and fired up the SBIG ST-i (which I got as a guide camera) and took this shoot. nothing special but at least the camera worked
10 Light Frames @ 90s each and dark subtracted
New Images Feb 02, 2012
Quick post here to get up some images I took tonight
M45 & M37 redone and New Image M37
Spent some time tonight capturing more images of M45 including some basic color as seen here
All Images were done through the AT10RC with the STL-11000M2 Camera. Images are Binned 2×2
First up is a redo of M45 – The Pleiades This is 6 x 360 second exposers @ -20c + 1 x 360 for Red, Green & Blue Stacked and Aligned in MaximDL then touched up In Photoshope CS 4
Next is a redo of M37, again more exposer time but no color on this one This is 5 x 360 second exposers @ -20c. Stacked and Aligned in MaximDL then touched up In Photoshope CS 4
Finally Here is something new M33 – “The Triangulum Galaxy” This is 6 x 180 second exposers @ -20c. Stacked and Aligned in MaximDL then touched up In Photoshope CS 4
See the Full Images HERE
January 10, 2012 – New Images Posted
After spending hours workin on Polar Alignment, PEC and pointing on the Paramount I finally settled in to do some basic imaging. the following are 5-6 minute, unguided exposures thru the AT10RC/STL-11000M
Pixel scale is .92arc/sec per pixel measured through PemPro. Tracking was great but polar alignment is still not quite right.
Paramount ME Periodic Error
I just spent a nice cold night out measuring the Periodic Error on my Paramount ME and can say I’m very happy
Assuming I did everything correct I measured my PE at +1.1/-1.5 or just shy of 3 arc/sec peak to peak (2.6arc/sec) and PemPro Shows it can get this down to +0.4/-0.5 arc/sec
I measured for 12 Work Cycles with 1 second exposuser on my AT10RC with a STL-11000M2 Camera MaximDL was driving the Camera and of course TheSkyX the Mount.
Follow the link for more Information and screen pics of PemPro’s screen