My first imaged DSO
After three and a bit weeks of the moss frustrating weather (OK during most days, clouds over night), the skies cleared yesterday and stayed clear. So I park the OTA outside the back to cool for an hour or so, then set up, aligned,and away I went.
Now, I now that taking long exposure image sequences require a EQ mount, and that using an AltAz mount (like onmy NS8GPS) will cause image rotation. I was under no illusion about that, it will cause problems for imaging (but fine for visual work). But the chance was too good to miss, so I pointed my scope at M13, an easily found globular cluster in Hercules, and started taking images with my Meade DSI Color.
Despite this being my first imaged DSO, and the images will look terrible to the experts out there, I was pleased that I actually managed to get the shots. Stacking the sequece just causes image rotation blurs (as expected), but what did suprise me was just how much the sky does rotate when imaging on an AltAz platform. Want to see? Just take look at the animation below.
30 x 20sec images, Meade DSI-C, unguided, and because its AltAz, no PEC training has ever been done on this scope. Oh, and it was VERY windy too 🙂
Thats effectively 20 seconds between each frame, and 10 minutes total.
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on My first imaged DSO
