Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Not much snow (yet) this season. It’s been cold and the doggies have been enjoying the wood stove.

I haven’t been imaging because of the persistent jet stream. The winds up at the higher elevations (30 to 40,000 feet) have been bloating my stars (average FWHM 5.0) for the entire month of December. It’s been frustrating, but no one says that astrophotography is easy.

I’ve removed the rotator and focuser from the imaging train (back of the scope). I finally figured out that the combination was creating “sag” and some dramatic tilt in my images. This was replaced with a solid adapter (2.156”) to provide an unobstructed light path to the main and autoguider cameras. I also installed the KISS Focuser for the autoguider and the Lacerta for Lodestar Focus Aide. I’ll post an update of my results as soon as I have a clear night to run some tests.

Currently, I’m able to image unguided for 300 seconds since beefing up the imaging train. I only have a 50 point T-Point in place. I’ll be trying to improve my PA and later my tracking after I run another T-Point of 400-500 points. I read on Richard Wright’s blog (Software Bisque) that the higher number is needed to model a longer focal length rig as in my case. Hopefully, after I do this I’ll be able to image unguided for a relatively long time (600-1200 sec.). I know I’m asking for a lot since I image at 1960mm @f7, but it’s worth a try.

On another note, while I’m playing in the observatory, Erika has been working hard cutting and splitting mountains of wood. I’m very lucky to have such an understanding wife.