Last night, first long exposures

Well, I got out and did 9 x 4 minute exposure of M27 to see how the guiding was going. Here is the photo, I think it is improved.

Attached Image:

This is the whole shot without cropping. It was not quite centered in the frame.
No work was done on the stars, they are as they were taken. Pretty round really, so I am very happy with the guiding.
Tonight I will go to a better site and see what I can do with a little longer exposure.

Attached Image:

Guiding is good, focus seems to be off. Try bracketing your focus positions before taking an actual image to establish the point of best focus. The stars should be pristine points, not little discs. When you have achieved best focus, you should be able to resolve the small triangle of stars in the middle of M27.

Rolando

Hi Floyd,

Congrats! Nice round stars all right! I'll second what Roland suggests and look at refining your focusing routines. I've always used a motorized focuser, and when I made the final shift to a computer-controlled focuser, I never looked back.

Eric

Looking good Floyd! .. I know your handy why don't you make a bracket for an Orion accufocus electronic focuser. I have then on two of my scopes ( 80ED & R200SS ) It makes focusing very simple. Here's a link for the accufocuser.

http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=54531&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=6&iSubCat=30&iProductID=54531

Bob

Floyd,
Well done! It just gets better from here! It really is something when guiding gets going, isn't it? BTW, I have found that software-aided guiding, such as in AstroArt or others, really makes a difference.
Can't wait to see more,
Larry