Update - Deep Sky

There has been a distinct lack of opportunity for deep sky this winter, mores the pity.

First up, a wide field of Auriga... this was shot with the nifty fifty


I started to add the Messier clusters in Auriga to add to the widefield base image, but that's got lost somewhere

M38 and the smiley face


I discovered with this one, the focuser was not tightly locked onto the MaxDSLR connector and it could wobble ever so slightly... blast... I've resolved that one with a 1/4 turn of the thumb screw...

M36


And I moved on from here, on the same night to have a go at M42.. shame the clouds moved in to quickly, as I only got 7 subs for the core and 2 subs for the neb... I was amazed at how much detail I was able to get out of only 2 subs though.



However, I was able to get a decent run a couple of nights later, and managed 25 subs...



I really want to get at least 4 hours of 10 minute subs to see if I can't pull out the faint stuff in the background... there's hints of it in here, but it's not enough to pull out.

Then finally, after getting the RC, I went back to M38 for a first light, all was setup easily, although I do need the second counter weight. But I had a weird issue with guiding... I lost the first two subs as PHD decided mid way through to give the RA axis a major kick... I don't know why. The laptop was making some odd noises also, whilst PHD was guiding. I stopped guiding, enabled again and that was all fine. Then after 2 subs, the clouds moved in...



Bit irritated I only got 2 subs, but it's worked nicely. There's some odd star shapes in one corner, but I think that's from my home made dew shield being a bit long and sagging slightly. Next try, I'll do it without it.