[APML] First halfway decent cassigrain image

["Bradley" <bhope@thorngarden.net>]

Morning;

I've been lurking for a long time without contributing anything..my LX90
died just as I was getting serious about trying to image at cassigrain and
had purchased an STI Stiletto IV after trying to get a homemade knife edge
to work with little success. Now I have a 10" LX200 to play with, received
it 2 and a half weeks ago and I've used it three times..first two times for
just a couple of hours before clouds rolled in..but got it setup on the
pier, got the initial alignment and then drift aligned, and collimated..and
tinkered a lot getting familiar with the new scope.

Nice weather a couple nights ago for several hours so I went for the gold
ring and tried imaging at .63..not much choice in what to do since I don't
yet have the piggy back adapter for the new instrument. I'm pretty much a
rookie at this, trying to figure out processing, but hopefully I won't be
too embarrassed to post here with all the great images I've seen posted by
others.

Looks like I can get at least a half stop, if not a full stop, more exposure
before I start showing sky fog...light pollution here is around 4.5~5 on the
Bortle scale..so I'm going to try both 18min and 24min the next time I get
decent sky.

Seeing was only average (which I guess might give me bigger stars) but I
suspect I'm not 'quite' at the sweet spot for focus, the STI came with the
300 line/inch ronchi and has a bit of 'depth of field' so I had to take my
best guess. I'm planning on getting the 'true knife edge' adapter for the
STI in the near future which should help.

Anyway..rambled more than enough.... it's the usual target for rookies this
time of year, I suppose..M42. Details are below the image.

http://astronomy.thorngarden.net/orion-01-05-05.html

Comments and suggestions gratefully accepted.

Clear skies

Bradley
48°07'12.72" N 123°27'29.16" W
http://astronomy.thorngarden.net

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