The equipment has been moved and the time came to take real data to make a good image. On September 20, 2008, my brother-in-law Art Fernandez and I got the AP-900, NP-101, and ST-10 combo all set up and took some nice data of M33.
Setting up the AP900 requires good polar alignment. On a one-night set-up, the first align alignment needed to be visual. On the first iteration, I aligned on the wrong star — I picked a bright star but not the named star to which we were aligning. The lesson is to start with the 44mm Panoptic, whose field of view is large enough to prevent mistakes. On the last alignment, the alignment star crossed the meridian during the alignment. The mount tried to slew backwards to get back home.
We then put on all the CCD equipment and balanced the mount. I tried aligning (using sync) on Jupiter, but results were poor. I finally got good alignment on a bright star and then using a search pattern from the believed location. Kind of like a sea search for a wreck.
My first idea for a “don’t stay up too late” target was the Cocoon Nebula. But by the time we got going, it was too high in the sky, so we moved to M33. So now come the follies.
FocusMax wasn’t talking to Maxim DL 5, so I had to find the newest version. If you need it go to the Yahoo! Focus Max group. Then I tried to use the Pyxis, but I could not talk to it. I learned later that the delivered software won’t work with a Keyspan USB to serial adapter. So no Pyxis. In rotating the camera, the mount moved against the clutches. Alignment lost.
Found a star, re-aligned. On our way. Except that Maxim DL 5 was obstreperous on the autoguiding calibration. It kept jumping from star to star between alignment frames. There definitely could be some algorithm enhancement there.
On focusing, acquire star in FocusMax didn’t work. It turns out that the error was that I did not allow syncs in TheSky. I control the scope from TheSky as the hub, but internal settings prevented it from working. On October 26, with help from CloudyNights, I fixed the problem.
The mount guided beautifully on 10 second exposures. I know I can push it further than that.
It got very cold, down to 43 degrees F. And in September. I blame Global Warming.
Take down was a lot of work.
And I have to mention the skunk. At about midnight, the definite smell of a skunk came down across us. Enough that it lingered in protected areas until morning. But thankfully, it was at least a quarter mile away.
Here is the resulting image.
