Leo Triplet 2015

[Pete]

Gosh Andy, I wasn't aware of this latest fix. SBIG camera folks have been living with this problem from day 1.

The software mix in the observatory's a bit intimidating to me and once I've got things running I'm hesitant to dick around with it. But once we've got into warmer weather I'm going for it for sure.

Bob N over at Skyscrapers had me over to his observatory a few years back and I was blown away with his Maxim software doing a plate solve and then correcting itself to put the target within an arc minute of target. I wasn't aware of AstroTortilla and am excited about the possibility of fitting it into my system. Plate solves work OK with a 1° FOB but with my miniscule 21'X15' FOV the plate solve must be pretty robust.

Ideally I'd control the telescope pointing from within Guide 9, just picking a FOV that includes the asteroid plus a decent guide star on the separate guiding chip. That eliminates the manual entry of RA & DEC with the hand control. Almost always the slew will be 5' or 10' off, and then I've got to figure out just where the scope's pointing to make adjustments. After all these years I've become proficient in adjusting but automation sure would be preferred.

Anyway, thank you very very much for calling this stuff to my attention. I certainly will follow through.

Pete

[rjbokleman]

I have been trying to do some imaging over the past several weeks. The sky conditions have been pretty lousy--poor seeing and transparency. I really had to wrestle with the data to get this image. I think it came out a little better than my last attempt.

(click image for higher resolution images and acquisition info)

Very nice indeed!

[NGC7000]

Beautiful detail, Andy. Gorgeous.

Tom

[BobSikes]

Very nice Andy,

This is one of my favorites sites in the scope. And since my pier is still under and surround by many feet of snow, I thank you for giving me a view on my computer's background.



BobS

[Ronald Z]

Andy, just stunning imagery! You are definitely a guru of deep space imaging!!!!

Ronald Z

[AndyG]

Thanks for the kind words guys!