NGC891 - My first autoguided image.

[Jake]

I finally got to try autoguiding this weekend.  This is my first "autoguided" image:



This is a combination of 4 11min images at ISO400 with the Digital Rebel.

The autoguiding worked great, and it was really nice to be able to "walk away" and let it do it's thing.  Unfortunately, the next night I couldn't get the autoguider to work correctly, and spent several hours working with it, only to finally discover that my tripod had been bumped, and my drift alignment lost - the cause of the autoguider error.     At that point, I gave up on imaging for the evening, and did some visual observing.  

So this is the only image I obtained out of my list, but it is a good start, and it sure is nice to see those round stars in 11min exposures!

-Jake

[H44]

Really nice Jake!  At first I thought it was the same one I imaged!  What is your frame size in minutes of arc?  With my HX-516, it is so tiny that even the best trakcing still shows just a bit of elongation of stars, unless I keep the exposures less than 2 minutes.

Good Job!!

Brian

[Jake]

Hi Brian -

Our images do look similar, both being edge-on.  I don't know the exact image scale here, as this is a significant crop of the initial image, and has also been resized (smaller).  I suspect this is not quite as small a galaxy as the one you imaged, but I am not entirely sure.  I really like your image, BTW - it is interesting how the dust lane seems to "twist" at the center.

-Jake

[sc02492]

Jake, having that 208xt do the work is a good feeling, isn't it   ?  Looks like your autoguiding is spot on.  Nice image.

Steve

[dsnay]

Jake,

Great shot! Love the composition.

Could you remind me of your setup?

thanks,
Dave

[Brian DeJong]

Wonderfull image, I jsut love to see people pushing the D300 to its limits.  It definately shows that autoguiding is a must for anything other than the brightest objects.  I really need to get one.  Could you give me your impressions of the 208xt guider??

[Jake]

Steve -

Yes, it is a VERY nice feeling!     I wish I had discovered the problem the next night, as that was very frustrating to troubleshoot.  Definitely a good learning experience, though!

Dave -

I am still using my 8" f/5 newtonian.  My mount is a CI-700, and I am using a Vixen 80mm f/11 guidescope.  The camera is a Digital Rebel.

Brian -

The learning curve is a bit steep on the autoguider, but once you figure it out, it is very nice to use.  I chose it because it works "stand alone", and I don't like to drag a computer out to dark skies (same reason I like the digital rebel).  It is, however, a bit of an electricity hog, and I found that I needed a marine battery in the field, as it used up a 15ah gel cell in about an hour.  So far, I like it alot.  It should work well with your LX-200.

-Jake