Here's a first quick processing of last night's attempt. The night began extremely hazy and moist, cleared and dried up a bit after midnight but come dawn the humidity rose to 90%+ according to the observatory meter!


C9,25 SCT @ f/6.3 & EOS 550D
Guided with ST80  & ASI120MM
Lights: 25x 300sec ISO800
Darks: 8x 300sec ISO800
Processing: DSS & Photoshop

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.

This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

source: Wikipedia

So what's new? I swapped the 50mm guider with the ST80 which now rides piggyback on the main scope, added a much heftier ADM/Losmandy D size bottom plate and gave the ASI120MM the task of guiding. The problem is (as if there wasn't gonna be one!) that the whole setup is now a lot heavier and a lot more sensitive to vibration. I had to use the counterweight shaft extension to balance the load with the 2x 5kg weights I have but it seems that the extension makes the whole thing a lot more wobbly. Also did some tuning to the DEC and RA motors to eliminate play but I fear I may have gone too far cause I was simply unable to guide properly no matter what I did. The ASI works beautifully as a guider and what really caught my attention is the fact that I can see the target through the guide window something that was simply impossible with the DBK. So here is a small test-drive at M3 using the new setup (C9,25/ST80/ASI120MM/EOS550D). Only 2x180sec at ISO800 no darks as I had a LOT of guiding issues that I need to solve!