I walked up to the observatory around sundown. Walked in, opened the roofs and made a cup of coffee. Dusted off my sky atlas and took a look at the area around Triangulum. Spotted NGC 925 and though "Huh, there's a nice galaxy fitting for my C9,25"! I had a lot of time though until that little guy was overhead so I took to the Moon! I started with my C9,25 in Solar System mode (that is with the SCT crayford and 2x barlow installed) and shot a few avi's with the DBK21 thinking "wow I haven't done this in years!" and "hmmm, this is FUN!". Before I knew it it was getting darker and the Moon was getting lower. My wife suggested taking a full frame shot of the Moon and so I did. I think it turned out spectacular!
Aristillus - Archimedes - Autolycus
Luna 14, OCT 2013. Click on image for full size!
As the darkness fell, I switched to deep sky mode, fitted the f/6.3 corrector with the new (proper) SCT T-adapter and proper T-Ring from Baader and headed out to NGC925...this little guy deserves more attention! It's a magnificent barred spiral approx 30 million LY away in the constellation Triangulum. I picked up 11 4 minute frames, added the appropriate darks and this is what came out of processing. I have to say, it was the first time that PHD guided perfectly from the start with no hiccups and my miniguider seemed to be spot on focus. I like!
As dawn approached, Jupiter peaked up from the neighbours roof and so back to Solar System mode it was! Reducer off - SCT Focuser back on and Ultima 2X for this shot of Jupo which unfortunately was under average to poor seeing conditions. Never the less, I love the fact that I have an instrument that can offer such great variety. It feels like my nearly 5 year old SCT just got a whole new lease of life.
The interior of the Obs during Jupiter imaging. Poor quality cellphone pic but as you can see the EOS was occupied taking dark frames on the floor :)
