From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: April 16, 2008 2:48:33 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Autoguiding experience

Hi folks!

Been really busy this year so I haven't gotten many opportunities to

image, until this past weekend.

Just got back from a trip to Utah where I took my Tak NJP mount, C8,

Megrez 80, SBIG ST2000XM, and Flea2.  I had just downloaded V4 of

Astro IIDC before I left.

I would consider myself a more or less experience planetary imager,

but still pretty much a novice with DSOs, though I do dabble on occasion.

This trip, the seeing wasn't good enough for planetary at all.  In

fact, the stars were too bloated for decent images through the C8. 

So, the best results I got were with the ST2000 on the Megrez, guided

by the Flea2 and a Mogg FR with Astro IIDC on the C8.

The night I tried that setup was the windiest of all (there was a

serious dust storm in progress by the time we left for home

yesterday).  The NJP handled the winds fabulously.

I hadn't tried guiding with astro IIDC in a number of months, so it

took me a while to figure out what I was doing "wrong" that night,

when the star would leave the crosshairs and the mount would drive it

out of the frame in Dec.  ...then, I looked at the plots of

corrections, and noticed that I had the camera oriented with Y

parallel to RA and dec to the X axis.  

Took me a few minutes to rotate the camera, refocus, and recalibrate

the guiding.  After that, the star stayed right smack dab on the cross

hair (with seeing motion only) for the next couple hours as I fiddled

with the SBIG to take a sequence of the Blackeye Galaxy through the

Megrez.

I enjoyed myself immensely, and now I'll be all set up for the Oregon

Star Party (the next time I'll have under a dark sky)!  I'll probably

practice some more from home before then, though.

-Tim.

P.S.  I'm just too impatient to guide with the guiding chip on the

SBIG - it took way to long to find a guide star!