Ad Astra Observatory

OK, this is getting silly. Either I have no idea how to balance a telescope properly (which is not outside of the realm of reason), or balance is not the problem with the rig. On the other hand, I get this very distinct oscillation that’s worse at either end of the run and OK in the center. grr.

So, as usual, I only saved 5 out of 16 images.

However, they came together OK. Here’s The Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146, in Cepheus:

Here is a cropped view of the object (1500×1000->900×600 as usual)

The large image is slightly cropped from the full frame as well, but at lower right, you can still see the “Star Wars” effect that I’m getting because (I believe) the spacing between the MPCC and the CCD is being thrown off by the Ha filter (it goes camera, T-ring, Ha filter, MPCC, focuser, and the MPCC wants to be 55mm from the camera, but the filter is extending that slightly). I’m going to ignore this for now, since it’s a small quibble when I’ve got a bigger problem.

My next trick is to add a Barlow (telextender) to the guidescope, in hopes that guiding at a higher magnification will help the scope get rid of this crazy oscillation. Also, I’m going to make an animated GIF of the images so that I can analyze the oscillation more carefully. Stay tuned.