The camera is out there capturing an unguided shot of M42 for the RCC’s first light image.

…and here it is. As usual, it’s another M42. This is 30 frames, 2 minutes each, unguided (total of 1 hour exposure time)

From the test frames, I can tell that there is still some stuff that needs adjustment. Focus was a little rough (just eyeballed it), and I can tell that the camera is not pointing at the center of the main mirror, because the RCC is showing a slightly curved focal plane on the left-hand side of the image, but nice and flat on the right.

Generally, the RCC looks like a winner. I would have to shoot against the MPCC to see if it does the same thing.

I’m guessing that I need to work collimation and focus before I can really give this corrector a run for its money. Not to mention setting up some guiding.

I also set up Pumpkin with a DUP. With the DUP, the rings, the motor, and a 2” diagonal, Pumpkin weighs in at a hefty 10#. But that’s still pretty light, considered. I am really looking forward to cruising the winter Milky Way in Ha like I did through Cygnus and Cepheus this summer.

I sent off the OAG for repair today.
I await the clip-in Ha filter, so I can do narrowband with Veronica, too.
Mount could use some tweaks to the polar alignment. I need to find the Gizmo.

So I’m easing back into astronomy. The shed is still a mess, and things aren’t all set up yet, but I’m getting closer.

Well, it only took 5 months, but I finally got Veronica to focus using the new RCC and the off-axis guider!

It’s for real this time.

The problem has been stated and restated, but essentially I have a problem with flexure, or so I believe, and to fix it I need to guide and image through the same scope. This will reduce the number of variables I have to deal with, and I think will keep me more flexible in the long run. I will be able to run with a guidescope if needed, OAG if needed, or even unguided (perish the thought).

On Aug 4, I bought an OAG, and picked up a new corrector that has extra backfocus required to run the OAG.

Well, one thing led to another led to another, including trying two different focusers, three sets of collimation bolts, and several trips (both overseas and domestic). All of this was quite effective at keeping me from being able to get things working right.

I finally hunkered down and worked the problem tonight, and I had some success!

Achieved:
- Got authorization from Orion to send back OAG for warranty repair (did I mention this whole experience has been a real trial?)
- Set up the variable spacer so that it’s the exact same length as the OAG (actually, 1.1mm longer, so when the spacer can focus, the OAG has some extra breathing room)
- Ripped out the primary mirror and added longer collimation bolts (my third set — 10-32 x 2” turn out to be long enough)

- The camera now comes to focus about 3/8” above the deck
- Figured out how to find stars in the OAG
- Figured out how to focus the OAG (needs a 17mm spacer to get the ST-4 to focus — a shorter spacer would work for eyepieces)
- And finally, Brought the OAG and the camera to focus at the same spot!

So. I’m nearly ready for a first light with the RCC, 5 short months after receipt.

Next steps:
- Send in the OAG. Once that gets back, I can start working the shoot-and-guide angle.
- Do an unguided first light with the RCC.
- Set up Pumpkin for imaging.
- Set up C9.25 for imaging. (low priority)

To get to first light, I need to:
- Get the mount powered back up (I’m running it in “Dob” mode at the moment)

- Get the laptop hooked up (autofocus and MaxIM)
- Clear out some space for a chair (still piles of boxes around)

To set up Pumpkin, I need to:
- Acquire a DMM, or
- Pull the DA and attach a DUP to the rings

To set up the C9.25, I need to:
- Collimate. I think I am going to do this with a normal star test, because my artificial star is also problematic, and the last thing I need right now is another excuse not to work my gear.

I can probably do first light and Pumpkin in one night, if all goes well.

And what a surprise, M42 is right there, waiting to be my first 300d-with-RCC image!

Oh, I just remembered that the Ha filter will probably throw things off a bit. I might drop ship a clip-in Ha filter…

It’s so good to be back on track!

Buoyed by my success at getting the new coma corrector to focus using the shortened focuser, I tried it again with the “production” focuser, which is 3/8” taller. I recollimated as far forward as I could, and tried it out when the moon came up.

No dice. Still too far. Argh.

I can try recollimating again. I can try putting in the 2” collimation bolts. Or I can order a drawtube that sits flush against the top of the focuser body.

sigh.

This new coma corrector is not making my life easier. I sure hope that it ends up making my life better, so all this turmoil will be worth it.

In order to get the new coma corrector working with the OAG inline, I had to try a lot of things before I found the right set that shoved the focal plane far enough up the focuser to work.

I recollimated the scope, that bought a little room.

I replaced the focuser drawtube with one that sits flush, that bought a little more.

I shortened everything as much as I could, and got the whole contraption shoved down into the focuser as far as it would go, but that… didn’t… quite work. I could tell that I was close to focus (I could see Jupiter’s moons), but everything was still a little fuzzy.

So today, I decided to pick up some longer collimation bolts, hoping that would get me close enough. I tore the mirror cell apart and discovered to my immense pleasure that the push and pull bolts have the same thread pitch and length (bonus) and that the thread pitch is Imperial, not Metric (double bonus!). in case you’re curious, Orion’s mirror cells ship with 10-32 x 1” machine screws. The “pull” bolts are countersunk, the “push” ones have a knurled section for easy thumb adjustment.

I bought both 1.5” and 2” replacements to try out. Unless the cap nuts are replaced, the 1.5” ones are as long as you can go, because the bolt bottoms out in the cap. A quick eyeball test informed me that the “all the way back” position of the mirror is going to be just about where the “all the way forward” position was with the old bolts (I guess that means I have close to 1/2” of collimation “travel”). This would be useless for visual use in the stock scope, but given that this scope is pretty much an astrograph full time, it won’t be a problem.

A quick round with the Cheshire, and I was ready to test on the just-past quarter moon in daylight.

In short, it worked. I was able to bring the RCC, OAG, and 300D image train to focus. I could even go a little past focus on the inward direction so I could tell I’d made it.

Now I need to put the scope back into “normal imaging order”, which means swapping back in the 3/8” taller focuser drawtube. I’ll need to recollimate the mirror a little further forward — the focal plane hits the CCD when the focuser is racked to within 1/4” of the bottom or so. No big deal, but not something that I wanted to tackle this evening.

I should be able to get a first light with the RCC sometime in the next few days.

I need to exchange the OAG — it’s wobbly. sigh. But I think I’m on the right track with this latest set of hardware — I should be able to eliminate flexure as a problem in the images if I can use an OAG successfully.

Another step forward.

Finally! A Virgo galaxy. I’ve had some kind of mental block about shooting in Virgo, so I finally forced myself to shoot down here.
M104 is on the edge of being too small for the FOV, and this isn’t a great shot, but another new galaxy for the webpage and more to come.

Like M42 is a “tester” object for winter, M81 is a tester object for the spring. It’s big and bright and there’s lots of detail to bring up. In addition, if well-framed, M82 is often an added bonus on the outskirts of a large FOV.

Both of these two images are from the same dataset.

This one includes darks, flats, and bias frames (in addition to the lights).

This one is just darks.

I’m still working out the new workflow that involves FITS images and all these extra non-astronomy frames I have to shoot. Also, I find that my processing skills are delightfully random between nights, even on the same data. shrug.

This is a “freebie” version of M82. It was way off in the badly vignetted border of the above M81 images (M81 was centered). But once I applied flat frames to the images, there was enough data in M82 for at least a “tester” image of it. I don’t know what happened to the red. Don’t ask.

This is a tale of two images. These were taken on successive nights.
Same setup, same exposure time, everything.

The first night was unguided.

… and the second night was autoguided with my trusty ST-4.

This was kind of a test of the G-11 Gemini to see how good it could perform without a guider.
The guided image is definitely better. But the unguided one is not too shabby.

After 4 overseas trips in 4 months, I finally had some time to really get some time under the stars and get back to the “spring” galaxies that I’d raced to catch last May. This is an unguided shot, 2 hours. The new Gemini mount really hung in there. Looking forward to seeing this with more focal length, more integration time, and guiding.

One of those objects that just doesn’t get much press.

This is a huge nebula, the size of M42, and well-placed in the sky, between the foot of Gemini and the head of Orion.
But I’d never heard of it until I started searching with my DSO filter software.
This is an object that should get more attention in the Fall when it comes back around, but here’s a quick treatment.