stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

This is my all in one camera , after getting super frustration from my other cams just being too old and wasting so many hours reconfiguring the distances on each camera that I use even when I mark my focus tube . My family & best friend decided that for my Bday and Xmas I should have an up to date cam that can do so much more. Wide field lunar surface { just the camera} , high mag close-up w/{5x powermate}. and still learning here's m42 screengrab during testing and I'm starting to figure things out only 15s@-25c. tracking wasn't great and didn't get my guiding mojo going.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Hell of start Stepping. I'm looking forward to getting my new camera soon too.
And will be going thru the same processes as you. Did you get a filter setup also???
Craig

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

Craig , I thought that I might as well use my manual fw and lrgb set . I'll just wait on the efw and filters but, I've got the new model that comes with the connections for the efw. I'm finding that this is very capable of doing what I need it to do.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Can't wait to see some of your work with the LRGB setup they can do wonderful things.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

WOW lookit you go now!
Those are some great images Ronnie!
Holy Moly!

Just got back from taking a look at the EFW
Looks perfect for remote operation!

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I've had several nights with this camera and it has the potential , I'll get it going with the fw Craig , the cold just kills me. Yes Sonny, the efw is a plus and it'll make a nice addition . I've got to get some more things figured out and one day I'll have one.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I've found that with one good arm, I'm unable to keep the scope centered on the target when I turn the wheel to switch rgb . I solve one problem and accumulate another isn't that dandy. I guess an efw is the only route , now to ask my cna if I can have one without having too hear all about getting a newer camera over and over. She calls my hobby a money pit every now and then but, she likes that I've got a hobby and the progress that I've made in it. I call it an investment into the unknown.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Sorry to express my opinion here, but damn....
Doing astronomy, and particularly taking on the madness of Astrophotography, is hard work.
Hard work requires tools, the right tools. And sometimes it requires the tools be adapted to work best for certain circumstances.
Such as having your filter wheel work with your control computer so you don't bother your mounts aim and tracking by touching it.
Same with focusing. With Astrophotography, touching a focuser to search for that all too elusive perfect focus just takes two steps back from one hard fought forward step.
It can completely screw up the telescope and mount. The evidence is easily seen in the PHD2 graph.
And each time you change a filter, you have to go through the whole focusing issue again.
Your 'Money Pit' beats the crap out of stagnation staring at a TV and filling your head with fools pablum.
Astrophotography sets a high bar that requires thinking, perseverance, enduring the dark and cold of the night, and fine skills.

Ask the doubters if they would plant a tree with a tablespoon? Or cultivate a garden with a table fork?
Of course not. They need the right tools.

I relinquish my soapbox...

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

Sonny , you're right about all of that which you spewed out {OLAEHO} . I do the best with what I have and when I do get a efw I'll be in a much better position with my kit, every night is different and the learning is par for the course and to be honest I blow steam every once in a while just to get over a bad night. It's all part of learning and failure is part of it but, I would've liked to have gotten all the data on m42 combined and aligned. Well , there's always next go around, all in a nights work out under a blanket of stars.