I decided to use the Pleiades as my test subject for use of the ST80+FR+TOAG combination because that target would take advantage of the wide field of view this setup provides. I’ve been having all kinds of problems with connections failing mid-run to my cameras and now to my mount. Camera issues I’ve had before, but never issues with the mount connection. I thought maybe this is a result of the MacOS Sierra upgrade I recently did, and sure enough when I checked my power settings I didn’t have things set up to prevent the computer from going to sleep when on the power adapter. I also went into the VMWare/Windows 10 power management settings and turned off power saving for USB devices. Apparently something might have worked, because I got a complete run last night with nothing shutting down. I had a terrible time getting plate solves to work, but pleasantly once I decided to use Sequence Generator Pro’s blind solve failover I got a successful plate solve and was able to find and center the target. Unfortunately the rotation angle I used wasn’t optimum (I managed to leave out Pleione), but at least I got a complete run. This image needed liberal application of the filter tool in StarTools to get rid of nasty purple fringes around most of the stars (because the ST80 optics are far from apochromatic!).

Date: 6 Nov 2016

Subject: M45, The Pleiades

Scope: Orion ST80+Antares 0.5x focal reducer

Filter: Baader Planetarium Fringe Killer

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD)+PEC

Guiding: Orion TOAG +DSI Ic+PHD 2.6.2.4 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc, no chiller CCD ~10 °C

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 2.5.2.4 with Nebulosity 4.1.1 ASCOM camera driver (Win 10)

Exposure: 55x300 s (RGB)

Stacking: Neb 4.1.1, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, match histograms, trans+rot align, Nebulosity 1.5σ standard deviation stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.316: Crop; Wipe; Develop: 72.65%; HDRptimize; Color:Scientific, 200% saturation, red bias reduce 1.09; Deconvolute: 2.2 pix; Track: Smoothness 75%, 4.5 pix; Filter: Fringe Killer (repeated); Magic, shrink 1 pix. Photoshop CS6 + Astronomy Tools: a little clone stamp and smudge here and there; Increase star color; Astroframe.