Conditions tonight are absolutely gorgeous. However, I'm having terrible problems with the RA tracking on my mount. I guess I've let it crash one time too many. I can only get it to track by heavily east-weighting; otherwise, the motor slips and the gears don't turn. I've seen hints of this problem before, but tonight it is severe. I may have to get a new set of motors, but I hate to invest any more in this mount. When the tracking was working, the guiding was excellent, about the best I've ever done.
Date: 30 Sep 2013
Subject: M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Scope: Orion ST80 + Antares 0.5x focal reducer (on 1” nosepiece, so ~0.65x)
Filter: Baader UHC-S
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.1.1a
Camera: DSI IIc (chiller at 2.25 A, -5 °C)
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.1.8, no dither
Exposure: 42x300 s
Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.255 Crop; Wipe:Color & Brightness; Develop 85.22%; Sharpen; Deconvolute 3.0 pix; Color:True Color, Dark Sat 4.0, Bright Sat Full, Sat 225%,; HDR
ptimize; Life:Heavy; Track Denoise; Magic:Shrink 1. CS6+Astronomy Tools Increase Star Color; AstroFrame.
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