Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  California Nebula  ·  NGC 1499  ·  The star ξPer
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NGC1499 - The California Nebula, John silver
NGC1499 - The California Nebula
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NGC1499 - The California Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC1499 - The California Nebula, John silver
NGC1499 - The California Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

NGC1499 - The California Nebula

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Description

NGC1499 - The California Nebula taken at our holiday location of Wool, Dorset, UK - Bortle 4, using my portable setuip.
I decided to use my Redcat51 with OAG, to save weight and power (one less dew heater). For the mount I used (with mixed success) a Skywatcher AZ-GTI flashed with Az/Eq firmware.

I had lots if problems trying to get the guiding to work and was only able to shot 120sec Subs. For the previous two nights even 120sec subs were giving star trails

I had modified the Skywatchers GTI by stripping it down, re=greasing, replacing the bearings, removing the backlash on the motors and fixing the motors in place.
But although, I could polar align and sucessfully Goto within my ASIAir Pro, guiding was an issue of the DEC axis.

Both axis don't suffer from backlash anymore, so I think it must be my guiding settings, although I was advised that my PA was not perfect (although fine in ASIAir Pro).

Another thing I found out is the Celestron Lithium Power Tank Pro does not have enough capacity to power my mount, two dew heaters and my ASI294MC Pro for more than about 3.5 hours. Next time I will take my Jackory 240 (240Wh compareed to the Power Tank Pro's 158wh

Anyway, the trials will continue on a viable portable setup

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NGC1499 - The California Nebula, John silver