Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  NGC 5477  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West, Timothy Martin
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M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West

M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West, Timothy Martin
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M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

This is my first effort with the CDK12 from the observatory in New Mexico. I've attempted to shoot M101 from my Bortle 8 back yard numerous times--always with unsatisfying results. I could have gone longer on this, but I felt like this was my best-ever image of this galaxy and I was approaching diminishing returns. I'm very late getting this scope commissioned for galaxy season and there are one or two other shots I'd like to get before it's over.

This placement was extremely challenging. I also placed an FSQ106 at the same time. These two rigs now take their place along with the TOA130 I already had there. I was originally going to take our RV the 660 miles to do these installations, but the road to the observatory is not a good one and the climb is steep. It had just snowed and rained, and the RV is NOT a good mudder, so I felt it was safer to drive my truck. It was quite an effort getting everything safely packed in the covered bed, properly padded for the road, and protected from any moisture I might encounter. But with my wife Christi and her sister Gala's help, we were able to do it. 

Once at the observatory, things went pretty smoothly. Peter, the observatory tech, was a huge help and we at least got everything mounted up, if not connected, on the first day. There were some challenges getting everything connected on the second day, but we overcame them with Garey's (the network tech) help. Polar alignment went smoothly as did guide camera focusing. So I was able to go back to the hotel and start building a model, calibrate guiding, and then begin imaging.

About an hour into imaging, the Moravian C5 spontaneously disconnected and would NOT reconnect. The next morning, I was able to get it reconnected. I had to get home, so I started the 660 mile journey back with the disconnection issue heavy on my mind. That night (Saturday), the same thing happened. It worked for a couple of hours and then disconnected. Same on Sunday night. I contacted Moravian Sunday night and Monday they told me they would rush out a new 150W power supply. What? The camera is rated at 5A. 150W at 12V is 12.5A. That's a LOT of power for a camera to be consuming. I had been powering with the 8A port on the Pegasus Ultimate v3. Apparently that's not enough even though it's 3A more than the stated power requirement. 

Interestingly, I had a run from Monday night through Thursday night where the camera didn't disconnect at all. I suspect humidity plays a role. It was over 60% on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but starting Monday, it stayed below 40%. I won't know for sure until I get this thing all rewired.

In addition to the camera issue, I also have a cabling issue from the Pegasus to the camera. I need to extend the cable harness about another foot to avoid any wrapping issues during rotation. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time at home to field test this rig--just one night--before I had to load it up to take it out to New Mexico. The cabling and power issues are things I would have seen here with more time. But I only had a two-day window where I would have tech help at the observatory.

So I got the 150W power supply. But the power cable is only 3ft long. Um, no. That won't work. Moravian has a 3m extension cord, but they didn't send one with the new power supply. So now I'm waiting on that to arrive. Once it gets here, I'll head back out and take care of the power supply and cabling issues. This time, I'll let American Airlines do the driving.

Comments

Revisions

    M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West, Timothy Martin
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    M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West, Timothy Martin
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Title: Tidied Up for Bench Testing

Description: I started ordering things for this scope in December of 2022. The OTA came in May 2023, the mount arrived in September 2023, the camera in November 2023, and the last piece, the Pegasus box, finally arrived in March 2024. I finally managed to get it set up for bench testing in mid March.

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D

Title: Enclosure

Description: I know it might seem very anal, but my years of playing bars where you might have 10 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to tear down taught me to be organized about how to manage electronics and make them easy to pack, unpack, and move

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Title: Spare Parts

Description: I used the bottom drawer of the enclosure for spare cables, tools, and other accessories that will stay with the rig. There's a spare USB or power cable for every connection. And every cable, including those on the scope, has a label at each end to make it easy if a tech needs to do something.

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Title: Power

Description: The first shelf contains all the power-related items: The Digital Loggers Web Pro and power bricks for the various devices.

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Title: Electronics

Description: The second shelf contains almost all the electronic items: Intel NUC (i7, 12 cores, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD), network switch, and 10Micron hand controller (I think it's so dumb that I have to have this).

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Title: Field Testing

Description: Finally out to the side yard to try to do something useful. I only got one night to field test it. I had to leave four nights later, and weather was only good for this one night. Otherwise, my schedule wouldn't line up with the observatory techs for another several months.

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Title: The Culprit

Description: If you look, it seems pretty obvious that there's not enough slack in the harness from the Pegasus to the camera, et al, to ensure error-free rotation. But I was so harried at the time, I just missed it. I have to go back to Santa Fe as soon as possible to take care of this. Meanwhile, I'll just choose targets that frame nicely at 0 degrees.

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J

Title: Loaded for Bear

Description: The stuff barely fit in the truck. I'm glad I have an 8' bed.

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K

Title: At DSW

Description: After a 12-hour drive and a good night's rest, it was up the winding mesa road to Deep Sky West. It's pretty rustic out there. BYOTP.

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L

Title: Ready to Go!

Description: At long last, after 15 months of planning, procurement, testing, packing, moving, unloading, and setup, maybe I can finally take some pictures!

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Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M101 - First Light from the CDK12 at Deep Sky West, Timothy Martin

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Galaxies
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