First pictures with the cooled astro-camera

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As I described in the previous blog my equipment has improved quite a bit over the past weeks. I got a dedicated, cooled astro camera as well as a separate camera and a little finder scope for automatic guiding. After sorting out the initial technical issues, finally we had  a few clear nights to put the new kit to the test. 

M33 30x30sec,
C9.25 with 1/6.3 reducer, ASI294MC Pro on NexStar Evolution 

M1 Crab Nebula, 28x60sec
C9.25 with 1/6.3 reducer, ASI294MC Pro on NexStar Evolution 

M27 Dumbbell Nebula, 30x30sec
C9.25 with 1/6.3 reducer, ASI294MC Pro on NexStar Evolution 

IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, 60x60 sec 
C9.25 with 1/6.3 reducer, ASI294MC Pro on NexStar Evolution 

NGC6888 Crescent Nebula, 30x30sec
C9.25 with 1/6.3 reducer, ASI294MC Pro on NexStar Evolution 


As visible in the pictures on close inspection I am still struggling with the autofocus.  The guiding doesn’t work really flawlessly in all cases, particularly in high declinations. Some of it still requires some practice in figuring out the right settings. 


However, overall the results are quite promising and a visible improvement compared to what was possible with the Canon.  The sensitivity of the camera is really impressive. Given the limited guiding accuracy this brings a number of fainter objects in range. On top of that I can see the deep sky object very quickly, in most cases even in the 1-2 sec exposures that are used for alignment and framing. That is really convenient. 


All the pictures have been taken with the 1/6.3 reducer. However, the effective focal ratio is actually 1/4.8. I did not understand what is causing that when taking the pictures and e.g. in the case of big objects like M33 a shorter focal length is beneficial. I will tell this story in more detail in a separate post.









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