First guiding attempt with PHD

Here is my first attempt at guiding with a QHY5 camera and PHD.
Taken 13 September 2012 this is a SINGLE, 20 minutes exposure of the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), taken with the QHY8L ccd with my William Optics Megrez 102 on a NEQ6 mount.
Perfectly round stars right into the corners. Some people have reported that they were having problems with PHD, I don't know why, it is a really simple to use program and very effective.

I have had a go at processing this image.

Sun taken Sunday 19 August 2012

Hi all. Here is my sun from today Sunday 19 Aug taken around 10am

LXD75 Goto mount
ED80 with Baader solar film filter
Modded Canon 450D
ISO 100 at 1/320 exposure

Saturday 11 August Perseid attempt!

Well had a go at the Perseid meteor shower on Saturday night without much success. I did manage to capture a few weak ones and one photo with a meteor and the ISS passing in to Earth's shadow. I captured a better ISS passing in to the shadow again on Sunday (in a break in the clouds) but no meteors this time as it was very cloudy!

QHY8L First Light

Here is my first attempt with my new QHY8L ccd camera. I am very impressed with this camera.

Well the moon did cause a little bit of a problem last night but I think the Baader Neodymium filter helped a lot here.

 

Right technical details

 

Focused using one of my Bahtinov masks (deh........ of course)

20x 120s Lights

10x Darks

0x Bias

0x Flats

QHY8L OSC cooled to -15C

Williams Optics Megrez 102 at f7

EQ6 Pro mount unguided

4 June 2012

It's not brilliant but the moon was interfering, it was my very first go with this camera, but still I am very pleased with the result. Longer and more exposures needed and flats would be of benefit too. Also I had to use a 2" extension tube as I couldn't reach focus with the camera straight in the focuser.

Rosette revisited

Hi all another go at the Rosette Nebula

M42 and Rosette

Both of these taken using a Baader UHC-S filter instead of th Astronomik CLS clip filter.

M42 16 Jan 2012

Hi All, what a difference shooting in RAW and taking darks can make!

M42

Sadly due to meridian flip I got this one misaligned. Taken same night as the Horsehead below, also only jpegs.

12x 3.5 mins at ISO 800

Still some nice detail there though.

Horsehead and Flame

Here is my latest attempt at these. Unfortunately my camera somehow got turned on to jpeg only mode so no raws taken and my battery failed before I could do any dark frames.

30x 3.5 mins at ISO 800