Wednesday, January 4, 2012

AT72ED First Light!

Tonight is the first imaging night for the AT72ED (at least for me with this telescope). My target is the area around the horsehead and flame nebula in Orion. A preliminary look at the images is encouraging. I think I may need to adjust the distance between the flattener and the CCD a little. It was H-alpha tonight of course.

The evening has had waves of altocumulus and altostratus move through, so it was fortunate I didn't set up the autoguider. It would have lost its lock several times. Speaking of lost, I wonder how many light frames will have to be rejected because of the clouds.

If tomorrow or Thursday night is clear I'll try a broadband blue filter (perhaps in combination with an Orion astrophotography filter) to pick up the reflection nebulae in the field of view.

Crazy weather for this time of year; the temperature was in the mid 20s with a very light breeze.

Added note: a couple of images taken using the AT72ED are included in the next blog entry.

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