It was a clear night last night (although the seeing was very poor) and it allowed me to iron out the last few bugs that were plaguing me with the mini-WASP array.  Only got some short exposure times, but now that everything seems to be working I can now start concentrating on getting good data from deep-sky objects.  This image of the California nebula is only 9 subs at 10-minutes per sub, so a measly hour and a half when I normally take around 8-hours of data for a Sky 90 with an APS sized one-shot colour CCD.  Still – an hour and a half shows the potential of the mini-WASP array, and gives a good idea of what we might expect with a full 8-hours on the object.

Once I am happy at letting the mini-WASP run itself (auto dome rotator and camera synch software running) then I will get the C11/Hyperstar III up and running to really up the anti on getting the data down in short order.  As per usual – all I need now is for the weather to start cooperating!

The final single star image from last night, 16 subs at 5-minutes per sub using the M26C/Sky90 on Pollox, Castor’s twin.  A bit of colour in Pollux (unlike Castor) so I went for this one first.

Another one from last night – this time Polaris using 19 subs at 5-minutes per sub on the M26C/Sky 90.  A few faint fuzzies in the background, but annoyingly just missed Polarissima Borealis.  North is up and note that we are now in portrait mode.  Why is that?  Well you know I am no fan of this GEM and this just makes things even worse.  If I image in the South, the stupid mount is cantilevered right over and the cameras point at the sky in Landscape mode.  Image to the North and the mount axis is straight up down (or almost) and the cameras now point at the sky in portrait mode.  Now what the hell is the use of that?  With my alt-az on a wedge if I set the camera up in Portrait (or Landscape) mode, that’s how it was set no matter where it pointed in the sky – as it should be.  I dunno, variable Portrait/Landscape modes, Meridian flips, what a load of rubbish!!

After the most abysmal day and plenty of rain it cleared to give the most beautiful evening of the year so far for imaging.  I wanted to make the most of the good imaging conditions so went for quantity rather than quality and decided on doing a bunch of single star shots.  Here is the first one – Bellatrix (top right hand corner) in Orion.

Here is a two-camera two-scope mini-WASP image taken a few nights ago.  It is fairly poor overall mainly because this was only 4 sub-exposures (they were however 1,000 second subs).  I can make a vast improvement to this image with more imaging time, but the main thing is that the image gives me a good idea of my new FOV using the mini-WASP array.  I have always been a little cheesed off with the earlier image I took of this region with the M25C and Sky 90 (RGB plus H-alpha data, and quite a few hours of it!) as it didn’t quite get both nebulae in the FOV with the framing I chose (I should have rotated the camera a touch).  As you can see, the two camera (M26C) two scope (Sky 90) mini-WASP FOV more than adequately covers the region   So, we wait for the next clear evening and try again.

Opened up the pinhole camera today (the day before the Winter Solstice) after another 6-month exposure imaging the Sun crossing my southern horizon.  This time I used a FLAT film in the camera (which was an old tea caddy) rather than the usual beer can pinhole camera which gives a more distorted image as the film is curled around the inside of a beer can.  The straight line edge to the left is the roof of the house over the road.  You can see plenty of trees along the sky line – and you might just be able see two light dome-shaped structures which are the New Forest observatories.  Opened up the camera on 18th June 2011 3 days before the Summer Solstice.

The new Robofocus mounts were completed and tested today, all looks fine.  Now I’m just waiting for a good friend to bring me his Sky 90 as the second imaging scope and I’ll be able to get on with the 2-framers.  I will then take my time collimating the other 2 Sky 90s which can be used either as a backup, or in the full 4-scope, 4-camera array.

Just making a couple of new Aluminium brackets to hold the Robofocus units to the Sky 90s.  At present I mount the motors on a plate off the rack and pinion screws which on reflection is probably not the best way to do it.  It will almost certainly make no difference to the way the Sky 90s operate but it takes one more unknown out of the equation (I’m not sure with the present set up if I am applying too much pressure to the focuser rack and pinion).

Here’s Aldebaran in the correct orientation (North is now up) and a touch of extra processing.

Clear night last night and no obtrusive Moon – only one Sky 90 operational at the moment (I’m taking 2 x Sky 90s to Steve Collingwood tomorrow to see if he can collimate them for me).  Anyway – managed to get 21 x 5-minute subs on one of my favourite stars – Aldebaran – the eye of the Bull.  Winter is here, well at least the Winter constellations are now high in the sky.

Image needs to be rotated 180 degrees for North up