| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
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I ran the first test revolving with a clock for 24 Hrs, it was within half a second in time, accurate on rotation over 24 hrs.
I took it out after the test finished at midnight Thursday, night I got up there about ten to one, set the Vixen mount up and tried to zero it on Polaris. Initially the lenses of the finder scope misted up and internally as well. Eventually I started to get somewhere when it all went dim. I couldn't understand it the stars were so dim, I thought the finder scope was defective, I looked up at the sky and realised a herd of clouds had wandered in and obscured the stars so I went and had a sandwich and a coffee in the hope it would clear. I was almost ready to pull sticks and head home for bed when suddenly the clouds melted and I was back to a lovely clear sky. The gear had cooled nicely and after a break, everything kind of fell into place.
I made a few trial exposures, set the Vixen mount motor running and left the D800 clicking away with the 70-300 VR lens, AF and VR turned off of course. I went with 25second exposures, f/5.6 and ISO3,200, intervalometer set to take an exposure every 40 seconds. I should have left it at 30 seconds but it was OK.
The 25 second exposures produced an almost round star with very little elongation, I haven't got my head around the slightly erratic movements but it's WAY better than anything I have seen before. Room for improvement of gear and technique but that's to be expected. I never handled an equatorial mount before, I need to get used to setting it up to align with Polaris.
I will post some images tomorrow, too tired right now. Quite amazing, really pleased, it's better than I hoped with a ton of scope to improve.
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Robert.