Sunday, August 7, 2022

First light with TS Guiding Scope 50x180



In May this year I bought a second hand TS Guiding scope 50x180 @ ATT Essen for my TAL200K f/8.5 replacing the ZWO mini guide scope 30x120. Yesterday I did some testing with following set up:
TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI2600MC
Guide Scope 50x180 with ASI290MM
Setting: binning 2x2 for ASI2600MC; 180s exposure time
Imaging Software : N.I.N.A and PHD2
Picture edited using CS4.

Results : 
Guide scope gives good field of view and sharp stars which makes it easy to select stars. No issue with calibration and guiding assistance used for guiding settings; adjustment time 1,5-3s and set to 1,5s.
ASI2600MC set to 2x2 binning; start are bright and circular. 
I did have some issues with guiding itself and not sure what the rootcause was. I made 11 pictures of which 4 without "startrails".

Learnings:
N.I.N.A. image settings to be changed to FITS in stead if TIFF. It would be good to have more PHD2 profiles as I have multiple guide scopes. Next I will be testing "multiple stars" guiding.