11/28/2005

 

This is first light using only the RA drive of a GEM that I am building. This is a 60 second unguided exposure with n 800mm f6.3 achromat - green filter. The stars show some RA elengation but not too much. The FWHM is about 1.5 x 1.2 pixels which is about 3.0x2.4 arcsec. Some of the RA error may be ue to not having the tracking speed finely enough tuned. So, even without guide corrections, the mount is tracking well. There is much left to do, like add guiding inputs and build the declination assembly. But for first light, I am pretty satisfied.

 

San Diego

 

Optics - Achromat
Mount - Homebrew
Camera - BIG ST-8XE

 

60 sec

 

CCDSoft