But tonight I had two software packages that I wanted to evaluate -- PemPro and PoleAlignMax. I alligned my rig using the polar alignment scope and synched the SkySensor on Pollux. After that I tried out PoleAlignMax with my CCD Camera (an ST-237) to see if I could get plate solving to work with The Sky ver 6. It helps if you get the pixel size right for your camera, I thought it was 9 microns but it turned out to be 7.4 microns for the 237. That mistake caused some problems getting the plate solving to work reliabiliy although if I exposed the image long enough (5 seconds) it worked -- even with the wrong pixel size.
I quickly discovered that without really good backlash adjustment and compensation that the polar alignment evaluation is problematic -- I kept getting different results each run even though I did not touch the scope. So I'll have to come back to this after my "indoor observing" sessions later this month (some cloudy night).
Next I tried PemPro and was able to get a curve -- but I had trouble getting the calibration routine to work. The DEC reading remained red indicating I was not pointing to the best area of the sky for calibrating the periodic error correction. I'll keep trying because it would really help to have good periodic error correction when photographing deep sky objects.
Finally I got down to imaging some faint fuzzys. First M101 40x 1 minute exposures. One minute is about the longest I could do without getting elongated stars. I'm using CCDSoft version 5 to control my camera. Next I slewed around to M3 and tool 50x 30 second images. Then on to M51 taking 100x 30 second images. Finally to M108 one 5:30 image just to see what I'd get.
After that the clouds came in, shutting down things for the night. It was about 5:00am in the morning. I'll be sleeping in on saturday.
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