The mount was the Vixen GP/DX with SkySensor 2000PC. It has an autoguider port on the SkySensor and I finally found a way to use it from Shoestring Astronomy using their GPUSB product - see http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products_gp.htm . I also used PHD Guiding which has an interface for the GPUSB. I used a 50 mm finder from Stellarvue that uses 1.25 inch eyepieces and allows you to change out the crosshairs with the autoguider. I had no trouble getting good images with four minute exposures. Because I wasn't perfectly polar aligned I didn't try any longer exposures. For M31 I stacked 15 Luminance (4 minutes each) binned 1x1 and 4 each RGB (4 Min.) binned 2x2 for a total of 27, four minute exposures. I was amazed that all of the exposures had good round stars. The good tracking was true of the other objects except for the Horsehead where I was getting some tracking problems, I believe, because of the balance of the telescope in certain positions (I need a counterweight for the finder or I need to autoguide through the QSI 583 guider port and remove the finder when imaging). -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Richard Tenney Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:42 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] New QSI 583 Camera Don, beautiful images! Very nice work. What mount were you using? /R --- On Sun, 1/17/10, Don J. Colton <djcolton@piol.com> wrote: From: Don J. Colton <djcolton@piol.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] New QSI 583 Camera To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 4:05 PM I just had a chance to try out my new QSI 583 CCD camera in St. George this last week. The camera is one of several new cameras from different manufacturers using the same Kodak 8.3 megapixel chip with 5.4 micron pixels, making it ideal for small scopes. I took the following test images starting with M31: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=289&g2_page=3 I stacked more images for M31 than the other objects improving the image quality. I was impressed with the resolution of the image considering I was using a 106 mm refractor with an f/3.64 reducer giving me a focal length of only 386 mm. See the high resolution image below: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2821&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 Star spikes were added to the images of the Pleiades and the Horsehead. Other than that minimal processing was done on the images. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com