First Light in a snow storm
I had first light this morning with the StarShoot AutoGuider (SSAG). Literally, I had first light on a street light across the way. The SSAG couldn’t stay on it though. The GM8 tracked to its west and in the lower corner the PHD said, “Star Lost.” I thought that when the red square got to the edge of the street light that it would capture it, but it flashed green for a second, posted the x,y coordinates, then lost it again. The main thing is that I got to go through the whole process. I hooked the camera up to my Lumicon 80mm f/3.75 guide scope. It is the finder scope on my TeleKit. I hooked up the SSAG’s output to the GM8. I got a feel for starting the camera and setting some parameters, then connecting to the scope using on-camera, started looping, and then clicked on the huge light and then clicked on PHD which should have automatically calibrated the GM8. I violated the SSAG’s expectations by giving it a huge object instead of a little star I think. Then I sat there and watched the messages at the bottom. It kept saying LOW SNR: 2.0 or less. I don’t know what that was about. “Star Lost.” O well, it was fun. Funny thing is the SSAG is a camera and I couldn’t figure out how to take a picture with it. I wanted to post my street light as first light. My capture rate was about 0.5 seconds and the falling snow looked like star trails in the image.
participants (1)
-
Jim Gibson