Deep Sky Imaging Session - November 11, 2012

The sky in the evening was clear and Oliver de Guzman and me decided to proceed to PAGASA observatory in UP-Diliman , QC to do some testing of my CCD well as autoguiding setup in preparation for next weekend's imaging session in Caliraya, Laguna. Although the sky there is not that good to do DSO imaging, my main purpose is to test out the system if I will encounter any ........ I brought along my Vixen GP-DX mount and Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Atik 16HR ccd camera as well as Atik 1HS II webcam on Orion Mini50 guidescope as autoguider. He also brought along his Kenko Sky Memo-R mount for Oliver to do some deep sky imaging of his own as he only brought along his DSLR with him to Manila. With the session, I was able to found out a lot of things to be addressed for next week session. Some of the problems encounter were 1) the lack of at least one more USB slot for use with the autoguider setup thus he wasn't able to test out his autoguiding :( 2) Temperature was around 22 deg C and 89% humidity and initially I saw ccd condensation again on the glass window but surprisingly, it evaporated after I waited for around 15 minutes. Although some hint of condensation was still visible but it was tolerable for me to at least do one test of the ccd camera on M41 galactic star cluster in Canis Major. 3) I need to replace several allen bolts which I lost the keys for me to lock the lens and Orion 50mm MiniGuide on the Vixen saddle plate thus I was forced to use a vise grip to lock the 2 unit on the plate. After doing LRGB sessions for 5 x 2 mins each on each channel, I was interrupted by clouds after doing my B channel :( I was only able to get 1 sub for the blue but anyway, I was able to still come out with an image worth sharing as my first successful CCD imaging with my Atik 16HR ccd camera. I;m looking forward to getting better results in next week imaging session I hope :)