Observing log · 15 November 2019
Target: M20, the Trifid
A night at the telescope with Sequence Generator Pro trained on the Trifid Nebula.
Tonight’s target was M20, the Trifid Nebula. I was learning Sequence Generator Pro, which I had bought a couple of weeks earlier for US$99.
Alex McConahay’s book Using Sequence Generator Pro and Friends was helping me learn the workflow. Until then I had used Maxim DL 6, but it lacked some of the newer features people were discussing in the forums.
I cooled the ZWO ASI1600MM camera to −20°C, ran autofocus through the luminance filter and corrected the telescope position to bring M20 into the centre of the frame. Then it was time to configure autoguiding.
This was my first time using SGP’s PHD2 integration. I experimented with both the camera’s ST4 connection and direct telescope control; direct control appeared to work well.
Then the clouds rolled in. In the land of the long white cloud, that happens. I shut everything down and closed the dome, but the night was not a complete loss: PHD2 and SGP were configured and talking to one another.
Until next time—Kirk out.