Another clear night!! All summer without so much as a break in the clouds and now 4 clear nights in a row.

Clearer than last night, there doesn’t appear to be as much high cloud. I’ve been shooting for the last 2 hours but I’m not happy with the focus so have just returned from making a few adjustments. Fingers crossed, it’s a bit hit and miss trying to focus on stars through the view finder on the camera, but I think I’ve improved things.

Here’s M81 (before changing the focus).  It’s too close to the meridian now to start taking more shots so I don’t have anything to compare with it.

M81 (Bode's Galaxy)

I’ve moved on to the Spindle Galaxy (M102) which is very small in the Canon’s field of view so I don’t know if I’ll get anything worth showing.  On the Atik16ic the spindle didn’t quite fit in the frame, I used to try and get it across the diagnal, but now it’s a tiny blur in the middle of the frame.

Hmm, not too happy with the M102 results so far. I wonder if I can fine tune the focus on something like M13. The globular clusters have enough stars to allow me to find a round star (given the amount of coma I have) somewhere that I can focus with.

Scrap all the images I’ve taken over the last 90 minutes or so.  The trouble with changing the focus is that its not an exact science, especially when you have the standard skywatcher focuser  It looks like I was a fraction out, but more so than I was before.  I finally managed to get it closer by changing to 10 second subs on M2 using the small JPG option.  This allowed me to quickly (20 minutes) change the focus, take a shot, change the focus … you get the idea.  I’m now taking a short series of M2’s in the hope I can prove to myself that the focus is indeed better than before.  The wind has picked up now though so I have even more variables to contend with.

M2 Globular Cluster

After M2 I turned back to M27.  I was pleased with my previous efforts, but I think the new shots are much better.

M27 (Full Frame)	M27 (close up)
After changing the focus and reducing the exposure time I have much better star shapes across the whole frame.	The nebula cropped from the previous image.

Here’s another NGC6960 – The Veil Nebula (West). I tried shorter exposures but more of them. This is 26×60 seconds from a set of 35.

The Veil Nebula (West)

NGC6946 is a galaxy that I often come back to. Last year my images were used by Belfast University as I’d managed to capture a super nova event before the big boys turned their scopes in that direction. The Atik does a better job of bringing the detail out, but it’s another view of an old favourite.

NGC6946

M52 The Scorpion Cluster is one that I caught with the Atik some time ago. I’m not a huge fan of open clusters (because they didn’t fit in my FOV!) but this one fits nicely onto the Canon sensor.

M52 The Scorpion Cluster

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy has just made it past the meridian, but the battery has run out in the camera. I only managed 3 frames but it’s now 03:02 and I don’t think I’ll change the battery – I need some sleep.

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

I even got the bonus galaxies M32 and M110, that wasn’t planned

I’ve just been reading some articles on DSLR Astro work and I think I need to start looking at BIAS, Darks and Flats.  I’ve used Dark Frames previously with webcams but didn’t need them with the Atik. On my next clear night I’ll try and do things properly.