New Equipment Up and Running

For those of you following my blog you know of the myriad of problems I've been plagued with over the last couple of years trying to get all my telescope equipment to 'play nice' together. Well I finally decided to try an option that I've been examining for months - placing a NUC (small PC) mounted on my pier so that all cameras, focusers and mount cables can be connected directly to the USB ports without having to travel from my notebook to the mount over USB-LAN. This would also have the side benefit of improving my cable managemnet - reducing the dangling cables tht could cause snags and otherwise make it bad to image overnight unattended.

Well the decision paid off big. Not only did all my connection issues go away, but the USB3 ports made the whole system operate much faster. I've now tested the setup over three nights and not a single problem occurred - well, maybe a few, but they were human in nature not due to equipment faults.

Tonight I'm going to image the Cygnus wall - part of the North America nebula. I also have Sh2-101 (the Tulip nebula) taken last evening (and earlier) that I need to process. So, while I was waiting I took a quick single sub of the moon while the sky was still dusky. A green filter was used to help bring out the contrast.

Moon - September 7, 2019
GT102 f/5.5  ASI1600mm   0.005 seconds  Green Filter