PicGoto Simplificado First Light

9 Mar 2014.  I’ve now tested the PicGoto on the sky and with taking some images, and I’m very happy with it.  On the night of 7 Mar, I first aimed at one of the pointer stars of the Big Dipper and did a goto to the other one.  I found I had to restrict the maximum slew speed to 30x sidereal, but the thing works!  Next I started at a visible Ursa Major star and did a goto to find NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis.  I deliberately picked this target because it has been hard to find with a Telrad in the past and because it was in an awkward part of the sky.  I got the ASCOM pulse guiding working with PHD2 (Windows) and imaged until I ran out of sky.  I had intended to do all this at my maximum focal length (about 880 mm with the coma corrector installed), so when I processed my image stack I was surprised to see some distortion around the edges of the image and realized I had forgotten to take the 0.5x focal reducer off the camera.  Focal reducer + coma corrector is not a good combination.  

The next night I got out early, having tuned a few things (like the tension on my focuser, which was way off) during the day.  This time I had removed the focal reducer and was ready to try the full focal length of the scope.  I used the Telrad to find Phad at the bottom of Ursa Major’s bowl, got the focus set and centered everything, then did a goto to NGC 3718 (this one is easy to find with the Telrad too).  I had it in the field of view of the DSI IIc camera on the first try.  Some gusty breezes blew the scope around, but the guiding was actually pretty good.  I imaged up to just past the meridian (and the PicGoto software actually reported the elevation and azimuth of the telescope, so it showed when the meridian crossing was going to occur).  I did a meridian flip, synced on Phad again, did another goto, and continued imaging the rest of the night.  I had trouble getting the balance right past the meridian so the guiding wasn’t as good, but it is very cool using the PicGoto.