shot Lyra and Aquila (Blue Mountains)

I thought it was a good looking sky. I wanted to try some piggyback photography, using the stock 18-55mm lens, and my teeny desktop tripod strapped to the big 'scope.

Steve popped in. "You the only one in here now?" Yep.

Reconfigured the computers. Again. I wanted to use the netbook to control the camera. Wanted to try the AstroJan software. Transferred mount control to the Dell; took the ASUS to the telescope.

Sharmin offered to take the sky brightness readings.

Brought the recorder out to the floor. Quite frustrating. A lot of issues. AJT doesn't "see" faint stars. Didn't know what I was pointed at (with the camera). Turned on the in-camera noise reduction.

2:32 AM. Shot the first photo. Lyra at the centre. ISO 1600, 30 seconds, f/3.5. The Double Double, Coathanger, and Dumbbell are all visible, as is M92, NGC 6885 (Caldwell 37), and 6871.

Spotted the Double Double when I zoomed in. OK. Good. Lovely.

2:38. Lyra and a faint meteor. ISO 1600, 30s, f/3.5. North is right; east is up.

2:41. Lyra. ISO 1000, 30s, f/3.5.

2:44. Reframed. Bottom of Aquila. The Serpens Cauda region. ISO 1000, 30s, f/3.5. The Wild Duck, Eagle Nebula, and Omega Nebula are visible, along with IC 4756 and 4665, and NGC 6633. North is right; east is up.

2:46. Serpens. ISO 400, 30s, f/3.5.

Lot of troubles with the software. Was trying to sort out the imaging sequencing. Gave up on AJT; returning to EOS Utility. Interesting. Starting get the right settings. Another "failed" shot. Still not working. Software crashed. Clobbered the camera. Had to take the battery out.

Got it working? Did it transfer the image?

Dew on the lens at one point. Grabbed the hair dryer. Stole a dew strap.

3:10. ISO 400, 2s, f/4.5.

Finally got the imaging run set up right. Bulb mode... 

3:11. Reframed again. Aquila and Lyra. ISO 400, 105s, f/4.5.

Turn off all the noise reduction. Another imaging run. Same specs. The transfer did happen. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Left the observatory floor to warm up. Heater running.

3:17. Two shots. ISO 400, 105s, f/4.5.

3:22. Two shots again. ISO 800, 105s, f/4.5. A bit of the Milky Way. North is right; east is up.

All images were captured in raw, daylight white balance, manually focused, Adobe RGB. All shot with lens zoomed out [ed: but only to 24mm, I discovered later].

3:28. Returned. Done. Tired. Frustrated. Cold. But, it seemed to be, at last, working. I was getting very long exposures at low ISOs.

Decided to look at them tomorrow. Tore down the rig.

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Wikipedia links: Lyra, Brocchi's Cluster, and Milky Way.