Equipment used
Macbook Air running AstroDMx Capture for macOS.
Fedora Linux laptop running PHD2, multi-star pulse auto-guiding, and also, when required, Stellarium.
Celestron AVX GOTO mount.
SVBONY SV165 Guide-scope D=30mm F=120mm.
Eklipse Ekinox ED F=440mm, 80mm, f/5.5 refractor.
QHY 5L-II-M guide camera.
ZWO ASI178MC uncooled CMOS (USB3.0, 14 bit ADC) imaging camera.
JJC DHS-1 USB Lens Heater Strip Dew Remover.
Objects for imaging
M48 open cluster.
Part of Markarian’s chain of galaxies.
M3 globular cluster
The imaging kit
An INDI server was running on the Fedora Linux laptop to control the mount via the handset. Stellarium was used to select the objects to be imaged and to send the mount to the objects.
Screenshot of the Stellarium INDI server setup
Screenshot of Stellarium + INDI aquiring a target
The INDI server was then run with PHD2 on the Fedora Linux laptop to do multi-star, pulse auto-guiding
Screenshot of PHD2 multi-star, pulse auto-guiding
Multi-star PHD2 auto-guiding was used during the capture of all three objects in this imaging session.
AstroDMx Capture for macOS was used to capture 20 x 180s FITS exposures of the open cluster M48 with matching dark-frames using the ZWO ASI178MC camera.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for macOS capturing images of M48
The images were stacked in Affinity Photo and the resulting image post processed in Affinity Photo and the Gimp 2.10.
M48
AstroDMx Capture for macOS was used to capture 12 x 5min FITS exposures with matching dark-frames, of part of Markarian’s chain of galaxies.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for macOS capturing data on Markarian’s Chain
The images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and post processed in Affinity Photo, The Gimp 2.10 and Neat Image.
Part of Markarian’s Chain
AstroDMx Capture for macOS was used to capture 15 x 100s FITS exposures, with matching dark-frames of the globula cluster M3.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for macOS capturing FITS images of M3
The images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and post processed in Affinity Photo, The Gimp 2.10 and Neat Image.
M3
With the Celestron AVX mount, PHD multi-star auto-guiding produced good results with no movement between or within images.
The ZWO ASI178MC colour camera performed well and AstroDMx Capture for macOS delivered good data.
