These data were obtained during a session testing an experimental advanced feature of solar system object location in AstroDMx Capture.
An 80mm Ekinox f/5.5, ED refractor was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. A Raspberry Pi computer was attached to the scope along with its rechargeable Goodmans power supply. The Raspberry Pi was running an INDI server. The mount and the Pegasus FocusCube v2 were coupled to the Raspberry Pi and AstroDMx Capture was able to control the mount and the focuser via WiFi and the INDI server. The SV705C was fitted with a UV/IR cut filter and placed at the focus of the scope.
A star alignment was not used and the mount was simply set to previous alignment. This was good enough for the mount (which is not permanently placed) to be sent to a star, plate solve and then centre the star.
Using AstroDMx Capture the mount/scope was sent to Deneb. A Bahtinov mask was attached to the scope and the scale of the preview of Deneb was optimised for examining the Bahtinov diffraction spikes. The Pegasus FocusCube v2 was controlled by AstroDMx Capture and had already been brought to a preset approximate focus for the UV/IR filter/ camera combination.
Using the Bahtinov diffraction spikes, Deneb was brought to optimal focus.
The mount/scope was sent to the Moon. AstroDMx Capture was used to image the 98.7% waning Moon using an arbitrary ROI.
Screenshot showing the preview of the Moon as a 2000-frame SER file was being captured. In this case, the INDI controls at the left hand side and the log view at the bottom were both visible.
The AstroDMx Capture GUI is set up so that any section can be minimised, to make more room for the preview screen. In the screenshot below, the left hand and bottom areas had been minimised.
The best 75% of the frames in the SER file were stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in Registax 5.1 and post-processed in the Gimp 2.1.
98.7% waning Moon
This again demonstrates that in combination with the correct scope, the SV705C can provide whole disk images of the Moon.
AstroDMx Capture is still in the development of advanced features. It will soon be released with some of these features available. As previously stated, the release of the advanced features will be incremental and will happen only when our testing is complete and Nicola is satisfied with the stability of the features.
