2014-09-30

I had another astro night at my balcony. The plan was to photograph two galaxies (NGC 185 and NGC 147) between Andromeda and Cassiopeia. They are quite dim (magnitudes around 9) so I didn’t have much hope in finding them with the Astrotrac mount. Despite these conditions I eventually found it and I let the camera roll for about an our. However I discovered from the result that something in the optical line in my APO refractor isn’t right and I suspect it to be a misaligned focuser. The stars in the pictures got oval and I know is not due to vignetting. I have to get this focuser fixed!

When I was searching for the galaxies I ran over the Dragonfly cluster close to Cassiopeia as a coincidence. I have never heard of the cluster before but I have to admit that you can (with a little fantasy) see the dragonfly shape… Anyway I took a couple of exposures of it and the result was acceptable despite the problem with the misaligned focuser.

NGC457 – Dragonfly cluster

I also got the chance to experience the actual difference between using the CLS filter and not using it. I took a couple of test exposures at the Andromeda Galaxy to show it.

CLS-filter