Piggyback Live Stacking July 13-15 2020

[BlackWikkett]

Hi All,

I've been meaning to give this a try for several months and have finally been able to pull it off. Piggybacked my 70 mm on top of the RC 6 along with a 50 mm guider. This is a great solution If like me you're doing a lot of live stacking of different type objects that require wide and narrow FOV. I'll probably not repeat this for some time since it's a chore to setup and get going if you don't have a permanent setup / observatory. I was able to setup and and leave up for two days so it was a little less painful. Have a look at my flikr https://www.flickr.com/gp/165305863@N04/1g6c2v page for more images this is just a sample of the 16 keepers for the two nights.

Equipment:
Stellarvue SV70T 70 mm with ZWO ASI294MC PRO
Stellarvue F050G Guidescope with ZWO ASI290
TPO RC 6 with ZWO ASI183MC PRO
SharpCap 3.2.6383 PHD 2.6.9
(more hardware info on flickr)

Piggyback Telescope Setup 6 by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
IC1396 PS Edit Stack_114frames_3420s by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
IC1396 RC6 PS EDit Stack_19frames_2280s by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
M8-M20 PS Edit Stack_61frames_1830s by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
M20 PS Edit Stack_20frames_2400s by Black Wikkett, on Flickr

Thanks for having a look
-Chris

[umasscrew39]

Very slick setup and beautiful images, Chris. This type of setup, i.e., piggyback, of my Stellarvue 80mm on my C11", has worked great for me over the past year or so with 2 different sensor sizes. This provides limitless FOVs. Of course, being in my observatory there is no need to break it down. Why not just throw a Telegizmo 365 cover over it and keep it up all year round or at least for a long period of time? I used one when living in California and it worked like a charm. Especially this time of year when there are both very large and very small nebulae to observe.

[BlackWikkett]

Thanks for the kind words Bruce.

I'd love to keep a setup like this up but alas my primary imaging location is my brother's home. I don't have enough clear FOV at home to make sense to build a permanent setup. If I could build an OBS that could be secured it would work. We live outside of Atlanta in a rural and fairly safe neighborhood but there have been the few isolated issues that makes me uncomfortable enough to forgo anything I can't secure.

-Chris

[umasscrew39]

I hear you and don't blame you. That is why I built mine on top of my 4-car garage, with the observatory floor over 10 ft above street level and well secured. Not to mention we have bears, gators and various poisonous snakes in our area.