2022-06-25, 08:57 AM
I woke up at 2:00am on Friday morning 24th June and looked out of the bedroom window and saw that it was clear.
In less than 1 hour, I had the car packed with camera gear and my Tak EM200 Mount and headed off to find skies a little darker than those of suburban Brisbane.
Just after 4:00am, after an 85 km drive, I found myself on the Esplanade at Toorbul and began to set up 100 metres or so from the car. It took me a while to figure out how everything fitted together again, then polar align and I was off.
I fitted a Canon EOS R5 with RF 15-35mm F2.8L lens to the Mount and began a series of test shots and alighted on 30 secs, F5.6 at ISO1600. The lens promptly dewed up, so I went back to the car for the Pocket Powerbox Advance (PPBADV – USB & Power Hub) and a 12V DC SLA battery and fitted a dew heater, managing to plug the 12V DC IN to the IN Socket (physically it is a 2.1 mm DC input female socket, just like the 4 x 12V DC Power outlets and the Adjustable Out as well). Wouldn’t do to get this wrong in the dark…
Remarkably I had everything I needed as I didn’t have a plan as this was an impromptu decision to go for it, so I just began shooting using the built-in Interval Timer of the EOS R5.
I used the Focus Assist “Green Triangles” to manually focus, but when I checked again after a few shots, I noticed that the images were OOF – probably a result of the dew strap tugging on the lens, as it was fitted over the focus ring, as I had nowhere else to position it.
Part way through the session, the PPBADV Blue LED began blinking so I went back to the car for the back up 12 VDC SLA and fitted that. I took this opportunity to point the camera up and grabbed a couple of shots towards the Zenith. Luckily, these came in use later as in those 3 images, I had also picked up Saturn. Sadly, Pluto was behind the trees by this stage.
PixInsight did a fantastic job of aligning and stacking the disorganized, chaotic set of files I emptied into it, although I had to manually blend in those lucky shots of Saturn in PS CC.
I have included crops of each target to provide some more detail on these regions.
How do you explain to Clyde William Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto in 1930) that using modern equipment, I recorded the position of Pluto with a 15mm wide angle lens and a single 30 sec exposure…
Cheers
Dennis

Just after 4:00am, after an 85 km drive, I found myself on the Esplanade at Toorbul and began to set up 100 metres or so from the car. It took me a while to figure out how everything fitted together again, then polar align and I was off.

I fitted a Canon EOS R5 with RF 15-35mm F2.8L lens to the Mount and began a series of test shots and alighted on 30 secs, F5.6 at ISO1600. The lens promptly dewed up, so I went back to the car for the Pocket Powerbox Advance (PPBADV – USB & Power Hub) and a 12V DC SLA battery and fitted a dew heater, managing to plug the 12V DC IN to the IN Socket (physically it is a 2.1 mm DC input female socket, just like the 4 x 12V DC Power outlets and the Adjustable Out as well). Wouldn’t do to get this wrong in the dark…
Remarkably I had everything I needed as I didn’t have a plan as this was an impromptu decision to go for it, so I just began shooting using the built-in Interval Timer of the EOS R5.
I used the Focus Assist “Green Triangles” to manually focus, but when I checked again after a few shots, I noticed that the images were OOF – probably a result of the dew strap tugging on the lens, as it was fitted over the focus ring, as I had nowhere else to position it.

Part way through the session, the PPBADV Blue LED began blinking so I went back to the car for the back up 12 VDC SLA and fitted that. I took this opportunity to point the camera up and grabbed a couple of shots towards the Zenith. Luckily, these came in use later as in those 3 images, I had also picked up Saturn. Sadly, Pluto was behind the trees by this stage.
PixInsight did a fantastic job of aligning and stacking the disorganized, chaotic set of files I emptied into it, although I had to manually blend in those lucky shots of Saturn in PS CC.
I have included crops of each target to provide some more detail on these regions.
How do you explain to Clyde William Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto in 1930) that using modern equipment, I recorded the position of Pluto with a 15mm wide angle lens and a single 30 sec exposure…

Cheers
Dennis