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@Bivanus F**K YES!! 💪💪💪😂 ( Really sorry! I would never normally soil this mature website with foul language, but I just couldn't help myself! I think I have been exposed to too many American action hero movies! 🤦‍♂️😂 )

You should be able to reset the layout from options. Also check out you tube videos on how the layout works.

@Elp Definitely mate. Some would call us mad...I'd say we're simply passionate about the hobby! You're not alone there my friend, my data data turned out usable ( just ) but in no way is it adequate recompense for the grueling effort I made! LOL ( but then I say to myself...my recompense is the wonderful unique hobby itself, not just how good my data is at the end of the night! ☺️ )

I have some thoughts about that. I realized that both a Celestron CGX and an EQ5 OnStep GoTo mod are very accurate in aiming at the target once they previously performed a plate solve. I think we can just slew (without centring) to the Moon straight after aiming at any near DSO with the plate solve. I will try this idea (hopefully tonight) with my Starwave 102ED F/11 (planet killer), it has a very narrow FoV while my ASI 678MC has a rather smaller sensor. I hope the ASIair can do it because NINA will be busy with Lion Nebula. Maybe Venus? 🤔 No, it's too low.

Reason enough to purchase another one Stu.

With galaxy season upon us and the weather in the UK being so poor I had a rare clear night during a New Moon on 9th April 2024. With more poor weather being forecast I decided to get my 'galaxy fix' by photographing Abell 1656. This region of space contains over 1,000 identified galaxies so that ought to scratch that galaxy itch! Equipment William Optics Z103 refractor. Main camera - ZWO ASI294MC Pro; Guide Camera ZWO ASI290mm mini. Chroma Luminance filter. Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount. Primaluce Lab Sesto Senso motor focuser. Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerboat V2. Pegasus Astro FlatMaster 150. Software N.I.N.A. PHD2 PixInsight. Data Chroma Lum 161 x 120" (Gain 121, Temp. -10c, Bin 1x1) Darks 50 Flats 30 Dark Flats 30

I agree. When I got my old Newtonian I could just about focus on a distant chimney pot, but I wasn’t convinced that was far enough. In the end, the only way I could be sure, was to take it out at night, prop it up with some garden furniture (there wasn’t a mount) and try to focus on some random stars.

A very good suggestion from @dweller25. I'm sure an experienced eye will identify the problems in two minutes. Given ten more minutes maybe even solve it. Absolutely. When tinkering with reflector scopes I used to be surprised at just how far an object has to be to achieve focus. Now I just accept it. Often a garden length is not enough. Unless you have a country estate🤣

AR13639 (Class EAI) Located N30E12, this region contains 16 sunspots and has reduced in size over the last 24 hours to approx. 880 million square kilometres. It released no flares today, however, it did produce an M4.02 class flare on 15th April 2024. AR13644 (Class DSO) Positioned just off the eastern limb at N13E49, this small region is made up of two sunspots and has increased in size to 364 million square kilometres. It has not produced any flares to date. AR13646 (Class CRO) Finally, we have a small grouping of eight sunspots just north of AR13644 at N22E47. Like AR13644, this region has increased in size in the last 24 hours to some 210 million square kilometres. At this time it has not produced any flares. Equipment William Optics Z61 refractor. Tilt adapter. ZWO ASI174mm camera. Sky-Watcher EQ6R Pro mount. DayStar Quark Chromosphere. Data 110 images from 1,000 stacked. Exposure time 18ms, Gain 0. Software SharpCap Pro. Autostakkert4! PixInsight Solar Tool Box.

Postie has been a delivered a duplicate of an old friend and idea. In 2021 I used a plastic toolbox as my astro case, it worked well but got outgrown and I needed a new box for my tools, all was placed in multiple bags, cases etc. and I often forget items. So a replacement accessory box and how I used it before, watch this space... I intend to do much the same but perhaps not for Eyepieced.

Rob , the scope is a real looker , which does help . I used it last night to look at a few trees 2 miles away and there was no false colour . It WILL show a bit of colour on the likes of Sirius and vega and of course the moon but its negligable and the pure 6" of aperture far outweighs any CA impurities . The good thing is that the glass is listed as japanese and german schott , and is well corrected at the factory ... also you get a small bag of Haribo's lol .

@Replayy Where do you live ? It could be worthwhile hooking up with an SGL member who lives close to you or going to your local astronomy club.

(When viewing the site using the simple theme on a mobile all the review text is white) Lovely to see images as well in your review, where they afocal images? It's a great setup I like how the mount is versatile offering both altaz or Equatorial with the further option of adding a motor for in EQ use.

That's really good Mark.

It's not looking optimistic with the Moon and clouds for me I'd have to hope for a fireball, I'll try and have a go anyway.

The thing about the controller.. I already have one laying around here, got it back last year where I built my own planetary motor out of Lego (long story) .. so it is just a matter of rewiring it to the platform. I did settle down on a constant speed towards the end of the observation but it just felt like I could use some minor micro tuning of the speed back and forth.

I always keep coming back to take a look at this scope and nearly talk myself into purchasing!. I still may TBH.

Zygo tests are often carried out at both 632 and 532nm as far as I can see. I've never seen one in blue but I expect they could be if it was important for the instrument's use. The p-v rating could be adjusted in proportion if the test was at 632nm so for reflectors it's easy to make an adjustment. Because modern refractors usually suffer from sphero chromatism ie variation of spherical aberration with wavelength it's more important to know how the objective behaves in green light especially for visual use. I'd be suspicious of one that tested perfectly in red light although there is some tolerance. Whilst p-v is a handy measure, rms (and Strehl) give a better, weighted, averaged out assessment of the surface. Even then I'm not sure if the Zygo test would pick up roughness, for instance 'record grooves' in the mirror's figure. Maybe it would. If a mirror has a smooth 1/6th p-v surface, I wonder how many could tell it from one with 1/10th wave optics. David

You can just put in the coordinates for the moon on the day you are imaging. I have done this for imaging comets.

What does the histogram look like? You can also use an auto colour calibration in most astro software, Siril is free.

It looks very similar to the Umi HD mount too.

Oh right, these strain wave mounts are sometimes faithful copies of each other but other times there are significant differences. This particular design is remarkably similar to the ZWO mounts but there might not be many interchangeable parts, if any. Don

Possibly like others, I've been waiting to see if I'd get any more moonless astro dark nights, but that's it here! On one hand this is a little in no man's land - not quite deep enough due to being a mosaic in the UK and not a lot of focal length for close up detail. What I hope it does showcase is an enjoyable view into the Virgo cluster. It's a four pane mosaic taken with my Epsilon 130D and 2600MC Pro - around 14 hours spread evenly across the four panes and three sessions - 07Feb24, 15Mar24, 30Mar24. Captured with NINA, pre-processed in APP and processed in PixInsight. Throughout this image there are so many galaxy sizes and types. Some clear with structure, others just coming out of the background. I have spent a lot of time just scouring back and fourth! My favourite is probably IC3481, IC3481a (PGC41646) and IC3483 (centre bottom). These appear to have some form of interaction but if I understand what I've read (and it's still accepted today) IC3483 is a foreground galaxy and it's just a coincidence that it lines up. I was drawn to this small group as the supposed interaction was just about coming out the noise with a little time, but after a few hours it was still faint but easier to distinguish. TypeCat in PixInsight had 1,369 Quasars listed in this field. On closer inspection a lot had nothing visible to my eye. I trimmed down this list and scripted some simple output from Simbad until I had the four with the highest redshift (z) that were visible. I created a custom catalogue (yellow) which shows their designation, redshift and Light Travel Time. Sadly I didn't break 12 Gyrs this time, but it isn't really that much integration. Fascinating working through this and I hope it's correct. Here, it's reduced to 75% of its original size - do click through to open fully. Thanks for looking. The annotated version if you want to look something up:

Ooh, do I see a new SX camera? Looks like the IMX 571 sensor.