steppenwolf

As soon as I start stretching it incrementally in PhotoShop, I have always found that the image starts developing nicely:-

.... and did my method of using FITS Liberator work?

All you have to do is wind back the white level adjustment (move it to the right) in FITS Liberator to darken the image before you click on the OK button.

There is a great 'workaround' although I'd call it a great third party 'feature' - FITS Liberator V2.3. There are newer versions BUT this version interfaces directly with PhotoShop as a plug-in allowing you to open (but not save) FITS files directly from within PhotoShop. I never leave home without it!

I would recommend the book 'Turn Left at Orion' - it is a great introduction to finding your way around the night sky.

Definitely hot pixels and not something to do with the filter. I agree with Mike, these should have been removed if you used sigma clip during the stacking process, especially as the images were dithered.

I think you are absolutely right to suggest experimentation, David - just because the 'logic' suggests one route does not necessarily mean that it is a 'one size fits all' as your own experimentation has clearly shown! My own experiments confirmed the 'physics' as I see them but even QSI whose camera I use are not clear on this issue ............

I agree with you, Andrew - the optical distance dictates the physical distance

This is correct This is incorrect - as 'Scottie' would say, 'Ye cannae change the laws of physics'

I use PI primarily for alignment and stacking and then move out to PS. I have found that PI does an even better job of stacking than my previous favourite, MaxIm DL. I would recommend that you get to grips with PI for this process as it really is very good indeed.

My Pulsar system uses friction drive, actually three motors with the lip of the dome sandwiched between them (two behind, one in front) but on a previous system that also worked well, I had a single motor and rubber wheel with an idler behind to clamp it. If the design of your dome allows it, friction drive is probably the easiest to implement.

Exactly so!

Doesn't the whole EOS adapter just unscrew from the rear of the reducer - it should? You then add extension rings until you get the correct spacing from the rear of the reducer to the sensor on the ZWO (55mm +- 1mm).

Looking forward to seeing how this performs, Rob.

That’s very neat indeed - very well executed

Completely agree, Olly it is dishonest to pretend that you are happy to allow personal use for free and then come up with such a spurious reason for withdrawing consent. It is either free for personal use or it isn’t!!

I wouldn't bother jumping through the hoops, I did this TWICE and on the third time told them to stick it! I now use SolarWinds to wake up my PC and either AnyDesk or Remote Desktop (All three are free) and have a very stable system.

I'm biased, of course, because my dome just works perfectly but I still prefer the dome concept to the roll-off-roof especially as I feel that I have 'served my apprenticeship' in standing outside in the full open freezing my equipment ....... Don't forget that you can test all this during the day, you don't need night time for his sort of testing!

If you are using POTH (and I recommend that you do!) you don't need SGPro to know anything about it at all - POTH takes care of it all - unless you are using SGPro to open and close the dome at the start and end of a session but again, you can use POTH to do that as well.

Great, at least that issue is resolved. I don't use SGPro but most certainly DO use POTH. What happens if you untick the 'Slave to telescope' box in SGPro, leaving the one in POTH ticked (as it should be)?

I'm really sorry to hear about this latest set-back, John. I did isolate my pier block by pouring the pier first, waiting for it to set and then cladding it with polystyrene foam sheets - this works perfectly. I would recommend foam but be careful that the foam doesn't become too dense as it expands. With regard to the banging when the drive skips a tooth, could you not include a free-rotating rubber roller to clamp the glass fibre lip and cam-belt between the drive cog and roller to stop the skipping from happening? It is fairly critical that the walls form as perfect a circle as it is possible to achieve but a clamp roller would help here, I feel sure.

Lovely image - this is also my favourite binocular object. The dust lanes and excellent star colours really bring this asterism to life on your image.

Thank you Vin, this is a great resource and I have just thoroughly enjoyed the essay on Galileo Galilei !

You have a PM.

Just a tiny point, this is IC 5076 rather than NGC 5076 which explains why I couldn't find it after viewing your excellent image of this reflection nebula!!