steppenwolf

That's good news - let's hope that everything continues to work long-term. Yes, this really, REALLY needs to be addressed! I hope you find a suitable solution with ScopeDome.

A very exciting project - I hope it continues to progress well 😎

Sorry to hear about this incident - every remote operator's nightmare! I haven't had this exact issue but I have had waterlogged electrical gear and have always managed to resolve the issue by bringing it home, draining out as much as possible and then placing it in a warm airing cupboard for a couple of days - unless you are extremely unlikely, modern electronics are very resilient, just be patient with the drying out procedure. Oh, and get that technical glitch resolved once and for all, even if it means designing your own control system for the shutter - which is what I had to do some years ago until a new system for my dome was released which has so far proven to be bulletproof over several years of operation!!!

A good choice of both kit and supplier. It will be well worth the wait 😎

Although upgrading the tripod would certainly help stability and dampening time, this isn’t the only factor and I think that you would be pushing the mount a little too far - you are unlikely to break it if you achieve good balance but you might well be stressing the bearings with additional weight so far out from the mount centre. A side by side mounting would help in this regard but would be disproportionately expensive.

Thanks for the update, Peter.

Very nice indeed, Peter, this one is already on my 'hit list' if we ever get another clear night or rather nights!! This is a lovely rendition. What filters did you use for this image?

Welcome to SGL, Rich, I think you are going to like it here 👍

Terry is one of a kind - a real asset to SX and to the imaging community who use their products. I’ll swear he never sleeps......

I look forward to seeing the finished Ha image.

Oh yes:-

I used to fear meridian flips and chose my objects to avoid them but since automating my imaging system, I now find them liberating, easy and incredibly reliable. I am not sure why yours are taking so long but I use a Mesu 200 mount exclusively in a 2.1metre Pulsar Observatory and my complete flip/plate solve/focus/dome realignment routine takes just 6 minutes 33 seconds (you can actually take another 10 seconds off that figure if you ignore the post-capture housekeeping) as demonstrated in the extract below taken from my most recent events log. I would urge you to reconsider the 'problem' of a meridian flip as it can be made a trivial exercise by using automation. Like all imagers, I have technical issues but meridian flips certainly don't ever figure here! Fears about the use of a PC would seem at odds with the whole concept of modern imaging where computers are a key part of the whole system, surely? Extract from control log of 20/07/2019 01:15:01 Imager exposure complete. 01:15:01 Stopping autoguider... 01:15:04 Syncing to RA: 20h 12m 43.1s Dec: +38°23'57" 01:15:10 Take Images Action complete. 01:15:10 Starting move to action. 01:15:10 Uncoupling Dome. 01:15:10 Flipping mount... 01:16:07 Slewing to Crescent Focus Star... 01:16:23 Done slewing! 01:16:23 Coupling Dome to Mount... 01:17:12 Done coupling dome. 01:17:12 Setting imager bin mode to 2x2. 01:17:12 Setting filter to L. 01:17:19 Taking 10 second image for Plate Solve... 01:17:40 Saving image... 01:17:40 Executing plate solve function. 01:17:40 Performing Plate Solve with PinPoint... 01:17:51 Plate solve results: 01:17:51 Pixel Scale = 2.08 asp. 01:17:51 Focal Length = 1071.99 mm. 01:17:51 North Angle = -87.18 degrees. 01:17:51 J2000 Coordinates = RA: 20h 08m 47.3s Dec: +38°36'27" 01:17:51 North Angle verification is disabled. 01:17:51 Pointing error vector = 1079.5 arcsec, 62.2 degrees. 01:17:51 Syncing to RA: 20h 09m 29.8s Dec: +38°39'56" 01:17:57 Reslewing to original target coordinates... 01:18:13 In Focus Action. 01:18:13 Setting filter to: L 01:18:13 Forcing filter change... 01:18:19 Starting focus run... 01:18:19 Setting MaxIm Focus Exposure time to 6.000 seconds. 01:21:34 Focus Complete. Total time elapsed 6m 33s

I have a great collection of newspaper cuttings and magazine articles leading up to and post the landing (as well as cuttings related to the earlier Apollo missions) that I have been looking back over this weekend - it has been great fun! Here's an example:-

I think it would be well worth doing as there are some lovely star colours in this region that would respond well to your usual LRGB imagery as these are lost in a pure narrowband image. I know that I could add these by capturing some RGB data but NB is much more my 'thing'! Nicely captured and your wider field of view shows just how much is going on in this cloud.

Having rotated and flipped my image to match the orientation of yours, it is interesting to note the intensity differences between some of the star formations and chains comparing my very narrowband with your RGB. You have some nice detail captured here.

Very nice indeed, Mick - it's a lovely object isn't it?

Unfortunately, very little is known about this object - even its distance from us in unknown at this time so I'm afraid I cannot answer your question but it would be fascinating to understand the dynamic at work here to sculpt this distinctive shape! Me too, I much prefer it!

+1 👍

I tend to agree but it is reliable and not too resource hungry! I've been using it since 'Adam' was a lad ...... Yes I am using the latest version and it pretty does everything I need it to do although I guess if I was demonstrating this type of software to a new observer, I might be tempted to demo Stellarium as it has a beautiful display. Well, you got the Propeller and a whole lot more too!

Excellent, I hope you got some great results.

Hi Tony, monochrome images may not have the general appeal that colour images have but I really like them and as you say, with the right filter you can capture the most important wavelength (Ha) under moonlit conditions thus greatly increasing your imaging opportunities. Some of the finest non-astro images that I have seen have been mono so why not astro? Yes, you have, Gina 👍

Thanks, Roger and Scott - there's just so much 'stuff' up there!!

The focal length is the total distance from the primary mirror to the point of focus - in your case out through the focuser in the side of the tube!

What an absolutely stunning image - love it!

Thanks. It is a beautiful object and well worth seeking out if you can spend some time on it.