steppenwolf

Sounds great to me, roll on tomorrow!

Well done - I love happy, low cost endings!!

This is the one I currently use and it works perfectly down to a lower temperature than the one you mention. I can control it remotely with a relay board in my observatory as well.

Having gone down the remote operation path myself, I can thoroughly recommend it but it will take some fine tuning to get it all working correctly. Good luck!

I too have this one and it does work very well indeed but you need to place it as far away as possible for the best results. For daytime use, you could also try a chrome plated steel ball when the sun is out - this can be remarkably good!

I think this is a diffraction effect caused by 'aperture vignetting'. This is not the same as normal vignetting but appears because the edge of the image field doesn't receive a full circle from the cone of light through the aperture, rather, it 'sees' an elliptical shaped aperture.

I am really pleased that you are enjoying my book and I look forward to seeing your results 👍

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I wouldn't rely on a clear filter of the same 'thickness' as your other filters to achieve accurate focus. IF you have an accurate autofocuser with an encoder, you can use one filter to focus with and then add (or subtract) a known offset (the offset for which is determined in advance) for use with another filter but I would caution against assuming that filters are sufficiently parfocal for imaging use. If you don't have such an autofocuser and a set of suitable offsets then there is no substitute for focusing with the filter that you intend to use when capturing the image. Remember that you can manually focus on a bright star and then move to the object you want to image in the knowledge that it too will be in focus until temperature change necessitates a refocus.

Perfect explanation

Absolutely not required 👍😁

The non-typo that I was referring to was in reply to Richard's comment about not seeing the 'iif' function before. However, I checked the S @ N text against my original manuscript and I am pleased to report that the editors have not made a typo as the two match. Unfortunately that doesn't explain any lack of functionality in the first calculation which is a mystery unless I introduced an error when I added it to my article. As it is benign in nature, it will have to remain a mystery for now.

Hi Richard, I wrote this over a year ago and haven't used it since as I normally move into PhotoShop after I have calibrated, aligned, stacked and deconvolved in PI but I believe that this is correct. The second algorithm then carries out the actual 'screen blend' maths.

None taken, I assure you With some of my data, the background sky levels became brightened and this odd bit of PI pixelmath worked fr me:- iif( cond, expr_true, expr_false ) Conditional function (or inline if function): Returns expr_true if cond evaluates to nonzero. Returns expr_false if cond evaluates to zero. Invariant subexpression: When each of the three arguments is either an immediate numeric value or an invariant subexpression.

I have recently bought this one to replace my original that died after several years of faithful service in my observatory and it's working very well indeed and - importantly - it returns to its previous settings after a power cut.

Not a typo!!

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I have Geoptik weights on my Mesu 200 and they are not stainless steel but chrome plated as far as I can tell. I have kept mine completely corrosion-free by wiping then down from time to time with silicone-based lubricant which I apply liberally and only loosely wipe off.

Worst excuse ever .....

Right answer, you're back on the list! 😎👍 Albireo is a fabulous sight in just about any telescope and is a must see every Summer for me - they don't call it a 'colour contrasting double' for nothing! P.S. I do actually have a set of eyepieces 😱

Now you're adding bribery to your catalogue of errors! It all hinges on whether the sight of those split stars was worth it or not?

I can't decide whether this further disclosure is a suitable mitigation for your conduct or simply compounds your folly - how pretty were those stars?

I'm absolutely horrified by this disclosure and have removed you from my Christmas Card List with immediate effect - shame on you .... 🤣 👍

I think that is an excellent approach!

The needs of astrophotography (AP) and observing are rather different so with AP in mind for the future, your choice is going to be more difficult. For Deep Sky imaging, you will need the best equatorial tracking mount that you can afford and, perhaps surprisingly, not necessarily a large aperture telescope whereas for observing, an altazimuth mount and large aperture are better. I think this is a matter of priorities so think very hard about where you mainly want to go, AP or observing. Armed with that knowledge, we can advise you better.