Robp

Maybe things have changed recently but I have tried three times in the past to get a light next to my garden shielded and got refused each time 😭 Hopefully you will have better luck and I might have to try again. Forth time lucky perhaps.

Lovely first image. It really is something when you stack an image run together and the details of your target start to emerge. One thing you should be able to do is get rid of the purple background of the sky. I have a method I use in Photoshop but I'm not sure how that would work in Affinity but it would be worth learning as you will use it a lot!

You will keep looking at classified adverts until you get a few clear skies. Then when it clouds back over you will go back to looking at all the shiny kit you shouldn't buy whilst you await the next clear night

Thanks Flo, mine arrived last week and its a lovely bit of kit, cant wait to use it. The Evoguide 50ED fits within the WO finder rings I had, so I have transplanted half the locking nuts to these rings and I can now easily move it between my Skywatcher 130pds equipped with the evoguide 50ED rings, and the WO star 71. I will end up mounting it on top of the scopes when I get a chance to drill some holes

Just ordered one I have been looking for a new guidescope over the last few weeks and this looks like it will fit the bill nicely, cheers FLO.

This is such a good idea! I have never imaged a satellite before so challenge accepted. Does the challenge come with some free clear skies?

Nice, must resist a dual imaging rig now ?

Congratulations Faulksy, glad it all worked out in the end. Now you can put it all behind you and enjoy the stunning views this beautiful instrument will produce.

Again FLO leading the way! As far as I can tell my Star 71 is fine but I haven't pushed the imaging circle to far. The scope is such a great performer (and it was very cheap if you managed to bag a good one) that paying a little bit more to get a guaranteed perfect one would definitely be a sound investment. For people that purchased a scope already FLO; if an issue should arise that needs correction is this a service that we could pay for perhaps or would we be better going direct to someone like Es?

I also took my 130pds out to do some solar imaging (Remember the solar filter people!) This is a single frame taken from my canon 1100D and colourised using this guide:

My only gripe with this weather forecast is when I open it up I always see this and get all excited: Then I change to my location and I see this I have been using this since you introduced it and it is still my go to forecast, Thanks FLO (please send some clear skies my way!).

As long as your shorter exposures are not over exposed in the core area than they are fine. If they are to bright once you try and combine them you can usually manipulate the shorter exposures by a linear stretch to make them darker. Once something is over exposed then you have gone to far in exposure time and need to drop it down. You can usually get away with a set of long subs, and a single set of shorter subs. You don't need lots of different sets of shorter sub exposures. When you stretch you can use layers to preserve the outer core area (I use Photoshop) and then combine the shorter core subs to your longer ones using something like this: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/LAYMASK.HTM There may also be some information helpful to you in one of my Orion threads: I've ordered some ADM dovetail clamps http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetail-bars/adm_vdpa_adaptor.html to attach my guide scope rings to. Should make life easier transferring my guiding from one scope to another Are there any other Galaxy targets worth going after with the 130pds?

Been a while since my 130pds has been out on the mount. With the majority of my WO star 71 narrowband targets in the area of a street light I'm going to have to move onto something else. I decided to have a go with the 130pds on M81, try my hand at LRGB imaging see how I get on. With the amount of light pollution I face I don't hold out much hope. This is 3 Hours worth of 300 second luminance exposures, roughly processed to see how its going. Planning to add a lot more data to this if I get some clear nights, I must say I'm tempted to dust of the 200P and see if I can get it to focus with my CCD.