drumsolo
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Everything posted by drumsolo
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The short exposures were not guided, i was taking short test shots to make sure I had the target in view. There was more than 1 image that had trailing and I was stood away from the scope. I also had it with some of the 3 minute exposures. Could they all be because of cables hanging down? Does the fact I had a mix of good and bad point to a tracking issue or make it less likely? Thanks
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Can anyone shed some light on what might be causing the trailing stars even at short exposures of 20 seconds? Here's 2 images from the beehive cluster, 1 showing trails at 30 secs and another which looks ok at 3 mins. Seems to be intermittent. Grateful for some help Thanks
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2 hours ago, drumsolo said: Hoping someone can help me work out what is going on with my HEQ5 Pro mount. Set up last night and I keep getting the same problem, trailing stars even without guiding and taking a 20 sec exposure! Never had problems like this, my Polar alignment was within 3 degrees. It seemed worse when I was pointed south towards the beehive cluster for example but weirdly I did manage to get some good exposures of the same target when guiding for 3 minutes! Seems a bit random. Here's the images, a 20 sec exposure showing the trails and a longer one with no real issues. could this simply be the cables trailing and causing some drag as I didn't loop them up? I also moved the mount with out the weights on a couple months back and had a horrible crunching sound. Could it be Gear problems? Thanks Stuart
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That scope is packaged with the heq5, has worked fine for last 10 years. No breeze.
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Hoping someone can help me work out what is going on with my HEQ5 Pro mount. Set up last night and I keep getting the same problem, trailing stars even without guiding and taking a 20 sec exposure! Never had problems like this, my Polar alignment was within 3 degrees. It seemed worse when I was pointed south towards the beehive cluster for example but weirdly I did manage to get some good exposures of the same target when guiding for 3 minutes! Seems a bit random. Here's the images, a 20 sec exposure showing the trails and a longer one with no real issues. could this simply be the cables trailing and causing some drag as I didn't loop them up? I also moved the mount with out the weights on a couple months back and had a horrible crunching sound. Gear problems? Need help! Any ideas please?? Thanks Stuart
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Anyone had issues installing PHD2? My install just hangs on extracting files message. Have tried earlier versions but same problem. Never seen this with any software. Thanks Stuart
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Hi does anyone use sharpcap with orion starshoot autoguider? I have tried installing latest driver and ascom driver from Orion website but sharcap doesn't detect it. Any ideas? Thanks Stuart
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Sorry I don't know what you mean, can you explain? Thanks
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Could the star trails be coma? I am using a skywatcher coma corrector with LP filter on the top.
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Why not? I have just come back after 5 years so am not up to speed with latest software! What's the big difference? PHD1 always worked well in the past for me.
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I use PHD 1, is that info still available?
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Here is the full image. I ae PHD guiding didn't see any errors. Never had a problem before guding, Im not sure what you mean about RA oscillation or where i would find it?
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Hi all, I took pics of m51 the other night and was guiding. Took 2 and 4 min exposures but all are showing star tails. Does this point to polar alignment or something else? Many thanks Stuart
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Thank ill take a look. I dont know where to start as this is a new area for me. Would you say your images have improved significantly to justify the extra price?) Would i need an adapter for a skywatcher 200p?
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Hi looking for recommendations to replace my unmodded canon 1100d with a OSC. Looking to spend around £1000k, can I expect significant improvement over the canon for DSOs? I use a skywatcher 200p, my skies are fairly dark but having some LP over to the north east. Grateful for advice and any experience of users of OSC after moving from a DSLR. Thanks guys Stuart
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Hi fellow star gazers. I have come back to this magnificent hobby after several years away. Can't believe I have stayed away so long as I am hooked again. Anyway this is my first proper attempt at M51 with my Canon 1100D unmodified. I took around 20 x 4 min exposures, 20 flats, darks and 30 x bias. Stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop. That's where I have struggled, this seems to be about my limit with what I can do but I am wondering if it can be processed better or do I need more data? Struggling with noise so any tips on reducing would be greatly appreciated. I used levels and curves carefully, sharpened slightly, played with saturation and colour balance. That's the limit of my knowledge. I haven't removed gradient as I don't know how to, help again appreciated. Scope is skywatcher 200P, HEQ5 Pro, guided with PHD, LDAP light filter and sky watcher coma corrector Thanks in advance Stuart
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Thank you so much for your advice, I will take the cover off and have a look. If the gears are binding then I assume I can buy replacements gears? What do you mean by backlash? Never heard about 'Motorfocus', is that something I can replace on my sky watcher 200P? Thanks again
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Also when i was guiding use orion starshoot and PHD the picture from the starshoot started showing trails rather than round stars , does this also point to mount gear problems?
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I am worried that I may have damaged the mount gears as when I was setting up I forgot to put the weights on before I slewed the scope and it made a horrible crunching sound. Can the gears be replaced if they are damaged?
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Hi guys, I have returned to this magnificent hobby after 5 years and hoped to pick up where I left of although it seems I had forgotten a lot! Anyway I took some pics of Orion Nebula the other night and managed to get my auto guider working as well. I took 4 minute subs but the results are disappointing, they wouldn't stack in DSS and look blurry to me. I did use a Bhatinov mask to focus on a star first before imaging. Does this image look like a focus issue or tracking or both as the stars down the bottom looked like trailing slightly. I also used a coma corrector with an IDAP LP firer, could this combo have caused any issues? Grateful for assistance to as I really want to get imaging again to a good standard. Thanks! Stuart