drumsolo

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

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

That scope is packaged with the heq5, has worked fine for last 10 years. No breeze.

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

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

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 

11 hours ago, almcl said:

Agree that doesn't look like coma.  I use the SW coma corrector and find it does a pretty good job at correcting it (albeit at the expense of some annoying reflections on very bright stars).

Another thing in passing, guessing from the equipment in your signature, you are imaging at around 0.9"/px but guiding at over 6"/px?  This may be  contributing to the issue.

Sorry I don't know what you mean, can you explain?

Thanks

Could the star trails be coma?

I am using a skywatcher coma corrector with LP filter on the top.

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.

I use PHD 1, is that info still available?

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?

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

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?

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

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

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 

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?

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?

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