Big Jim Slade

The focuser on the Esprit is pretty bomb proof. I have a Lakeside stepper attached and it has no problems with slippage, even at the zenith with something over 2.5 kilos of imaging kit hanging off it. I've never had to tweak it. I'd leave the scope focuser out of you equation for now and focus on getting the Senso as firmly attached as possible. Hopefully someone with some experience there can chime in.

My 6nm HA needs 28.5 seconds according to SGPro. That's not full brightness on the panel. I think I ended up preferring longer exposures because they gave a better histogram and averaged out any filter settle at the start of the frame.

I'll chip in as I have the Alnitak. It's nice, does the job seamlessly. I use SGPro rather than EKOS - in that you just add it to the devices setup and everything is automatic. It opens for lights, and for flats it closes and turns on the panel at the level you've configured depending on the filter. You can't use it for darks as it doesn't seal the tube effectively. I tried running off some darks once astro dark ended and they were useless. One thing I've seen reported is that because it doesn't fold all the way back it can reflect moonlight back into the scope in some cases. I've not seen that, but that will depend on conditions and target I guess. The DSD one looks interesting. It flips out of the way completely, which is good. But it needs power, which the Alnitak doesn't, and it looks like they are 3d printing sized for different scopes so you'll have to hope they will do one that fits and the tolerances are ok. The Alnitak plastic tie isn't pretty but it is effective and I won't need a new one if upgrade to a FSQ. Not sure I see the point of the dew heater as it's at the wrong end of the dew shield? I would stick with a tape around the lens if I got one. That said if the DSD one had been around when I bought I would certainly have considered it.

I do't shoot OSC so can't offer a lot of help, but running Debayer using Auto produces the right result. So I would guess your aren't setting up WBPP to debayer correctly during calibration. Have you watched Adam Block's videos on WBPP, he spends a fair bit of time on OSC/DSLR stuff?

@FLO you might want to consider making your photo watermarks monochrome. The colour ones have the unfortunate effect of making the mount look like it's going rusty.

I read 2 books by Alan Hirshfield last year that are well worth the time. "Parallax: The Race To Measure The Cosmos" is all about how astronomers went from thinking the stars were dots on a dome to realising they where ridiculously far away and proving it. "Starlight Detectives" touches on similar ground but focuses on imaging, the early pioneers through to Hubble and the discovery of the scale of the universe. Both very readable and answered a lot of questions I had about how we got to where we are today.

I guess we'll have to see how all this shakes out but the G looks like a bit of a lemon. If you're in the market for a mount like this surely you already have a guiding setup or you want encoders so you don't have to guide? So that's a chunk of redundant tech for most people who just want USB 3. And don't get me started on the roughly 40% price increase for the mount in that slot in their range. 🙄

Whoever they are they seem to go in bursts, I suppose when they get some new accounts to try. Reported a listing for an 8x10 camera that was using pics from a recent legitimate auction just this morning.

See also the Cosmic Distance Ladder, of which parallax and the AU are just the first two rungs. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder

Most recent workflow:

I must admit I'm a bit confused about the PSF part here. I don't quite understand why only using just Moffat (in Steve's example) or just Gaussian as Wim mentions above, is necessary. To get the most accurate fit to characterise the PSF don't you need both? (I should add of course: thanks to Steve for doing this. I've been through multiple write-ups on Deconvolution and it's very hard to find one that makes a very complex process as clear as this does. )

Not sure if this helps, but here's a stack from mine at the (almost) default 63mm distance. I've added a .3mm shim to account for the filter, but that's it. Esprit 100D -> Flattener -> Flattener to M48 -> 0.3mm shim -> Moravian 55mm back focus M48 nosepiece -> FW with Astronomik Ha (1mm) -> Moravian G3 16200 This is just over 5 hours of Ha - 32 x 600. I've done a teensy bit of NR, a few gentle stretches plus some local contrast enhancement. Stars untouched - but they are a little elongated in RA, my guiding RMS needs some work. Can also post the CCD Inspector maps if that's of interest to people.

Yes, hanging the focuser off the primary was always a massive design flaw with the GSO RCs. Worth noting that the current generation of truss GSOs have changed this. In the original form you can't hang anything substantial off it without the collimation slipping with every slew. The 6" compounds the problem by having the collimation screws right against the focuser mounting ring, so you can't adjust them if you fit a tilt adjuster. It also makes it impossible to swap screws for some decent sized knobs. I'm thinking about getting a ZWO OSC for mine, to go after smaller targets. It seems well suited for that.

If you are using the m48 adapter on the back of the flattener, then it's 55m. Without, it's 63mm.

Clouds descended the moment it arrived of course! I'm hoping to get first light at the weekend. I will probably put a thread together to show how it copes with my Moravian 16200 - I was looking at the FSQ, but it looks like this can cover the chip well enough and has had some great reviews from people.

Big box for this one. Very excited....

Just want to back up what Daz said about an IP based PDU. Having spent years working in data centres, there is just no substitute if you are genuinely remote (which to me means more than 2 minutes walk away.) Sometimes turning it off and on again is the only solution! Also, have you looked at the Optec Flip-flat? http://www.optecinc.com/astronomy/catalog/alnitak/flipflat.htm I've just added one of these to my shopping list - but if you have the resources to make your own I guess it saves money for other things.