KEJ

So last night I managed to capture about 250 x 20 sec subs/images of M60 & NGC4647, about 1hr 25mins of data with my ASI533 MC Pro. Seeing conditions weren't A1, but nice to capture events like these. Used Meade LX10 with a 6.3 Reducer.

Morning Very nice picture & impressive. K

Interesting

Thank you

Hi Great picture and possibly a simple question, but regarding the Optolong l-eNhance filter. Would you say they are worth the money/using them full stop ? Thanks

Blimey, last night I added the 3.3 reducer to my Meade 8" SCT (Old LX10) on the new mount, no guiding or cooling using my planetary camera(ASI462 MC). I took 200 x 10 sec subs, Live stacked on the ASIAIR Pro, Sky Safari said I would get this and I certainly did, photo slightly tweaked on the ipad(30 sec jobs). I only intended a quick test......33.5 mins of data

Well, in the end I pulled the trigger on SW EQ6-R Pro(risking divorce). After speaking with Ron on here, he gave me some brilliant advice on de-forking the SCT from the Meade arms/mount(see attached document) and it now sits and works brilliantly on the new mount. I think the actual time took approx 45mins when I looked at the time stamps on the photos I took. So far now, I have only used the new mount visually for the SuperMoon(moon filter as well), but blimey, rock steady and no noise, I probably know no difference, but I am super impressed with it. I did also then use my WO Z61 to capture a small video clip as well to produce a picture(also attached). Thanks again for the comments and information. Deforking a Meade LX10 8inch to SW EQ6-R Pro PDF.pdf

Funny, I was just doing a search to see if anyone had created any documents as I had just completed one today after changing my Meade LX10 8" onto a EQ6-R Pro yesterday and your process like very similar - great minds, although Ron pointed me in the right direction. Deforking a Meade LX10 8inch to SW EQ6-R Pro PDF.pdf

Hi Could I pick your brains please and regarding the SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mounts. So are you(all) saying it's the case that the latest version of the mount should includes the new additional USB connector ? OR Possibly as stated, the latest version comes in several versions, one that happens to have the newer usb connector on the main case ? I was just wondering is it the situation if it does not have the usb connector then its an older version of the mount? Thanks in advance

Hi So just to confirm, you connected from your ASIAIR Pro(using one of the usb 2 ports) <--> SW HEQ5 into the port that normally would have been used to connect the handset ? Using a EQMod cable (usb one end and the other looks like a ST4/telephone plug) Thanks

Rosetta is not mine, but fine - always great to try new things. So does it literally take off the green tinge ? Sugar, windows only........I use a Mac!

I did have another bash at M42 after adding some more data late last week before the weather changed.

Thank you

Cheers, still learning and its a bit hard to see with a lower res screen print, I will have another go at it sometime to try a bit more post PS

Thank you for the advice

Olly hi Thank you for the prompt reply. USA Basically, I have a friend in the USA and he has a Meade SCT 14" LX200 GPS F10 and it would be purely in this instance for astrophotography. I believe he has a 6.3 Reducer(waiting for him to confirm that) and because of the long focal length of his scope, I was wondering if anyone had used a 3.3 ? My thinking, at least it will increase his field of view, speed it up and make it more forgiving for some DSO work, eventually possibly even looking to get it guiding with a guide scope etc. UK I have a Meade 8" SCT old LX10, unfortunately with the clockwork RA and I would love to use that for some(or try to) DSO and I have 6.3 and 3.3 reducers, which I have used for taking pictures of the Moon etc and the results have been fine. Initially I did read that the 3.3 would not work(unless maybe that was relating to visual only). A question on the side, out of interest do you know anyone that has de-forked a scope like mine and do you think something like a SW HEQ5 would be man enough( I seem to be having trouble finding out the exact weigh of the tube)? The bigger mounts are more expensive and of course harder to move in and out and I was hoping something like this would work and not cost me a divorce !!! (currently for DSO I have a WO Z61 , ASIAIR Pro and AZ-GTI which I love), Thanks once again

Out of interest and I am not sure what approach you chaps normally take. And bearing in mind, this is just a screen print and my initial image on the left, I did take longer to process that in PS. Left Usually I throw all my 10/30/60/120 exposures in together, stack(DSS) and then PS etc. Right So, yesterday afternoon (taking not as much time as I normally would on the final image) I stacked the individual exposures for each duration in groups to end up with 4 stacked pictures(10/30/60/120) and then I did a HDR merge. Hard to see on these screen prints, but there was a difference and possibly something I may try in the future going forward now. The original on the left and the HDR merge on the right( I did spend a fair amount of time doing the original to be honest). But you can see a bit more finer detail on the right.

Hi I appreciate this is an old post, but does anyone happen to know what Focal Reducers this scope is compatible with please ? I assume a 6.3, but anything smaller/faster ? Thanks

Bortle 2, nice!

Lovely detail - Nice!

This is ongoing, I managed to grab another 30-60 mins of data last night(Bortle 6 and pretty much a full moon last night), I will update these later. Only using a UV/IR filter.

Interesting, just looking back and comparing June last year(DSLR) to February this year(ASI533 MC Pro), now hopefully I am a little better processing with PS and the DSLR pics only had about 1 hr of data, compared to the astro-camera with over 2 hrs of data.

Morning I'm probably not the best person to ask and thank you. I have a dew shield, connected to the ASIAIR Pro and now, I have started to just collect more data, ie: previously I may have grabbed 30mins to 1hr of data for an object. But, now building on 2 hrs plus, plus I find shorter exposures don't seem to blow my stars out so much, so I do a mixture. I also downloaded ASI Studio with a FITS file viewer, in the old days(few months ago) I stacked everything, but now I quickly go through them and delete any with star trails or satellites etc. I use DSS, then PS, just taking my time, routine in PS initially curves and levels a few times to tease the colours out. Camera settings pretty much unity gain 101, cooled to -10 degrees or -15 degrees. Tell me what are you currently doing to process your pictures ? Cheers

Bit more data on Orion added(M42).

I have started spending a bit more time on subjects and even using the FITS viewer to delete the ropey frames first before stacking.