Gina

Thank you It's alright if you have an Ha filter. The Veil was far enough from the moon last night but the moon will be about 15° further east tonight and nearer to Cygnus. Worth a try though

Yes, looks like the focus could be better. Here are the two images cropped but not resized so this is pixel for pixel and these are about a twentieth of the area of the full image. This is a 16Mpx sensor - much higher resolution than I've been used to. These single subs are just histogram stretched with no other processing so expecting quite a lot really. Star elongation can be seen in the first image particularly with 120s exposure and no guiding. Haven't checked PA lately.

Last night (or should I say early this morning ) turned out to be reasonably productive after all All the hardware working and most of the software. There seems to be a problem with the under-floor USB cables from warm room to pier and I ended up using a separate USB cable direct from laptop in warm room to camera. I fed the mount USB-Serial adapter from one of the camera USB hub ports and the other port was connected to my remote focussing system - an Arduino Nano connecting to a little stepper motor with gear drive to the slow-motion focus knob on the Esprit. (Photos in post above.) Focus control on the laptop was from an app written in Visual Basic with 3 speeds and forward/reverse buttons. I used this to focus on the moon before going over to the stars. After setting up and finding a suitable target (Cygnus Loop) in SharpCap I went over to APT for scheduled imaging runs. I cleared some space from the HD and took 20 subs at 120s and gain of 185 (the preset gain) until I found the gain control Camera cooling was run at -25°C. Then set gain to 300 and set up a run of 50 subs of 60s. Both runs used the Astrodon 5nm Ha filter. Have to say, I think the ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool CMOS camera is looking very impressive Histogram stretched versions of just one sub from each run are posted above but I expect to stack and process the collection of subs later today. Meanwhile I might select a small area of the image to post to show the fine detail. I'm not sure the focus is the best it can be as I only used the moon image and not FWHM on a star. Still getting used to using different imaging software from what I've been used to with the Atik 460EX mono CCD cameras.

Thank you I've used AT before but it's so long since I did any imaging and forget how to do things. No clear night skies in the 5 day forecast so that seems to be it for some time

Here a 60s sub with the gain turned up a bit and processed in Ps.

Here is one sub processed in Photoshop to stretch histogram and reduce size from 4656 px wide to 1200 and saved in PNG format for upload here.

Swapped to APT and decided on 120s subs for this test - slightly elongated stars but I'm running low on space oh the laptop HD so I'm limiting the run to 20 subs. Each sub is nearly 32MB with this high resolution camera.

Found the Cygnus Loop and this image is mostly of Pickerings triangle. 4m exposure with a gain of 500 and cooling to -25C. No guiding, hence the star trails but this is just a single frame. A number of 60s subs stacked should give a much better result.

It's all going wrong now. SharpCap won't give the right exposure or work properly and APT refuses to run Just tried a remote reboot and now I can't connect over FreeView. Think I'll go out and shut everything down.

Moved the scope a bit and this is a 120s sub.

Here is a 5m sub stretched in PS showing definite signs of varying Ha. I definitely need to get AstroTortilla plate solving so that I can aim at something interesting.

Now have mount working and have pointed scope at the Cygnus region roughly. Haven't sorted out plate solving yet so we'll see what comes out. Now imaging in SharpCap at 120s and gain of 430. Temperature at -30°C. Sidereal tracking is not good enough at this exposure - probably wants the PA re-doing.

Tried connecting mount via FreeView from indoors and it's connected. Now to go out and see if it works.

Clearing the com ports works and the Device Manager says Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM5) - that's the mount. But setting the ASCOM port to COM5 still won't connect.

Didn't work Still can't get mount to connect. I'm fed up with Windows and USB/serial!! Looks like it's going to be a wasted clear night

Found it In my documents folder on my main desktop. can't remember where it cam from so I don't know who to thank...

Have the Esprit etc. on the mount with 1600 and remote focuser working - focuser box connected to camera hub. But I can't get the mount to connect tonight. The problem is that ASCOM only works up to com16 and Win7 is choosing com21 from the USB hub or com22 when connected directly to the laptop I'd have thought they would have fixed that after all these years of updates!! I seem to remember seeing a way round this a couple of years ago - will do a search...

I think the 400mm triple rig may not take too much more work to get it going and I agree that this rig could be a great bit of kit if I can get it working properly. To make use of the ASI1600MM-Cool I might set up a widefield rig using a camera lens or maybe an Evostar 80 ED with reducer/flattener, on the NEQ6. What to do about filters I'm not sure. I have Astrodon 5.25" and Baader 36mm unmounted ones for narrow band. The Astrodons are narrower bandwidth. The EFW2 takes 5.25" filters but I have the makings of a DIY filter wheel that takes 36mm unmounted filters. I'm planning on getting a 3nm Ha Astrodon just to confuse things further. I would think the 400mm triple rig with 460EX mono cameras will get the best filters.

Been working on the Esprit with FW and ASI1600MM-Cool rig and have made a bracket plus little box to hold the stepper motor driver board. Now printing a cover for the control box that was previously covered by the MN190 scope. Here are some photos showing the focus control and power distribution box that I used with the NM190 with and without lid and the stepper motor bracket and box for focussing, using the reduction drive knob.

Looking at setting up the Esprit with FW and ASI1600MM-Cool. The little power distribution & control box for the MN190 will be fine for the Esprit. I shall also use the ADM dovetail bar that I used with the MN190, removing the scope rings and screwing the foot of the Esprit to it. The control box includes focus control and has a stepper driver board with socket for motor. So I just have to make up a bracket to attach to the dovetail bar and take the motor. I should be able to make that this afternoon.

I think you were just unlucky in getting a bad one - as has been said, Maplin stuff is usually very good.

Here is a section of the moon still resized a bit to fit the upload criteria and saved in PNG format. This was focussed by hand so a sharper image may be possible. I also overexposed it - APT doesn't have auto-exposure. Also this is one sub and stacking a number would probably also result in a better image.

Definitely too dark to risk changing scopes tonight so hoping it will still be clear tomorrow night. Anyway, a pretty good session tonight proving the gear works

I think I'm satisfied with the moon and I might see if I can get the Esprit on the mount and try DSO imaging in Ha. Might have to leave it until tomorrow night though as the light is fading and I haven't got any lighting working in the scope room.

Now capturing 100 subs of the moon - exposure 100 microseconds.