WolfieGlos

I’d dread to think how long that took you to stack! But it was worth it, that is a stunning star trail image. It almost looks like you have some Aurora at the bottom with the greens too?

Great image again Goran. I didn’t realise it had so much depth to it, generally it seems to be shown as a “big red blob” on widefield camera images with the night sky, but this shows otherwise. There’s clearly a lot of depth and detail to it, and if you hadn’t said what it was, I wouldn’t have guessed!

I bet it's making that remote hosting even more desirable 😉

Nice set of images Lee 👍 I really like the colour in the image, and detail in the cores of the galaxies in Markarians Chain, especially the eyes. Ive not imaged the tadpoles yet, but if you’re not happy with that image then I’ll have it haha! What are you not satisfied with?

Wow, that must be a faint one if those arms are only just showing up after that time. Good work, look forward to seeing how you progress with this one. If your forecast is anything like mine then good luck getting clear skies too!

If you can, invest in a basic tracker so you can use a lower ISO and use longer subs = fewer files = less HD space. This will also result in fewer shutter actuations for your DSLR so it will last longer. A lower ISO will also yield better dynamic range. Just on the stacking side, good advise already. You can “stack the stacks”, although another option you can consider when stacking manually with Siril is holding all of the subs and PP files on an external drive. Then using Symbolic Links, you can create a new sequence for multiple nights using the calibrated subs on your HD; and all of those files are 0kb each. The registered files will still be large but it’ll save a lot of HD space. @ONIKKINEN assisted me with this here, across I think it was 9 sessions for 425 subs. Although the topic started out on a different subject, and covers “stack the stacks”, it all amalgamated into one, and this is now how I am approaching all of my multi session images.

Same here, cloud free for most of the day, a lovely sunset with pastel colours and red streaky clouds. Followed by total cloud cover come darkness. Seems to be the way lately.

Simply not fair. Our weather doesn’t want to let us image this in widefield in a single panel, never mind a double (or three?) digit mosaic! Stunning work Olly 👍

Title was definitely click bait! It's been so long I can't even remember what a clear sky looks like now.

Just beware that those scripts are dated now, and when running them, I do notice an error message during the processing (appears in red text) saying that a command is no longer used. Whether this has any detrimental impact on the stack I couldn't say, but just something to note. I used to the "OSC with No DBF" and "OSC with No Darks", and get the same message on both - generally I only use them as a quick stack to see how my image is looking before adding more data in time. Agree with Onikkinen, if you can use manual stacking it is better (or a script to get you so far). I've recently learnt this, all I did was to follow Siril's own guide - and then some final help from @ONIKKINEN for the multiple night stacking🙂 Good luck. Just with the lack of biases...I thought they were required / necessary to calibrate the flat frames? If so, you can just go and shoot some with the lens cap on.

Gorgeous! So much dust, and so well defined as well. Is that the Embryo at the top? I didn't realise that area was so dusty, or that there was Ha in IC348 (I blame Stellarium showing it as "just" a reflection nebula).

BlurX made a real difference to the core!

Nice image Wim, worth the 30H for this 🙂 Loads of background galaxies too, look forward to the Ha addition. I take it that you've managed to pull out IFN across the field as well?

Wow, that's a really nice image.

Star Adventurer 2i, and using it for DSO with an Evostar 72ED and guiding. Whilst it did work, it just had so many issues and quirks, no GoTo, and I really should have done more research and spent on a proper mount from day 1.

Wow, so much going on! Goran....aka Thanos?

Nice image. I'm thinking about either a 533mm / 2600mc later in the year, so it's good to see some images produced with the mono option I'm considering. Look forward to see more in the future 👍

ME! This one looks familiar, haha. Great image, nice detail in the core and star colours too.

Wow, looks like it's going to be a great project when you have the other bandwidths, but even now it's looking great 👍 Zooming into the starless B+W, into the core of the nebula there is a lot of nicely defined detail. Unfortunately, it reminds me of looking at our skies day and night ...

Great choices, I'm sure the bank balance isn't looking too healthy 🤣 I was going to suggest getting used to the mount with another scope for visual before going down the AP route. It's not to put you off, but I went in with eyes "half open" and made some bad choices which hampered my progress - and cost money. Best of luck, and any issues, just make a new thread, people are always happy to help 🙂

It certainly is a learning curve I'm still learning 3 years down the line.... Yes, you can control the mount with the controller that comes with it, which will allow you to use GoTo and locate your desired target - very useful for visual. If using for AP, you would then need to manually operate the camera (intervalometer or computer controlled). However, if you intend on controlling the mount with Laptop / ASIAIR, you will need an EQDIR cable (which isn't supplied with the mount) to replace the hand-controller and allow the mount to be controlled by external software. The cable will connect into the same socket on the mount. The software will also allow control of the camera, other accessories (i.e. filter wheels, electronic focusers, rotators, etc, if you go this route down the line), as well as guiding which will allow dithering. Dithering will reduce/remove walking noise by moving the telescope by X amount of pixels - as you'll be using a DSLR, dithering is essential. Here's an example, and another, which ruins your images. Whilst dithering is taking place, the software would stop the camera from imaging, complete the dither, and then resume. Using the hand-controller, I don't believe you can do this. You may be able to image with the EQ6 without guiding, you would be limited on sub length depending on your polar alignment accuracy but as I've got the HEQ5 and always use guiding, I can't really offer any exact knowledge on this subject. Guiding software, PHD2, is free to download and use. Here is a cheap guide scope+camera bundle, I still use it now and it is mounted into a simple finder shoe or a carry handle if it comes with it (I think the Z73 does come with one, but check especially if buying second hand). If not, you might need to buy a separate finder shoe if the Z73 doesn't come with one, or the WO dedicated scope + camera.

Hi, welcome to SGL 🙂 That's a great start, a mount like that will do you very well and future proof you for all but the heaviest scopes. Have you considered other accessories; such as: Power supply to mount (+cables) Guiding scope+camera Mount / camera control (ASIAIR or Laptop with software such as NINA/APT, etc) If you're buying from FLO, they can advise the exact items you will require for your setup - i.e. which cables, etc. Absolutely, yes, you do need the flattener. Unless you intend to crop the image to just the centre portion, full-frame images (like say M33 Andromeda Galaxy at your focal length) will look really poor from the stars. Here's an example from CN from a quick search showing the effect without the flattener. I don't own a WO scope, but the dedicated flattener also includes a built-in camera rotator to frame your target correctly, and also backfocus adjustment. You can also usually buy flattener/reducers - which flatten the field into the corners, but also reduce the focal length - and increasing the speed of the aperture. I'm not sure if this is offered for the Z73, but a faster aperture is worth considering. I can't comment on the diagonals or eyepieces as I am purely an imager, but I'm sure other SGL members will be along to advise on those 🙂

Oh yes, I forgot about that. Sometimes you can get lucky and manually locate the target in 20 minutes....I think my worst was over an hour trying to locate it, with plate solving via wifi from a camera to a phone. Then add framing the target into the equation... I do not miss that. At all. Total waste of time. I even recall at one point I was considering upgrading the wedge to the William Optics version because the SW one was so wobbly. By which time, you've spent the money for an EQ mount, with GoTo. I forget who it was, but someone had a video and was using the SA2i with a Sigma 150-600 lens....and it was suggested that they were using it at 600mm! Absolutely ridiculous.

I can offer some real world experience here. I used to use the Star Adventurer 2i with the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED, mounted on a carbon fibre tripod. The 72ED was lighter than the Evolux you have listed, and the 2i really struggled at times, even with a guidescope. It was generally fine for 1 minute subs (GUIDED), but at 2 or 3 minutes I had a scrappage rate (due to stars trailing in the images) of anything between 10-40% depending on accuracy, wind, etc. As soon as I bought a HEQ5, that scrappage rate dropped to zero. I followed various Youtube reviews/videos where people used this successfully. And whilst I did get success with it, it was more effort than it was worth, and so I would really recommend against getting the 2i with any form of scope. Widefield camera lenses or possibly a Redcat at 250mm maybe. I haven't used the GTI, but because it has the same capacity as the 2i, I can only imagine it being similar, although DEC guiding might assist.

Wow, that's really bad with no calibrations at all. Is the camera still in the free returns or warranty period? If you purchased it from FLO I would get in contact with them, they might be able to offer specific advise or possibly exchange it for a one that works if it is indeed faulty. I had to do this with a ZWO electronic focuser last year and they were really good about it - even dispatched the replacement on the same day of receiving the duff one (which was a dead motor on arrival). One thought I've had; did you shoot this with an offset value again? I know @LandyJon said above that it would make minimal difference (thanks for the explanation by the way ), but that's the only real difference I can see between my 585mc and yours in the capture settings (scope and coma corrector aside - mines a 102ED refactor with 0.8 reducer). From my earlier post, I captured 1 hour of subs on the Horsehead with the 585mc + Askar Ha/OIII dualband filter with the Full Moon the other night - more of a test than anything else - but it's nearly the same area of sky as your M42, and below is what I got (with flats and darkflats) - no vertical banding is present. This was 20 x 180s at gain 252, with a basic stretch.