PhilB61

Lot's of people don't guide exactly on their imaging target, but I think the closer the better. I don't know what the acceptable tolerance would be maybe a couple or 3 degrees? It's not going to work if your imaging scope is pointing south and you guide on a star say in the east or west, as the apparent motion of the stars changes depending on where in the sky you are pointing.

That looks like an aluminium casting which has broken, if it's high grade aluminium it "may" be possible to have it Tig welded. I wouldn't trust any repair involving glue or resin type products as the contact areas look quite small. The best repair would be to source a replacement part and swap out but I can understand that may be almost impossible. It's a shame as looks like a really nice tripod/mount

Interestingly I just looked on Google Play and as you say, the app store says this app is no longer compatible with your device, contact the developer. But it does still work for me exactly as before. I wonder if FLO have the app available to download directly from there website so that you can side load and install rather than through G Play.

Works fine on my Android 14 Pixel phone, but I probably already had it on the phone before the phone updated from Android 13 to 14.

I can't help in your choice unfortunately as I've never looked through a reflector bigger than 6". However, from what I have read mainly through this and CN forums there is a limit to what benefits larger aperture brings in light polluted areas. Obviously I don't know your sky conditions but it sounds like your not planning to travel with this scope, so just something to consider or maybe temper your expectations. Obviously if you have already considered this and know what to expect, I apologise and ignore my comments.

This comes across as utter condescending nonsense. I've no doubt there may be some advantages to Linux, I don't know and don't care. The reason Window's based systems are used by so many is that for the vast majority of people, it is accessible, it has a vast array of software and hardware options and it works! I took have been imaging for just over 3 years and like you have never lost an image or session due to a software issue. Obviously people do have issues, with so many users and variety of equipment and experience levels, it's inevitable whether it be Windows or Linux based.

Very similar to what I use, cool to -5 , gain 100 and offset 250. After playing around with different exposure lengths I have settled on 120s for most targets occasionally 180s, although I don't use any filters. I think it's a good balance between getting sufficient signal and not losing frames to guiding issues or wind etc. You may notice quite a lot of hot/warm pixels in individual stretched frames, I understand this is normal for this sensor, but is not an issue at all provided you dither often enough, usually every third or fourth frame for me. I also take dark frames some don't.

From what I understand 100 gain at HGC is essentially the same as 300 gain in LGC mode, noise wise but without the hit in well depth. From a discussion I read including some posts from the Sharpcap author the high/ low conversion factor is 3

Forgot about offset, I use 250 (the gain and offset scale for ZWO versions is different). Cuiv the Lazy geek does a good video on how to determine the best value.

For focusing with a B mask, in the NINA imaging tab select a 3-5 sec exposure and tick the loop button, then zoom in on a prominent star and adjust focus whilst the images loop on screen

I also have the AA26C, I downloaded and installed the software and drivers from the Altair website, don't forget you get 12 months free Sharpcap pro license also. It works perfectly with NINA not a single issue, except if you try using a too long USB3 cable, I just use USB2 which is plenty fast enough for DSO imaging. The 50mb files take about 1-2 secs to download, this could be an issue if you wanted to do high frame rate planetary imaging but then you probably wouldn't choose this camera for that. I use gain 100 with high conversion mode selected for all my images, very happy with the results so don't really see the need to experiment with other settings.

I agree you should be able to expose for longer without trailing even at that focal length, but it also depends on where in the sky you are pointing. When you say PA is good how are you performing and measuring it?

It should be fine for what you are doing but how long it will deliver power will depend upon which version of the power tank you have. I was given a 7ah version a couple of years ago, this would power you for no more than a couple of hours. To work out how long your battery will last, divide your battery capacity in Ah by the total load in amps, assuming everything is at 12v. So if you have the 17ah battery and a 3 amp load ( 2 x dew heaters at 1 amp each plus air/ camera at 1 amp say) then theoretically it would last for 5.6hrs. But depending upon which battery technology it could be much less than this to prevent long term battery damage, lithium versions are much better in this respect compared to the sealed lead acid version. The rating on the cig outlet is just the safe maximum power draw (at any moment) not the capacity.

Following your link, it looks like typical deliberate confusion of what you will get at what price. If you scroll through all the images you eventually come to one with a ref "standard kit" which shows the focuser, clamps, screws etc at a price currently discounted to £178 excluding taxes etc. With duty and taxes added I suspect it won't need massively cheaper than buying from FLO. If you've paid significantly less than this I wouldn't get too excited about what will be in your parcel when it arrives

If you can find a replacement, I'm not sure it will necessarily solve your problems as it looks like the casting into which it threads is equally mangled. Maybe take the whole worm block off and take to a small engineering workshop and see if they can undertake a repair.

Just for clarity, the field flattener is not needed to achieve focus, it's purpose is to help achieve round stars across the full frame of the sensor, which otherwise would be elongated towards the outer edges of the frame. Field flatteners typically have a back focus requirement of 55mm, this being the distance from the rear flange of the flattener to the camera sensor (you should check with the supplier for your specific flattener). To attach the flattener to your camera you will need a T-adapter specific to your camera and threaded on the opposite side to match the flattener, usually M42 or M48, again check with the supplier. Your camera has a built in flange to sensor distance of 44mm so the T-adapter needs to be 11mm thick to achieve the 55mm back focus requirement. Unfortunately it's not always quite a simple as that because the back focus distance is not always exactly right and often needs adjustments of a few mm's to achieve perfectly round stars to the edge. This can be achieved with shims, available for this purpose. With my Nikon/SW72ed/OVL flattener combination I could not get acceptable stars even at 58mm, so rather than getting more shims I exchanged the OVL flattener for an adjustable one, also sold by FLO. This allowed me to get nice round stars to the edge of the frame easily and quickly.

Not sure why you can't see bahtinov spikes, have you tried increasing the exposure length to 5s or so. If you can now see spikes you could then use NINA to capture a 5 sec snapshot and tick the loop option, no need to save the image. Then zoom in on a bright star in the image tab, and adjust focus whilst watching the screen and the B spikes which will refresh every 7 or 8 seconds. Should be a lot quicker than 20 mins....

The error message says "the remaining image dimension is too low", check that there isn't some sort of ROI cropping or binning going on in Astap in addition to Nina or the camera driver. Can you platesolve the image directly in Astap without doing it through Nina? Also have you tried other plate solving software again outside of Nina to see if it's an issue with the image itself.

Reading between the lines, I think what you need help with is setting up and using the Synscan Goto equipment. The GPS mouse is just an add-on, and could be ignored for now. It's only function is to automatically input date/time/location information rather than having to enter it manually on the handset. (The GPS mouse should just work when plugged in, after a short time it will acquire it's location and update the info in the handset. I don't think any user intervention is required) However for the Synscan Goto system to function you will need the telescope to be in the correct starting position and to then undertake various alignment procedures. If this is what you need help with I am sure there are other DOB Goto users who will step in and give you some pointers. I have only used Synscan on a EQ mount and not in the last 18 months since I moved to iOptron so I'm not in a position to give detailed advice.

You do have to rotate the top dial to M manual for it to work without a camera lens

The Nikon "press shutter release again error" is a well known issue for that and similar era Nikon's. So I think it probably has nothing to do with your astro use. Do a Google search for various "fixes" either involving adjusting a slightly jammed mirror mechanism or rotating/greasing and internal red cogwheel. Neither of these are proper fixes and I think the real issue is a worn out or otherwise damaged shutter/motor mechanism. I've had the same issue on D3200 and D5100 cameras, with the D5100 it was intermittent and actually seemed to resolve itself so maybe it was temperature related?

I used the Stella Mira adjustable flattener approx £100 from FLO with good success, round stars right to the edge of the frame on my D7500

A SW 72ed is just about within your budget, but also come up used quite often for around £200. This would be significantly better than most camera lenses, easier to focus and better colour correction. I have tried with a 400mm Sigma apo prime, Tamron 70-300 zoom and an expensive Nikon 200-500 zoom. The cheap SW was easier to use and gave much better images than any of the others

If the g05 database works that's great, no need to reset anything in the framing assistant. 3ppa will take an image and send it directly to Astap.

I also use CdC through NINA on Windows as my primary planetarium app.