JonHigh

Well had to get the rig back out but kind of wish I hadn’t bothered. Breezy and bad seeing conditions resulted in not being able to focus accurately, PHD not very happy and coupled with an almost full moon but hey ho that’s the fun of this hobby, isn’t it? 😂 First attempt on NGC896, the Fish head Nebula using my replacement .7 reducer and a Tri-Band filter. Quickly processed it so will be going back to it.

Hi all. It’s seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve had the time to get my hands on my equipment or even visit the site. I took the Pac-Man nebula with my new .7 reducer as there was definitely something wrong with the old one. Rother Valley were amazing and replaced it for a ‘newer version’. Or at least the housing is different! I only had a couple of hours with it the other night but the results weren’t half bad. Still getting to grips with the scope.

If you haven’t already used it, it also works in tandem with the deconvolution function.

Took the shots the other night, posted one with and one without the reducer and has been sent off to a Celestron engineer. So hopefully I will get a response soon!

Awesome! Thanks for sharing

Definitely agree regarding star removal before stretching. II ran into these exact same problems before with my refractor. Certainly in the UK, seeing has been awful especially where I am so it’s been a real struggle just to get good subs. Are the stars like that on the subs or after stretching the stack? Good to see your images again!

Hi all. Well after much work in trying to figure out my tilt issue with .7 reducer on the EdgeHD 8, the star field images I took with and without have gone off to Celestron. In the meantime I decided to use the scope natively for the first time in capturing something in the heavens. The tip of NGC7000. Although the seeing was absolutely awful plus the clouds thought it would be a good idea to photo bomb the session, I only got 40 usable subs at 30sec each! Don’t look to hard 😂

Oh! That's interesting. Thanks for that. I didn't think it would alter collimation but thinking about it the shift would knock it out. The forecast predicts its going to be clear tonight so thats good advise when I set up later!. Do you use the reducer on your EdgeHd's?

Hi and thank you for your replies. I am pleased with the results especially from such short acquisition times. I must admit I do feel like I’m starting to go down a rabbit hole so to speak to try to figure out what is going on as this scope is an awesome bit of kit nonetheless! So after much tinkering, did you nail down your issues and if so, what did it come down to? Buying really high-end equipment is so far out of reach it’s not even funny however although my equipment is not high-end, it still wasn’t cheap so there is an expectation there for the common man spending what I would consider a lot of money on a hobby (Mount, 4” triplet, EdgeHD, 26c camera, ASI585 and all the accessories don’t half add up!). I guess it’s all relative! I bet observatories spend a lot of time figuring these things out too! 😂 I am surprised about the amount of CA produced by the reducer but not sure if that's just to do with the telescope design or the QC isn't that great at the Celestron factory? Maybe they forgot the retail price of these things! With regards to the elongated stars, I haven’t used digital callipers so that’s something I will get out later just in case, so thanks for the suggestion Roy. I use the Celestron EdgeHD T-adapter so I know the backspacing should be correct up to 55mm which I’ve made up from extension rings, filter holder and then the camera. So I assume the back focus is correct but again I will double check that. I have used ASTAP and Siril to show the tilt on a sub frame but each come out somewhat differently so not sure which to believe! So going to do some tests tonight if it’s clear! I will be using different cameras with/without the reducer and filterless. Must also remember to lock off the focus! Just hoping that it isn't an issue with the 26C sensor! Yes, I do agreed that taking off the reducer may not show the issues as the FOV will be narrower but need to check. OCD!!! Shame BlurXTerminator is only available for PI and not intergrated into Siril like Starnet++ otherwise I would buy it based on the excellent results from NoiseXTerminator in Affinity Photo!

Managed to get my rig out the other night and captured the Crescent Nebula (30x 120sec exp, 1hr) and M57 again (300x6Sec exp, 30 mins) through awful seeing conditions and hard to focus tack sharp. Going to do some tests next time out to try and establish where in the image train I’m getting the elongated stars from. I have a feeling this might be camera tilt as my collimation seems spot on? Or is my back focus a bit too close? Although I’m currently using the matched reducer I might check without it next time. Also, considering the price of the reducer my copy seems to have more CA than I would like. I don’t think I’m alone on that matter!

Very nice! Very happy HEQ5 Pro owner too. Never been brave enough to do an unguided session due to the lack of clear nights! Really should given the results you got. 👍🏻 On a side note, I used to use a tracing pad too but took a breath and bought a Flat Field generator mainly because of the flickering I saw in my histograms. The histogram was never steady as it jumped all over the place during captures. Maybe it was the pad I got, who knows but the results are now steady and the smooth constant illumination has resulted in excellent calibration frames which I didn’t get previously. Highly recommend the Geoptik from RVO!

The worst seeing conditions last night and a bank of unexpected clouds came over that prevented any imaging however, I always want to take a capture of something, even if it’s a ROI snap in between the breaks.

It’s crazy. I showed a friend just how much of the sky is actually exposed and it’s a tiny area as we know. Must be awful there!!! I think in one 240sec exposure I saw three sat trails buzzing through a sub. I guess about a third of an imaging session will have trails in them and it’s getting worse.

Thank you. I was quite happy with it. Yup, I’m using a 60mm guide scope with an ASI178 Mono camera. So the OAG sorted it out! I must admit I’ve been trying to avoid buying one but I’m getting the feeling I’m going to have to pick one up at some point. Which one do you have? Sure my PA is about as good as possible. I use SharpCap to align. I align on both sides of the pier and sometimes back for a third check. OCD 😂

Going to throw it out there but somewhere between two! 😂 Very nice image either way!!

Hi. Lovely image. I have the same scope and camera combo except the Altair OsC version. I have also found 3 min subs have worked out well with excellent results in my Bortle 6 skies.

Yup. The Sat trails have got worse over time. However I’ve never seen them appear on stacked images. But I get your frustration. Thank Mr. Musk!!! nice image by the way!

Hi all, It’s been a while but finally got my EdgeHD 8 last night. Boy was it a challenge. My collimation looked good but the seeing was so bad I also struggled focusing accurately enough. However I think I have a camera tilt issue or mirror flop issue. I did forget to lock it off so not sure if that could have contributed to the egg shape stars. Tracking was good though at .6 total RMS considering the conditions. Also used the reducer but I will go with native focal length next time out. 60x 30sec subs at gain 100. And cropped…

Got my EdgeHD 8 out last night for the first time in a little while and tried to take M57 but still learning it and was proving to be a bit of a challenge! As I was about to pack up, the moon was out shining down at me begging to be photographed. Swapped the back end out and swapped out cameras. Only the second time attempting lunar captures with this scope. Thanks to Roy for recommending an IR Pass filter!

Hi all. A bit of advice please… After mucking about with the collimation screws on my SCT, I have been wondering if there is something like a home/reset position for the secondary mirror screws. Start from scratch as it were. Or best not to worry about it?

If I was to use a reducer would I have to apply the 105mm back focus for either solar or lunar? As I understand back focus doesn’t apply to solar system objects.

Hi and thank you for your time and help! I have a Baader SC filter stacked with a UV/IR which has made a big difference to the camera being unfiltered. For Solar, it's only white light as I can't afford or justify anything else right now as I just got the EdgeHD so working on what I have for the time being. My exposure time is was roughly 30ms. Gain was 252 but maybe I should up that to increase exposure times. I always shoot Solar, Lunar and Planets in 8bit RAW, Ser video format. However unless I'm working at 640x480 my fps is no where near that of the 174! LOL ... I use Autostakkert 4 as the stacking program on my main PC but I'm currently using a Lenovo e580 laptop for all my AP captures. It has USB3 ports but I would have to look up which version. Also has a M.2 NVMe on the motherboard and an 1Tb internal SSD but again I'm not too sure what the bus speed is so that could be a bottleneck!? I will try binning 2x2 next time as I didn't think about using that feature. I know that using the EdgeHD for solar maybe not be the best and I think I got cleaner images from my ETX90 which was one reason I was thinking about reducing the FL with the reducer so I was being a bit kinder to the scope and scrubbing off some of the magnification and reducing the effect of seeing conditions plus increasing the FPS using a small capturing area. When I have the time I do Solar imaging in the morning as well also and especially during the 'Summer' as I don't want to start melting the lubricants or greases or possible other mount issues (warping the belts etc). However, I am always surprised just how cool the scope and mount are after a hour. I guess it comes back to my other post regarding OSC to Mono and selling the 585 in favour for a Mono!!! Maybe of a used ASI174MM or alike comes up I'll grab it!!

Increasing my chances of good frames there by better end results. Is a longer capture time better than trying to increase frame rate? Or is it a mix of both? My thinking was if I increase capture time I might start getting slight blur from rotation so kept it short but wanted to increase the fps for better lucky imaging. As you may know I put the question about going mono but for the marginally better results I’m sticking with the 585. So just want to work out how to maximise what I have.

I have been capturing 2 minute solar images with my ASI585 camera with fairly good results but is a 2 min capture long enough at 20fps at full frame? If I choose a ROI of 1920x1080 the fps jumps to 33fps. Is that fast enough? If not, I was thinking of using the reducer for the EdgeHD 8” and then using ROI to get me back to a rough native FL or smaller to increase frame rate. Plus I’ll be upping the f stop, so maybe faster fps as it gathering more light? Any thoughts on that? Would the same apply to any future lunar captures I do?

Just out of interest, is a 2 min capture long enough? If I choose ROI of 1920x1080 the ASI585 jumps from just under 20fps at full frame to 33fps. Still not sure if that’s fast enough? So I was thinking of using the reducer and then using ROI to get me back to native FL crop to increase frame rate. Plus I’ll be upping the f stop so faster fps? Any thoughts on that?