TiffsAndAstro

No filter wheels etc so I'm hoping some weight to counter the guide scope and cam will help. It's not like I'm that far away. Need to ask flo what kind of screw it is. I think I have to get two guide scope lamp things to mont it on a top vixen, or maybe I can buy a clamp with two screws. Will have a look around ty

I'm very noob, but I see some similarity between some of my images when I messed up my own flats, mostly the background. Might be worth a go taking some and seeing the result? Bit of white t-shirt over the end of your scope and put a tablet on top. You might need a big tablet for that monster though. Those horizontal striations. I assumed mine were walking noise, but using better flats fixed it for me.

Hmm a dummy weight opposite the finder is a possibility. Also, I have two spare dovetails, one of which might stretch between the two screws on the top of the tube rings. I only have one such screw right now, and also not sure how I'd mount the finder scope on that dovetail and keep it parallel to main scope, but it's food for though Ty again

Yeah i've love a strainwave. just plonk my stuff on it any old how and away i go.... i think my balance might change my guiding from poor (1.4") to bad (as much as 2.5") and my image scale is 2.02" next chance i get i am going to reset phd2 try again from scratch. i also have some other settings for my mount from a video i've seen on youtube, but im not convinced the youtuber is that wise also some from an astrobin forum post. i can set them back also going to try changing my guiding exposures from default 1.0 sec to 2 sec. my stars don't look great in phd2, sort of a nice little dot but surrounded by much larger circularish glow. in the target view they seem blobby and nebulous, but i've seen youtubers with similar or worse in the target view. cheers for the help

So I would say the balance of my scope+other attached bits is "good" but I don't have much context as to how good it needs to be. In turn, with one of the two clutches off, balance on both axis individually seem perfect. but when I loosen both axis' clutches at the same time and flip Ra fully east/left it is a tiny bit camera end heavy. When if flip Ra fully west/right it is a tiny bit lens hood side heavy. Two not very enlightening pics attached. The one in darkness purely to show my counter weight setup in case it helps. There is a guidescope and cam on other side of the usb hub out of sight. I balance with lens caps off cos it does seem to help.

yeah my previous s8+ had an oled screen and images looked great on it budget lcd on a budget phone, i should be happy its in colour

are you taking flats at all?

My own very limited images look ok on my desktop monitor (not calibrated but not a million miles away) but look overstretched and pretty nasty on this mobile phone screen. They look ok on my tablet. Monitor calibration is usually a good thing but I CBA on my 6yo desktop gaming monitor.

My backgrounds are not great, or my foregrounds, for many reasons

I current have 3 versions of my 2 hours on witches broom: massively over stretched, barely any stretch and one roughly in the middle. I don't like any of them

Wish my backgrounds were a touch to smooth like this

Don't think you botched the background at all this looks great.

Ty gonna reset phd2 start fresh

Not sure how I saw a blue power box on accessory tray

Any tips on your phd2 settings?

Some "classic" cars had fibre glass bodies, like some lotuses. In spite of their tremendous build quality and reliability some of them need body work redoing Might be something the restorers know that works?

I am not a tidy person, how dare you accuse me of that? I think I use a flimsy usb hub instead of your your blue power box? I have it velcroed on top of my scope and I have all those leads gathered and tied at the base near the dovetail plate. Purely because I think any wires dangling down even my balance/guiding. Don some shades or other protective eyewear and stare at the magnificence below

Apologies I was just trying to be funny also, i have thing about wiring at the moment I notice you use a lot less NASA space tape than I do

Need to run this image through astrosharp

Great images. Cuiv the lazy geek has a video about syncing two instances of Nina and setting one as master, other as slave in case it might be helpful.

thanks for all this. i assumed it was more involved, but this shows me just how much.

I'm new ish to astrophotography so not sure of the technical terms but I wonder how you stretch both parts of the mosaic equally/to match each other. Not asking for an explanation but is there a key term or search phrase I can use? for YouTube videos

That's some incredible detail on the brain

This looks even better.

This looks really really good to my noob eyes.