TiffsAndAstro

Will have a look Ty for the tip

Smilie face is my plan for tonight on a evlox 72ed possibly auto guided and unmodded dslr. I'm not good enough to attempt mosaics yet though Can post my results if you think it could be any use to you?

I think opticians use similar for some stuff too.

i have a wishlist and a fallback. m51 (and maybe now i know it exists) markarian's chain are my fall backs as they're high up and seem always in view. I will definitely focus one object for as many hours in one evening as i can, once im dialed in

i was very worried id need something really bright like jupiter for it to work. Even the dim stars nowhere near center of my view had them just ordered one for my guide scope.

I like spiral galaxies and i'd like them to fill my fov more Hopefully i can get a imx185 based cam in the not too distant future and this looks like it will help fill that fov with the smaller ones i will have another go trying to pull it, but, if i can unscrew that front element holder with the lens cover, i'm guessing it will need more force than im prepared to risk

mine only unscrews with the black plastic looking part on the left inside the white part to the right so that the white part on the right contains the front element when detached. i could maybe try clamping the left hand bit and then sliding (?) the hood off, but shouldn't need that much force and i don't have a clamp. I'll mention it to FLO on monday see what they think. Id be surprised if im the first to have this happen. front element needs a clean too At least i put the screw back in its correct place lol

Some confusion sorry. I imaged m51 and seperately bodes/cigar but I also posted my previous best of m51 showing 2 hours versus 13 mins with my new scope. I like m51. It's always visible (it seems) so it's a good target for testing. Plus, it's destroying it's neighbour. How could anyone not like that? Apart from that neighbour and live for a billion years. Must remember to tell my actual neighbour that unnecessary nighttime garden lighting leads to galactic destruction. So turn them off

Ty will use this as reference and be braver

I'm reluctant to try too much force. I could see the crap in my lights, but the magic of flats got rid in post still had to clean it after though. I even used Nina flat wizard and it's incredible

Wow. I'd love to get even close to your images, but I at least feel I now have the gear to try. Andromeda, the best of the galaxies is too low for me now. Not many other big DSO about that I know of. But there are a lot of dsos I have never even heard of, so I'll keep looking. And yeah wind. I'm fairly sure that's why phd2 was bonging away. Might be another hour or two this evening can try guiding again. I swear if I move on the patio I'm on, which is pretty solid, the graph would jump up past +4 pixels, which looked bad. If I changed the scale it looked less dramatic I just have little context for stuff like that I notice.

Maybe I got very lucky, but, for anyone struggling with manually focusing anything, like me as a noob, I would highly recommend a bahtinov mask. Any Nobel prize committee members reading this, please consider putting Mr/Dr Bahtinov up for a suitable prize I just dangled the mask from two plastic screws on end of the dew shield and was expecting to barely see the pattern also, anyone struggling in Nina to choose a star to slew to focus on, click the manual focus icon (rotated star) and choose one from the list Nina slew right to it and didn't even plate solve. Not sure how that works but not complaining:)

Pretty sures it's bodes my camera is rotated as it tracks? Rotate your red image all my three blurry galaxies line up?

I'm guessing mine is rusted so both parts unscrew rather than just the lens hood. Will have another go in a while with this pic as reference. Also, Ty so much for this and your other replies, you have no idea how much I appreciate it all.

Bodes and cigar also 13x60sec I'm guessing there's some tilt in this and m51 above, maybe and/or coma. Will try a proper 2 or 3 hours on one target tonight, clouds permitting. Though now I've seen it, I will have to try and image the smile face at the of markarians chain 😁

I can only seem to unscrew it and the front element comes away with the hood. Also the inside of the front element was dirty. Front of the front element also needs a clean but I cant reach it down the front of the dew shield. The threads look a bit rusty and janky too.

ok so looking at my longer sub guide test shots, im hoping the guiding drops were wind and/or focus related. I focused it in the afternoon and it was way, way out when i tried guiding. i focused it more but possibly not enough. Also clouds. i did manage to get 13x60sec (both guided? lol) of m51 and cigar galaxy. my previous best image of m51 was 2 hours on a £10 40 year old 200mm (cropped in ) 13x60sec seems a decent start with my new stuff - just a quick stretch.

taking photos of bode's galaxy right now. after focusing for 3ppa used the manual focus target and using bahtinov mask seem perfectly lined up crosses (which im a tad suspicious at). my 1st sub had trails, but my second looked spot on. not tried to get guiding going yet as i want to run 20 x 60 sec subs on bodes and then maybe an hour on m51 if clear skies last that long. is there any other quick test i should run so that people on here could spot any obvious problems? 3ppa was a bit of a pain but i ran a second one went well. ********** ok trail i thought i saw might be a double star *********** holy f&^£*&^g [removed word]. this dummy pressed here and magical guiding has seemed to happen. even though i focused it in daylight i really had to wind the guide scope focus a lot before stars showing. when i calibrate snr was about 20, now im guiding as i do some increasing exposure time tests its about 13 to 14. i didn't recalibrate when i sequenced m51 though. when the test subs are done, i'll try and do a proper hour maybe two until clouds on m51, dithering (gonna guess at a number for now) full calibration frames, and see how it looks compared to my previous best effort (mirror lens lol).... ill post some screenshots tomorroasd in case any insights can be gleaned, but im a happy chappy so far subs look crap. will try re calibrating gudining before i try a proper go at m51

ah i thought it slid up/down ty so much

Does the dew shield actually detach from this? is it non detachable on later models? cos all mine seems to do is unscrew with the front element. i don't want to try and slide it with too much force....

Should I be looking at getting a UV/ir cut filter to use with an evostar 72ed + flattener with unmodded 600d? If so, would I still use it if I get an astro cam like the zwo585? Would any UV/ir filter also filter light pollution? I'm bortle6. I get gradients at lower targets but siril seems at least ok at removing them. Lastly (for now, sorry) would I use this on every type of target galaxy/emission/reflection nebula?

Ty I was dreading back focus issues, but as far as I can tell it's ball park with what seems like room to move focus tube in and out when I use bahtinov mask. will try get everything connected to Nina tonight/tomorrow and take a chance dodging clouds

Will check portrait mode I think it will be ok. The tripod is ok for what it is, sky watcher 1.75 inch steel replacement will be here tomorrow or Monday

I'm thick skinned and not easily offended. Would welcome any even vaguely constructive criticism. I'm here to learn

Omg Ty so much Your focus knobs axis is 90 degrees to your dovetail, like how mine arrived in the case but I rotated the tube rings so they're not as in pic below. It's ok for me to do what I have, right?