TiffsAndAstro

Didn't seem to be any dew last night my gear was bone dry. To be fair my dew heaters isn't directly around the primary, it's a little higher up the dew shield. But it was switched on. I'll have a look at my flats and lights a bit more. I can also test stack with less recent flats see if any difference. It's only an hour of subs, so not earth shatteringly vital. Would just like to figure it out to avoid repeating same mistake. But because you said it looks like dew, it does indeed look like dew Also they only appear after a background extraction

Ty I mentioned phd2 pa error because I thought it might be right due to my 10d measure step being less accurate. Next time I will try 20d starting at home/Polaris ish and my finger on stop button try and do as you do. I think you might be right about budget mounts, at least mine 1.4" to 1.8" for my 2" image scale is probably acceptable as my stars look ok.

I'll have a closer look at my flats, it's not impossible though I did then as usual.

Sorry didn't have time for more detail. The above is 60% best images stacked in dss to check my siril stacking. I did darks flats and biases and stacked in both siril and dss with those. My guiding was decent (for me) around 1.3" Hfd in phd2 was above 4 mostly, snr around 13

I actuality shot m106 and got 59 x 1min subs before clouds. Then decided on veil nebula all on my own as it was high enough. I used Vegas earlier position as a guide. My guiding changed from decent to the worst I've ever seen and gave you after maybe 20 x 1 mi. Subs. Quick auto stretch of my m106 below I hope is the result of thin cloud I couldn't see with my eyes or in my subs. Hopefully that's why my auto guiding went bad. Not bothered looking at my few veil subs. Maybe I'll do better tonight with same two targets if there is less cloud ? I appreciate the help though.

because there's none (i can see) i my subs the shady hollows only appear after background extraction and sky looked clear....

decided to go with m106 lol it was a bit further from the moon 1 hour ish until clouds. going to try veil nebula if clouds go away as i think its high enough

are you trying to make me cry? because i am quite prepared to.

Can't see me ever going mono and I don't want to buy filters before I get a osc. I guess best I can do is use this as practice try and tweak my guiding.

I guess I can play with my guiding if clear. Moon will be full but pretty low. Maybe I can find something in opposite side of sky to practice on.

Yeah I thought it would still be ok, but seems not if only for me practicing. Bodes it is if moon is far enough I guess.

I did see mention somewhere that it was a tricky target but didn't say why and as I noob I can't why it would be

I've been using Nina for 3ppa for a while and I get good results, easily less than 10". However, messing in phd2 with calibration assistant etc told me 1'3" pa error. Watching some videos online and looking at my 3ppa settings and looking at what happens is confusing me. I've attached a screenshot below but it doesn't show my settings, but may give clues? My start position was 53d and change. Measure distance 10d (I know 20 is more accurate, bare with my rambling) and east = off. Pressing play mount slews left west?) until almost 90 degrees/horizontal takes pics moves 10d takes pic moves 10d takes pics done. If I change it to 20 the last move makes the Ra hit a bump stop and plate solving fails. So...I changed start to 45d east still = off and 20d measure distance, but now the mount slews right/east until it hit that bump stop. Should I just set it to 20d measure distance and start from current position IE home? Or any other suggestions:( Could I set it to start at 320d so then 320-20 = 300 and 300-20 = 280 which is still above 270ish where bump stop is?

Which is the smarter choice tonight, even though I'm expecting rain? Moon looks close to trio, as it was when I tried two hours on it a week or two back (see below). Even with my meagre gear and skills I was disappointed even if my processing could be a bit better I just stopped. Bodes/cigar turned out pretty well (for me) and moon is much further away. Maybe I should just add time to that? I no filters or any other of that kind of stuff

This is really good looking cabling

Someone makes a canon EF adapter for zwo cameras that can control canon lenses. I wonder if the adapter might magically fix this? Maybe the lens needs a electric signal to keep iris in position or something? Cuiv lazy geek had a video on the adapter.

I totally agree, but I've watched a lot of (I think?) Christopher frosts tests on YouTube and a lot of lenses struggle with sharpness in the corners wide open, admittedly not astrophotography tests though.

Do you have the lens wide open at f1.4? From reviews I've seen lots of fast lenses have issues wide open. Have you tried stopping down and seeing if problems are still visible?

I think a fleet of sublight ships arriving wouldn't be the most likely. I agree it's a game of risk/reward, and while the potential rewards are likely very high the risk is everything. It's a terribly interesting and terribly moot point, however, as I don't see my new political movement gaming much traction worldwide and so there's not a lot the planet is likely to do to address it. Maybe mitigating the risk is the best we might manage. Like not having all our eggs in one basket.

That's some really huge anthropomorphic assumptions to base our potential extinction on though. Best to stay as quiet as possible just in case, surely? I remember the hilarity at a uni lecture when I answered that the biggest problem in physics was the Fermi paradox and it's possible solutions. The solutions we can come up with are not very reassuring. I think it even more an interesting and disturbing subject than it was way back then.

Couldn't (politely) disagree more. Even though the risk is low, the stakes are incredibly high.

Sounds awfully risky putting more transmitters/relays in space. Best we stay quiet/passive sensors only. Dark forest game theory and all that

Will do Ty Weirdly I just put it all together and it's perfectly balanced both axis first time. So I'm a tad suspicious Had some weirdness with my pa but my guiding is 0.13(0.86") which I think I should settle for.

Ty both, just wanted a sanity check as it looks innocuous to me. But then I spent two weeks trying to remove a dew shield that couldn't be unscrewed ...

titles a bit crap, apologies. i break my gear down every night after use. yes, its annoying. is there any reason why i shouldn't leave the cw shaft and both cw attached to the mount head when storing it for the next nights clear skies? i lie it flat on its side and can loosen the clutch if that would be better? im trying using both counter weights nearer the axis see if it helps guiding/balance. in a test, it did seem to help balance a bit. but its a pain to re do the cw each time