TiffsAndAstro

i saw a post elsewhere about the hand controller and PA with another sw mount. it looks to me that the synscan app is trying to replicate the features of the hand controller. if so, repeated PA on different stars is supposed to improve on the PA accuracy. i will give what you say a go next chance i get. PA through scope. 2 star alignment in app PA in app (but using alt az bolts as needed) 2 star alignment in app and i'm good to go? one other thing - there are what looks like two larger alt locking bolts on the mount. should these be loose during the process and then righted up afterwards, or ? the user guide literally doesn't seem to mention what they even are lol.

I'm bortle 6. Garden itself is surprisingly dark but not far from many street lamps. Keep histogram under halfway?

Ty for this. I only touch the alt az bolts for polar alignment, I've had it explained star alignment is almost unrelated. So the grinning curving star streaks I saw would be fixed by guiding?

Orion is still my priority but I'm running out of time. If there's holes in the cloud this evening I'll repeat my pa set up but revert back to 50mm pentax f1.7 and see if I can at least get round stars and get what I can of orion.

So last night I polar aligned through scope. Did 2 star alignment (mount found both within pixels of center of screen) Did a pa via synscan app could center star as directed using alt and az bolts. Did another pa near my target. Got curving trailing stars on 5 minute sub. So either my pa is still [removed word], my tripod is [removed word] in a 5 min cycling type of way my mount is broken or....? IMG_8307.CR2

yeah one minute seems ok but i must have a major issue somewhere. my polar alignments were repeatedly bang on in synscan. ill post some images as soon as i get a chance. here is an example sub from the 500second test. Does the arc shape they make suggest any one thing more than another? IMG_8307.CR2

so after doing a second pa i looked in information: id=2'28.5' ch=00.0' np=00.0' mel=00.1' maz=06.4 tilt=03,8' is that good or bad? anyone with a good link expaining mel and maz would be fantastic i did a test shot at 500mm crop sensor at 300sec and trails about 10 times width of stars doing some 60 sec ones instead

Don't tell anyone but I quite enjoy just telling the tracker to point at something and then seeing it on liveview.

well my crap 135mm i won't stop me improving my polar alignment, so at least i can get on with perfecting that

well i hope so. in theory i can work on perfecting all the other proceedures and then look at a decent lens. samyang 135mm looks ideal, but they're like £400 - might as well buy something more specifically astrography.

in a perfect world, i'd agree with you, but my budget went on the mount, hence the cheap lens. i had a look at the lens and a couple of videos and it doesn't look like something i'd want to mess with. there is a very slight rattle somewhere, but the front lens feels pretty solid. ill have a go with my 200mm f3.5 see if that is any less bad as soon as its not cloudy

Ok will give it a go if I find small enough screw driver ty

yeah sorry. i use 800 for that reason, but with light pollution and longer exposures i've tried dropping to 400 even 200. seems ok, maybe. need to test more. i stopped the lens down from 2.8 3.5 4 and 5.6 and barely noticed any decreasing of the birds size. maybe a tiny bit at 5.6. but if i use 5.6 i'd need to do three times longer exposures/times to compensate? i just think, as a total noob, the extra light hitting the sensor outweighs the slight looking reduction in birds. maybe i can reduce them in post a bit.

my budget went on the mount lol. my thinking is i can practice a bit with crap glass before deciding to spend more.

er i don't think i saw anything about trying iso800 5sec and f8 on it what would it prove/demonstrate? im v noob remember i think i got a better focus tonight and did 30 mins with 183sec subs (don't ask) at iso400 (i think will check when i copy the images later) on m31 andromeda. hopefull should be enough.# ill google a video on reseating the front element but i think it might be beyond me. screws are v small

Just want to say I know it's a crap image of orion, in the greater scheme of this, but I still like it, considering my gear and skill level. The pinwheel is terrible but also shows the road cross shapes of the stars.

Ok so tested a little last night between clouds.e The birds are visible on live view and draws, though I do have to zoom in on the raw as I guess live view not that high res and only 10x. I tried stopping down to f5.6 and there was possibly a tiny reduction in the bird shape but not much. So, as I now love birds, is there any post tool I could try to reduce it? Also I notice in daylight shots with good focus on distant objects shows purple and green fringing, so next clear skies I'll try to reproduce that on a focus target.

Guess I'll see what happens in a couple of hours.

yeah, but they're generally moving there relatively quickly

I think I have the same dew heater band. On my 50mm pentax I like to think of it as a free lens hood. If I'm careful. At 28mm no chance

I'm just watching a video on YouTube Martins astrophotography. I think shows what I need. Will try follow it asap

Also this is very different to synscap app which is all I have

sorry this video is confusing The cross have in the bottom window doesnt match the upper one And if it did, the small target circle for Polaris would be at 3pm not slightly before Cant watch video right this second, but, is the gist of it that I move the ra away from what seems default, so that 12 on the clock in the scope is pointing straight down? If so, yes I already do that. Then I use the bolts alt az to put polaris at the correct position. Last time I did it a little rougher expecting the polar align with the app to then correct it (vi alt az bolts)

Yeah sorry I need to double am I seeing this, first. 600d 135mm pentax k and adapter

Will give it a go ty