ckp82

20 hours ago, bilbo said:

Download the Celestron Skyportal App (A free version of skysafari).

Press info at the bottom of the screen and scroll down list to Messier objects.

Steve

Thanks. I've just downloaded this and I like how it tells you what targets are up in the sky in real time.

You have to press the search button and scroll down rather than the info button 😉

After a closer inspection, it does look like there is allen key bolts inside. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the right allen key for it.

I'm used to the flextube 130p which uses thumb screws for both locking screws and collimation screws (see attached image), hence why the 200p looked a bit bare. I usually slack off the locking screws, then do the collimating and tighten up the locking screws.

Can I get the same type of thumb screws for the 200p as the 130p?

I bought a used skywatcher 200p dob about a year ago on impulse and it's been gathering dust in the shed ever since as I've been using an e.a.a set up.

Today I cleaned it all up and put it back together only to find that when I come to colimate it there were screws missing on the back of the primary mirror. 

Are the screws missing the same ones that use the springs? Please see attached photo. Where is the best place to get replacements from?

Thanks.

I managed to find the video of the moon that I couldn't find before. Apparently if you save in mpeg the video saves to your tablet, if you save in avi it saves on the asiair. I'm yet to try the latter. I like the fact the video has the asi watermark and they even add music.

17 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

I have a dual narrowband filter on the way, hopefully I can try it on M16 to compare before and after 

I also have one on the way after a bit of delay it should be here soon

5 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Depending on the frame rate (for) and resolution, video can be huge in size.

Uncompressed a 9mp sensor at 30fps is like 45gigs a minute rough guess. Not that many people do that.

Moon for me was just below eagle nebula, so I didn't bother trying to add to my existing 44 x 60sec project.

Of course whilst waiting for phd2 calibration assistant to finish the heavens opened

I better free up the space on the emmc or get a huge sd card.

The moon was just rising in the east and m16 was more south West for me, still not ideal for imaging with how full the moon is I guess.

Normally the clouds roll in just as I finish polar alignment 😆 

I managed to get out last night hoping to try and video the moon and try the stacking mode in asi air plus. The video wouldn't save, it said mp4 saved but it wasn't in the video folder. I had 9.4gb of storage left, could this be the reason? I settled with a screenshot from the preview screen.

Whilst I was waiting for the moon to rise over the trees I had a go at m16. I couldn't make out the pillars of creation but I got some basic shapes and colour.

Last night I had a look at M52 and noticed that the bubble nebula would fit in the same field of view, so I decided to centre  the bubble and have M52 off to the side instead. You will have to zoom in to make out the bubble.

@Elp I did wonder what the reset did as I noticed the firmware hadn't changed or any photos deleted. Hopefully, it was just throwing a wobbly. If it happens again at least I can try manually moving to the home position and follow your steps from a previous post and not press the reset button  😆 

Last night I uninstalled the asiair app and reinstalled it. I also pressed down the reset button on the asiair plus.

This morning I went outside and polar aligned before putting it into home position without a problem. From there I went to Deneb and then onto capella, both were centered on the screen. Hopefully this has cured it.

@Elpif it uses the phones location should the time on the asiair app match the phones time? Mine is an hour behind

@Vroobel I never thought of the update. I did do mine about a week ago though as it had been standing a while 

What is home position? I guess it's true north because normally once I've done the polar alignment I send it home and it seems to point just left of polaris. Last night the telescope went upside down and ended up pointing east. It's a good job I unplugged the camera or the cable would of hit the pillar. I set up in a different position than normal so I could view over the house but that couldn't send it awol could it?

4 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Hi, what are you using to power the az-gti? 

 

At the moment I'm observing from home so it's plugged into the mains.

I've never had a problem with my azgti misbehaving or my asiair plus, but tonight I did my polar aligning and put in vega for the goto to take me there and it went in the opposite direction. I put it into the home position and it went to some random position. I have used the same equipment and done the same procedure as I normally do and have never had this problem before. I checked the location setting and it had the time set as an hour earlier. I don't know if it has always been like this or if it's a glitch? It says to turn off dst on hand controller but I don't have one. Does anybody know what has suddenly happened to my set up and how to rectify it?

Thanks.

11 hours ago, Astronomist said:

It isn't too hard to do as long as your Dob is absolutely silk smooth,

My dob has been gathering dust for a while, I was meant to do the lazy Susan bearing but never got round to it. I got lazy when I started eaa 😆 

Nice images. I also imaged these on Sunday night although i only used an 80mm telescope. I like how much detail you've managed to pull out of m13. I'd like to try it with my 8" dob but by the time I centre the target manually and switch over to the camera and sort out the focus it'd disapear out of view 😆 Did you find it easy enough to do? 

4 hours ago, Gfamily said:

I've got a list with a suggested order for attempting a Spring Messier Marathon.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lIKUywI95QJdrelI31vLJD4NhkJjgN5EZmeAP9k3ak8/edit?usp=drivesdk

Feel free to copy.

 

Marathon order based on a suggestion by the late Don Machholz.

Thanks that'll be a great way to keep me going

1 hour ago, PeterC65 said:

I have filter wheels for both visual and EAA. The EAA filter wheel is electronic which makes it very easy to switch from indoors. I have clear (to keep things parfocal), UV / IR cut, dual narrow band, IR pass (for planets), and blackout (for taking darks) fitted to it. To be honest I mostly use the UV / IR cut filter.

 

I have the uv/ir and have the dual narrowband on order. Now soon to be the ca filter

@PeterC65 any chance I get at the moment I'm trying to observe and learn.

I do use an st80 and have been on a bit of a shopping spree at the moment so I will put the filter on my future shopping list. I think I'm gonna need a filter wheel too with the amount of filters I'm beginning to need.

Thanks I'll print this out now for future reference

Hi, can anybody point me in the right direction of a simple messier list that shows the messier number and constellation it's in. 

Thanks.

With a few good cloudless nights ive managed to get a few more targets under my belt and have learnt alot in the process. My newest additions are the double cluster, M13, M57 and M31. 

22 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

i imaged same thing few months ago before i got my new camera. im just stacking a version with and without flats so you will get rough idea what to expect. will post them asap.  both are 4200 seconds so vaguely similar to your time on target. 

no flats just auto stretch in siril and a screen grab

 

now with flats. still same as above auto stretch and a screen grab. 

no processing at all. i didn't like my results after i processed but now im going to have to go back and have another go at processing it more nicely

Last night I revisited m51. I tested out the flats, dark and bias. I think I did 10x3 secs flats, 5x30 secs darks and 20x1 sec bias. I used the t-shirt and light panel technique. It's also 28x30 secs lights.

I like how it's removed the spots but the stray light from off the road will always pose a problem I think.

27 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

i tried cleaning my uv/ir cut filter. i won't be trying it again as i can see  a finger print on it

I was extremely nervous, hence why I dint take out the glass in front of the camera!