Tim

Lots of useful easy to understand info in this thread, think i'll make it sticky for a while.

Thanks Themos

Sara, you should drift align anyway.

But separate guidescopes nearly always suffer from flexure to one degree or another.

There is a method you can determine the cause of the eggy stars, detailed here:

http://deepskystacker.wikispaces.com/Measuring+differential+flexure

I'm sure Astrobabes guide works well for a lot of people, but I just find it confusing. Can I use the Cheshire to get the secondary mirror aligned as well as the primary. Better still is there someone local who can teach me how to do this?

At present, looking through the cheshire this is the image I see.

http://db.tt/lCkS1N8g

That sounds like the best idea. You could do with learning the correct use of the tool.

The chesire EP will be more effective than a laser on its own for more reasons than one. It is very easy to think you have perfect collimation with a laser, ie, all the lights bounce off and end up where they should, but in actual fact the mirrors are all askew.

Cheers

Tim

Oh, and I put red insulation tape over green LEDs (why oh why do they use them in astro gear ) and over any other light too bright to be useable.

You can get a head torch with Red LEDs at Go Outdoors for about £4.

Worth noting though, especially at star parties, that those bright LEDs aren't really suitable, and can still diminish night vision, especially other peoples.

I watched with interest (being solely an imager with a well lit warm room ) as 'proper' astronomers used a red torch you could hardly see by to read their star charts.

You can actually make quite a decent red light torch with a mini Maglite, simply swap the LED in it for a red one, saves using the red filter which comes off with the rubber end I found.

Cheers

Tim

I have a similar line to that on my QHY8. I dont take darks for that camera either and you have to look really close to see the effect of the line. Even then it is easy to get rid of in processing.

Keep us updated with the response you get though

Try getting in touch with Richie Jarvis Rich, I think he was doing something with piers a little while ago.

Phwoooaaarr!

As they say

Do you still have both correctors Nadeem?

I would be keen to see a single short exposure shot with plenty of bright stars in (iso 1600 fine for the test) taken through the same telescope on the same night.

Although the baader pic above seems to have some coma issues, in fact all the stars across the image are a little elongated in that direction. I would expect in a well collimated setup for the coma to be apparent on all corners and edges of the field, and for the effect to amplify from the centre outwards, stretching the stars toward each corner. Is the shot a crop, or full frame?

As you only need to see the shape of the stars, and they will be stretched anyway with coma, a short exposure would help to get rid of any slight trailing traces, and a single shot rather than stacked is better.

That said, the skywatcher pic above has good stars to the corners, which shows that the corrector does a good job and is a fine recommendation for the product, but it doesnt seem fair to use it against the Baader unless the comparison is like for like.

With this new corrector, and the new updates to the newts from skywatcher, they seem to be an ideal way into astrophotgraphy with a DSLR. Let's hope many more take up this fascinating hobby of ours

Cheers Nadeem.

Tim

Actually, in theory, there is one member with the rank of "Dark Energy". We think he's out there, but no-one knows where to find him, or how to prove he exists...........

Fight you for it Tony

If Ron & Mike dont come away from Kelling with at least one image between them, i'm going to scream

Thanks for the action Peter, i'll try it out on some NB images next time. Would it also help with r-g-b filtered images if the stars were of varying size?

TJ

Here's my first (pic) post....It all seems so long ago now..........

It's worth pointing out that these are the only pix where the wife says they have the WOW factor. She isnt easily impressed by globs etc. Not even M13.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,21470.0.html

Warning, some big files there. Also captured with extreme luck and zero skill. Not that I am learning a bit about it all my pics are getting progressively worse.

Cheers

TJ