fwm891

@MarkAR Yes. The 1x Planostar - no reduction in image scale.

Contrails spread widely last night to begin with but gradually dispersed. I spent that time doing a PA check and making adjustments, I'd swaped scopes to the Altair 115, first outing on the new steel pier so a few tweaks required. By the time I'd finished faffing with the PA the moon had dropped well down so - time to test the PA... I went to NGC6995 first, no particular reason, then headed for the Cygnus Wall followed by the Iris neb and M31. By then it was after 2 so I called it a night somewhat reluctantly. Anyway the images: Camera; ASI 294 MC Pro with IDS NB-1 filter Processing for both done in PI using some old darks as I didn't shoot any last night. No flats or bias either. NGC 6995 was initially process using PI's batch process on 5x180s subs The Wall wasn't so good using the batch process so I went through the individual steps separately. The Wall was 5x 300s subs. Hope you like.

Does the focuser allow you to move inside and outside the 'focus' position. If your up against a stop at one end of the focuser's travel you may need to simply look at adding/removing spacers to allow the eyepiece to focus. As it's new it should be optically sound - talk to the retailer about an exchange.

Do you need to register it? If you have the serial number that should be enough. I use CS3 Extended and this is probably the 4 th PC I've installed it on. I've tried registering it in the past with no luck so I just use it.

Well I went out last night to image the comet but found it was clear to the south and I really like the M8 / M20 pairing so decided on that and catch the comet later! Image: 10 x 2 min subs, ASI 294MC Pro OSC camera, gain 122 offset 30. Mount iOptron CEM 60 standard guided using TS 80mm guide scope and ASI 120MMs camera. Scope: Celestron rasa 8. Processing in PI. Cropped for posting. Oh - I missed the comet set into trees!

I have a W.O. ZS73 with the Flat 73A field flattener. Superb little scope, the FF will easily cover the APS-C formats and almost cover my full frame Nikon D800E. Attached is with a Nikon D5100 DX (APS-C) format.

Thank you. I have a small lathe and milling machine so the parts were produced on those. Filter threads were cut on the lathe on a very trial and error basis untill I had the dial readings, then it was fairly easy to cut all the 42 x 0.75mm threads. Followed by the 48mm threads in the filter drawers.

A while back I bought a Baader filter slider to allow me to change filters on my scope without having to dismount the camera each time (small back focus and no room for a filter wheel). It's been great but with my hands not the smoothest of operations. So I decided to look at making it's replacement. Lots of false starts on paper with sketches but finally I've found an arrangement that works for me. It's still in the bare metal prototype stage but it will get a nice coating of matt black either anodising or chemical treatments. The filters are 48mm / 2" screw fitting into the drawers, each drawer has a small steel insert which clicks onto a small magnet to stop things moving/falling out in use but easy enough to pull out when changing filter drawers. The drawers can be inserted either way up so filters that need one side to face the sky can be inserted in that orientation. Another lucky co incidence is the filter drawer/holders drop into the Baader filter containers making for easy clean storage. Images show the unit attached to my ASI294MC Pro with the telescope adapter plate (black ring at the bottom). Been fun in the making.

I'd go with @Adam J on this 400 is too high. I use 122 gain and 30 offset. Not the same ASI camera model. Like Adam I'd shoot with a different filter (luminance) to confirm target and framing before captuing weaker photons.

This is a stack of 25x 20 sec sub frames. Comet aligned and all processing in PI. Scope: RASA 8 inch f2 Camera: ZWO ASI 2394 MC Pro OSC camera Mount iOptron CEM 60.

Great. Well done. Touch green / cyan to me but that could be my old eyes.

@-chris- Hereford Astro are also conducting regular on line meetings: https://sites.google.com/site/hsastro/home

Welcome Chris Bit further west from you in Hereford. Dust it off and use it - great fun

@Matt01 Hi Matt, Welcome to the fold. From your homme you will need some type of LP (light polution filter) to remove/reduce the effects of street lighting so that will reduce the amount of light getting into your eye, at your remote location you will be able to (possibly) get rid of the LP filter for many objects. I expect as its your first scope (and a dob is a great place to start), you'll want to buy new but take a look at some secondhand 10 inch dobs the extra light grasp will help in both locations. 10 inch dobs come up for sale on the forum quite often and the UK Astro Buy & Sell site has many more. Provided the extra physical size doesn't cause transport problems you'll get much more enjoyment from the hobby. Good luck

Added an animation

Cloud from NW and just a couple of gaps to play with... Added a short animation.