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Short break in the clouds last night so out with the AZ-GTi with my 80mm frac mounted. Control via ASIAIR Plus and captured letting it live stack 30 second subs. 1st was of NGC281 with 24 subs collected. 2nd was part of the Califoria nubula (NGC1499) with 63 subs collected. These were transferred to my desktop PC via usb stick and processed in PI. Really pleased as it is a quick and easy mount to set-up. Provided you take it back to its 'home' position after a PA alignment goto's are very close and ASIAIR alignment completes the job. I need to cut down on the dither movement as it's ended up needing a good crop on the California neb image after 63 subs. Hope you like

Treated myself to a new Celestron battery pack to replace my old motorcycle lead acid battery which has really had it's day. Set-up went as normal so no problems with the battery and I just left it chugging away while I went and did the washing up! (one has to be practical to get brownie points). Scope used was an Altair 80mm triplet with 0.8x reducer fitted and an ASI 585 uncooled camera. The AZ-GTi was controlled via an ASIAIR Plus. No filter other than a UV/IR cut filter (Baader) the moon had risen but still quite low and was about ¾ illuminated. I used 30s live view stacking via the ASIAIR Plus. I used GraXpert to remove the moon gradient and PI to stack and the remaining processing. Main stars have blown out but it's the surrounding nebulosity of M45 that's the main feature. Hope you like.

AZ-GTi service video

It’s likely to be a wire catching in the spur gear from the ra motor it’s about the only thing moving at that speed in the mount. The mount is east to maintain, there are numerous videos . Definitely a good idea to change the grease to a lithium based paste/grease. theres a video by astrobloke that’s very good

I’ve just got an ASI2600DUO. It would only work with the supplied red cable not any other usb 3.# cable whether connected to my ASIAIR or my laptop. My 585 not a problem…

Your eyepieces should be fine. The 10 inch will obviously allow you to 'see' fainter DSO's but it really depends on what your daughter (& you) want to observe and whether the extra physical weight and dimensions of the 10 inch will be a burden once the initial Christmas effect wears off...

A couple of weeks ago we had a few nights with strong northern lights in the UK but at home each night I was clouded out. I had to go out one evening following one such display and was driving back through rural countryside and decided to stop as it was clear and see if there was any sign of the 'lights' that night. I pulled off the road, got out of the car and walked a short distance from the car and looked up. Realising I was looking too far west I swivelled round towards north only to find myself flat on the ground completely disorientated... I go out at home and there are familiar trees and building outlines forming part of the view (dark against the polluted skies) but out in that rural setting not giving myself any time to settle in I don't think my head could take all the darkness in ?

Probably helpful if you say it's an 11" RASA you're mounting onto....

I've just copied his photo's into Photoshop. Firstly they have both been illuminated from different directions which is misleading. The one showing what is supposedly scratches appears when magnified to be nothing more than back illuminated finger marks or reflections, the more contrasting lighting making them appear to be surface marks.

That’s sanding dust and probably too fine unless a really coarse graded abrasive is used.

First imaging test with the filter drawer 15x 240s filter: Baader UV/IR cut. Parts still to be black anodised, star images are good right to the corners. This has been cropped a little for composition but pleased with things so far.

Great result. Something to build on rather than it all going wrong and first light being a disaster. I had an MN190 many years ago. It's a good scope and your result proves it. Look forward to more results from that combination in the future.

Blackboard paint mixed with sawdust… it doesn’t have to be dead black just kill reflections

I've cleaned all the engineers 'blue' off the pieces now and taken off all the burrs so it's now waiting for the final clean-up before being anodised (black). Three more photos of it fitted back on the camera. The corners of each of the filter holders sits just inside the clamp nut's outside diameter so shouldn't cause any extra diffraction effects. There will be a small tuck-away lever to insert/remove the filter holders which will also act as a lock to stop the filters moving. I managed to get my Baader UV/IR cut filter in but only by machining 0.8mm off the leading edge of the filter's mounting (I did take the filter glass out first). Photos are fairly self evident: My filters in their holders, Interior view with the UV/IR cut filter and a view into the filter slot with a filter in place. (the inserted filter in the bottom photo is the wrong way up!!!) Thanks for looking

For me an AA 26C just couldn’t get colour to look right or debayer cleanly.

I ended up making a support jig for the different stages of producing the filter trays/sliders. The first photo shows the three stages: left most is the sizing of the blanks. Here I position rough sawn blanks each held in place with three 5mm cap head screws. Blanks are over size by about 0.5 - 0.75mm all round. Mid position is where the main maching takes place the central hole is cut, the 180° outside curve and the rebate the filter screws down onto. The righthand area is where the 48mm filter thread is cut. Photo 2 shows a blank being sized to 50.75 x 65 mm with a 2mm radius on each corner. (The tape over the other areas is to keep the swarf out until they're needed. Photo 3 shows 5 filter trays/sliders ready for the threads to be cut. That should give me 6 trays/holders. Thread cutting tomorrow and a small mod to the mid section of the camera adapter. Big clean up and blackening all the parts. TBC... Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

I’m making new rasa camera connecting plates because they need a channel cut across them to accept the filter slider. Plus I’ve modified how the clamping nut registers against the camera mounting plate.

Thanks Gorann, it will be fully blackened inside and out.

@globular I’m able to build this because my camera has a 54mm threaded connection and I’ve been able to modify the rasa’s camera connecting plate to suit. It won’t work for a 48mm or smaller connection because there’s no support for the male thread into the camera. To connect to your binoviewers I don’t know what connections are involved.

The metal for the filter drawer/slider arrived and I've had a play. It proves that a filter will go between the rasa 8's mounting plate and a **camera with a 17.5mm back focus. I'm restricted to certain filters due to the filter's physical depth and that will probably alway be the case with mounted filters. **(with my ASi2600MC Duo anyway). I now need to go back and make a couple of minor alterations to the main body and to the slider. Add some finger grips to enable the sider to be placed/removed safely and a small magnet to act as a retainer so the filter remains in place. A light blocker around the closure area to ensure there are no false gradients or patches generated across frames. I also need to make a better holder to retain the slider whilst machining the 48mm filter thread. One which will stand up to making more than the single prototype. TBC. Thanks for looking.

It is for me Roy but it was 04:30 in the morning and Orion was high in the SE ! Best night I've had for months.

The flame and Horsehead is a single 300s sub and was the final single frame of the night as I just couldn't finish up without having a 'first' of the season image of the area. This is a slight crop for framing and used an IDAS NBZ filter during capture. Also a first use in PI of the GHS. Much easier to hold shadow detail but needs some time and lots more playing... Veil area: 3x 600s, 3x 240s subs processed in PI this time trying the Narrowband Normalisation. Even more practice needed (for me) watched a few YT videos but my processing didn't really follow the videos.... Bubble area: 10x 600s subs, IDAS NBZ filter. Just followed my normal Curves Transform and Saturation routines for this one. Noise reduction used on all images. Bubble and Veil images had the works (star removal (star and starless images processed separately and recombined), star reduction and noise reduction). Thanks for looking

Two images from last night. Started with the M106/H2-Lemmon image shot in deepening twighlight. The Witch Head was at the other end of the night and shot circa 04:30. Further data to come. Just thought I'd post. Thanks for looking

After capturing 10x 10 min subs which all looked quite clean I was looking forward to the processing... Somehow this heart looks more like a smiling, drunken skeleton. Back to the drawing board. Live and learn! Made me laugh though.