fwm891

Probably stick with B&W then process negs and scan at home before printing/viewing.

That's interesting. I have a 5x4 format aerial camera lens that I set-up years ago to do night sky work with but it's never really been used...

@scotty38 Thanks, Same settings so I'll try again and deactivate the stop tracking when done and see what happens... Really good to be able to get PA with no view of the pole.

Although I finally got my PA aligned with a total error of 19 arc/sec it was a pain getting there. I have an iOptron CEM60 on a pier which I’d removed and serviced (regreased ra/dec wheels) but my view of the pole area is completely blocked so N.I.N.A. looked a good choice for realignment. I’ve watched lots of YT videos so the process of loading the nightly version of NINA and the 3PPA plugin went well. In the videos three 3 positions are solved and the PA errors displayed with the images looping and solving and a revised error displayed. For me I start and get (and solve) the 3 positions, the error is displayed but as it seems to start looping exposures my tracking is stopped and so does 3PPA. My only recourse is to rerun 3PPA again and again making adjustments between each rerun and restarting tracking. For this I have the mount with an Altair 102 Ascent refractor mounted, no guider scope and an a Hypercam 26C as the imaging camera. Mount is controlled with iOpton’s Commander software drivers. These are connected to an HP i3 laptop running win10 Home, with 16 Gb ram, mount and camera are connected to separate usb 3 sockets. The whole connected to house mains via recommended adapters. Anyone have any ideas why the tracking is being stopped thus preventing the looped exposures? Thanks if you’ve read this far.

Superb Dave. Watching just draws me in...

Just a quickie from a couple of nights ago. Unguided. 27 of 32x 60sec subs processed in PI. Scope OO VX10, Camera Hypercam 26C cropped frame, Mount iOptron CEM60. Captured circa 11:30 start time and just let it run. I lost a few frames to sat trails. No filters used and no guiding. NGC 6207 top left ? Hope you like.

Thanks @Elp and @ONIKKINEN looks like 100wh is a minimum. I wasn’t fancying lead acid batteries. At present I won’t be using the 26C as it’s not compatible with the ASiAIR PLUS and I may well sell it and get something that is compatible. But that’s all in the future…

As the trees (not mine) encroach further into my already restricted fov I'm beginning to pull together a small (ish) kit to take to broader horizons! The kit: Skywatcher AZ-GTi mount (EQ mod) on tripod, Altair Ascent 80mm triplet with 1x and 0.8x flat/red, ASi585, Hypercam 26C and ASi120mini (guide cam) and mini guide scope plus dew bands to suit 80mm and mini guider scope and an ASiAIR Plus. I will also have a laptop with me but its own battery runs for 6 hours+ if I keep the screen brightness right down and that will more than suffice my needs. My cooling of the camera will be down to -10°C max more normally -5°C. Dew straps only when needed Working away probably looking at 3-4 hours run time What sort of power pack would suit this set-up with a small fudge factor? I'm sure many of you have a similar outlook to me. The photo shows my skies - I'm backed against the obsy looking south. Neighbours wall takes out all my north view (no Polaris and only a few degrees from zenith). Cheers Francis

That is great. I see it through a gap between trees and a neighbours house for about 40 mins max. I'm getting gear together so I can get to a clearer horizon. If I get anywhere near your attempt I'll be a happy bunny.

Great night for me. It started with me just wanting to get a shot of the SN in M101 and after tweaking collimation on Archturus and moving to a few other star to re sync the mount it was on to M101. Six four minute subs taken before moving on to something I hadn't imaged before; an irregular galaxy NGC4449 in CV. I was looking for other objects in the area in Sky Safari Pro and just picked this one out before reading it's description, just 4 x 4 min subs here as I wasn't sure what it was going to be like. M51 next. Always liked M51 and it always makes me think of the sketch by Lord Ross of it's spiral structure and how he must have struggled to get that. Given that I didn't start much before 11 it was now after 1 on the 25th and 1st Vega had come creaping out from behind our neighbours house so M57 (the ring neb) became a target. Then cygnus too creaped out so I stayed there for a while. M27 followed by NGC6888 and then NGC6960 all fell prey. Now after 2.30 and still just in trees to the SE was M16. Quick coffee while M16 cleared the last branches and I managed seven four minute subs before the sky became too bright to really carry on with photography. I did get a view of M20 by that little gem will have to wait till a more reasonable hour later in the year and darker skies. M101, NGC4449 and M51 were all shot witout filters. NGC6960 and M16 were shot through an IDAS NBZ filter. M27 is a mix of no fiter and NBZ subs (6 NF + 3 NBZ) Scope: Orion Optics (UK) VX10, Camera: Altair Hypercam 26C. Hope you like.

I use an IDAS NBZ which I've found great with the533. Also a Baader UV/IR cut filter as the 533 only has an anti reflection filter/sensor cover glass.

@Stuartmyatt76 You will first have to lock the primary mirror focuser (see the Edge HD white paper on Celestron's web site) to produce it's optimum back focal distance before fitting your Crayford and focal reducer combination or you'll be fighting all sorts of aberation problems further down the line...

The extra data and better skies have helped this image. Great stuff.

I was never really happy using the centre as my zero position and tended to use the 70% zone as my zero with + and - figures either side. It was always easy to position a pair of visible shadows and take that reading as zero or with a digital scal easier still…

NGC4038-39 is only 3x 300s and really just to test what I might get and whether it would be worth a longer session. The arms are barely visible in this 15 min integration so I think another attempt is more than worth the effort. Jones-Emberson-1 or (PK164+31.1) or the Headphones neb is an integration of 12x 300s subs. OO VX10 newt on iOptron CEM60, Altair 26C no filters. Processed in PI using BXT and SXT recombining with pixelmath. Hope you like

Lets hope you always have the same co-opperative neighbours when you want access to remove the fence panels for replacement or painting....

Signed and posted on FB

Try: https://www.bearingboys.co.uk/Timing-Belts-and-Pulleys-1039-c 3M timing belts and pulleys. Some down to 3mm pitch. Also: https://www.transdev.co.uk/rubber-belts/imperial-rubber-series/mxl-mini-pitch-series-transflex-classic/ It was the MXL series belts/pulleys I used for the NEQ 6 Pro mods ¼" width although you can now get them in other widths as well.

Take a look at Davall gears web site they do mini timing belts and wheels (I’ve used them for an NEQ 6 belt mod) you can get your tooth counts in a smaller dimension.

Looks like a 533 square chip to me. Look at the usb connections they’re quite large compared to body size…