Geordie mc

Must admit that I hadn’t looked at anything before my first attempts and my step size was at 20! I watched a video on YouTube where the guy was using 175 steps. That’s when I realised I’d better up the number. I’m hoping that as we move into warmer weather I can tolerate being out long enough to get things sorted with settings for Hyperstar and when using the reducer. I never shoot at F10 using that just for lunar or planetary stuff where you can see much better when you’ve got the focus right. I was so cold last night I was shaking so making adjustments was tricky. I got some subs done of M81 in LRGB but they aren’t as sharp as I’d like. Now I need to learn Pixinsight which I’ve just got. I’ve watched some videos and got a book so that’ll keep me busy on cloudy nights. Really appreciate the input. Thanks again. Clear skies.

Thanks for the info. The Celestron has a range of about 44,000 steps so I may need to up the step size a little. The right side of the `v ‘ curve doesn’t look bad but the left is very steep. Think I need a much bigger backlash compensation too. Good to know I’m on the right lines. I have a Hyperstar for the Celestron which I hope to use when galaxy season ends and I’m hoping autofocus will give me much sharper images. I’ll try upping the frame count to 11 too when I’m getting a more even V. Thanks again.

Hi. Just starting to use autofocus with the Celestron motor focus and SGP. Can anyone give me some starting points for step size, backlash etc. I’m getting there but wasting a lot of imaging time just trying to get this to work accurately. I’m currently trying a step size of 75 and a backlash of 50. Any tips most appreciated.

Try this thread on Cloudy Nights. It may help. It sounds as though with correct spacing for back focus it could be a decent match. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/659716-sw-esprit-100ed-focal-reducer/

Hi. With a 50mm lens M42 will be just a very small smudge. You can get clip in filters for Canon cameras but they are expensive. The 50mm will give you good widefield views of the Milky Way if you are at a nice dark site. Use a tripod and bump the ISO up to 1600 or even 3200 to get the most out of short exposures. Without a mount that tracks you will need to keep them short to avoid stars making trails rather than being points of light. Try 30 seconds with the lens wide open at F2.8. If you get nice sharp stars you could try longer using bulb setting. If they trail then reduce to 20 etc. you could get lovely deliberate star trail picture by pointing towards Polaris and taking a series of images of a minute or more each and combining them in Photoshop or other imaging software.

Hi all. I’ve just fitted he Celestron motor focus unit to my Edge 8 but I’m not getting anywhere with the software. I’ve installed both the Celestron utility for the focused and the ascom driver, but when I plug in the usb lead I get 3 low buzzes from my pc. In device manager it says there are no drivers for it (code 28), but it is named as Celestron focuser. It needs 900ma from the USB port or an external power supply. My usb gives only 500ma so I’m using a 12v dc adapter. The power light on the focus unit is lit. I’m running a windows 7 pc. Does anybody know where the driver is meant to come from? Is it meant to be automatic? There is a link on the Celestron site for a device driver, but clicking it leads to nothing. ‘Anybody know where I can get the driver? Where should it appear in Windows directory structure? I’m not very tech minded, but I’ve tried other usb leads, restarting the pc and reinstalling both the utility program and ascom driver. Any advice much appreciated. Many thanks.

If you have the Edge already, the t adapter and a t ring are cheap and worth a try. The manual with my Edge says use the full t adapter 105mm for DSLR's and only use half of it with the reducer which needs 93mm. Must admit I use a refractor for DSO's and the Edge for solar system work. The long focal length would mean even a vey well polar aligned mount would struggle to track accurately for anything more than 30 seconds, but brighter objects might be okay. A CCD with OAG would be much better.

Thanks Steve. That's great. Much appreciated. Hope all is going well with your set up. John

Hoping to get started with a Pulsar obsy next summer. Your thread has been very helpful, so a huge thank you. I have Maxim and SGP but at the moment prefer the Maxim option. Full automation sounds way too complex for me. Think I would be happy with the dome tracking the scope and getting a weather warning to go and close everything manually. I have no electronics or software writing skills at all! The install will be in Charente, France, so not exactly handy for getting on site help from Gary. I will be happy if I can get a 3 or 4 hour session started manually, leave it to run through (including meridian flip) and then go back and shut everything down again manually. Maybe add more automation laterals my time allows to problem solve. It's taken me a year just to get a good setup with Maxim and Pinpoint LE working reliably. Still in UK so nights to practice have been very limited. Would be very interested in seeing your ascom settings using POTH. Thanks again.

Congratulations to you both. A truly mesmerising image. Your skill and dedication is amazing. I hope somewhere has the sense to commission a large scale print. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich would be fabulous. I could also see this selling well on a smaller scale perhaps to companies and private buyers. Only wish I had space for the 8 metre version! A great achievement. Well done and I look forward to seeing future projects.