kirkster501

With my side-by-side bar, my obs roof just clears - by an inch or so - the top scope (my TEC140). I have to be careful, at 3 in the morning, rolling the roof back so as not to whack the TEC. I would have made my peer a tad lower if I built again. Still an option to angle grind two inches off the top but I'd rather not if I can help it.

So what was wrong with it?

I'm at the beginning of my journey with this fabulous lens that I acquired two weeks ago. Using with Canon 1100D (modded) at the moment and want to switch to a QHY183C. Also, this lens is a beaut with a £20 adapter on my Fuji XT2.

I recently bought Geordie's 135 to add to my 14mm and it is sublime lens. I am getting started with wide-field. It is on my 1100D at the moment but I am looking at fittign my Atik 460 to it. Adamar98, how did you connect your Atik 460 (with filter wheel?) to the lens? Is it canon fit? Mono?

Can see those easily.

Miraculous, another clear night here..... Set to ASCOM 16 bit driver with maximum dyanmic range. Aggression 80 on both axis and hysteresis algorithm on both. It's looking good........ Seeing is rubbish and blowing out Alnitak. May try the Z algorithm.

You took the words straight out of my mouth kens ?

Thanks Vlaiv, I have done this and using the ASCOM driver now. I have also set the DEC to Hysteresis and with 90/10 just like in RA. It was getting late so did not have time to really test this out but it was looking promising. I will look into the Z-filter algorithm suggested by kens too. I'd be interested to know what other MESU users have their guiding parameters set to.

Thanks guys, definite progress tonight and some great tips. Many thanks. Feel I made some progress with this.

I find yo have to STOP the guiding. Let things settle down and THEN start again to get teh graph flat again.

It is so termpermental; I reduce the minmov to 0.1 and it all goes crazy. I put it back to 0.2 and it remains crazy. Look at this start of crazy swinging of the DEC......

Thanks vlaiv/folks, will check into your suggestions. How do I stop the Saturation of the stars? A lower exposure?

Correct I meant aggression and yes, a MESU. Guided with a 600mm FL Celestron guidescope.

Been really struggling with guiding recently after moving over to guidescope in anticipation of a dual rig imager, it has been all over the place. Not had the best of winters to experiment really. Anyway, it was crap again tonight. Increasingly depserate, I increased the hysteresis from the default 70 up to 90 on 5.8 sensor and 600mm guidescope. Wow. Pancake flat. Will keep my eyes on this before I get too smug prematurely! Please let this be the fix I have been looking for......!

Indeed. Extremely good seeing - which we hardly ever get anymore in the UK - and precise collimation are what is required to see such details.

^^^^ All the above. I have one. It is a superb instrument for planets, the moon and deep-sky smaller objects. It is useless for wide fields. You may want to read this article by Damian Peach. If he says it's good, then it's good. Mine is in my observatory and is always at temperature and ready to go. Collimation is straightforward and easy http://www.damianpeach.com/c925review.htm

Hi all, any thoughts as to why my guiding is better after the flip because after numerous observations, it most assuredly is. Mount is MESU 200 and using PHD2 and using a guide scope. Everything is balanced as far as I can tell - not the easiest of mounts to balance is the MESU. I do not appear to have any flexture either and in any event, this also applies when I am using OAG as well. What tinkering do you guys do with PHD2 settings such as min move, Hysteresis and aggressiveness?

Leave the spots alone!!!! They will make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

This was whilst gathering subs on M1 trough the TEC140 and the FSQ85.

Lovely scope, I have looked into getting one of those for small objects. However, the skies of late have hardly been conducive to splurging more hard-earned on this. On another note, two dogs on the back seat of a 911? ? Dude, do you know how much they cost to reupholster? I am very sorry to hear of Storm's passing

It would almost certainly be because the focuser was not aligned with the primary Olly. Without the additional focuser collimation ring - not included with the budget RC scopes - there is no way to adjust the focuser's alignment with respect to the mirrors and this is crucial in the RC hyperbolic design. This is a glaring oversight in my opinion. All too complex and too much bother? Yes (to me at any rate). Plus other issues that I do not like about reflectors in the context of imaging. That's why I flogged it and moved to my TEC refractor. Each to their own. Others love the RC design.

I put some of these videos up, I did them when my late wife was very poorly in 2013. I sold the RC long ago but never really had an issue collimating mine once I got the hang of it. There are three planes that need to be in sync. 1. The focuser needs to be aligned with the primary (not possible when an adjustment ring to do this is not provided as default on the cheaper RC scopes) 2. Align the secondary with the primary. 3. Then realign the primary with the secondary to produce concentric circles on the wall. Having said all that, you can get 99% of the way there, much more conveniently, with a Cheshire - as I also describe on the videos. Once you get them collimated they will stay that way for months. I could deliberately wreck the collimation on mine and get it back within 20 mins or so, most of the time.....! As I explained to people, no one is going to die if you get it wrong... You won't break anything! It's twisting a few screws! Remove the emotion and work the problem as we say in engineering.... However, I agree, this is all too much for a beginner - a refractor is the way to go. With a refractor, you know any issues with your images cannot be attributed to collimation. I think RC scopes are more trouble than they are worth for an inexperienced imager, despite the apparent attraction of a largish apperture for reasonable cost.

If you are new to imaging I feel very strongly you need to start with and ED80 atop the EQ5 and forget RC scopes. Collimation worries need to be off the table completely whilst you learn the other nuances of imaging.

Then you'll see Orion directly overhead Steve with Canopus to the South and Auriga to the North with Leo to the East looking large. Spectacular! I remember that well when I was in Oman many years ago and look back very fondly. Caribbean in New Year is much clearer than in the summer months (June - October is extremely humid [hence hurrince season]). You should be in for a treat and I would definitely use some of your luggage allowance to pack the bins and a star atlas for the southern sky.

Yep, we think we are the only ones to get cloud. Clouds are live and well everywhere in the world. It was patchy cloud for three consecutive weeks in the Caribbean.