yelsac

Interesting Magnus, so may I ask when you fitted the new cell to your 300mm mirror was your mirror tight to the clips or did it move around? I noticed there is nylon screws through my clips that could be tightened up to the mirror to stop any horizontal movement.

Appreciate the advice. It's a fairly recent scope with their 9 point mirror cell, the mirror was kept in a shed & is rather grubby. The silicone doesn't seem to be stuck anymore although it's still there, the mirror is loose in the cell, I can actually move it by hand from side to side. Not sure whether to re-silicone it or put some rubber shims in to secure it a little better.

Interesting, would never have thought of cleaning in the cell. Thanks for your comment

Thanks for your reply, yes there is silicone there, but it seems it's not stuck to anything just there. Maybe it was stuck originally like your say but not anymore.

Hi Anyone had any experience with taking out an Orion optics reflector mirror? The cell is one quite different from a skywatcher. I want to remove the mirror on my oo vx scope to clean it. I've removed the mirror cell from the tube, do I have to first unscrew the collimating bolts all the way out & take off the section with the fan to be able to get to the bottom of the mirror clips to undo them? Just checking as I don't want to ruin anything. If anyone has any pictures of the process that would be great to. Thanks

Hi I have a QHY5-462c camera & am looking to control it from the warm of my house 😜 I have a usb 2.0 extension lead which works fine but with low frames per second as it's only usb 2.0. I bought a usb 3.0 extension but it doesn't seem to work with the camera although it does work work a mouse connected. Just wondering if any of you guys have any tips as to what cable I would need? Thanks

Totally amazed what that winjupos can do! It does everything but make a cuppa 😜 Looks great Geof 👍

Wow that's mind blowing, absolutely brilliant. You did a great job 👍

Just wondered how you guys go about focusing? 🤔 Trying to get some tips When you focus in say firecapture do you enlarge the planet to say 150%+? Also do you increase or decrease the gain to just to help with seeing to focus?

I did have a tinker with the collimation (repositioned the secondary mirror)over the holidays so maybe that helped, thanks for your help 👍

Appreciate the comment 👍

As usual the weather was complete rubbish but there was a brief window of seeing for 30 mins around 7.30pm so thought why not! Managed a couple of captures. Same setup as before 250p, QHY5III462c, IR-Cut, 2.5x barlow. 1.5 drizzled & resized (a little to big) Not as good as others have shared but really chuffed you can see some detail coming through although a little faint & probably not completely in focus.

Actually I do use a laser one which seems good. It's just when lining it all up visually as I said I can't see all the primary mirrors clips which I'm told you should be able to. My scope is an old blue skywatcher one & was a little worse for wear with lots of dents in when I got it many years ago second hand. The focuser was changed as the old one was awful. I fitted a second hand one not long after I got it. To be honest I thought about getting a new focuser but have also been tempted to get a new scope, never bought a new one before but we'll see. Photo attached with an electric focuser 👍

Lovely image Kon I still think It's phenomenal that we can even see cloud detail on such a small target 👍

Really nice image, managed to get an image from the same day & it's great to compare the fine detail you got with mine 👍

Really appreciate you having a look 👍 Had a quick question for you, I seem to remember you use a 10" reflector yourself. When collimating (I try to follow astro babys process) you look through a Cheshire or a collimating cap, you're supposed to be able to see all of the primary mirror clips on the secondary, I can't seem to be able to see all of them at the same time, can you see all of your clips when collimating?

Hi Alan Thanks for your reply Below is one of my text files that firecapture creates when I record a video. 2022-12-27-0027_6-U-IR-Mars.txt As you said it says unknown scope but a few rows down it says under focal lenght =1900mm (F8) which by my maths should be F12 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for your comments Below is the original & the 1.5 drizzled, mind you I just used the drizzled image. Its the second picture down from above. 2022-12-27-0027_6-U-IR-Mars_pipp_lapl5_ap30.tif 2022-12-27-0027_6-U-IR-Mars_pipp_lapl5_ap30_Drizzle15.tif If you fancy having a go it would be much appreciated 😀

Thanks Kon No didn't try that although the last time I did it wasn't quite concentric, not far off. Not sure if my secondary mirror is positioned exactly right as when I collimate I can't quite see all the mirror clips on the primary. It's an old scope which was rather banged up by the previous owner, lots of dents. Would love to upgrade but we'll have to see 👍

Hi Just a quick question regarding Firecapture settings. Every time you record a video you get a text document with the settings used like gain, shutter etc. It also gives the camera used & the focal length. What I want to know is does anyone know if that is correct? I'm just wondering as I understand firecapture knows the camera, sensor etc but it doesn't know what scope it's being used. The reason I'm asking is because (& I could have this completely wrong) I'm using an f4.7 scope with a 2.5 Barlow so I assume it would almost be F12, but firecapture tells me it was F9? I also tried a x5 Barlow which again I would have thought would be F24 but firecapture says it was F18! I'm confused 🥴 Are my maths wrong?

Mars on the night of the 26th & early 27th. Still find it really difficult to process the images, I do struggle to get the focus just right with my silly eye sight. Wondering if my colimation isn't quite spot on to. Anyway happy to get some detail coming through. Still love having a go at Mars even though its past its best. Setup- 250p, QHY5III462c, x2.5 Barlow. 4 min avi's, pipp, autostakkert, reg 6, Image Analyzer. Any advice on better processing much appreciated Thanks for looking

love the animation, amazing just how much the little martian actually moves in an hour!

Near Mars opposition I was so focused on trying to capture Mars that I completely forgot that I had a little go at Jupiter earlier in the evening... The seeing was much better than anything I had later on with Mars, typical! Anyway didn't turn out to bad for so late in the season. Setup- 250p, QHY5III462c, IR-Cut, X2.5 Barlow

Absolutely love the fine detail you've got there, excellent. The second one has even more detail jumping out. Would love to know your process after autostakkert!

Congrats mate, I bet you're buzzing 👍