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knobby

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Posts posted by knobby

  1. On 10/05/2021 at 09:57, MichaelMan said:

    Hi all
    Finally had chance to use my RedCat51 to target a nebula. 
    From my location I'm limited to FOV roughly 40 deg above horizon due to surrounding houses, and only NW to NE. 
    Friday was not looking good, so I didn't bother setting anything up (weather app was showing ok from 9PM but I stopped trusting them long time ago 😉 ) but around 23:00 I looked outside and was stunned how nice was the sky. 
    So decided better late then never, and started setting everything up, once all was set up and polar aligned guess what, thick clouds rolled in, I decided to wait, and about 30 min later it cleared, so I started shooting. 
    Didn't manage to get any calibration frames but I'm pretty happy with the result. 

    46x 240s lights with dithering, no calibration frames 
    ASI533 and Optolong L-Extreme which I believe helped a lot, I'm in bortle 5/6 
    Stacked, and initial stretch and processing in SIRIL, and some corrections in PS and LR
     

    IC1396 - HA v1-2.jpg

    Very nice.

    • Thanks 1
  2. 1 hour ago, Doberamus said:

    Hmm. Tried bringing the guidecam through the USB hub on the imaging camera but Astrophotography tool would only recognise one or the other. This may need more working out...

    APT only needs to see the imaging camera. It's PHD2 that needs to see the guide camera.

    • Like 1
  3. Stack the RGB separately in DSS but on the first colour ( any one ) choose the best frame and right click it then select use as reference.

    Probably something similar in Siril.

    Easiest way I've found to combine the images afterwards is to open all 3 in Photoshop then in channels choose combine and select the correct colour for each channel.

    Our own @carastro has a link on her website that shows this nicely.

    https://youtu.be/Qz3JVSZb90Q

    • Like 1
  4. It's a fine balancing act ! But yes, long edge to long edge as you need to get the guide cam as far into the image circle as possible.

    Flats will hopefully remedy a slight shadow from the stalk 🤞🏻

    You can try binning the guide camera as it should improve sensitivity and possibly improve star shape to guide on.

    • Like 1
  5. You should be able to loosen the large grub screws on top then slowly and carefully adjust the small grub screws on the sides ... Search for Astro baby HEQ5 service on Google - she explains it really well with pictures.

    • Like 1
  6. Hi Lee, early days but it seems way better with the sprung set up (to be fair, that's how SW designed it )

    It's only a tweak of the locking nut needed to make sure it has free travel so easy to change back.

    I used https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucas-Oil-10533-3676/dp/B004X70LZA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2XLA51IVXF6N5&dchild=1&keywords=white+lithium+grease&qid=1617799700&sprefix=white+lithium%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-5

    The stiffness on mine was the collar on the RA bearings screwed down too tight.

    image.png.5c1a24f69ee0b56af264632e18d68a15.png

    Don't sweat too much though as even with this loose it still isn't free enough to balance the mount 😞 but with careful adjustment it gets a lot smoother.

     

     

    • Thanks 1
  7. Over the weekend, I stripped and cleaned mine ( I had been using it with the fixed worm - HEQ5 style as in adjusted as best as possible) adjusted the spring movement to be free but not loose.

    Scrubbed all the grease and debris from the gears and lightly lub'd with lithium grease.

    More than happy on  the 90 minute test on Sunday night !

    Had spells of sub 1arc second for 3 or 4 minutes  - overall for the 90 mins was 1.67.

    Going to try upping the guide rate to 0.9 (defaults to 0.75 in synscan app) to give Dec a chance to react next time.

     

    PXL_20210404_201946772.jpg

    • Like 1
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