knobby

They're all nice but I think I prefer the original Ha.

No worries and good luck, it could also explain why Pleiades (straight up) was ok but Orion ( low in South) had the issue maybe .

When I had my star adventurer mini, I'm pretty sure I had a bad area on the drive gear, not sure if you can do this on the non mini but maybe try running the motor for a while with saddle disengaged then tighten up again so you are using a different area of the drive mesh ?

Polar align would be a straight line error, tracking rate would also be straight ... I'd say check for balance, cable snags, wind, shutter bounce etc

Nice, it really does dig it's claws in doesn't it ... Astrophotography, rewarding, frustrating, amazing, but never dull !

Too many cookies over the festive period ... What's new ? 😅

Get the star adventurer counterweight/shaft and an M12 to M8 adaptor. £25 ish Check this thread

Thanks to @souls33k3r and Pixinsight, Ahmud managed to reduce the voilet around the brighter stars which I couldn't quite sort with Photoshop

I think he also said that it is our duty to let others without scopes see through ours 😅 Glad you shared Alan 👍

Really like that, lovely star colours too

Hi all, my second attempt at imaging over multiple nights, captured 60 mins Ha and a couple of 5 mins on Oiii and Sii on Christmas evening, then added more Oii and Sii on the 30th Total of 60 mins Ha 25 mins Sii and 30 mins Oiii Hubble mapped - SII,Ha,OIII = R,G,B. The Oiii data was very noisy but I'm fairly happy overall, also the ZWO Oiii filter caused a massive ring around Alnitak when stretched ! Comments welcome, I know it needs more data and I will need to learn to be more patient but the year is running out 🙂 Thanks for looking and have a good 2020.

The calibration is looking to see the direction of star movent and amount ... It needs that to know how to correct any drift in tracking . You can calibrate anywhere within reason but ideally you want to be aiming approx 45 degrees up and south ish as a very general rule of thumb. You need to be polar aligned first then try calibration.

I may be wrong but if you are set up indoors, then how are you sure it's not moving ? PHD calibration is only a very small movement ... Not sure you'd notice the mount even moving ?

Really nice image, looks lovely.

Hi, I bought Mrs Knobby a very cheap unbranded supermarket special one Christmas Eve long long ago - 60 X 700 frac on awful mount ! But she loved seeing Jupiter and Saturn then the moon ... Then after a week it became ' is that all, what else can it do ' and interest waned . Being into photography I tried to connect my DSLR and managed a dodgy moon shot and I was hooked. After researching this time and giving it some thought ( 😒 ) I still bought the wrong scope , a 150 Dob ! It did open my eyes to DSO and saw M42 properly for the 1st time. I was more into planets though and wanted more mag / power so bought and sold a bit and got the wrong scope again ... A 250 Dob.😅 Really annoying for visual high power planetary ... Nudge, nudge, nudge 😟. Next was a Skywatcher 127 Mak on an EQ5 and hacked webcam 👍 possibly my first properly informed purchase, this had me hooked on planetary imaging. Then aperture fever kicked in and went Skywatcher 150 Mak which was a bit much for the EQ5 so more selling and piling up birthday / Christmas money ended up finding the C8 edge / AVX that I still have now. Along the way I got into DSO imaging with a William optics Zenithstar 71 but after damaging shoulder I couldn't lift the AVX so Mrs Knobby got me an AZ-GTI (coz she's lovely) but the little mount wasn't quite up to the Zenithstar so my last / most recent change was a Skywatcher 72 ED which is great on the AZ-GTI. So, the moral is ... There are no wrong scopes / poor decisions, just milestones along the learning curve 👍

There is a thread about the 72ED and flatteners here somewhere, but I'm pretty sure that combo works, especially if it's a new 72ED as the tube length has been shortened by 10mm Edit - added link

I like it, maybe as you suggest rotate camera or crop slightly but I like it anyway

I haven't used flats as yet ( I let gradient Xterminator do it's stuff) I know I should but just haven't yet. I found this thread useful however

Agreed, I pointed mine down when I tightened it, so gravity helped keep it straight 😅

Sorry Gavin, wasn't sure of your mount ... Thought it was AZ GTi, I believe there is only the one version available. Hopefully someone local to you will be bored over Christmas and lend you a hand controller / cable to try flashing that way. Are you near any dealers that might be able to help ? Really hope you get sorted .

Not sure which mount but can you try different baud rates on WiFi ? Maybe try turning other WiFi off in case interference ? Also, maybe try a different level of firmware - maybe update to new but not newest ?

I used one of these https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-click-lock-2-for-celestron-meade-sct.html and then 2" adaptors on my C8 edge to get spacing correct but thats for 105 mm.

Visual, imaging or a mix ? edit - just re read post 😞 you want both ! A bit wacky but in the absence of any other suggestions how about an AZ- Gti / SW 127 for planets / Lunar https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html (£445) and a 200 Dob for DSO https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html (£289) just over budget Then look out for a solar filter on classifieds maybe. edit 2 - don't forget the Az-Gti can work in EQ mode for DSO imaging dabbling.

Hi Ryan, went through this myself when I went narrowband a few months back, it's more like art than science ... I didn't use a lum just Ha Oii and Sii. Aligned in DSS usung best frame as reference to align the 3 colours, then put into Photoshop and created new RGB image from the 3 channels. Then much stretching and balancing to my eye trying to match backgrounds as best as possible. Then colour tweaks as in this post - Good luck and keep at it !

Don't think I've ever seen an untracked M31 image before ... Nicely done.