Stargazer33

+1 for Windows update screwing things up!

Hi; yes you have definitely captured the Milky Way. It's the lighter patch running diagonally up the centre of your image. Don't worry about the garage; it adds foreground interest. 😉

Don't point it anywhere near the Sun though! If you do and look through the eyepiece, even for a split second, you could blind yourself.

I'm going to ask a very silly question now and I apologise in advance. You did do the clutch back up after moving the mount? That might explain the gears working but nothing moving.

A dew shield on an 8" sct is a must. It also blocks out any stray light. Heater tapes are good for those really bad nights, but this requires another power supply.

So sorry to hear of your loss. It's very hard to say goodbye to a beloved pet. Harry - my avatar - died seven years ago now. We still have his sister, Phoebe, who has recently turned twenty. We content ourselves with the hope that we give our pets better lives than they had before they came to stay with us - all our cats over the years have come from the Cats Protection League. 

Maybe there is a new asterism in the sky called Ed the Astronomy Dog!

What micro focuser do you have? Did you follow instructions provided with your focuser? Have you looked on your focuser manufacturers website for guidance? 

Wow! Albedo detail on the moons with an 8" 'scope! I'd take my hat off to you sir, if I was wearing one. 🎩

Displaying in 256 colours goes back to the old days of computing when the screens displayed a maximum of 256 colours only. You couldn't get the subtle variations that you get now; therefore if your picture went from black to light blue, you would see each new colour in the gradient as a separate band, rather like your image. Hence my observation. 

Can you set the colour depth on your camera; or, are you importing your images into your processing software in a low colour depth? Even 8bit colour depth should give better gradients than your image above is displaying. 

Do you mean the circular colour banding? It looks like low colour depth. As though it's displaying in 256 colours only. Other than that I can't see any anomalies. 

If it's not colour depth, then a previous owner may have tried to clean the sensor with a poor outcome! Have you tried taking a frame without a lens attached to see what you get?

Do you mean a QHY5L II camera? Mine didn't come with a lens, just the extension tube, parfocal ring and rubber spacing washer, in addition to the cables. 

If it is indeed a lens, then you will need to remove it before fitting the camera to the 'scope. Yes it does go into the focuser in place of an eyepiece. 

You can use the extension tube and parfocal ring to match focus with an eyepiece so that you can switch between the two.  The extension tube also helps if you don't have enough back focus on your focuser.

HTH

That shows up very well. There's quite a dynamic range there and I think your camera has coped very well.

Taken from our back garden at about midnight Friday 17/Saturday 18.

EQUIPMENT:  Canon 1100D modified by Juan Fierros at Cheap Astrophotography, Canon 70-210mm f4 EF lens @ 140mm, Hoya HMC UV(c) filter, CLS EOS clip-in filter, Static tripod (Slick88).

11 x 4" frames manually stacked in PS CS4 using a new Exclusion layer for each stacked frame. Then levels; curves; Exposure; Filter - HLVG; Filter - Gaussian Blur; Hue/Saturation;  Colour Balance; Channel Mixer, to name but a few!

I had to do a manual stack as DSS didn't seem to be able to recognise the stars, reporting back that only one frame would be stacked?

I used buck converters for my on 'scope power distribution box as in my post here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/324955-new-power-distribution-box/?tab=comments#comment-3568709

Probably not a good idea showing the reorder number. You never know who's watching! 

I wish I could do a belt mod on my CGEM as the backlash is horrible and as for the noise! I've turned the custom slew rate right down to keep the mount as quiet as possible for the neighbours. I'm going to do a DIY hypertune soon to try to improve both problems. I've got all the bearings; now I just need the grease, wet and dry, IPA etc. and to make a couple of pin spanners and I'm good to go.

Is your handset not the Nexstar+ version? If so you need to hold down the Celestron button (bottom left) and the Menu button (above the Celestron button).

Just saw this as we sat down after finishing clearing a patch of ground at the mother-in-law's:

You could remove half of the existing roof and then build a roll over roof section that rolls back over the remaining half roof. Put an upstand at the new edge of the existing roof for weatherproofing.

Nice shed btw.

Although this image was taken on a CGEM mount, it was taken with a Skywatcher Startravel 80, manually focused and no coma corrector. 50 x 90" lights, calibrated with darks and flats. Polar alignment was waaay off (I was setting up/testing other things)!

Ditto, came off FB years ago. Only joined because the dive club had a members page with info, dates, resources etc. This and CN are the only social media sites I belong to.

Do appropriate the post though. I'm sure there are lots of members who will be very interested.

Yeay, a spot! At least you can get your kit out and in quickly! 😳🤭 Takes me at least 30 - 40 minutes (must start planning for an obsy).

I might try and have a go at this tomorrow. As someone else said in another post, it will give me something to focus the 'scope on!

Nothing of the sort! You have a good starting point. We all change/upgrade our kit over time. Use what you have and learn your craft. Then later when you feel the time is right, upgrade. Your experience will then reap benefits from the more advanced kit.

Okay so it was actually four years ago! 😲

I did this a couple of years ago. 

Have a look at my post here: 

On 26/05/2020 at 07:46, newbie alert said:

If that's with the locking ring still in place then your whole taper bearing is shifted down..

Which one is it, the DEC axis that uses the RA shaft or visa versa?

It's the dec axis. The picture is of the bottom (counterweight shaft end). It's the other end I can't undo; under the saddle.