michael8554

Put a 2" parfocal ring on the CC, so that the focuser screws are biting on the wider diameter part of the CC. Michael

Hi Raul "I have followed the tutorials " This one from the PHD2 guys ? https://openphdguiding.org/PHD2_BestPractices_2019-12.pdf See the link to EQMOD settings I hope that helps. Michael

Sorry about that..... The triangle of stars at 1 o'clock from Arcturus on Jim's image is visible in Starduke's image. Michael

Hi Michael I don't have an EQ Platform, so I'd guess: Google the Latitude for where you are. Let's say it's 40N. With the base level, set the tilt angle to 90-40 = 50. Alternatively: Point north. With the scope tube parallel to the tilted plate. Alter the tilt until you can see Polaris in the finder, then with increasing mag eyepieces. Close enough for Visual use. Or finally there's online info for the Watchhouse EQ platform. Michael

Glad you got it sorted. As Louis D said, a common problem is the potentiometer failing. Dew gets on the carbon track, plus the wiping action of rotation, wears the track away. Michael

Hi oldtimer Daughter of Chaos ? Should be fun....... Michael

"my damn DSLR's sensor took the knock and was giving me black n white sub exposures only!?" Are you sure it's faulty ? Did you De-Bayered ? Michael

Hi Ryan I would expect PHD2 to have put up a warning about the Cal ? Along the lines of "RA and Dec rates differ" and "Cal too high in Dec" Cal at +/- 20 degrees of Dec = 0 if possible. But if PHD2 accepted the Cal, then you're good to go with a GA run. Michael

Here's your jpeg image with a bit of stretch: I can only see 5 stars in the image, they seem round enough. I loaded it into DSS and it found 3 stars with star detection threshold set to 8%, FWHM = 4, score 19.53 And 15 stars at 7%, which I'd say will be mostly hot pixels, so not a good setting for stacking. I took about 30 x 4minute exposures of The North American Nebula with a modded DSLR. And those 2 hours of exposure needed heavy stretching to bring out the nebula. You'll need to choose much much brighter targets. Michael

Hi powerlord Is that some kind of advanced-concept focus mask ? Michael

Rule-of-thumb is to focus the sun on a flat surface with just the FR, to roughly measure the focal length of the Reducer. Some figures that most seem to agree on : 210mm FL, Back Focus is about 105mm. 105mm FL, Back Focus is about 85mm. Adjust for best corner star shapes. I posted the spec sheet for the f/3.3 on April 3rd. Michael

At this stage of development I expect they'll be more than happy if it reaches orbit. The flight plan seems to allow for safe "disposal" if any of the soft-landing manoeuvres go wrong. No payload ? Maybe a Cybertruck ? Michael

1000mm focal length is in Off Axis Guider (OAG) territory. Michael

The orbit looks to be E-W, rather than an inclined one that might take it near the UK. Powered soft splashdown just south of the Hawaiian Islands, which are almost due west of the launch site. https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=273481 Michael

Hi Francis Your stacks have pixel trails, due to less than optimum stacking settings. "Images must have same dimensions" Are you trying to stack images with different bit-depths ? Michael

Like any broken clock, it shows the correct time twice a day....... 😆 Michael

I like the replica Harrison H3 clock, I have an H5 on my keyring, a bit more portable..... Non-working Science Museum momento of course ! Michael

Hi Bob Need to see an example to decide the best technique. But I'd think the Clone tool, to replace the bunnies with adjacent areas of background. You could use the Curves tool to crush the blacks until the bunnies disappear into the black. Then raise the black to 20 to 30%, but the background would look unrealistic then. Michael

6D has even bigger pixels, which is why I use one on my 1400mm FL scope. Michael

500mm FL and 5.36um pixels gives an image scale of 2.21arsec/pixel, which is probably Undersampling,. If your Netherlands "Seeing" is similar to the UK. I expect others will disagree..... ! Michael

Hi Ray It's not the ISO that "blew out the sky", it was the length of the exposure. Stick on ISO800 and reduce the exposure length. Michael

"I've always avoided OAG's as my set up is not permanently set up and I have enough on my plate to get things going without going down that rabbit hole!🤪" If you store the OAG with both cameras mounted, then it becomes a plug-and-play item, no setup required. And the 1200mm FL of the 250PDS is crying out for an OAG, but I appreciate the "sideways" configuration might cause other problems. Michael

Hi Ray The 600D is known for banding, and the 550D is the same camera, but without the swivel screen. But a much darker band is unusual. What ISO ? The dust bunnies are very defocused, so are not on the sensor IMO. Michael

Hi Tris Post on the LX200GPS Forum, many experts there: https://groups.io/g/LX200GPS/topics GPS needs to be turned off first in the menus, then power-cycled, before manually entering time and date. Otherwise there's interaction between the GPS and the manual setting. Michael

Yes sounds like a plan. To save changing cameras: If you rotate just the suspect camera 90 degrees and the left side still has the higher figures then it's the camera. Michael