michael8554

Hi Stuart The cheap but irritating solution would be to slightly defocus. Until Venus appears as a circle slightly larger than the crosshairs. Michael

Hi Leti To my eyes the stars appear to be elongated everywhere in the whole image. Since the exposure was 90 seconds I'd say it's RA tracking. or Polar Alignment error. Is that elongation in RA or Dec or both ? Try a short exposure and stretch it, to see if it's the mount or the optics. Michael

Hi Stefan "My guiding is generally alright (around 0.4 - 0.6 RMS " But are RA and Dec figures similar, and smaller than your pixel scale ? If not you may have elongated stars. Do the subs with elongation correspond to when "DEC on PHD2 goes nuts" ? You could post the PHD2 GuideLog. Michael

"The back focus of the Antares X0.63 FR is i guess, 55mm." Many FRs have a BF of 55mm, which means they can screw straight onto a DSLR via a M42 T-Adapter. But these Antares /Meade/Celestron lookalikes have SCT threads, and are maybe 105mm or maybe 85mm BF, but IMO I don't think they will be 55mm BF. Michael

"doesn't pointing the telescope at the sun damage it? " Point the FR at the sun, not the telescope ! Only damage might be to the wall ....... 😆 Michael

Doing my own searches, the Antares may be one of the 85mm BF items Measure the focal length by focusing the sun on an outside wall. If it's about 240mm then BF is 105mm If it's about 110mm FL the BF is 85mm Michael

At the risk of rekindling an ages-long argument about the BF of Meade, Celestron, and clone FR's: The #93633-A Celestron T-Adapter SC, the T- Ring, and Canon 650d, should give you 105mm back focus. Try that and tweak by a few mm's if it's not perfect. Michael

Hi kadahl Here's what Jupiter and some of its moons should look like with your scope and the 6mm (highest magnifiying) eyepiece: Very small :-< Michael

Hi Hedlund As Stefan said, unless the focuser was right at the end of it's travel with the 450D, you shouldn't have difficulty focusing the modded 600D. The flange distance for all un-modded Canon DSLRs is 44mm. The mod only adds about 0.25mm to that. Michael

Hi Dave As a LX200GPS use I'd say the RCX is similar. But it has a USB connection as well as the time-old RS232 connection. So best bet is to post in the Meade section of the USA-based "Cloudy Nights" Forum, where several Meade experts lurk. Michael

Have a look at the info for the Petersen Eyeopener that replaces the visual back on the larger than 8" Meade SCTs " It threads onto a 3-1/4″ male thread found on the backplate of 10″, 12″ and 14″ Meade SCTs." https://petersonengineering.com/eyeopener/ It's available in the UK. Michael

I'm a Meade LX owner, but I haven't a clue what you're asking for - what's an act ? Aren't millimeters "real money" in the UK ? 86.21mm is 3.3940945 in "USA money" Michael

Hello "guy" 1. Looking at the second image, you will notice that the brighter stars are "comet shaped", one side of each star is flared. This is a defect in the lens that would never be noticed on daytime "snaps". Stopping down a lens often improves overall performance, it may improve this "coma". 2. The Orion Nebula is rich in red Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) emissions. Which are somewhat attenuated in stock DSLRs by filters in the camera that match the camera's spectral response to the human eye's response. An "Astro Modded" DSLR has one of those filters removed to give better Ha response. 3. If 2 seconds is the longest you can use without trailing, try one-higher ISO setting and see if the noise in the final stacked image is acceptable. Michael

DSLR viewfinder leakage is usually at the top of a landscape frame. Post an image of the image train. Michael

Hi Aidan The "stand" is better described as a tripod. The red-circled items are a "star diagonal" with an "eyepiece" inserted. Michael

Would need to see the PHD2 GuideLog to get the real story. Michael

Hi Doug This needs a step-by-step approach to finding the problem. 1. Mount on its own, EQMOD only , is it tracking ? 2. Connect to PHD2, loop exposures, is it still tracking ? 3. Try a PHD2 Cal, is it successful ? 4. Add other softwares until it fails. Michael

If you put the focuser between the reducer and telescope, the reducer's backfocus will change as you alter the focus ! Michael

Hi Doug Does the EQ6 Pro have PEC ? Perhaps it was enabled, and has a very poor PE correction from the factory ? Run the PHD2 Guide Assistant for a worm period. Or the RA drive is faulty Michael

My thought was: If the PHD2 setting is correct, and the EQMOD setting wrong, which one would you correct ? You don't need to make a new PHD2 Profile . PHD2 still correctly reads the guide speed that is set in the mount . But during the Cal discovers that the actual guide rates are very different, due to EQMOD. I've no idea why EQMOD needs that setting that initially catches out many users. Michael

I see you've posted on the PHD2 Help Forum 😆 Please Keep us posted. Michael

At the right price you could do worse. The Mk1 6D is indeed ancient, but still outperforms many newer cameras. Michael

As you're using EQMOD, to get more Calibration steps you should adjust the "EQMOD ASCOM PulseGuide setting", which seems to be a multiplier to the mount's guide rate setting of 12 arcsec/sec.. Don't alter the PHD2 Cal Step size. As that has been correctly calculated from the settings you entered in the wizard. Michael

I stretched the image further R=75 G=64 B=110 Is this consistent with an IR source, or just light leak ? Michael

I've done a fast-and-dirty tweak to the image in your first post: I raised Luminance a little. Blue levels were low, so I stretched blue. Finally I raised Saturation. Michael