bottletopburly

Hi I think I’m good now hopefully, having the steeltrack I could adjust the focuser to allow for side to side error on secondary mirror, I re spotted the primary as that was a good 6mm off centre and hopefully that sorted it once skies clear I can have a better look at the results.

I’m in 👍

What difference is the D50 database?

Apt ,Beta 4.17 now available , platesolve3 is now incorporated and it solves very quick, faster than Astap and thought that was quick , easy to setup 5gb download though . https://astrophotography.app/betaversion.php

I think Nikons are harder / more work involved in modding Nikons ,

Thanks david 👍

+1 for Astap

Had anyone upgraded their Newtonian scope mine is (a sw200pds /badder steeltrack) to a cateseye system if so do you think it was worth doing and what tools did you buy to do so there is quite an array of tools and find their site quite confusing with different tools and upgrades or a la carte .

I suppose I could use an Airfix model decal , RAF or swazstika 🤣

Does anyone sell a centre spot @FLO showing cateseye spot unavailable

In my quest to feed my collimating ocd after endless hours collimating my 200pds and couldn’t quite get final collimation just measured centre spot and it isn’t central would marking centre of mirror with a black marker pen be ok ? I have been using an Ocal and spent hours recentering secondary , tweaking steeltrack focuser so secondary as as central as I can get it , seems it’s the primary donut throwing things out or should I just align the primary mirror outer in Ocal and use Ocal centre crosshairs to align Ocal camera sensor and ignore donut ?.

Sw200pds zwo533mc L Extreme filter 3hrs on Thors Helmet 1 hr on ngc 2438

Sad news indeed Rip John 🫡

Help need before i go stir crazy , scope is a 200pds ,fitted with a baader steeltrack focuser , now i inputted ocal camera focus code into text file ,for the life of me i cannot align the primary edge and get the donut centred at the same time ,see pictures , ive alinged focuser tube using the off set , aligned secondary etc but for the life of me i can not get the primary aligned , checked with a collimation cap and i can see the clips are equal but donut slightly out , inserted concentre and donut bang on , though outer edge of primary looks slightly out through concentre corresponding to what i see in the Ocal ,so how can i get the primary to look centred and the Donut to centre at the same time secondary with primary blocked Primary edge

disable anti virus temporarily i hate norton

Well your stars look better than my baader mk3 cc but my collimatiion may not be helpful, I’ve an Ocal on the way and I’ve reverted back to m42 thread as spacing on the m48 was doing my head in (using a 533mc, 200pds ) fitting an apeture mask over primary does help , but hopefully fingers crossed 🤞 I’m getting there slowly ,fitted a third Ota ring, fan and stronger springs, steeltrack, DSD autofocuser , debating wether to fit an OAG which I may do at some point though need to be happy with cc and collimation first . Btw does your cc protrude into ota ?

If you use a skywatcher cc you can have it turned down a bit so it goes into the focuser deeper thus racking focuser out further , Astrobloke did it to his 130pds

Ngc 3079 and Twin quasar QSO 0957+561 A/B) 200pds ,zwo533mc approx 6hrs , twin quasar ringed yellow 7.8 billion light years away 🤩

Apt is really simple , most programs use ASTAP for platesolving, be aware Astap doesn’t like trailing stars so 4-6 sec exposures work better, make sure you set focal length in tools menu or Astap will not solve anything, try pointing at mars or Jupiter to find rough focus as if your out of focus you should be able to see some sort of shadow on screen so you can focus in on stars ,once focused hold shift and press Goto button in gear tab this brings a box up at bottom you can send mount to celestial equator then take an image and platesolve don’t solve near Polaris.

Here’s how mines set at

What mount , are you using Eqmod ? What pulse guide rates have yet set them at , if on default 0.1 set to at least 0.7 for both .

High frame rates at usb3 need to be within 2m in my experience I have a zwo585 mc if you crack it let me know.

If your light pollution is bad in Manchester then consider going mono Chuck on a Ha filter capture that single band add on filter wheel and filter later on a look on astrobin will Chuck up images with this setup

Two nights on Orion Nebula framing changed on the second night sadly leaving a smaller fov approx 4hrs ,30 sec subs zwo533mc cls filter, 200pds

I’d bear in mind if using usb3 you really need pc to be close to mount if using high frame rates within 2m thats what I’ve learnt using a zwo 585mc .