SteveNickolls

There's something special about a monochrome image and galaxies that ticks lots of boxes. Well done :-) Cheers, Steve

Ahh, the more down the techhie slope you venture the more susceptable to outages you become. Seriously I hope you have better luck next time out. Cheers, Steve

You are in the right location happy-kat, the green object is M97 I would say going by the nearby stars patterns and the spindle shaped object is a likely M108 (Surfboard galaxy). Stellarium shows Tuttle to be nearby but perhaps just out of frame. Don't know the time of your imaging. Well done anyway. Can I ask the details of the imaging? Cheers, Steve

Thanks for confirming the capability of the mount Ken for alt-az work. I know what you mean about loud slewing and being outside at night time. Good luck with the AVX by the way. Cheers, Steve

Thanks so much for your account of the mount's tracking over an imaging period Ken, it's such a difficult point to establish without user feedback and the little foibles that can creep in now and again. I'm interested in what you've said about the battery performance issue you experienced as being battery powered was a plus point for the mount, adding to its potential for portability. I'm pleased you think a recharge between sessions would be ok for it, that's good news. I've got similar issues with balancing with the SkyWatcher Synscan alt-az mount and my telescope set up is quite back heavy but as this season I've been mostly imaging with just with a camera and lens (no telescope) that has not been an issue to resolve immediately. I ought to get a longer dovetail for when I do go back to using the telescope. Can I ask what exposure lengths you have managed to get with your Evo set up Ken? I find my SkyWatcher Synscan is ok to around 60 seconds for favorably positioned objects and returns very high percentages of frames acceptable to use in DSS. At 70 seconds the mount's design starts to let it down and the percentage of stackable frames plummets. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Without going back deep into the thread can you tell me how long you were able to sustain tracking with the EVO mount on your imaging sessions? Cheers, Steve

I too will miss your posts and contributions Ken and wish you every success in the future with the EQ mount. You have certainly learnt a lot with your 'umble alt-az mount and left a legacy for others yet to come on the thread. Best regards, Steve

I do feel for your plight happy-kat, this weather is making imaging nigh on impossible right now but we've got to stick at it and be ready for when the clear nights do materialise. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, I'd add to the list with lack of clear night skies and age. I'm sure you will surmount this hurdle. Good luck. Best regards, Steve

Blimy, you need ARP Warden Hodges from 'Dads Army' to, "put that light out". Keeping on the military theme you deserve a medal putting up with that streetlight! Good luck imaging. Steve

Hi happy-kat, Well done for even getting outside and having a stab at imaging. The weather since the end of September last year has been the poorest since I started records in 2012. I keep hoping the balance will return soon so we can all get out and image. Your mention of gradient and light pollution in your image of NGC 2244 struck a chord and of course when we image using our Alt-Az equipment we are limited to the altitude we can image to meaning we get the brunt of the light pollution. While I couldn't see any clear sky a few night's ago I took a photo of how the mist made the the light pollution spilling of the local church below us visible, this is half a second at ISO 400- They can't even seem to illuminate the spire accurately! Some nights the church looks as if it is on fire. The top of the spire is around 180 feet high and the light shaft goes up quite a long way above that. The church is due East. I took another photo of the southern sky on the 13th February, two second image at ISO 400 and where Orion ought to be- Once again good for you having a go imaging in the present conditions! Cheers, Steve

Sorry to hear that, it is around the same here, I can usually see to Mag 4.3. My only occasions for observing/imaging at darker sites are on family holidays when it's a pleasure to get to see the Milky Way. Good luck with your 16"-er and do keep posting! Cheers, Steve

Just the job shows what a large objective can do; do you have a good, dark sky? Cheers, Steve

You lucky, lucky thing. All the very best with the build. Cheers, Steve

I wouldn't underestimate the value of somewhere permanent to have your equipment set up and ready at relatively short notice to take advantage of weather breaks etc. Ken. It would lead naturally on to EQ imaging especially as you can initially spend time getting accurate polar alignment with the gear in the observatory to save repeated set up's from afresh each session. Good luck with the mini pc too. Best regards, Steve

Hey Nigel, Way to go-you got a the mention on the Astro Imaging Channel for your mosaic-great going! Light under a bushel :-) Cheers, Steve

And still not a further word from Admin/Mods, do you think they have fallen asleep? Such a shame not wanting to help us advance Alt-Az imaging when it is so popular a thread. Not to end on a sour note-100 pages is grand going! Cheers, Steve

You've really captured a lot of colour and detail in your Christmas Tree Nebula/Cone Nebula image Ian, your camera is sensitive in the red. Nige, I do admire your mosaic - do keep it growing! Cheers, Steve

Hi Shaun, Well done with the images, If you try out StarTools for your processing you can bin the image and help hide the eggy stars quite a lot and as Nige mentions also use the software to repair coma affected stars :-) Cheers, Steve

Hi Shaun, Thanks for the post and image-well done, I bet you are well pleased with it :-) I'm intrigued how you are finding your mount, I understand it has dual encoders allowing you to manually move the pointing without affecting alignment? Essentially an big step improvement on the Synscan Alt-Az I'm using. Have you tried to get longer exposures from the mount yet? With the Synscan I have been able to get 60 second exposures for objects well placed with regards to field rotation to the East and West. Beyond 60 seconds (I've tried at 70) the build limitations of the mount start to be noticed easily and a lot of exposures can't be used because of trailing. You do get a lot from the SkyWatcher equipment for little outlay. Recently I've been experimenting with a 85mm f1.8 lens on the mount but some nice clear nights would be good to have to be able to report something back :-) Good luck in the future and keep those posts coming in! We have a good bunch of enthusiastic people contributing to this thread all proving you can image with an Alt-Az mount. Best regards, Steve

Thanks Ken for showing what perseverance can bring, or is it a warning not to repeat as it is so difficult? I have an old 9.25" stored away and often wondered if it will ever see the light of day. Is your 'scope able to take a Hyperstar? Cheers, Steve

I'd say have a go and see how it turns out Ken, there's really not much to lose. There's been so many poor nights of late so take the chances as you can. I've also set up (like I did last night but fell foul of cloud) in case it stays clear-ish later. I'd like to play with the 85mm lens and its f values then again imaging the Rosette again without the semi-apo filter would be worth doing. We've had clear sky all day but it's clouding over now. Good luck. Steve

Hi Ian, Ahh, you know my perchant for dark backgrounds even when they shouldn't be there. I'll have more plays with ST's and see what other rabbits it can pull out of the hat :-) Best regards, Steve

Hi Ken, Thanks for this. I'm finding StarTools' modules can perform near miracles with even iffy data, even to making colours much brighter/better than they deserve to be and cleaning up the background too which is my pet 'thing'. I'm pleased with the filter for it's light pollution reduction capabilities and if I had more opportunities I would want to do a comparison without the filter. I have yet to use it with the achromat teelscope for its full capability, just a question of not many decent nights right now. With the Rosette I'm aiming across miles of urban light pollution which the filter is taking out judging by the darker RAW's. At ISO 800 the histogram was showing a peak below a quarter but a clear disconnect from the LHS edge. In February last year I imaged the same target with the camera through the telescope (500mm) and found the target filled the FOV, at 300mm it is better proportioned. There was greater detail in the more magnified shot. Cheers, Steve

Coming along well with your modded camera Nige. 80° . Good grief, what sort of exposures were you using to keep field rotation in check? Ian Blimy Nige, I'm being far too conservative (again) with altitudes and exposures, thanks for showing the way. Cheers, steve