alan potts

Sorry I have no idea, original Lumicon are generally sort after, I am not sure they are what they once were. I used Astronomik's myself which are as good i believe, don't think you would go wrong with Aastronomik's, FLO sells them and I see good feed-back. Alan

Don't know why but my computer will not allow me to go to that site, Alan

I am not sure if it is still available but the 26mm Nagler would be my choice, I have owned all these eyepieces and feel the 31mm is a touch too long, though you do have a long focal length, if you really want a low power and you have dark skies then 31mm would be nice, I used a 41mm in my SC though it is a meter longer. Alan

I personally found an Ultra High Contrast filter was best on M42, I have used it in most of my scopes but now do not have one as I tend to use scopes for photography over visual. Alan

As good as any I have seen, excellent capture. Alan

Interesting what you say Peter, I feel I may not have given the L EnHance a fair trial and was too again considering the Extreme. I acted too soon and wish I have tried some mixed stacking, with and without. I didn't much like the effect of filter only at all. I am not badly off for LP but I do have a LED glow to the SE from the towns 4 miles away. All other directions are completely clean Alan

I very recently bought and tried the Optolong L Enhance which is a tri-band filter on my setup here but trust me I am no expert on these filters and there are many better people on site. Now I am in a better situation to being anywhere near Bristol which must be very large now. Yes this did give darker subs though I was looking at the filter from a different view point, IE not how good it was as an LP filter. I sold the filter on after 3 weeks as I did not like the images it produced, sadly I have dumped the data so can't show you what I mean, the image were just not to my personal taste. I do however feel I may have acted too quick with the sale as I should have tried a mix of with and without. I am now strongly considering the Extreme dual band filter from them to have another go. Reading the info this will without doubt cut all LP issues as it only allows a pass at H alpha and Olll and basically nothing else. Alan

As I said I couldn't read what type of file it was but the APT just didn't open at all and kept trying to find the file time and time again Error showing with the message. Once I closed it all setting for camera dither etc were gone, Two times now, it's annoying. I think I will uninstall the program and then re- install it. Its work fine for ages, just don't understand it. Alan

Thanks Dave, never thought about the flattener, of course I can rotate the whole lot no matter what I have in place. I can do it on the Borg too. The one thing I struggle with is how to do them properly. I know a good while back you looked at a flat of mine and said they were way too light. I read something last night about using the histogram, I must experiment with this to find out the correct exposure, I have a good light box so setting it up is not difficult. Some how I got into my head with dithering you don't need them, wrong again. Alan

I have APT on my laptop and it has been there with various updates for about 3 years and worked very well. The last two night is has failed to load saying a file cannot be located, now I can't say which because I could not read it a I didn't have my glasses. The upshot is all setting are lost completely, it's damn annoying. Anyone had similar or have any idea what it may be. Alan

Three nights on the bounce, rare in England at this time of year. I often get it out here but weather has turned. Last night I had hazy cloud everywhere i wanted to be. Alan

I am past worry with Borg, reading about them drives me mad. I banged in the 20mm spacer and a 4mm Borg spacer as well as the first piece on the camera which is 11mm, so as you said the chip is recessed 6.5mm. I think the 4mm spacer brings the mounting ring level with the back edge of the last element of the reducer. All in all I have about 36.5mm which seems to bang on the money, I have 0.3 and 0.5mm shims to fine tune but it looks OK. I may well have mis-read the 55mm back focus at some point in the past. Someone on site told me it should be 37mm and it appear he was correct. Many thanks, Alan

Now that turned out really nice, do like these wide shots. Alan

Really need to know what type of lighting you are having problems with as they require different filters. I have a small LED light issue from the town 4 miles away, for this I need the IDAS LPS D2, I am considering buying one in the next couple of days. Orange street light require a different filter I believe. Alan

I guess reading what you say I do, in truth I have forgotten what does what Tony, I do put a dark in the stack every time but was blissfully unaware that as you point out Dither has a great affect on hot pixel and the like. Must try to do a set. My trouble is i am always turning the camera to fit things in, like last night, made a start on the Soul but had to turn the camera to get it all, this would mean I would require another set of Flats. Do you need both dark and lighter flats, or is that something else I have mixed up, too much rakia is my problem. Alan

I do have a bit of LP to the south east from the LED's in town which is 4 miles away. A fair bit of this data was shot with as much as first quarter and a day after. Alan

Lovely shot Dave can see the improvement over my effort. I dither between shots so don't bother with flats. I know I should but I haven't really pulled off taking a decent set. We had this conversation a fair while ago. Mine were ways too dark I think it was and you gave me help and told me what to do. The trouble is I am often changing things about and as you know new flats are needed every time. Must give it try though. I mounted the Borg on the scope the other day so I will be doing a run of data with that scope, weather has other idea though. Take care, Alan

I do find it interesting just how many different versions you can get from the same data, some of the others got brown lanes in that I couldn't you have more purple in there that I didn't really see at all, even though I always have a play with colours individually Thank for have a go, very nice image too. Alan

I used an 800mm APO, at it's native focal length, I do sometimes use it with a reduce which drops it to 635mm but I seem to get some odd flare from it that ruins the captures. It comes from a LED that is about 100m away, it use to be covered by a very large walnut tree, but they cut it down. I have tried an extended lens hood which seems to help but pointing south is off the menu now. Alan

Yes they do pull rabbits out of hats, some people like Olly are truly exceptional but also very modest about their skill. Alan

This is the trouble with Borg, a million parts and ways to put them together. I found something last night where he had excellent results using 38.3mm on a specific camera. I know I bought a 20mm spacer for this to get a certain distance and a 0.3mm and 0.5mm spacer. I wish I had written down what I did. I must have a play and try things out, it is clear tonight and the moon is a bit too big so ideal time really to mess. Thanks for you input, Alan

I know about Gradiient, I am just a little reluctant to use cards on the Net to buy things. Alan

A nice rendition, softer, I find it interesting how even using the same tools how it's never the same twice. You have managed a lot more with the dust than me, I may try colour select and lift it a bit, that the thing you can do it over and over again, shot 3 more hours last night though guiding early on was not the best, had to dump 6-7 frames Alan

Well, that's different. I use PS and don't have anything else apart from more clear skies that the Uk. As for being a beginner, really, I think we in the most part we are, though there are some really top rate astro-photographers on SGL some of the stuff we see posted is truely stunning. Great image and thanks for having a go, I have just shot another 3 hours. Bed time, Alan

Thanks Andrew it is an odd one as I knew this and put 55mm into the mix accounting for the recessed chip, the correct spacers come with the two Zwo cameras I have but for what ever reason it don't work with this. I have checked on line, not that there is much info on these scopes and it states 55mm. As said a member I think said it needed to be 37mm, I was rather hoping he would see this. I should have written it down, if I have a bit of time later maybe I will use the search engine to see if I can dig it out. Alan