alan potts

Sorry to hear that, I know what it's like losing things like caps, Lost the cap for the 24mm Pan, looked everywhere, it was on another eyepiece with the cap for that eyepiece inside. However this must dramatically affect the value of the scope, I offer you a tenner😀. Alan

Good luck, past their best now but still doable from here and I am a bit north of you maybe 6-7 degrees. Alan

The star right at the bottom of shot is really red and I don't feel I have over saturated the image. Alan

I had a play for 10 mins last night after I had enough and unchecked this tag on encoders, it found every star smack middle full length of Cygnus, I know this is not far. Then think I selected Mirach and there was nothing. However having just checked the spelling so as to not come across as totally thick, I am far from sure I selected Mirach now as it is clear orange on the chart and the star I picked was white and smaller, so it could be working, will check later. Great when you can say that, only the 27th clear day this month. Alan

Even though I had no idea these were there I feel with a bit more data, (2-3hrs) and another capture next to this of the same and mosaiced there is a decent image to be had. Alan

Hammer time then 😀. I am not sure it was as it was on the Dec, maybe flopping back and forth, needs to be a bit more camera heavy, it actually did it a couple of times in RA but I think that was me. I keep looking at PPEC and PEC must have a go at it sometime soon. Alan Alan

Very good indeed for one sub, were you using you scope at 805mm if so I may try it myself soon. At the moment I am having problems pointing so finding it may be difficult. Alan

After a mass of disappointing nights caused by Me and IT, which we know stands for incredible tedious, I took some shots missing the target by a fair bit but still got something of an image to post that may have been overlooked by more experienced imagers. This is 20x 4 minutes subs with the Canon 40D, minus one sub which 3 planes flew across, 3 I ask you. Shortened F/L with the reducer at something like 638mm and F5.7 I think. Guiding was superb at .35 of a second most of the time with an annoying blip every 7-8 minutes which hasn't seemed to affect the subs. So this is very near Sadr, which I cropped out due to it's size. As always rip into it with tips of how to get better, and don't say use the 071 which I have put on the shelf for when I am pointing correctly again, hopefully soon. Alan

I had one of these and never used it, sold to a member on here, he never did tell me how it performed, sort after a few years back and difficult to get hands on. Alan

In some respect I am fairly pleased you do find it terrifying, at least it isn't me, I actually am not frightened by this, don't know what 50% of it does but not not frightened. One would think things could be somewhat easier though. Maybe Stash-Old has hit the jackpot, I ticked a box about two weeks back to see what is would do, thought it would help guiding as it is in a section where such delights as PPEC sit and that means better guiding, so ticked it. Lets see no un-ticked if this was the problems. Someone said it would be something simple, me again, he was right. Alan

I have a feeling I pressed that a while back, I can check. Pointing is terrible, never found one of the 3 points I have put in and missed the next one by miles. But guiding is tops Syncéd on Vega, Altair and Saturn, I know the latter moves but it would matter for just tonight, asked to slew to Deneb, not far from Vega, agreed, missed bu further than the FOV of my SW finder which I had centred on Saturn. Right lets have a look at the encoders. BTW all those J2000 setting reset thereself to what they were. Alan

No it was saved and still is and nothing has been adjusted, this is what is so annoying, it was working with these setting very well for as long as Antares has been in the sky, it's data is still in the save, unless I remove them all on purpose but then they just came back next time, I have tried that too. As for removing points I don't know how, they just keep coming back. I set up 6 points about two months back and they just worked, pretty much everywhere, now they don't, time for the hammer I think. Alan

It is balanced a tiny bit rising side heavy, this I am told helps guiding as the AZ EQ 6 works better like this, results sugeest this is correct based on what I see. It doesn't do any of the things you suggest, wide of the correct place in a lets see how much we can annoy Alan mode. Alan

Very nice image in every way, these two here really do look like there names. Alan

I intend to buy another 70mmish scope and it will be from FLO. This will be before Oct 31st as I do not wish to incur a possible import duty as a result of political changes, no comments on this point please. I have in mind the WO 73mm ED doublet and the SW 72mm ED doublet, with just 10mm F/L between them they are much the same speed and FOV. The SW is 276 pounds and the WO is 549, a very simple question, is the William Optic worth the extra? Alan

That too is a very nice image and more in line with those posted by others, I liked the first image because it was so wide field, a different take on it so to speak. It is a target I want to image though I will have to do it in two positions to get it all in at 640mm, that is if my mount ever slews to somewhere near it, has a mind of it's own at the moment. Alan

Polaris being there don't matter I just sort of thought it would be a half decent check. I don't understand why when the PA is good and a few weeks back I slewed to Antares night after night and it was there more or less in the middle, now it's more likely to be near Spica. If anything the PA was not as good then, I've been tuning it, in Polar Drift and Drift, it was not perfect in Drift but is was very close ,1.5arc mins I think, that's nothing for guide to correct.

Quite simple, I used many times polar drift to check PA, then drift align, it was very close but not perfect, after I check the polar scope and within a tad it was where it should be, my polar scope is at least in the right place. Last night I confirmed with the polar scope purely to see if I had knocked the mount when messing about, I hadn't. This is fixed at the moment in an observatory. I know about polar and star alignment and have done it hundreds of times but don't understand why it is so far out with first slew, after a few weeks back it was bang in the same place every night, at the time I slewed to Antares as I was imaging over that way. With in a fraction the mount hasn't moved and neither has anything else as far a I can see and now it's rubbish, this is what we are trying sort why. Alan

Already done that, next I'm trying standing in a bucket. Don't want to go back to the handset, that was rubbish most of the time but I probably didn't have good PA then as it was not fixed in the observatory. Alan

Me to James, Other week, thought I would add to M15, slewed to it as the dam scope worked then, centred it and set 3 mins, enough I feel for a glob. Plane, Satellite, another, good frame , Plane, gave up and moved to another target. Alan

Basically what you outline here is what I have done for a good while now. I have bolted a finder scope to the side of the rig and taken the duel scope arrangement off, and put the Canon back on. Right this was last night after I attempted to point the scope somewhere near Polaris, and I was careful not to ruin PA Slewed to Dubhe, not far I would say, it didn't find it, I found it, centred it accurately and synced Slewed back to polaris, not even in the FOV. After this gave up with a idea of going back to how it was and again checking every setting. Lets see what happens tonight, I know the AZ EQ6 is not a 10 micron mount or similar but it was giving, pleasing to me results and now isn't. Thanks for the replies, Alan

I tend to agree to a point, my PA is good, 1 arc Minute, confirmed with the polar scope, assuming that is correct on the AZ EQ6, so lets assume that OK. A few weeks back when I slewed to anything it place the Object/Star in the field, sometimes even in the middle. I am fully aware how to star align with or without hand set, it is just now for what ever reason, it's a long way out. when you slew to Saturn and it ends up close to Jupiter the wheels have come off somewhere. Alan

I feel I have all these covered and am aware from years of visual work that it can be some way off at first, but it shouldn't be as far out as it is with the EQdir system I am using with very good PA (1arc min) Alan

I am fairly sure it is, I have never touched it, but will check, as you say it will be something simple, me probably. Really fed up 5 nights down the drain. Alan

Michael, I am struggling badly and can not find anything when slewing, with this new camera (071) the other night I was not even sure I could see Saturn when I slewed. Now this is in conjunction with not having a clue how to use the 071. People talk about Platesolve but I don't want another program to confuse me even more. The idea of lining everything up was I guess starting in the right place so at least the scope would slew to close to the object which it doesn't at all, I don't have a finder om the telescope to look through but have managed with the guide scope and then a quick 6-10 secs with the Canon, this has worked well. I do not use a handset as even with this I was getting bad results, I now use EQdir. So I am stripping off all the newly bought gear and going back to where I was 3 weeks back, I was happy then, which I am far from now. Once and if I can get that to work I may try the 071again, if not I will sling it in the cupboard with other unwanted item, I don't believe in this return to the seller lark, it is not fair on them. I have 4 Canon bodies that I understand inside out I can always mod one of these for a better image over the 40D. Alan