Graham Darke

I wonder if you have the "stack image" box ticked? That might explain why the image didn't change immediately when you moved the scope. If you uncheck that box then the camera should simply keep refreshing the image on the screen to help with rough focusing. When you want to start using the camera for real make sure you recheck that box however! To get precise focus on the stars you can use the FWHM feature. I've used that on an Atik460 camera to good effect.

Yes I would expect you to see the scene you are looking at change if you were to move the telescope. Presumably the images refreshed on screen so that you were able to see the scene coming into focus or did you need to keep taking individual snap shots until you reached focus ? The quality of the daytime image is probably down to the exposure length of the image. I'm sure if you adjusted the exposure you'd get something more natural looking. Of course these sensitive cameras are designed for use in low light conditions at night.

Have you tried setting everything up in daylight and pointing your scope at a distant object? I see that you are using a Schmidt telescope. The change in focus position between an eyepiece and a camera can be significant especially if you are using a star diagonal with your eyepiece. What I would try is this: Set up your scope on its mount in daylight, indoors, looking out of a window at some distant object such as a pylon. Put an eyepiece straight into the visual back of the scope, don’t use a diagonal. This will get you closer to focus for the camera. Focus the telescope so that you can see your object and then make sure that it is centered in your eyepiece. Now swap the eyepiece for your camera. You will now need to focus the camera. You may still need to turn the focus knob quite a way to achieve this. The very short exposures you’ve been using should get you something in daylight conditions at least to be able to confirm that everything is working. You will need to tweak the focus again when focusing on a star. Good luck.

The experience of others in the past seemed to be that if it’s a LiPo (Lithium Polymer) then not so good for powering mounts. If it’s a LiFePo (Lithium Iron Phosphate) then they are fine. You might want to check which one you have. The naming of these things sound similar but the two types have different characteristics. To make things more confusing Tracer makes both types and they look identical.

FLO sell this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-t-thread-to-125-helical-focuser.html pretty sure that would attach to the t tread on your present adapter where it attaches to the t ring for your dslr. ( the tripod is spot on by the way, thanks again) Graham

PM sent.

Yes I saw it too. About 17.32. Was bright, very fast and I saw orange and green. Impressive sight.

Was out at my regular dark site on Saturday night. First time out in a while. The evening started off very clear but the clouds closed in from the north west. As chance would have it the last bit of sky to vanish was in the south east. Orion was obscured behind a group of trees so I turned to Eridanus which is a area of sky I've not paid too much attention to in the past. I referred to my trusty Collins Gem guide to the stars and being a double star fan noticed the description of 40 Eridanus or Omicron 2 Eri as it is also known. Its a triple system consisting of a yellow dwarf primary of 4th magnitude with companions made up of, supposedly, the easiest white dwarf visible anywhere in the sky (10th mag) and an 11th mag red dwarf completes this unique group. The primary was a beautiful golden colour at the eyepiece and the white dwarf was easily seen being well separated from the primary. At 80x magnification I wasn't convinced that I could see the red dwarf at first. Adding a 3x Barlow lens revealed it. Switching back to just 80x it was now visible as I knew where to look. Not the prettiest multiple star in the sky but a very interesting little grouping considering its constituents. At just 16 light years distant this group's members are close by.

I sold that scope but regretted it afterwards. Lovely flat field with my dslr camera. Took some really great images with it.

Here is my favourite shot which I took from Idaho on August 21st. Canon 600d with a Tokina 400mm lens. Exposure time 1\4000th sec at ISO 200.

Cheers Nige. It was a great little scope but I sold it.

Eq3 pro with a TS65q riding on it. 20 two minute subs through a Canon 600Da.

Tried Autostakkert and got an " out of memory message". My Tifs are 102mb each. Might try it again with jpegs.

I will give Autostakkert a go. Never used it to stack single frames before, only video frames. Thanks again Wim. I must admit my processing skills are basic to say the least. Some guys at my local club are much more experienced and I'm planning on tapping into their knowledge soon!

This is the 3 frame one with bunnies removed