Robny

If you are pulse guiding via EQMod then you do not need the ST4 cable from camera to mount. If you are not pulse guiding then you will need an ST4 cable from camera to the mount, then select On Camera for the mount selection drop down to connect in PHD2 Rob

Well.....Don't get me wrong it certainly wasn't a good imaging night 😂😂 the software was flawless!! Despite being forecast a clear night I was fighting high level level and low level cloud, which was causing issues with my guiding, I had to give in around 10pm due to cloud cover and work in the morning, plus being sick. Sounds like you had a good night, I'm gonna wait until those targets appear in the sky a little earlier for me, not got to the point I'm comfortable leaving it alone over night yet, I only ended up with about 10x240s subs of the EASTERN veil in Ha, not sure yet how many of those are useable either 😞 haha, the way it goes 😊

So..... I tried this last night for the first time under live conditions, all I can say is wow! Everything connected first time, with the hit of a single button, it automatically launched PHD2 and started guiding, seamlessly connected to Stellarium and synced coordinates and the platesolving was amazing, very fast and very accurate, it just worked (ASTAP). I am a new N.I.N.A fan boy 😂 and will be going straight to N.I.N.A each time!! 👍 Rob

Yup....I uploaded the wrong one, I did that as a punchy wallpaper for my phone, here is the one I did before that one.

Why not give this a go..... This was taken in Bortle 8 skies using an William Optic GT71 and Altair Astro Hypercam 183mono cooled to -15 Sitting on top of an HEQ5 Pro. Subs were Ha 30x240s and OIII 27x240s stacked with darks, flats and processed using the HOO colour palette with PI. They was taken over two nights during breaks in the cloud, guided with PHD2 and captured using APT. Thanks Rob

I bought and used something similar to your original post, also from Amazo I think. It did work...however, the tip seemed a little loose inside the HEQ5 power socket, didn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence but it worked. I now use this, yes quite a bit more expensive but much better suited and I can run my camera, dew bands and mount from it. https://www.altairastro.com/Pegasus-Pocket-Powerbox.html

Thanks for that....will give it a go, I got it all setup using ASTAP for both primary and blind solving.

Is there a way to load an image into NINA for platesolving testing purposes? I tried NINA a year or so back and never gave it much time, ended up going back to APT. However...I downloaded 1.9 last night to give it another go and I must say, j was very impressed. Everything connected up, seemed very easy to do and everything seemed to work as it should, it spoke to Stellarium and some to PHD2 without any faffing about. The one thing I was not able to test is the platesolving as I couldn't find a way to load in an image manually....can this be done? I think I will be giving this a go for my next imaging run

Never Mind Just answered my own question!! One system EQMOD is using GPS Coordinates and N.I.N.A is us using LAT LONG coordinates which amount to the same location 😣 Thanks anyways

Hi All Decided to give NINA a serious go, I have pretty much everything setup and working. The only thing that is baffling me is that I cannot get the NINA site coordinates to match EQMOD telescope control. No matter how i go about it, NINA always comes up with a different values, I have tried importing the location from Stellarium and it gets that wrong, I have tried entering the correct coordinates into NINA and sending to EQMOD and it sends incorrect coordinates. Everything matches, scope coordinates in EQMOD matches stellarium coordinates, but its NINA that cant seem to match it, unless I tell it to ignore trying to match, is that what I should do? Thanks for any advice, hope this makes sense to somebody Rob

I think this is the rite place for the question. Has anyone used this before: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/williams-optics/william-optics-camera-angle-rotator-for-25-m63-focuser.html I'm lookimg for repeatability and a means to get my angle correct and taking away the guess work when setting up for a subject. Has anyone used this rotator and have any feedback on it? It will be going on my GT71. Thabks Rob

Agreed... I started (tried) with DSLR and just had a horrible frustrating time with it. I decided just to go all in and got a cooled mono cmos camera, and never looked back. Yes the learning curve is steep but the rewards make up for that when it comes together

Thank you both, I'm quite pleased with the result for a first attempt, need to work out some workflow on PI so I can streamline the process a little

Hi All Would love some feedback on the attached image. This is my first attempt at processing ANY colour image from Narrow Band images (Ha, OIII) Image Details: HEQ5 WO GT71 with AA183mono Pro Tec -15 30x240 for each filter (Ha, OIII), stacked and processed using PI Image has been compressed a little just to make it easier....posting from my phone

I'm balanced as good as I can get it, I'm polar aligning with Sharpcap Pro until I achieve excellent and I have run guiding assistant a couple of times...not sure what you mean by "Where did you calibrate?" Rob

That's really great feedback thanks!! I've adjusted what setting I can to your recommendation and will check focus next time I go out...when ever that will be. You lost me on the reasoning why but I appreciate you telling me and will just follow your reccomend changes I'm always a little lost in PHD2 settings and never really adjusted anything...I've got it working and ran the wizard thingie a couple of times but that's about it. Thanks again Rob

Thanks for the feedback everyone, definitely something to work on it seems...so, a little more info: HEQ5 PRO with Rowan Belt Mod William Optics GT71 Imaging scope with Altair Astro 183m Protec imaging camera AA 60mm Guide scope with GPcam 130mono guide camera guiding through ST4 I generally try to balance East heavy (slightly) - but I do generally find balance difficult to achieve. Also, when I unlock my clutches it seems the axis don't move as free as they should, so that maybe affecting my ability to get balance nailed? My guiding RMS generally starts out around 0.7 then gradually makes its way up to 1.2 - 1.5 through the night and settles there. I do go through meridian flips and infact rite before the imaging run began it did do a meridian flip but I never re-balance after. I have attached my guide log if that is any use? Also a single sub from that guiding session. Many Thanks Rob PHD2_GuideLog_2019-10-16_201636.txt L_2019-10-16_21-50-03_Bin1x1_240s__-15C.fit

Oh wow.....thanks for that, I'm way off then...hmmm Will have to have a poke around, maybe balance. Thanks again.

Hi All I have an HEQ5 with the ROWAN Belt mod and on average my guiding RMS error total settles around the 1.20 to 1.40 mark and I was just curious if that is within 'ballpark'of where it should be? I always aim to get an excellent PA using Shatpcap with Dec and Ra error into single figures. My stars look pretty round and I have no complaints looking at my images to my inexperienced eyes anyway. Is there still more I can get out of it or should I just leave it be?

I'm waiting on work to tell me if I can go 😂 Have to swap a holiday for the Friday as I have plans on the Saturday 😒

Thanks for the feedback, I am quite pleased so far. Had a look at EQ-mosaic but could get my head around it yet. I'm also learning PI, I'd like to get some Oiii data to make a duo band image and then see where I go from there 😁

Hi all This is my first attempt at NGC 6960 and my first attempt at Narrowband imaging. This is 27x240s lights with 30 darks and 30 flats. This is only my Ha data and still need to get out and do some Oiii to add to it, was taken in Bortle 8 skies with the following equipment: WO gt71, HEQ5, Hypercam 183m cooled to -15, captured with APT and stacked with PI with very basic post. FRAMING COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER 😖 Would love some feedback as I am still fairly new to imaging, this is just uploaded from my phone so not sure what the quality is like on your end. Look forward to your feedback Rob

Do you have to buy entrance tickets in advance or can you just pay on the day? Is the price the same? Thx Rob

I'm also going this year, in fact my first year and my first star party. Taking my imaging rig for sure, and trying to decide on my evostar 120 or 200p for visual if space allows. Rob

Main thing I look at is cloud cover, lower the number the better. Also, the times across the top row are colour coordinated, so I'd the time shows up in green it 'should' be good to go, red not a chance and orange....possibly maybe. I also occasionally look at wind and temp.