StuartJPP

Love the 1st one!

Cracking detailed shots....

Thanks to everyone for commenting.......👍

Regular Clouds, Noctilucent Clouds, a Cityscape and a Comet. Unfortunately by the time the Noctilucent Clouds came along Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) had risen quite a lot so was tricky to get some foreground action in as well so the comet is tiny in the panorama. Neowise was easily visible naked-eye, even over the heavily light polluted city of Leeds. A Bit Of Everything. by Stuart, on Flickr Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) by Stuart, on Flickr

I had the same issue with Stellarium v0.15 but updated to the latest version v0.20 and it worked fine. I usually don't like updating applications on my astro laptop (if it ain't broke). Managed to find it with the binoculars so happy about that.

I've always struggled to make homemade projects look like anything but a homemade project. Athough nothing quite as elaborate as the OPs project image.....which kind of reminds me of this project....😉

If people knew how Switch Mode Power Supplies operate then they'd think twice about using them. Think of a Switch Mode Power Supply as a nest full of angry wasps buzzing away, until something (anything) upsets them. I am of course being a bit facetious, and allegedly they can be designed properly. On the flip side, a freshly charged 12V leisure battery can deliver at most about 14V, give or take. It can deliver a lot of current, so it can melt wires and set fire to things if wired incorrectly, but it will never deliver more voltage than chemically possible. Now if only the manufacturers would put an "idiot" diode in line with the circuit board or better yet a FET and derate the component operating voltages/currents then it would be practically impossible to blow a board up by plugging it in, except for actual component failure on that board.

The simplest method I'd say is to use SharpCap with your guide scope and camera. The PoleMaster equivalent is handy for people who already own the QHY5-L-II cameras and just have to purchase a cheap 25mm lens. I used this method long before SharpCap did polar alignment and iPolar was available.

I frequently run a Windows 10 virtual machine within Virtual Box running on a Windows 10 host. I do this to evaluate software before installing it on the host machine, so in my experience it works well. Pass-through of USB devices is pretty good, but I am not surprised if it doesn't work occasionally for devices other than the usual suspects. Thankfully there's so many distributions of Linux that every person on the planet can have a unique one.

I saw this new variation of Avalon Instruments' M-Zero mount called the "Avalon M-Zero Obs" on their website. One new feature is the ability to mount the StarGo Controller under the scope, this not only acts as a counterweight it also allows a more compact setup and less wires. https://www.avalon-instruments.com/products-menu/mounts/m-zero-obs-wi-fi-detail Hmmmm it looks very similar to the method that I have been mounting the StarGo Controller to my Avalon M-Zero since 2017! However since Luciano of Avalon Instruments is such a fine person I'll refrain from sending in the lawyers 😁. (Besides I originally stole the idea from Avalon Instruments' M-Uno mount, so he might send in his lawyers).

Forgot to mention though that I think that the 130PDS will have a focal length that is too long for SharpCap to plate solve, but I am no expert in that area. So definitely hold off paying any money for SparkoCam until you are sure it will work.

I gave it a quick try using my Canon 80D and Canon 18-135mm lens. Installed SparkoCam then ran it to get live view from the Canon 80D. Ran SharpCap and selected SparkoCam as the imaging camera source (selected 1280x720 resolution). Started up Stellarium to view the NCP area and pointed my camera at the PC monitor and SharpCap instantly plate solved the image. I zoomed in/out a bit in Stellarium and it seems to track well. The logo will get in the way of some stars, but SharpCap does use up 100 stars so I think you would be okay. I also didn't bother removing the labels in Stellarium and neither the equatorial grid, none of which caused an issue with SharpCap's ability to plate solve. In the 1st image you can see a screen capture that SharpCap successfully solved the image that the Canon 80D was seeing and presenting to SharpCap via SparkoCam. In the 2nd image you can see the setup as I captured it with the Canon 80D in the foreground pointing at Stellarium. Definitely worth a try before forking out any money.

I like to get the most out of what I have already got so in your case a small(ish) outlay to get you guiding will be money well spent as you can use that investment going forwards. Then take it from there. I love it how people say that if they had to do it all again that they would do it differently....I don't think so. Imagine considering a new hobby.....I don't know.....fishing.....and before you even cast off you need to spend £2499.99 on a fishing pole (just the pole), £4500 on a reel, £849 on hooks and fishing line and £750 on waders. You'd never take up fishing in that case. However investing a rather large sum of money on a new scope and retaining the rest of your imaging setup will most probably end in disappointment. Just my thoughts.

I'd suggest you try it with the watermark and see if it is indeed an issue. In the past I have pointed my camera and a lens from a suitable distance at Stellarium on my PC monitor showing the polar region (NCP) and that has worked for me, so you may not even have to wait for a clear night. Though of course your mileage may vary of course.

Hi Guido, My setup is fairly static and looks like this: The total imaging weight is about 6kg with all the accessories attached, so well within the limit of the mount. In the configuration software there is a an option to select the mount type, this sets the torque and probably also the gear ratios. Cheers, Stuart

Only just seen this thread. I use an Avalon M-Zero so not sure if it is relevant to you or not but here's the log file from my last proper session. PHD2_GuideLog_2019-11-30_181235.txt

The non-IS is supposed to be slightly sharper than the IS version. Either way I agree that it is a decent lens and the tripod foot comes in handy.

One of my very first "proper" astro photos was taken with a Canon 7D and a Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens, mounted on an AstroTrac....oh the simple days. I think it is a good lens for wider fields. Have fun. M31 - Andromeda Galaxy by Stuart, on Flickr

I'd much rather hack the software than hack the hardware 😉 I use the above as my QHY5L-II-M guide camera doubles as my PoleMaster camera by swapping the lens of the camera from 25mm for polar alignment to 130mm for guiding. Works very well for my setup.

I use a fair amount of PCB matrix pad prototyping board for knocking up one-off dev boards and have done so for many, many years. The boards I usually use nowadays are from Roth Electronik RE200-LFDS which is a double-sided matrix pad board that is NOT through-hole plated. I emphasise the NOT in the through-hole plating as I can't see the reason for having plated-through holes, perhaps I am just missing something? Surely it also costs more to manufacture because it has to go through the plating process. This is the board that I use, top and bottom side is identical and NOT through-hole plated (I do actually prefer square pads, but they seem to be elusive as well). However these boards are no longer cheap, in fact they are pretty expensive these days for what they are. Similar boards of various sizes that ARE plated-through, can be found for practically pennies, just search eBay, BangGood, AliExpress, the sites are flooded with them. However try finding none plated-through and you will find it is either impossible, or practically impossible. Anyway, here's an example of a board I am busy constructing and is a work-in-progress. It isn't complicated by any means but the space is quite confined. The thing is though, I can interconnect the top and bottom layers as and when necessary, which is usually not often I may add, by soldering a link between the top and bottom layer and creating my own through-hole. I can route "tracks" as if it were a custom double sided PCB, crossing over the top or the bottom of the board at will without the fear of shorting the top and bottom layers. The "tracks" are just tinned wire and the soldering iron run over them with some solder, very quick and easy to do once you have the knack. Here's some tracking showing some of the through-holes: There would be no way that I could do that with plated-through holes as the top layer is shorted to the bottom layer. The top layer at this point is basically still free to use, it will be populated once my driver chips arrive. So am I missing something? Every time I even contemplate using some of the through-hole plated boards that I do have, I just give up, unless it is a very simple design. I just don't find it very good for prototyping at all, in my opinion. Oh and yes, I could have a custom PCB made for cheap, but I can knock this out in less time that it takes me to fire up a copy of Proteus, okay maybe not quite. I could also make a PCB myself as I have still got my super strength ferric chloride in the garage and bubble etching tank, but again by the time I have laid out the PCB I would have lost interest. Show me your methods or better ways.

I am not sure if infinity focus is possible on that combination as I am not familiar with it however a much quicker way to check focus would be on Venus or the Moon. Since you are using a Canon 650D with a fold-out display I'd leave APT out of the equation for now and just try to focus by hand and watch the LCD screen. In fact I'd ignore the LCD initially and just use the optical viewfinder of the Canon 650D to make sure that you are getting the smallest point (on Venus) or something nice and clear on the Moon. Once you know where infinity focus is you are just about there. It looks like you weren't far away from infinity focus as the stars are at least showing up, though obviously bloated. The thing to remember is that either the camera or APT in the "LiveView" mode is not taking a 20 second exposure otherwise your frame rate would be 1/20 frames per second, it is trying to simulate what a 20 second exposure would be like, but since the image is so dark, it basically looks black. Once stars are in focus you should be able to see something in LiveView, but only the brightest of stars.

I watched this the other day and he does explain that you can't use it for infinity focus. Kind of makes sense, you'd need a lens infinitely big to have the same effect on something infinitely far away.

According to this website the lens remains wide open when it is not connected to a compatible camera..... https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/500mm-f56.htm He could be wrong as Ken Rockwell is kind of a marmite person, if you know what I mean. I don't have any Nikon kit as I use Canon but that is also the same for Canon lenses, the lens is always wide open by default. There is a trick with Canon lenses if you want to stop the lens down for use on a non-Canon camera.....set the aperture to the required setting and then press and hold the DOF button, turn the camera off while still holding the DOF button and the lens will remain in that stopped down position. Where there are definite issues is when the focus is done electronically, i.e. focus-by-wire. There's no way to focus the lens that I am aware of on anything but a proper camera or a proprietary adapter but often you will lose infinity focus using one of those (and they are usually pretty expensive).

The "rotate" field in the EXIF information is actually an orientation field, which is either landscape or portrait (battery up, battery down) so it can't do a full 180 degree rotation. But as mentioned, it doesn't matter as DSS will take care of it for you automatically when registering the images.

A few people, including myself have used a PoleMaster on an AstroTrac. You have to release the clutches on the head and manually move RA by hand. I only did this a couple of times and it seemed to work quite well. As long as you lock the head in the required positions to similar tensions it should be pretty close.