dark knight

Yeah I don't understand it either I loaded the subs into dss as lights for a quick an rough stack to see what was there but the registered files showed as greyscale, I'm sure I set the rggb and debayered, I'll have another look and check dss settings. I'm very slowly trying siril, but it seems complicated to me, having to convert files etc. I'll have another go.

Great idea rick, at least that way they won't be wasted.

Thanks Phillip lol, I've put it down to over excitement on my part, just got to work out what to use those subs for now.

So finally got out under the stars Friday night to test my kit out (specifically my new 2600mc pro OSC and autofocuser) on the Pinwheel Galaxy. I've gone back to nina for control and acquisition with a new mini pc mounted on the telescope and connect wireless to my indoor pc. I have to say everything worked wonderfully, nice to have a camera that is so sensitive with integrated cooler!!! In fact once I got to grips with my kit again I thought let's have a go at the Pinwheel Galaxy, auto focus worked flawlessly, I was impressed, so I set up sequencer and shot 30 180sec subs and another 20 120 sec subs followed by matching darks. In the morning I chucked them all into DSS and waited for what I thought would be a great image to process,,,the result,,,,,a greyscale image, I checked all the subs and all appeared to register as greyscale!!! What the %*&£!!!! I thought. After another hour of trying to pin the blame on software I realised something,,I had left my Lenhance filter in the optical chain!!! Of course now all made sense because the lenhance is a narrow band filter!!!! Schoolboy error most definately!!!

A Very warm welcome to the lounge, enjoy your purchases

Thnx for advice folks, I've now ordered a Mele Quieter 2 windows based mini pc. To be honest I'm really looking forwards to using Nina again, just going to have to remember how to set everything up again and what software for plate solving etc.

Yeah, I edited the existing profile it all worked for a short time then kstars constantly crashed and I could no longer vpn into the pi4, a much more stable and versatile approach im sure will be a nuc.

Thanks Elp, only thing is my autofocuser is deepsky dad af3 so not sure it's compatible with the asiar, my only other option will be a Nuc mini pc

Well replaced my canon 6d with the zwo 2600mc pro. Naively I thought it would just be a simple case of just switching them over and letting my pi4 astroberry/ Indi load correct drivers etc. It ended up far from simple!!! Comm port issues took ages to sort out including having to upgrade the operating system. Ports sorted I thought here we go,,, nope kstars then began crashing then the pi4 power supply failed. New power supply sourced, kstars continued to crash constantly. I vpn into the pi4 from my windows pc indoorsand soon enough that failed too, spent ages trying to get a vpn connection to no avail!!! Pi4 was powered and running, in end I just gave up!!! So what options are better and more stable, I use autofocuser, 2600mc, guide camera, power is supplied via nevada 30amp supply. This was my most frustrated night ever!!!!

Thank you FLO and dpd for another successful delivery

Since you are definately now going for a permanent set up I would second the idea of installing a permanent pier to replace the tripod. Hope I'm not being too critical but with hindsight more versatile options may have been preferential with regards to now knowing your building an observatory, for example an eq mount on a pier may facilitate future proofing as it can be used to mount many different types of telescope. I hope you soon get to enjoy your purchases, please post some photos of your obsy build, it sounds fantastic.

Hi and welcome to the lounge

Heres a link to the maual, page 12 I think gives you the thread sizes and components https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/upfiles/en_download_caty01416868621.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjmppupjZr9AhWFUsAKHdsrCk4QFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1khcmeaLc3VP4OfB9286PI

My 2nd hand esprit 120 came with flattener and the 2 part adapter for attaching it to cameras was missing, I had one made and when it arrived from usa it was threaded wrong (my fault) so £120 out of pocket, anyhow I managed to pick one up here off this forum for £30. If you download the esprit 120 manual towards the end it shows you all about attaching cameras and the adapter. There are 2 versions, a 1 piece or a 2 piece adapter. Is it me or are the threads on these flatteners really uncommon?

Thats a really nice start, what equipment did you use?

I've had a total rethink on this and may get the azeq6 after all, and with the money left over get a zwo 2600 osc. The more I think and read the less decisive I get. Is this a no brainer or would I be better off just getting a more expensive mount and sticking with my canon 6d

Firstly thank you all for the words of wisdom and input, much valued. I now think I'm going to be a little more patient and save for a cem70 and portable tri pier/tripod which will be around £3700 (gulp), its obviously not the budget I initially set out to spend, however I just don't want to restrict my future options and feel my esprit 120 deserves a mount of equal quality, that will enhance it even. I'm a strong believer in it all starts with a good foundation and for me that means a good solid mount, I've made mistakes before putting heavy loads on unsuitable mounts which just led to frustration. Hopefully this mount will be the last I have to buy.

Exactly my point about the eq6r, I shouldn't have to fix the thing by installing an after market rail kit and new bolts, they should of learnt from the neq6 and addressed it

The AZ eq6 gt is still on my list

Yup I understand what your saying Scotty, however there are also other things I don't like about that mount like the altitude adjustment which looks same as old neq6, very difficult to set exactly due to the mount lug the adjuster knob pushes against resulting in bent bolt. Yes I know you can get stronger after market ones but you shouldn't have to.

I've ruled out the AM5 now, it just starts getting ridiculously expensesive when adding tripod, weights and counter balance bar etc! I like the ioptron gem45 but need some feed back on how easy to get it talking to the pi4 kstars/ekos if anyone has that combo? The new sywatcher mount might be an option but since it's new I'd like more user reviews from anyone with this mount also. So looks like a choice from 3 at moment. Az/eq6 gt, ioptron gem 45 or skywatcher cq350. This is worse than buying a house or car!!

Well that's the eq6r out of the picture then!, I honestly don't know too much about the am5 so will have a read up on it, thanks so far

OK my old neq6 mount is getting a bit tired and I'm looking to upgrade, looking to spend around the 2k mark. I want something that should just slot straight back into my set up which is as follows. Esprit 120 main scope, ed50 guide scope, canon 6d main camera. All this is controlled via a pi4 running ekos/kstars at the mount (existing mount uses a Bluetooth connection to pi4) and I vnc into it from main pc in the house. I think my choices are eq6r, alt az eq6gt (really like the elevation adjuster on this), or one of the ioptron options, thoughts please

Nearly all reflector owners have been exactly where you are right now so dont give up, the astronomy learning curve can be quite steep but there is always help available, maybe say roughly what area you are in and someone maybe close enough to meet up and show you.

Nice looking mount, however with all the ports and connections at the front it looks like there is great potential for a lot of cable snagging. Cable management doesn't really appear to have been thought about, for £2500 surely this area should of been thought about.