dark knight

What about Slooh, an online option, where you get to learn, it very interactive and you get to book slots to use telescopes via the internet in Chile etc. You can take photos etc in real time and save them, they run lots of events, you can participate in viewing whatever anyone else is looking at via their booked slots, it's like a star party. 

https://www.slooh.com/

There are others too.

I too use 2 bbq covers, one has a silver lining which I reversed and put as top layer to reflect heat, I also find not having the covers down to the floor beneficial as this helps airflow and stops moisture rising upwards from the ground getting trapped under the covers

Could try using a Bhatinov mask for focus, slew to nearby bright star, put mask on end of telescope and focus, take off mask and slew back to planet. I'm sure there will be other suggestions available too, maybe setting up a parfocal eyepiece

Wow thnx tich, can you explain the process you used in siril as I've never used that software 

What about looking for somewhere that is actually in a designated dark skies area like Exmoor, granted its not central but I'd rather travel further and get a really dark sky, a quick Google an this popped up https://www.halsefarm.co.uk/index.php

It has electric hookups, free showers, takes dogs, disabled access etc and is very reasonably priced at around £24/night

Had some great semi impromptu stargazing meets at sixpenny handley 

Saturn was the first real wow factor for me too in 2008 and  I've been here ever since !

Hiya Michael,  yes I did dither every sub and used bias frames but did not take flats as I've not got the experience of working with them yet. I image from the backgarden which is north facing and the house blocks most of south view, maybe the full moon and house caused a shadow since the target was directly overhead for me (clutching at straws), maybe I got something wrong in stacking or processing which seems more likely. Any ideas??

Well my Cannon 6D has now been modded  by Andy Ellis and my L-Enhance arrived from RVO last week, so last night I finally managed to get out under the stars in an attempt to try things out even though the full moon was up and the temperatures here in the south of the UK were against me. As if that wasn't enough gremlins started to conspire against me too, first mount didn't want to talk to Astroberry and when it did the syncing seemed way off using plate solving,  How strange I thought, never had this before, went out to the mount, checked cables, checked for snags etc etc, checked focus twice,  then noticed next doors Elder tree had grown, it had shot up above the fence and was now partially obscuring the FOV!!!! problem recognised, solution - choose another area of sky. Plate solved, synced, great here we go,,,,, camera indi driver then decided to crash in Ekos!!!!! never once happened to me before, yet last night it happened 3 times in a row!!!! its a good job I'm quite a stubborn fellow, got it all talking again, slewed to NGC6960 and plate solved, so far so good, a quick tweak and the first of 40x 2min subs were underway!!! Anyhow here's the result, fairly pleased as my processing skills leave a lot to be desired and will need more data for the OIII, also the framing could have been better but overall I'm more pleased the gremlins didn't beat me!

Esprit 120ED, Canon6D, L-Enhance, Guided, 40 x 2 min subs, 50 Bias Frames, stacked in APP and basic processing in photoshop, any comment good bad or indifferent very welcome.

I like this a lot Danny, I just had my canon 6d astro modded by Andy too last week and received my l- enhance from RVO, as yet not had chance to get out and test so was a good to see what a difference it will make

Once again I find myself in need of the forums help, I have a raspberry pi4 with astroberry installed which controls my imaging setup. The pi4 is housed in a flirc case and it all works seamlessly, I use the available usb ports for wifi aerial, usb drive, canon 6d and guide cam. The mount is via a Bluetooth dongle, I now find I wish to progress and add an auto focuser but realise I've run out of usb ports . So what's the best way? I'd really like to add one of these MEGA4 - 4-Port USB 3.1 PPPS Hub for Raspberry Pi 4 from the pi hut but would need another case to house it and piggy back it on the flirc case, has anyone done this and is it a practical solution?

Many thanks in advance 

I use Andy Ellis at Astronomiser, in fact I just sent him my canon 6d to be modded on Monday. He's been modding cameras for a long time and is very experienced, his pricing is also extremely competitive and his communication is excellent.

I have an esprit 120ed Pro mounted on mine with camera and guide scope, this mount handles it all no problem. 

Hi MrT, a very warm welcome to the lounge, plenty of very helpful folk on here who are only too willing to help,  any questions ask away.

Finally managed to get out under the stars last night for a couple of hours so had a go at M42,  not really put my equipment to the test so was fairly pleased with the result, although more data is required and maybe a crash course in image processing would be beneficial lol.  the non modded canon eos 6d seems to perform well with the esprit 120ed, however I do think in the near future I will get it astro modded to improve the HA response.  Image is 63x 20secs @ iso 1600 . Constructive criticism as always is welcome.

Hi an a warm welcome to the lounge from cloudy wet Wiltshire

My understanding is the flat part of the graph is indicating the slack (backlash) in the focuser/motor is being dealt with by the first few steps, once this is done the  autofocus routine continues, as Stuart says, run the routine, take an image and check how good the stars are 

Hi all, I'm using a Canon 6d attached to my esprit 120. I  captured a few trial shots the other night of the m31 via ekos|kstars  where they looked good individually as they came into the viewer. I then stacked them in dss and noticed the strange histogram.  Upon loading the stack into ps for processing the image of m31 was just a fuzzy kind of blob. Any help much appreciated. 

Could you not park your scope in a custom position so it is easier.

I would raise the cover skirt a couple of inches above the concrete to allow better ventilation. Concrete is very good at storing heat an then venting it which is then trapped beneath your cover. I have used 2 heavy duty bbq covers (total cost £45) on my equipment but there is always at least a foot between ground and cover, no problems with condensation, and as been mentioned by others give everything a good airing on nice days

I use an evoguide 50ed as my guide scope with the 120 mini mounted on a 120 esprit Pro ed and have to say it works very very  well. The evoguide guide scope just oozes quality, expensive but for me easily worth it.

Sharpcap pro will help with polar alignment, it's cheap and straightforward to use,  it's software and can use your guide cam to do the alignment, it walks you through every step and doesnt need polaris to be visible, cost is about £12 for yearly license. 

Think there maybe an auto stretch button on the top bar of the image tab towards right hand side, this is for previewing your images and doesn't save/alter your saved image, I always had that turned on. Maybe it will help

Weather here in Motherwell has been fab, clear night sky after clear night sky,,,,,,,,,sorry joking, couldnt resist Allan

Hi all, I have successfully set up my raspberry pi4, however I'd like to increase its wifi range with a usb dongle/antenna, I'm running astroberry, pi4 is in flirc case, question is which dongle should I go for? Your experiences and suggestions gratefully received