tooth_dr

Thank you all for the comments 👍🏼 @vineyard this is just the single stack pressure tuned model. I’ve attached a photo of the external tuner mounted on a wee shelf that I found in the garage. I’ve the hose run along with some wiring under the ground and up the inside of the pier, so far so good. I’m waiting on a bracket for my AF3 focuser, then I can image completely remotely.

Fantastic. My only criticism, if youd even call it that, is I like it better rotated 90 CCW.

Good to hear, I am planning on imaging it with a 180mm F2.8 lens, if it clears later. Was this on a tracking mount or will the exposures be too short to matter. I wasnt sure whether to use the SA or just a static tripod.

This was taken around lunch time today, using a 60mm lunt with a 290MM camera at the native FL of 500mm. I recently installed a small SSD to my PC, so even with USB2 I was still getting 20FPS at full size. Prior to installing the SDD, the old HDD would not even run the camera at full resolution, and I had to crop to 800x800 ROI to get it even recording at all. This was also my first outing with my Lunt external pressure tuner - and it is really something else. It worked perfectly, and allowed me to fine tune the solar surface to eliminate the bright spot I normally get. In addition I was able to tune in the proms and recorded these in the same video as the surface. These were 60s videos, so around 1200 frames recorded and I stacked the best 10%. Gamma was set to off, and gain was set to zero. The camera is very sensitive and it was recording at a 2.5ms. There is still a slight broad vertical lined pattern visible, is this NRs? I use a tilt adapter maybe it needs tweaked a bit? I tried different mosaic software, this was the best result, just using PS itself. C+C welcome.

Andrew, my comment was tongue in cheek, in reply to Paul. AP certainly isnt easy, and how visual people actually find stuff without gotos is black magic to me.

I though he was talking about Dafydd Thomas for a minute lol.

Indeed. I suppose the same could be said for observing, I mean it’s pretty easy to just point a scope up and look at stuff. (I’m joking by the way, I have a lot of respect for observers and the skill it involved).

...but if you want to image it 😂

Nice images Simon. RIngs next on the list to sort

I found this - is it accurate for us?

I'll give it a go! I'll hopefully spot it. Would it pssible to see it before that, but obviously a lot lower down?

Paul thats good to hear you saw it, I'm planning on staying up tonight to do a little imaging and try to get it. Have you any star charts to follow, as I wont be able to rely on my platesolving technology to find it (behind a tree from my new obsy, but would have been visible from the old one).

Holy moly that’s awesome.

The links arrived this morning, amazing service! Thanks Steve. Adam

Tomorrow morning forecast is looking ok here, so I'm going to try to see the comet if it's possible. I'm at 54oN. Is this going to be possible? If it is my observatory wont have a view of it, so I will need to just look manually with binos/DSLR on a tripod. Any advice appreciated.

That’s really good. Stars nice and colour just right in the nebula. 👍🏻

Looks like the camera moved during the exposure. Because Vega is the brightest, its most noticeable, but it's also evident on the star to the left of the image, and to a lesser extent on the other stars in the image.

Amazing. Nothing but cloud here and no darkness. I would love to see it, looks fantastic is your images.

Very nice Brendan. Well worth imaging at this time of year even during a bright moon.

Hi John Thanks for the reply. My understanding is that when the scope is set to point to x degrees az, the dome goes to x plus offset degrees az, offset based on my measurements. I have been following your thread, but not sure what benefit the delay is? Unless the dome measurement is based on the final resting position of the mount? Im going to recheck the measurements today and see if they are right. Best wishes Adam.

@Laurin Dave I did a few movements around north and have sketched them crudely below. Due north - slit aligned well NW - slit moves too far west NE - slit moves too far east I’m sure for a smart person this would be easy to work out 😂

Thank you Dave. With regards to either side of the meridian - I just did a slew to Eps Vir and then to Alp Boo (either side’s of meridian) and for both positions the telescope and slit opening were lined up such that I could image through both scopes unobstructed.

@iwols just tagging you. This was taken with a 7nm Optolong Ha filter on a fast scope, the left panel taken on shortest day of year 54deg north. Same as this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383612076571

I took an image on the 21st June with a 7nm Ha filter. We have zero astro darkness here, but it performed favourably. However Oiii doesnt perform as well, and I wouldn’t bother at this time of year or with the moon about.

Progress update: Spent some time last night and today working on linking dome and mount movements. I’m using POTH Ascom scope/dome controller and have Sitech and Shelyak selected within that POTH program. In CdC I have selected POTH to connect to the scope. I syncd on the sun today (safely) in Sitech and CdC and finally worked out how to get the dome position reset. In POTH I clicked slave. When I now choose a target in CdC both dome and scope move together and it’s quite disorientating when in the dome and looking up! But it’s working 👍🏻 It appears to be lined up well for targets along the south, but on a slew to north targets it’s not quite lined up, and I lose one half of one scope. Would anyone know what would be the likely most likely parameter at fault here. Ive attached photos, and a video showing how close the CW shafts comes to the monitors 😂 Photo 1: north/west - not quite syncd Photo 2: south - syncd Any input appreciated Adam. FullSizeRender.mov FullSizeRender.mov