tooth_dr

Would a fan be effective? There is a fan attached to the primary of my reflector and I’m just curious would the steady flow of air help. I’m imaged on Sunday night with the fan on without dew but that may have just been favourable local conditions

Breath taking! A text book image. I agree it’s the most beautiful sight to behold.

Bad conditions but nice image Billy. Great start

Hi Robin It's hard to make out the grid on my monitor here. I'm noticing that it is out of focus. Could this be creating problems in the image?

I'm looking some help. I bought a scope with a Moonlite focuser and associated stepper motor. I have this connected to a Hitec Astro Mount Hub Pro. I'm using Astro Photography Tool to control everything. Any pointers on getting the hang of using it, as I have no experience of this type of focuser. I took some subs last night, but ended up disconnecting the motor focuser and manually focused it. TIA Adam.

This is fantastic! Not too bright at all on my screen. I know you prefer to do things manually, but if you can get APP to work, the gradients will be gone and these will be seemlessly joined together!!

Very nice, deep dusky red with star colours coming through! A great start to the season!

I’m not a pro but there isn’t much wrong with those! Plenty of detail in the centre and nice focusing. A resounding success Adam! Adam.

Outstanding. Thanks for sharing this beautiful image you took.

APT flats assist is pretty essential! I use it for my CCD flats. 1) choose a ADU you want 2) choose an acceptable range outside of that ADU eg 5% 3) select starting exposure time and max exposure 4) APT will take a number of exposures until it finds an exposure that delivers the correct ADU. 5) It then sets up an image run in the flats section HTH Adam

Thanks for the help. In the end I went for 4mm aluminium. It was the minimum thickness I felt happy with after seeing it in the flesh. I didn’t bother countersinking bolts and just used surface mounted ones that I had, as the hub fitted perfectly between them!

Shame about the focus but it’s still a very presentable image 👍🏻

@Xiga is another member using a belt modded HEQ5 and definitely gets lower RMS than that, the norm being 0.8 as far as I can recall. I think anything below 0.5 is exceptionally unusual, and I wouldn’t say you should be expected that. It will also depend on the local conditions too. My belt modded EQ6 gets below 1.0 RMS. A couple of nights ago my DEC was 0.39 but the RA was 0.76. It’s on the limit for weight thought but still I’m content with those figures as I image at 2.13”/px.

Real nice job Paul. Nice bit of contrast makes the wall really stand out.

Very nice looking setup there Roland. thanks for the suggestion. There is an engineering workshop a mile up the road, I'm picking up a piece later.

Thanks guys. I wasn’t sure, now I know 👍🏻 Ill get a piece 125 x 225mm to fit neatly between the flat areas.

Can anyone recommend a suitable thickness for the purpose of holding this hub between the rings? I have some 10mm aluminium but that’s excessive I think 😂 Thanks Adam

Already posted.

Typical dramatic daily mail, it's not a 12 ft high dome, 12 foot high in total. I'm glad I dont have neighbours like that. ' Melvyn Thurlbourn put the 12ft high dome on top of his shed in Cambridgeshire '

Thats a nice start on M31. What Tak scope do you have Steve?

As above ^^ https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-adapter-for-skywatcher-focal-reducers.html

That is a fantastic result. APP is brilliant software

Fair enough! As long as you are happy.

Nice image and congrats on the purchase! I also use the same camera. It's my first CCD, so I've no comparison, save that it is a LOT better than the DSLR it replaced! I would still recommend using at least flats with the camera, (lthough I use a full set of calibration frames), as it will make post processing easier.

Nice Steve! A very faint one