tooth_dr

The bottom left corner looks like a pair of birds flapping their wings. 

34 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

I bought the sjywatcher white dual saddle for £29 from RVO and it fitted to my old black EQ6 a treat. 

That’s what I wanted to hear, cheers Craig. 

I have one of the white 2009 EQ6-Pro synscan which came with then vixen only head. Is it possible to swop it for the dual saddle head?  I read somewhere that it only fits the later models but this isn’t mentioned on the websites that sell it.

That fits to a filter wheel, to step the opening down to M42, allowing a camera to attach directly to the FW with as low a profile as possible.  It sits quite flush so those holes are for loosening or tightening.  (Thats my educated guess )

1 hour ago, astro mick said:

Thanks Alan,always appreciate the comment.

I don't seem to be getting much better at this lark,so may stop posting.I,m still happy at my own results,and that's what counts.

However I,ve said this before,and I,m still here.(LOL).

Mick

I dont know why youd stop!  I always enjoy looking at your images.  This is another nice one, with plenty of detail.  Maybe a tad dark on my screen tho?

Amazing! Took me about 10 weeks to get the hang of APP never mind what you have achieved in 10 days. I hope you haven’t peaked too early 😂

I don’t agree that you need to retake them every session if permanently setup ie camera isn’t moved.  Flats are a wee bit of a faff with some cameras, like those with mechanical shutters for example, or if you have a large aperture scope.

i have taken flats for each filter in the past but have found flats from just one filter works for them all.

Temperature - I always match that with the lights.

Minor focus discrepancies should make zero difference. 

Lovely example of a tricky target M33. As I’ve been saying myself about posting in the wrong forum, hopefully the moderators can move it to the deep sky forum where it firmly belongs. 

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Very nice Richard, looks like it should have a funky common name, looks snakey.

Dave

PS: See I'm keeping up now 

I agree. I see a king cobra. 

You have quite the talent for drawing out the faint smokey details.  The esprit is performing well!  Do you miss the Epsilon?

This couldnt literally have popped up at a better time!  Currently sitting here planning out my 2.2m dome build.  Excellent!  Thank-you!

@astroman001 Hi Peter, I ran it through HLVG in PS as per Richards recommendation, and balanced the background with GradXterminator.

Good effort. I’ve done a couple of these now and the proms really do change quite  dramatically. 

Here is a map of it. 

A beauty Johannes, thanks for sharing 👍🏼

This is a possible candidate for the 20:13 one 

-> satellite CZ-3C R/B

Missed this completely. Stunning image of this target Richard. 

I read about this earlier this morning. Possible satellite reentry. 

7 hours ago, JamesF said:

How handy are you with a soldering iron and suchlike?  Could be possible to build your own motor focusers from the designs available on the interwebs?

James

I’ve rechipped and lx modded a toucam 😂 So handy enough lol

Tempted by the deepskydad autofocuser

10 minutes ago, Adam J said:

As you say the filter are parafocal...

To be honest I would have thought that if your losing lum which is always going to cause a little bloat in a doublet then there is not much point in re-focusing for RGB anyway?

Adam

When I flick my though the Baader filters with the bahtinov mask on there is a noticeable shift in focus.  I’ve tried not focusing and the stars vary too much 

1 hour ago, catburglar said:

I’ve got no personal experience if these, but what about one of the TS Power Newton scopes? The 8inch F/2.8 would be nice and fast @ 560mm FL.  Obviously  collimating will be key, but if you’re not fixed on a refractor setup you could get data pretty quickly once you’ve fettled the setup. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4611_Boren-Simon-8--f-2-8-PowerNewton-Astrograph---Carbon-Tube.html

Thanks for that link!

I knew that a faster scope is more difficult to maintain focus etc, but apparently ‘at f/2.8 the zone of critical focus is about 8 microns’.

I think i will end up with more trouble and wasted tweaking, so I’m going to stick with my current setup for the time being. 

12 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Just wait until that new dome is up and everything is fully automated including filter changes, you'll be able to go off to sleep and awake to find it has everything done for you, some software will even calibrate and stack your subs for you, easy peasy.

Unfortunately my  dual setup which only slightly automated failed to perform last night 😂

Dave

Ha I read that!   Bar the autofocussing, I'm pretty much automated.  Parfocal Baader filters arent Parfocal in my scope though

Thanks for the advice guys.  I am getting frustrated at not being able to image in RGB as each filter needs a focus change.  I'm going to have to add a proper stepper motor focuser to 2 scopes, so looking at £250-300, then the complexity of two focusing routines. 

What about a takahashi epsilon 130ed - that would be pretty fast, but slightly shorter FL at 430mm.

I only had a few subs to work with, but given the forecast I thought I'd stack it anyway.  There isnt much in Oiii, should I be binning 2x2?

Ha 7 x 900s

Oiii 6 x 900s

Cropped to include bubble only, taken with ED80 on EQ6.

CS

Adam.