tooth_dr

I was helping out with some of the tourism shots this evening. The weather didn’t cooperate completely but stayed dry for bit.

This is in mid-ulster. The actual observatory opens spring 2020. Should be great!

That’s really great looking.

Astro Pixel Processor - for stacking and some processing.

I'm sorry that you feel my comment is below your interest Rodd.

Vlaiv has highlighted it above ^^^

What are all the tiny uniform white dots throughout the image?

Any suggestions? I have a 178MC, would this work?

It's easy to be critical of our work, but when you think that this was taken with a little 80mm scope, from a little shed, t's pretty surreal. I really like those dark clouds structures extending from the bottom left, so I rotated and cropped my larger image to incorporate these as a feature. I've burned out the blue centre quite a bit, I dont know at what stage I did it and it was too late to rescue it when I did notice it. I'll not do much more with this until I get more Sii and Oiii data. I hope you like it! Adam

Hi John That is a nice looking pier. Yes that would be great, I would love to have a look at the plans.

Yes that’s it, I took a photo of mine there. I was getting mixed up with my ED80 focuser.

No I mean it looks functional and awesome. I have 10mm plates made, so 5mm steel for the rest of it is probabaly more than adequate.

Bolted with 4 bolts into a base? Is the concrete a necessity?

That looks robust and avoids using a tube. What thickness of steel? Is 10mm too thick?

Title amended to reflect better what I am actually trying to find out.

Defintiely looking to hear feedback on metal piers, not sure I would want to fill it with sand or anything. I was thinking I can run wiring up the middle to tidy up the installation! Maybe I should amend the opening post!

As far as I can remember, I think he needs a bit screws onto the drawtube itself.

I know the problem you mean! I've encountered it. If you arent sorted, I'll send you a photo of the part when I get home from work, that might help you?

Thanks guys. Should have been clearer with my opening post. I've made two concrete piers in the past, but was considering metal this time. Can it be done for much less than £500 to make it worthwhile?

Any suggestions for camera to use for live viewing / public outreach? 14” F8 scope with / without wedge. 1) Best - no budgetary considerations 2) Best value for money ZWO 290? TIA Adam

Thanks guys. I have a bought a dome, and although my current pier is concrete and works well, i thought that a metal one might be a bit more fitting for the dome. At £500 for a pier, and I'm wondernig if I can laser cut, weld and powercoat the same thing for considerably less.

Hi guys Looking some advice here. I'm planning of moving my observatory, and so need to make a new pier. Metal or Concrete, bought or built? Any particular recommendations. TIA Adam.

Without clicking the top one looks better. On clicking it’s a different story however. From my ‘very limited’ experience it looks too smooth, and over processed on the outer areas. The second image has a very fine colour noise running through it. Have you tried to remove it?

But the thing is the setting MUST be changed for each session / different cameras etc. The setting is adjusted to allow say 150 stars to be registered. I never get scores of 9000 etc but that’s not because my data is poor, but because I don’t register 1000s of stars (and sometimes noise not even stars)

@alan potts have you selected the correct threshold in DS to register an appropriate number of stars?