tooth_dr

1 hour ago, Gina said:

I like the colour saturation of the original but I can see the improvement in colour balance in the second.  I think a bit more colour saturation in the second would improve it and make it even more brilliant.  My 2p worth...

Gina has hit the nail on the head.  Stunning image.

4 hours ago, MilwaukeeLion said:

Certainly is interesting, captured meteors looking similar to your larger flash shown here but never with a second flash next to it.  What exposure were you running ?  

Thanks. It was 45s

This is absolutely awe inspiring.  What a stunning colourful image. I really do like the DN.  

Thanks guys. I’m excited about this. I’ll take time to read through and consider everything mentioned above. Thanks again. 

4 minutes ago, Danon said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OzGQxXzVaKroeswZXdcUr7VmhFsMDcH7/view?usp=sharing

This is link to Dark frame from Atik that was offer to me. Those strange pattenrs nearby center is worring me. There are hot pixel formed into some "scratch"? 

Can you save that as a JPEG and attach locally please!

3 minutes ago, Danon said:

That is strong argument. Those images I've seen on astrobin, was from 10-15min subs only and still look good. I'm begginer, so probably I can't yet see any differences between 15min subs and 30 min. 

 

@tooth_dr How about Yours subs? How long they are?

I take 600s for Ha, and 300s for LRGB.

7 minutes ago, Adam J said:

the main issue is that I am at work and so typing fast so as not to get caute on here lol 

This made me laugh no harm done.

12 minutes ago, Adam J said:

That is possibly true in your case however, having owned one and observed variable comments from fine to not fine from others my working assumption is that they are not all made equal and the QC is not top grade on this item. However the lens is normally very good. 

 

'Possibly true'?

(please tread carefully with that comment, I have no need to come on here and make something up).

My advice was based on my experience, not on conjecture and assumption

21 minutes ago, Adam J said:

There is a Atik 460EX mono in the for sale section its less noisy than the KAF8300 and does not even require dark frames to get the most out of it so that might be another option.

I would personally say that if you want to hang a cooled camera and filter wheel off the back of a SW ED80 you would be well advised to get a focuser upgrade. 

Adam

Just to address these points, from a practical point of view, as a user of both the KAF-8300 and the SW ED80.

1) Dark frames require zero effort to take and use.  You take them at night when it's cloudy, and one set will do a season.  Dont let the requirement of needing dark frames put you off the purchase of such a sensor.

2) Whilst a focuser upgrade could be considered, I would suggest there is no need to upgrade your focuser, as the existing focuser is more than adequate for my cooled camera and EFW.

A second hand KAF-8300 can be got for under £700 in the QHY9 form, and a bit more in the Atik 383L+ form.  £900 seems like quite strong money for the Atik 383L+ if there are no accessories.  I have both the QHY and Atik, and would say that there is little difference.  The Atik perhaps maintains temperature just that little bit more accurately - for example two nights ago I imaged at -20deg C, and all the Atik subs were recorded at -20.  This could be due to the more open design of the QHY9.  The QHY9 has a couple of subs at -19 and a couple at -21, but the majority were -20.  But I'm really splitting hairs here.  The Atik is probably more pleasing to look at, but noisier in operation.

I have absolutely no experience of the CMOS cameras however, but have not been disappointed in my choice of CCD KAF-8300.

I can post images if you wish.

Clear Skies

Adam.

And I tend to browse a lot on the phone and I can’t see signatures so equipment isn’t always obvious. 

That really is something else for 5.5 hours.  A real testament to your processing skills.  Stunning.

Unless this was taken with an Oiii filter, then it looks ok.

I just missed this visually last night, as when I came in and sat down in the observatory it was just on the screen from the all sky camera.

Any idea what’s going on? Is it a reflection or a meteor that broke up into pieces?

TIA

Adam. 

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

I have the same domed observatory and I have a couple of comments:-

1. You need more ducts

   AC Power
   CAT 5 Network cable
   'Security' link
   Drain pipe for de-humidifier
   CloudWatcher connection
   At least one spare (AllSky Camera etc.)

2. I don't have any bays but I would recommend getting one for your computer and monitor

3. I have a spreadsheet that may help you set up the slaving of the dome to the telescope when the time comes

Thanks Steve. I’ve read your thread and find it very informative, but got a bit lost with all the software stuff.  I’ll need to plan this out carefully. My wooden ROR shed is a lot more forgiving both in terms of space, and for retro fitting stuff (ie hidden under floor).

Very cool capture!  I had to play it a few times to spot it, then it’s really obvious.  Here is a screen grab from your video

Great image David! Worth the perseverance 👍🏻 The close up detail is phenomenal 

Im wondering how does the Optolong compare to the Baader in other aspects. I know you had poor transparency on one night so it might be hard to draw conclusions.

Like I said in the message, feel free to work away with that filter, I can easily work round it.

Amazing in colour, hope to achieve something like this some day. 

Thanks guys. I have since rechecked the focus and tightened it up a bit. 

The 200P isnt a bad match for an EQ6 at all. I really like my EQ6, and you will be able to get a belt modded one for £600.

 There also shouldn’t be issues getting focus with the 450d on the 200.

If you do decide to get an eq6, you’ll want to get into auto guiding.  Factor in £30-40 for a guidescope and adapter, and another £50-80 for a guidecam, and few leads £20-30.  It starts to add up unfortunately but there are super used bargains on here.  

Looks like it is going to a war of attrition this season.  Last night I only got 11 x 300s in luminance in one scope and 8 x 300s red and 3 x 300s blue in the other, then clouds rolled in.

I'm delighted with the improvements in guiding since the belt mod, and consistently get under 1"/pixel RMS, which is ok since I'm imaging at 2.13"/pixel.

I didn't process the colour but used all the data to create this luminance.

Comments welcome.

CS, Adam.

Good job. Gave this one a go myself. Certainly is challenging 

I would try stacking it in a different software, eg APP. I’ve had quite a few fails with DSS, but none with APP. 

10 minutes ago, Hallingskies said:

I have the 2.2m dome and would probably do things a bit differently were I doing it again.

Firstly I would have just gone for a dome-only build: I have accepted that the fibre glass body offers no security whatsoever.  I would use concrete blocks with an adjoining warm room a second time around.  I think there is a build thread on here along those lines and it looks superb.

I ran a single 1 inch conduit under the base concrete and fed the armoured feed power cable to a RCD box mounted on a board inside.  I used flexible ducts for lighting and power cables and stuck the duct bracket bases to the walls with fibre glass car body filler.  It kept things tidy.

I wish I had run a second duct for a data out cable as I now want to run some Cat 5 back to the house as an afterthought.

I don’t think there is really room for a raised floor.  I use a Pegasus hub on the scope and only have two cables to take back (data to the pc and 12v to the hub). I just put them through a standard floor cable shield stuck down with carpet tape.  Power sockets and wiring is all attached to the walls as described.

I have one of the additional cubby hole extensions and have put a pc desk in it for the lappy docking station with extra keyboard and mouse. Things would be cramped without it.

You will need a dehumidifier in there as the fibreglass structure is a condensation magnet.  Some folk say you can just use ventilation etc but I have found that just does not work.  I have wired my dehumidifier into a Stego humidistat set at 55%.  It comes on for about four minutes every half hour at absolute worst.  Sometimes it doesn’t run for days, obviously depends on weather.

I reduced the air gap between the dome and the body with 7mm p seal.  That cuts down the air ingress without hindering the dome rotation and I only have to empty the dehumidifier once or twice a week, even in winter.  I did have a plumbed in drain but that froze up.

My pier is 850mm high I think - I got it from Pulsar at the same time as the dome.  It’s just the right height for an NEQ6.

 

Thanks. Great info.

I haven’t ruled out building a brick structure and mounting a dome on it.  My concerns were a) attaching the dome and b) heat from the bricks.

If I built my own base it would certainly leave more options, as I’m used to a warm room. But it would also increase costs, the fibreglass walls are ‘only’ £900

33 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

With my Pulsar 2.1

I ran two conduits from the warm room to the dome.

I tee'd off just inside the perimeter so that I could mount some power points and a monitor on the wall.

These two conduits continued underground as close as I could get to the pier without spoiling the isolation.

They came up and out of the concrete base about 6 inches.

Then the cables ran up the pier from loops out of the conduit.

I used solvent weld pipe with slow bends.

50mm was fine for the Mains, but over time the other 50mm for data cables got rather full, so bigger would be good.

Pier height ? Depends how high your dome wall is !

Pier might need to be offset from centre so your scope can point to the zenith, especially the guidescope if mounted on top.

Michael

 

Thank so much Michael.  I was wondering about off setting the pier, in my ROR shed the pier is the middle, and my largest scope collided with the wall on one side. If offset this wouldn’t have been an issue.

Im not sure what the standard wall height is for the domes, I’ll check that.

I have 12 x 240v items plugged into sockets in my shed observatory.  I will need to factor in socket placement etc. Heat from the 3 x PCs might an issue if in the dome with the scope. Currently they are in my warm room and north of the scope. 

Meteor capture from early hours of Wednesday morning using Watec 902H2 and Computar 8mm F0.8 lens: