tooth_dr

9 minutes ago, michaelmorris said:

Well I suspect you may have just found them! 

I still think it’s electrical interference 

and not operator related 

Daft question probably but could there be a power cable near the USB cable, or are you using a usb hub? I only ask because I got banding with my Canon when I ran the usb cable beside (in same duct as) the 12v power cable.

Ive used four Canons avd never seen this except when above issue arose. Is it specific to 1200d?

43 minutes ago, niallk said:

I've a Maxbright (use in my dobs) and a Lunt LS50.

I'd be very interested in anyone's success in BV-ing with the Lunt50.

I'm thinking of contacting Siebert Optics and asking if I am interpreting the website correctly in thinking that they may offer a solution:

http://www.siebertoptics.com/SiebertOptics-H alpha.html

I'll be sure to post what I learn.

I was about to buy off Harry but mine worked with the supplied GPC so I didn’t bother. But he was good at emails it’s just his website is hard to work out. 

30 minutes ago, RayD said:

Ooh hello.  How did it go?  How did you get on with the alignment?

Balancing was easy thanks to Steve’s guide on a thread. Alignment was ok too, fiddly but I’ve a lot of patience and am well used to working to very fine tolerances.

It started snowing as I tried to locate ic443. I had Ha in one camera and Oiii in the other.  All I managed was a rough initial focus on the moon at the start of the session.  Hope to get out later if it clears up. At least both cameras are working though via APT 1&2, and guiding seems to be ok.  Nothing to post star wise but I’ll try later.

First light with twin ED80s

An impromptu session this evening. First night out for the 10” in a few years. 

Past few days I’ve gathered up bits and pieces to go ahead with a side by side ED80 imaging rig. Will need a few days fine tuning and assembly, I have adjustable rings to fall back on if I can’t it shimmed as it stands:

Black ED80 DS

SW FF 0.85x

Canon T adapter

10mm aluminium plate, various pieces

Light pollution on my southern horizon:

15 minutes ago, Shibby said:

Nice setup - do you do anything in particular after closing up to deal with the moisture?

I'm going to get a dehumidifer one of these days...

Nice bit of ice last night on the scopes. EXIF temp 4deg. Shame the mount didn’t guide properly ?

Just now, Grant said:

We are going to try and keep the challenges as open as possible in future - we will see how it goes though.

 

 

This is the OSC / DSLR challenge but we’ve tried to listen to feedback form past challenges and want to make it as open as possible.

It looks like we can’t win either way! The point of these challenges is to be a bit of fun that people can participate it - please take them in the spirit intended ?

Thanks Grant for the update. Of course they are just for fun and they are most enjoyable. 

3 hours ago, Grant said:

Well it's really a OSC / DSLR challenge but we didn't want to exclude people with mono cameras

But DSLRs were excluded from entering the Narrowband Challenge?  Discrimination

250px, on EQ6!

33 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Do you think my laptops will drive both, for outside I prefer to use the T420 with 4 gig of ram, it has an i5 enhanced processor or the T410 which is not quite as quick but also 4gig ram.

.

I run mine all off a £28 PC off ebay, dual core, 2.something GHZ, 160GB HDD, 1 0r 2 gig of RAM.  I think you will be ok.

As Lightbucket says it works very well with PHD and this will allow you to 'dither' your exposures, as well as platesolve to find targets.

http://www.stark-labs.com/phdguiding.html

https://openphdguiding.org/

AstroPhotography Tool sounds suitable for your job Alan.

https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx

4 hours ago, serbiadarksky said:

Believe me, I knocked that thing out of pa hundred times........so boring

Than I fixed my tripod to the ground (woth bricks lol) and very gently moving the clutches

It depends, am I picking the nebulosity stars etc or the dust and sand lanes?

I usually use iso 200 for target and iso 800 for sand and 8min exppsures for target, 10min exppsures for dust 

I will keep answering, I enjoy it

I’m trting to work out what you mean by sand? Obviously a language thing but I can’t work it out!

Testing out the new finder guider. Pleased to say it works, but it’s now snowing so quickly packed up.

New one to me too. It’s beautiful, what a great image. 

Looking forward to trying this out. Arrived today, and looks like the spacer ring was included in the box with it!

The standard of those images is phenomenal. Well done to everyone. 

Thats huge! Looks like a grenade.  I'm sure it'll give amazing views.

Arrived today! Warranty replacement for faulty ones. Fantastic service from Dan at Celestron, tried to fix the ones I sent back but couldn’t do it so new set sent out. He personally tested the new set before they were posted, and after a brief try tonight I can say I’m very pleased.

More stuff arrived today!

2x and 3x Barlows

Bhatinov mask - doesn’t quite fit the 12” but easily modified

T-adapter

SW motorised focuser  

Fast delivery and well packaged, thanks to Ian at Green-Witch.

This thread is just jam packed with amazing images! Thanks everyone for posting!

@dyfiastro that’s a super widefield of the bubble neb and friends!