tooth_dr

This appeared on my timelapse from last night. It even left a small smoke trail too on the individual images theatre immediately followed: Meteor_020122_010731UT-2.mp4

Thanks guys. @Xiga happy new year to you and the family too.

Is there much Oiii in the Sadr region - would you mind posting single subs, ideally with an IMX571 sensor, 300s, but happy for anything posted in Oiii just to see. Many thanks Adam.

No problem, I think I'll stick with what I have at the minute and keep an eye on it.

Cheers, I came across that the other day too, lots of conflicting info, but the stats below seem approprirate. I am currently using gain 180 / offset 25. I tried to go with gain 270 / offset 340, but AllSkEye doesnt allow offset above 100, so it makes me wonder if the gain setting of 25 I am using is actually 25 or 25% of a total (whatever the total might be)? Unity Gain ==> Gain: 180 Offset: 25 Highest Dynamic Range ==> Gain: 0 Offset: 25 Lowest Read Noise ==> Gain: 270 Offset: 340

Cheers. I've tried it without a stretch in AllSkEye software and it looks less noisy, still need to look at the settings and see if I can improve on it. There doesnt seem to be an ideal gain for these camera unlike most of the other ZWO range. I think the highest temp I recorded wasnt far off 40 with the 120MM, and it softened and made a small internal PLA mounting plate droop a little inside the enclosure, so must have got a little warmer than recorded!

The dome was taken from a cheap security camera that I was given, it's probably not the best optically, and has a few scratches on it. @Jonk your images look a lot less noisy than mine. Do you think it's the temp (my camera was reading 23 degrees) or the stretch? I've mine at Gain 180 and Offset 25.

A quick test from last night, i think its about 3 hours of timelapse. Fog doesnt be long closing in! SKy was hazy but looks ok test-timelapse.mp4

I thinks more the constant dampness that bothers me more than the condensation bit. I'm happy to see my kit covered in condensation/ice/birdcrap whatever as it means it's getting used. I'm just not keen on my scopes and cameras sitting in a damp and dark environment 24/7 when not in use. I think I live in a particularly damp part of the world, and this may possibly different to you. I'm intimately surrounded by fields and rivers and trees in a rural location (it's not as bad as it sounds!) In my last observatory (a roll off roof design) screw heads and the EQ6 counterweights and bar started showing signs of rust after 2 years, despite very good airflow. Given that the dome has much less airflow it felt essential to have a dehumidifier to avoid any damage to future equipment purchases. I'm not sure about the dustcaps on the scope, surely it will still be damp inside the telescope, as the moisture will get inside and onto the glass? Anyway it seems to be working as 1.5 years into use of the dome, I've no evidence of rust - its a small price to pay for peace of mind. I run solar panels and E7 tariff at night so it doesnt really cost me that much in the grand scheme of things.

I’ve been running my ASC enclosure successfully ie not leaking or fogging up for over a year now, and you are correct in that you don’t want it air tight. I have the ring heater running on low power, which seems to do the job or keeping away condensation and drying rain, along with a partially open base to let in air. When I said wary of air flow I meant I’ll need to improve air flow if I decide to run the cooler because there isn’t very much excess space in my enclosure (it was designed around a 120MM) and I think the camera will struggle with air circulation to allow cooling. Nothing a reprint won’t fix! AllSkEye hasn’t really been anything but good with me, even with the old 120MM which is notoriously flaky. If it continues with the 178 I’ll give the Pi a miss for now.

Great capture, can see it clearly. I would have liked a colour camera, but this one came up cheap. I honestly havent seen a clear sky for at least two weeks maybe more. I will have my camera in a 3d printed enclosure, and will be wired to a PC in my observatory, so it will run autonomously. Currently I'm using AllSkEye software, it is set to run at from sun set to sunrise. It converts all my images to JPEGS and saves these, and then generates a timelapse video of the night, and a star trails image. I need to work out how to overlay the data because I really like what you have displayed on your images. Luckily when I printed my camera enclosure for the 120MM I made it large enough so that luckily it also holds the 178. Do you run the cooler on yours? I wasnt sure whether to run it or not. I'm wary of air flow within my enclosure - this might warrant a reprint of the enclosure. ATB Adam.

I use this wee meter I picked up on ebay for about a fiver

There is no way to polar align my mesu e200. I just got it rough by eye then used software to refine it.

Mine sits at 60% like yours @iwols but this requires my dehumidifier running all the time - it cycles between high and low setting. If l leave it off after a day the reading goes to 95-100%. So for the sake of a few quid it's on all the time.

I’ve had issues with my 120MM too! But I have had poor customer service from two Germany companies and a US company in the past year, and I spent 50x more than the 120

I was reading your post, loving the testing you had done. After using my 105/650 for a few months I was impressed at the images despite it relatively small aperture, and ended up getting a second one!

Steve I’ve linked to a thread that Cuivs has posted about this on CNs in my post directly above yours. It covers what he says in the video. Baader directly told me that these tests were in fact not valid

Optics aside as I know nothing about the scope, if you want something thats is going to be lifted and used, and survive a bit of rain and trips in the car, and salty air, I think one of these probably fits your original brief a little better than a regular scope.

That is definitely the last thing you would want to happen! If it's ok with you, I'll throw up a few photos in case anyone else (unlikely) runs into the same issue and comes across this thread.

@Jonk I had an hour free earlier and had a think about how to move the glass - I decided to attach in a similar way on the reverse of the faceplate. I was able to reuse the original O-ring, and i havent fouled anything on the circuit board, I just screwed a new filter holding plate to the underside of the faceplate. It focuses now and crops nicely to 2080 x 2080 pixels. Only clouds but the test shot looks ok.

That would be great thanks. Can you edit a 3mf file in a design program? I havent come across that file before, I'm using fusion 360.

I finally got some time to have a look at this. I tried on my all sky lens, and as you have pointed out, it doesnt screw in far enough to get the required back spacing (it's either 17.5mm or 12.5mm). I then went on and tried a T mount to Canon adaper and was able to get focus with a 18-55mm lens, but obviously the FL is much too long. Would you buy any chance have some photos of what you have done, or even the 3d files that I could work with and print out? Many thanks Adam.

I seen this for sale and thought it looks very impressive. I cant help you other than confirm that your circles look pretty well lined up. Be good to see how this translates to real life.

I spotted this on a FB page, taken through a 150mm reflector with a non-cooled 178MC camera. I ran the original image by Peter (top) through PS just to remove the green cast and denoise it (bottom) but it looks pretty ok imho. CREDIT: Peter Coates

Fantastico! Too much goodness for one thread!