DaveS

Have you tried AstroArt 7? Before I moved to Maxim DL I used to use AA5 for my capture as well as post, and found it pretty good.

Well done for rescuing an unloved 'scope. It always saddens / upsets me to see a 'scope just tossed out with the rubbish.

Probably with a spectrograph, as that's about the only thing that will give you useful information until the blast shell gets big enough to give a worthwhile image. But when it does get big enough (After the main flash has dimmed) then every camera that can point at it will be pointing at it.

What do we need? Skylon When do we need it? Now! Repeat until bored.

Tick tock goes the clock.....

There looks to be quite a lot of weight on one side of the fork, I would be concerned about out-of-balance forces around the PA. The remote PA looks brilliant BTW. Worth patenting and licensing?

I've been bashing my head against this for a while now, a major problem is only 6 hours of data, 3 hours each HII and [OIII], both in 10 min subs. 130mm f/7 TS Photoline apo, Astrodon 3nm filters and SX Trius 694 encoder guided on ASA DDM60. Capture in Maxim DL 6 with ASA software. All processing in AstroArt 7. Each stack given DDP and gradient removal, Adaptive Divide, Trichromy with H > Red, O > Green and Blue. More gradient removal.Adaptive Subtract then Histogram Stretch and colour balance. With such thin data, trying to pull out the outer shell without blowing the structure in the core is a real struggle, and I'm not sure I've got it right yet! The background may still be too green. Argh!

From the original definition, the lens must be corrected for longitudinal chromatic aberration in three wavelengths, and spherical aberration in two. to do this you need three distinct glass types. ED doublets can only bring two wavelengths to a common focus,as the chart Vlaiv posted above shows. Calling an ED doublet "apo" is nobut marketing guff.

Yes, they do organise the Lido events. Ruislip Lido is marginally less light polluted than where I was living (Just off Field End Road). I hoped that the new LED lighting might improve the sky, but no such luck. Instead I now have an SQI of 21.66 (est) and the dark end of Bortle 4 compared with 18.5 and Bortle 8.

Ha, I moved from Ruislip (Well, Ruislip / Eastcote border) to Dorset. Have you checked out WOLAS?

Unfortunately the only coding I did was 35 years ago, and that was only in BBC BASIC, C++ etc is a whole different way of thinking. Mind you I did write a FFT spectrum analysis suite (Capture / analysis / display) in BBC BASIC from a FORTRAN model and the FFT equations. Given my background I think it's likely I will have to throw money at the problem with buying ready-made solutions. I don't like this mut may be forced down this road.

Oh, and I looked at the ASCOM developers' pages and it might as well have been written in Sumerian Cuneiform.

Thinking about the things I need to automate / remote control. Roof opening / closing. Sequence can schedule this within an imaging sequence. There are robotic roof opening / closing solutions but are terrifyingly expensive. Telescope opening / closing. Again Sequence can schedule this, but I'm still looking for the relevant settings / ASCOM drivers. Camera connection / cool down / warm up. Sequence schedules this and connects through Maxim DL so uses the Maxim camera control. Autofocuser. Sequence has settings for this, and can use any ASCOM compliant focuser. Thinking of the Prima Luce labs Sesto Senso, mainly for its ease of fixing and that it contains all the driver electronics. Dew control. This cannot be done through Sequence (I think) but the Hitecastro Mount Hub (Either Pro or Compact) has USB dew control. Plus power distribution. Emergency stop etc. Sequence has connection for AAG cloudwatcher or other ASCOM compliant weather monitoring solutions. Roff closing needs the solution found above. There may be others to consider. All this is under Windows / ASCOM, so no Linux / KStars / Ekos / INDI solutions please. I use Cartes du Ciel, and the mount is controlled by the ASA Autoslew software which connects to Sequence.

I have hazel eyes, but what is this thing Moon? Oh yes, that annoying light in the sky that interferes with my imaging. Someone use up all the Vantablack on it please.

I'll be automating, or at least roboting my to-be-built obsy so I can run it from indoors. However most of the control will be through the ASA Sequence software which, though clunky, is designed for automating observatories. Loads to work out though, but that will be for my build thread.

I much prefer S @ N as it's presented by real astronomers with a passion for their subject, while Horizon, even when it covers real science, is too often made by "Meeja studies" kids who think they have to play silly whatsits with the editing or camera nonsense to make it "interesting" (Presumably for those with goldfish attention spans), then slap a too loud music track on.

For scientific imaging the square format makes total sense. It uses the most of the imaging circle and is orientation agnostic. Printing square is fine, just trim off the borders before mounting (You can buy square mounts if you don't want to cut your own). Photographers have, and some continue to, photograph and print square from the 6x6 (12 on 120) format. I do agree that the pixel count is a bit low at 3008 each way, but it's still better than the 2750 x 2200 I have currently with my SX694. Better too than the old KAI 4022 sensor at only 2k each way. I just wish there was a mono version of this as I'm not into OSC. Could do with something about 20mm or so square with 4k+ pixels on a side.

Thanks Gina. I was going to bed when I saw your post so only had time for a "thanks". Going to make a list of things that need to be either automated or remote controlled, probably through Sequence, which is designed for obsy automation even if it is a bit clunky. It can use ASCOM drivers, so that may be something to look into.

I am now giving serious thought to automating both the main obsy and the mini imaging box I'm planning for the little platform.. ASA Sequence is designed for automatic / robotic imaging so has various functions for automating dome / shed opening, uncovering the telescope camera cooldown, warm-up etc with warning exceptions. Just a matter of interfacing these with the physical hardware. Unfortunately not being an engineer like @Gina or @JamesF I may have to throw money at the problem by purchasing ready made solutions. This rather grates against my sensibilities, but needs must.

I'll just note in passing that theatre backstage lighting is traditionally blue (Stage blues) and very dim so as not to be visible to the audience.

Not sure. Pig-headedness? They are also going to take down a huge Dawn Redwood that is dominating the garden (And only getting bigger), which will be replaced by a small fruit-growing area, barely worth calling an orchard. Because they put in the planning application, they might well have to be the one to carry it out. Part of the delay was due to the boss having a nasty accident and breaking 6 ribs. The unremitting rain put all their plans back as they couldn't do any of the work for their other contracts.

Well just a very quick update with the (Non)-progress of this build. After having the 25th Sept given as a start, this was pushed back to 6th Nov, then to the 25th of Nov by over-running work for the landscape contractors. Then they put it back to an undefined date as they didn't want to commit, now I have a confirmed date of the 13th Jan, which they've promised won't be changed again. This means the groundworks will be done in the cold, possibly wet, certainly short days. And the obsy build itself won't happen 'till late Jan at the earliest, allowing the concrete to go off before drilling. Seriously fed up. If it wasn't for the fact that I want the base to be in keeping with the rest of the area I could probably have done it myself as a concrete slab without pretty stone edging. I also want to re-configure the small platform rig to allow for a remote imaging box to cover the whole lot, but since this will mean completely dismantling the whole shebang, putting it out of action for a month or so, I can't realistically start until I have *something* up and running on the obsy platform. Bother

Hi Neal and welcome from an ex West Londoner, made my escape to the country last year.

Is there any movement on this? I looked on @FLO's site and see the original ASIAir is marked "Unavailable", so guessing the stock is being replaced.

Probably the best thing I ever did was go from a DSLR (Un-modded 550D) to mono CCD. Between the ASI183 and 1600, it's not an easy decision, I would tend to go with the 1600 for the FoV and less processor intensive data crunching, those 40 MB subs add up quickly. Also I found the 183 to be much more fussy about Dark Frames to kill the horrendous amp glow. As for filters, get an electronic filter wheel and your capture software will change the filters for you. Filters from any one manufacturer will be physically parfocal, whether your 'scope will be sufficiently apochromatic to put all wavelengths to the same focus, only you can determine. I would keep an IDAS D2 for your Luminance filter in an LRGB set. This may be a slight complication as they don't do it in the most affordable 1.25" size, and 2" filters tend to be expensive. With mono you can use NB filters to their fullest extent (I have my doubts about fancy multiband filters for OSC cameras), to give proper separation between hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen wavelengths (You cannot separate hydrogen and sulphur in an OSC system since both are red. Hope this gives you some pointers.