DaveS

Some of those stars do look a bit odd, as though there's something obstructing part of the light path.

Maxim reported a seeing of around 1.12 FWHM with the 130 f/7, close to the pixel scale.

That *does* out of focus to me, and I can see a lot of fixed pattern noise, but that may just be the exposure.

Gods, is that the best focus? If it is, then it's a rubbish lens.

Or a similar clone from FLO. Probably your best bet for long FL imaging on a HEQ5, as it's short and relatively light, keeping the moment arm small. You won't need a flattener / reducer for a 460 / 694 camera as the RC is flat field natively.

Yes, I have something similar here. Friday, though, might be NB only, or possibly 2 hour NB followed by Luminance going to check the moon altitude in Stellarium

Atmospheric turbulence "seeing". The DDMs guide on their encoders with a sky model so don't see a guide star. They are very good at correcting atmospheric refraction and wind gusts but the small scale wavering isn't seen.

SX available from FLO Here I've considered this on and off (More off than on) for my ODK12. I don't need to guide, the DDM mounts do that very well indeed, but the AO could correct slow star wandering.

Ooh, now that's a big delivery 😃

I'm seeing a bit more green for Wednesday, but Friday for me is solid red. Will try a Sequence run after getting some input from Wolfgang at ASA. If it works it'll be a fill in job on Stephan and Deer. If it doesn't work, hopefully there'll still be time to do a manual run. maybe just L.

For reference, a couple of quick pics done last year, with the ASI1600 The whole of Orion and Barnard's Loop with 35mm Elmarit in Ha RGB Next, with the 180mm Apo-Telyte-R Not claiming they're any great shakes, and have been cropped here and there for alignment edges as they were set up by eye on a SA.

Nah, he's just after mining all that iron in the earth's core 😆

Had a look up as I was closing up and saw the stars vanishing to the south. Hope the cloud keeps away from you.

Good luck Gina, I'm stuffed for the night going to close down and try to sort things out in the morning. Time for the big hammer I think.

I could cry with frustration The never to be sufficiently damned Sequence software has made a mess of my Trius, repeatedly dropping off but looking like it's connected though the cooler suddenly says -16 instead of -20. Synch on Deneb, OK, nice sharp stars, slew to my target and the camera drops off, try to take an exposure, no stars at all. Everything was fine the last time I used it, but since then I've changed the filters, and I think something's "broken" in the software. Even without Sequence it's playing silly Bs. It's the one long clear night we've had and it's stuffed.

Well, the telescope is synched to Deneb, focused and now pointing at the target area. Just waiting for full darkness to begin the run.

Hope it pushes off soon I've just seen the lovely delicate crescent moon as I was firing up the rig ready for Stephan and Deer, it's just hanging there in the far western sky.

I want to try and get 40 mins of just G&B at 2x2, then aim for 3 hours of bin 1 Luminance while we have a long run with no moon. If we get a slot later with moon coming up I'll think about HII.

Good luck Gine, hope it all goes well for you

'night Gina

I have to declare a bias, as I've run an ASA DDM60 for the last couple of years, and recently taken delivery of a DDM85 to add to it.

Oink oink.

Yeah, going to save my energy for tomorrow. We could have clear from dusk to dawn.

Yeah, new moon but can't image through clouds.

Probably the right decision, got lots of clouds here, think I'll turn it in for the night.