DaveS

Will this be recorded? I could imagine that it will be something that requires repeated viewing.

Like Dave I have several unfinished projects due to bad weather and borks. An hour here, a couple of hours there, a bit of Luminance, a few hour Hydrogen etc, etc. I think my last "completed" image was back end of Sept.

I knew there would be a long wait, but wasn't worried, as I had a house move looming, and would be building an obsy. For someone in a hurry, yes it could be a deal-breaker.

Not directly of that OTA, but my OOUK ODK12 took about 8 months from order to delivery. It's a good 'scope, just be prepared for a wait.

Had a look at that and they didn't get on to the interesting stuff until right at the end. Hope next month's will talk about the spring galaxies.

Hubble isn't just a "visual" telescope since it's capabilities stretch into the near UV. Besides which there are plenty of useful emission lines in the "visible" part of the spectrum.

How about a Stella Lyra RC?

I seriously considered a dome when I was planning my obsy, but not being much of an engineer would have to buy the stuff off-the-peg. When I costed a 2.2m Pulsar, plus the relevant automation there wasn't much (Any?) change left from £7k.

No. The wind's a bit unpredictable tonight, and I have nothing to hold the obsy roof down when it's open. It doesn't even have to be blown right off as getting it back on the rails would be a huge undertaking for me working alone. A bit frustrating as I have a recalcitrant focuser to sort out. Hopefully just a firmware / software clash which I've fixed. I think.

About 20 seconds, to walk out of my conservatory

I have three PSUs in my obsy, for mount, camera and electrically noisy accessories.

That is rather wonderful. The processing is way beyond my modest bodge-it non-skills.

Yes! Found the boot drive of my remote PCs filling up to saturation. I had to delete the files as I couldn't find what they were used for. Haven't found out how to stop either Sesto Senso or ASCOM writing them.

This is 4 hours H-alpha on the Horse and Flame. 130 apo, Astronomik 6nm. I *think* the first 2 hours were with Gain 56 Offset 176, the second with Gain 1, Offset 10 as I had been experimenting and neglected to reset the parameters. I've left the alignment edges in for technical reasons, but what really concerns me are some huge artifacts around Alnitak. This is just the light frames, still got to get all the calibration frames.

I can recommend Astrograph, though their EShop is a bit flakey. Better to email Rupert directly.

Question: Are you going to upgrade the mount? Although the EQ6-R is a reasonable piece of kit, a "Lifetime" 'scope really deserves a "Lifetime" mount, something in the Mesu / 10 Micron league as a minimum.

Here's one of M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, 2.7 million LY away in out Local Group And one of M13, the Great Globular in Hercules

I'm thinking you want images of not-too-obscure objects? So maybe the Orion Nebula, M33, M31 (Not one I've done to any standard), possibly the Crab, Perhaps the Dumbell? I'll have a look through my files for something that more people might know.

If you're planning on putting the obsy on a raised platform then check carefully the Permitted Development regs to make sure you don't end up with the top of the dome too high, and have to go through planning approval. 170405_Householder_Technical_Guidance__-April_2017_FINAL.pdf

I think 10 Micron can do encoder guiding, and possibly the Planewave single arm fork. Neither are anything like cheap. Beyond those the only hope is a S/H ASA mount, but I think you'd have more luck finding hens' teeth. Unless you can find silly money for the very new DDM 100.

Definitely a keeper.

I think dither and Sigma Stacking will clean up any hot pixels. The Horse and Flame I put in the Deep sky Imaging forum has no Dark frames. Or Flats either for that matter.

Thanks Gina Those deep wells on these new CMOS sensors might be helping, less chance of filling up. Will have to see how the RGB holds up when I get the chance. May be next year at this rate.

As I recall I was using Gain 56 and Offset 10 in Photo mode, but I had so much "fun and games" getting everything working that I could be wrong. I think the Extended Full Well 2CMH might be a good idea with Alnitak blasting over everything, but I'm still getting to grips with the complexities of the QHY driver after the simplicity of the ASI

2 Hours on the Horse and Flame in H-alpha (Astronomik 6nm) with the QHY 268M on the TS apo. Huge amount of moon. I still have to get all the calibration frames I need so this is just the 600 sec lights, Sigma Average, DDP and Unsharp Mask. I think the Unsharp Mask has left some halos but this is just a quick first run that will be added to the red channel when, if, I do a full HaRGB image. Worried too about the huge diffraction around Alnitak.