Skipper Billy

Yes that's what I am reporting. I was just bringing this new facility to peoples attention in case they weren't aware of it and giving some first hand practical feedback as I thought it might be helpful and of interest. My own outfit tracks at a level where the improvement I saw will make no difference whatsoever to my images. To others it may be the difference between fat bloated stars and nice tight ones.

Total RMS - averaged about 0.5" over 30 mins without it on and about 0.4" with it on - not scientific but certainly noticeable.

Lovely - I think you are going to enjoy that a lot!!!!! 😉

It is very faint - my stack of ~ 6 hours of Oiii data revealed a faint smudge when stretched ! Pixinsight managed to drag it out kicking and screaming eventually......

I used it for the first time last night - in poor seeing - it worked flawlessly and turning the multistar feature on and off revealed about a 10 - 15% improvement with it switched on. The large green box is the primary star and the small green circles are the secondary support stars.

The Oiii is desperately faint - 6 hours of subs stacked and stretched only revealed the faintest cloud of Oiii - masked stretch 3 times to get it useable!

California Nebula - NGC1499 - 3 hours Ha and 6 hours OIII - processed in the HOO pallet. Ha captured last month - Oiii last night. Equipment as per sugnature. Processed entirely in Pixinsight. NINA used for session control. First try with multi star in PHD2 - very good! Please no pixel peeping unless you have a fetish for panda eyes 😉 Need to get RGB stars next. CC very welcome. California Nebula.tif

Just for completeness in case someone else has the same issue - The subs were all good but I was chasing the almost non existent OIII in the California neb. The target type was set as Nebula and when I changed that to 'stars' it completed without errors - I guess it just couldn't 'see' the very faint nebulosity and therefore couldn't weight it.

First time ever - WBPP failed. Simple stack of 30 lights with tried and tested master flats, bias and darks. Same error 3 times running. Put the same files through the old BPP and it completed without errors. Anyone any ideas???

I share your pain - I am gathering the OIII on this target as we speak and its almost non-existent. I am up to 7 hours now in 600 sec chunks and its still barely visible. I will let you know if its worth pursuing when I stack the subs tomorrow. PS - happy to share the stack if that helps you - my FOV is a bit tighter than yours.

Apart from all the (valid) points already made I don't think vibration has been mentioned. Even though the house may feel sturdy in reality they move - a lot! Set up your scope as you would for visual and focus on something some distance away and keep looking through the eyepiece whilst someone walks past your tripod/mount. You will see what I mean!! Not trying to put you off - just trying to make sure you are aware of all the pitfalls.

Main sequence is the rating of the person in the group - his forum name is Cornelius Varley - I get fed up of being called the Brown Dwarf 😉😉😉 Secondly - when lockdown isn't screwing us up I travel to Bishopton on a regular basis - if you are still struggling post Covid I will be very happy to nip round and help you.

Dont hold your breath - my camera (Atik 16200) has a mechanical shutter and I am pretty sure wont do short enough exposures. Dear Santa ............. 😉

I have thrown caution to the wind and the rule book out of the window and possibly created a new pallet!! 😉 Stretched the 3 images, combined the channels using HSO!! Ha to Red, SII to Green and OIII to Blue. Removed the stars with Starnet, Tweaked Curves, TGV Denoise with the lightest of touches, Unsharp mask - again hardly at all. Morphological transformation on the stars to knock them back a bit, boosted the very faint colour and added them back in to the colour image at 80% using PixelMath. Altered the orientation as I felt it looks better and portrait images are unusual in astronomy (as is the pallet!!). Saved as TIFF for full res and JPEG for ease of viewing. Final version with stars.tif

Thanks for sharing that info Alex - a truly outstanding image and one you should be VERY proud of. Well done.

1:4 seems to be the sweet spot - you can guide at 1:1 (I have guided at 1:0.72 and it worked) equally you can guide at 1:8 but its harder work to get it right. The nearer you get to 1:1 the more flexure and weight becomes a problem - hence 1:4 seems to be the sweet spot. This is at 1:3.45 in average seeing

That's amazing! Do you mind me asking what equipment was used and how many subs each filter at what exposure?? I have always concentrated on deep sky stuff but the moon is so beautiful tonight I might be tempted to have a go!!

It occurred to me after I had pressed 'Submit Reply' that you might be confused about what I meant by 1:4 I have put my own rigs details in and snapshotted the screen - the number in the yellow circle is the one that wants to be about 1:4 which in my case its is - if I bin my guide camera it drops to 1:1.7 but is still works OK. The acceptable range is about 1:2 to 1:8 Hope that makes sense! I am guessing that when you put in your own rig and the guide rig you are thinking about it will be in excess of 1:20 +++

At over 2000mm focal length I think most will suggest an AOG. Not saying it cant be done with a guide scope but better with an OAG. There is a very useful calculator here that will help you choose a suitable scope and camera combo that will match your imaging scope - aim for about 1:4 - I know many people go way over this figure or well under it but about 1:4 is the sweet spot. http://astronomy.tools/calculators/guidescope_suitability The QHY camera you mention is a colour camera - mono is far more sensitive and personally I had nothing but grief with QHY drivers!!!! The 50mm guide scope is probably way to short FL for the scope but have a play with the calculator.

Yes - sadly it is. As far as I know Geoptik don't claim that they are made from any grade of stainless steel let alone 316 grade. They look very much like chrome plated mild steel and a very thin chrome plate at that. I rubbed the rust away with a kitchen scourer using WD40 as a lubricant. Thoroughly degreased them and painted them with two coats of good quality varnish. Two years on they are still spotless. All the best. David (aka Skipper Billy) PS - your name sound familiar - did I once lend you a power supply when you were having problems??? Some years ago !!!

Are they Geoptik weights by any chance???

@Rodd Do you mind me asking a question? Last night I got some good quality Ha on the same target (very similar view and framing too!) and it clouded over before I could get the Sii and Oiii. If you were to take this target again what would your suggestions be to capture the Sii and Oiii?? I am asking as a few people have said dont bother with Oiii as it almost completely absent! Thanks in advance.

If its anodised aluminium you might struggle to get Velcro to stick to it - 3M is the stickiest. I am sure the chemists amongst us can tell us why but in my experience, until it has aged, very little sticks really well to anodised aluminium.

We don't know what you have done and what equipment you have to collimate it - a bit more information will help us to help you. Meantime - this is one of the best guides I have seen for collimating a newt - follow every step in the correct order - miss nothing out and you will end up with a very well collimated scope.

Is it this one ???