Ohgodwherediditgo

+1 for the 130 Heritage. Reflectors just can't be beaten in terms of aperture for £, which is what you want for visual . If you've been reading about first scopes then you've probably read a lot that the best scope is the one that gets used the most, and that will come down to ease and speed of setup, especially with kids.

I recently missed an open evening due to self isolating . I did look at membership with them but they have a long waiting list.

Assuming that all is well with the software, exposure length could be an issue. I normally expose for 5-10 secs for plate solving but recently had to go to 20 seconds at ISO 800 on the Deer Lick Cluster to get a result.

I have attempted to join Southampton Astronomical Society but it doesn't seem to be active, so was hoping someone on here could point me to a club that is active nearish Fareham.

My interest is in astrophotography rather than visual, aside from the odd spectacle or a bit of planetary visual with the kids.

I have had this problem with a dslr while using Nina but it's always because i have cancelled an exposure mid shot in Nina but the camera continues on but then fails to download. The camera always stays connected to Nina, 'hung' in it's download until i remove power from the camera, and i mean pull the plug as the camera will continue trying to download as long as there is power available after it's been switched off. After that everything is fine. It's easy to see whats going on there with a dslr as it has a screen. HTH.

I used astronomy.tools before i bought the guide scope and camera :

That's guided. The scope is 1800mm  F9 though so not ideal for learning on. 

That's been the trouble. I can't go for longer than 2 mins without getting elongated stars. My subs at 2 mins are slightly elongated but stacking makes then pretty good. I'm trying to get to 5 mins to experiment with swamping the read noise of my dslr. 

I expect that checking for cone error then using software to assist will be near as damn it, well I'm hoping so. If not then I'll renew the mount bearings as Dec has more drag than I'd like. I did repack the tapered bearings recently    ( properly and with synthetic grease 🤔) and noticed one of the sealed bearings was a bit rough. 

Thanks for the detailed reply. I'll check for cone error as soon as the clouds clear enough. Unfortunately I will have to shim between the scope and dovetail if adjustment is required.

The polemaster had crossed my mind but I didn't want to throw money at the problem straight away, although it does seem to me to be the cream of the crop for pa. 

I don't currently use any software for PA. I normally move Polaris in the polar scope to the 12 o'clock position, then use the clock on the setting circle to rotate the polar scope to the correct position and then make the alt / dec adjustments. That was until my last session, when i noticed big smudges instead of stars after leaving it far too long to check an image. I opened up the guiding assistant in PHD and let it run it's routine, after which it reported that my PA was 30 ' out, impressive, i thought ! I went through my usual PA routine and checked the assistant again to find i was within 2 ', so i settled for that. I have since invested £5 in one of China's finest laser pointers to avoid that mistake again.

Anyway, N.I.N.A has a new PA routine, currently on a nightly release that I'm thinking of updating to. I'm a bit hesitant to because I'm not sure if my imaging scope should be perfectly aligned with the polar scope ( which it isn't ) to get good PA using the imaging scope.

Is alignment between polar and main scope critical for using software ?

Edit: I suppose what I'm asking is if it is normal for software to compute an offset if they are not? 

Did you use a filter for either ? I recently modded my 1000D the same way and now considering a Badder Neodymium in a Bortle 5.

This was not the intended target for the evening, but after a rocky start due to guiding issues, I pointed to the East Veil Nebula at 23:30 and tried to salvage something from the session.

Vixen VC200L @ F9 + modded Canon 1000D.

ISO 200 for 40 x 120sec subs, dithered every 3 frames.

I used ISO 200 after my initial attempt on the Pac Man Nebula at ISO 800 seemed to have over exposed stars. I am fairly happy with the exposure of stars, not so much the shape. This is only my second image and I'm still learning the processing basics but any constructive criticism is welcome .

21 minutes ago, rickwayne said:

Even simpler: pick up an LED tracing panel on Amazon or similar. Try shooting a few images with it turned different ways, if those images aren't different the panel is consistent enough. The one I got runs off USB, doesn't need a diffuser at its lowest setting, and cost US$15.

To shoot the frames, don't obsess about exposure or anything. Just get the histogram peak in the middle of the graph, and use that exposure henceforth. It merely has to be somewhere in the sensor's region of linear response. As was said above, bias frames are easy to manage and reuse, and work well with DSLRS. Have to have bias or dark flats for the flats to work correctly.

I just looked at tracing panels on amazon and i can't believe that these haven't been mentioned already ! Thanks

1 minute ago, DannyST said:

Thanks, next time I’m out I’ll try disengage the motors and use the slow motion controls see if it feels smooth, hope so as it’s only a few months old. Cables I use a dummy battery and the cable drops to a power pack  not tied just hanging loose not touching anything. maybe the weight of the cable I can zip tie it up loose see if helps. 
 

thanks

Danny

I have started to loop my cables around one of the RA adjustment knobs used for polar alignment just to take the weight, with enough slack of course. I'll probably get flamed for that by someone with more experience.

16 hours ago, wimvb said:

I think so.

when you stretch the image, try to avoid clipping the background. This often creates sn unnatural look.

I'm working with crappy data really. The image was taken on a full moon , the purpose been to prove that everything was working well with nina, phd, stellarium, astap, and that com port issues had been sorted. I'm quite suprised i got anything really. It has left me with an itch i can't scratch due to clouds, but there is hope for tomorrow night and Bodes Galaxy. Fingers crossed !

I think the HEQ5 has a worm period of about 8 mins, so that would rule out periodic error if you had a half hour with good tracking. The camera causing shake would cause it consistently ( i really doubt it's that ). Maybe a cable snag ? Or rough running RA bearing ?

Nothing but cloud so I've played with Siril and Gimp. This still counts as a first image no matter how many times i reprocess it, right ?

I was looking for info on this a couple of days ago, I think this video will help. 

My tablet and laptop are both too small, the laptop by just 1/2 inch. I have taken flats the following morning but i don't like leaving my scope out, so it looks like I'm going to have to eat the cost of convenience. At least i won't need to worry about clouds.

OK, I'll prioritise a DIY flat panel over an upgrade in camera. 

Very nice. Have you processed it at all after stacking? 

I did take flats, dark flats and bias frames but only used darks and lights for this image as i was getting some strange artifacts repeated under the brightest stars with all of the calibration frames. I never did get to the bottom of what was causing it.

I checked my camera and the f ratio is not adjustable in manual or P Mode. It is set to F00 at the moment so I'm trying to find out how or if i can change that at the moment.

Edit:

I just noticed that the artifacts are visible in this picture at 7 o clock around the bright stars. They appear to be  three shadows under each.

18 minutes ago, Iem1 said:

Aperture is set as its connected to a telescope I think?

That's a good first image! Something to be proud of for sure

I cant comment on guiding and star shape, but as you said, a short integration time on a full moon (near the moon at that) is always going to be tough going with a one shot colour camera. Especially for targets such as pac man (nebulas in general really). A moonless night + much more integration time will be the biggest improvement I think.

Did you take calibration frames? (Flats/Bias). Also must haves!

hopefully someone more technically minded will give advice about the scope/guiding/specific image details shortly.

I didn't know that i could set that manually ! The camera is still attached to the scope. If i turn it on would it be on the last setting used ?

The camera was set to Bulb for use with nina. I'm not sure if nina automatically changes that.

Edit: I should also mention that i had never picked up a DSLR before buying this one to point at the sky.

38 minutes ago, shropshire lad said:

Can you tell us your camera settings ...

ISO 800. I should probably mention that this was taken over a week ago, the moon was about 99% full and not far out view.