breakstuff

Got the Rosette Nebula last night. Loving this little scope.

Hi all, been a while since I posted in here, so thought I'd drop in as my Seestar arrived on Saturday and I got my first session in on Sunday. I'm so impressed with how simple it is to use. Literally five minutes between getting it out of the case and stacking images. It's a total game changer for me. I had the grandson staying over so had limited time but managed thirty minutes on the Triangulum galaxy.

I made an extension pillar/adapter to fit my AzGti onto my AZ4 tripod.

I too made my own extension pillar/adapter for my AzGti and AZ4 tripod, which has the same thread as the EQ5 as far as I know. I made a 80mm dowel and fitted a long M10 nut to the bottom and a 3/4 bolt to the top. Wrapped it in black electrical tape just to make it look a bit better and it's good to go. Very solid and I can mount my SW extension tube on top if I want a bit more height without extending the tripod legs. Cost me a couple of quid.

I have the same camera, and I set mine to continuous shooting. Didn't work when set to remote, but works perfectly on continuous.

It's a great grab and go set up, isn't it? I keep mine set up ready to lift into the garden in one trip. A quick level, check finderscope is lined up, and I'm ready to go. If everything works ok, I can be imaging in ten minutes.

Hi @grjsk it's just a flattener, no reducer. This one, in fact. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/ovl-field-flattener.html I bought it second hand and it's a great bit of kit. Does exactly what it's supposed to do, with the added bonus of strengthening the connection to my camera as I don't trust compression rings or grub screws to not fail if you're not paying attention.

Thanks mate. I'll head off to Ebay to have a look.

Thanks for that, I might give that a go. Out of interest, how long is the bolt that you use?

I've been wondering this too. Was trying to image M51 the other night and was getting slight star trailing so am looking at any anything I can do to improve things. Was using batteries so maybe that was the problem. I have since ordered a rechargeable power pack so will see if that makes a difference. The main problem with the counterweight is that, like most gear, I can't find any in stock anywhere.

This is my set up @LeeHore7 I'm using Gimp for processing. Look forward to seeing your images of M101.

That's still a great pic @LeeHore7 Very impressive. I too had a go a couple of nights ago as conditions were perfect. Unfortunately I was getting tracking issues, so by the time I'd finished trying to sort it, I only got 40 x 30 second subs plus darks and bias frames. Still got some issues and my processing still needs a lot of work, but still managed to capture something.

Got out last night to try imaging M51 for the first time as conditions were perfect. No cloud, no moon, absolutely spot on. Did my alignment, took a test shot on Procyon which was perfect, then slewed over to M51, took a test shot, and got star trailing. The only difference between the two shots is that M51 was a lot higher in the sky, hence my scope being more vertical. I messed around with with the balance and things improved a little, but still had star trailing. Previous attempts on Orion, lower in the sky have been perfect, so I can only assume my unit doesn't like taking photos when near vertical. Anyone got any other ideas where I could be going wrong as I'm really keen to have a good crack at M51. Thanks.

Wow, fantastic image. This place is so inspiring.

Great picture, I'd be well happy with that.