tomato

Nice, I’ve just started imaging this galaxy myself, it’s hard to see how Charles Messier missed it from his catalogue when other objects of similar size and brightness close by were included.

The Mk 1 shaft is 40 mm OD, you don’t want or need your weights to be an interference fit on the shaft. Just make sure your counterweight pinch bolts are tipped with PTFE or something similar to avoid marking the the shaft.

It must have been a bad omen, I started imaging and within the hour was clouded over...

That’s a fine result for someone new to AP. I also prefer your second version, some colour in the stars and the core is not blown out. Although bright and large, M31 is quite a tricky subject, to balance the core with the outer spiral arms, and get the colour ‘correct’ (whatever correct actually is, there is a lot of discussion on SGL on this topic.)

My, that is a depressing image.

Great post, I never fail to be impressed by the capabilities of modern imaging technology compared to the emulsion film era.

A worthy winner, tone, contrast, detail, all absolutely spot on 👍

Great image, really nice in monochrome.

Very nice, you can see the ‘brain stem’ feature coming through at the top of the Nebula which was so noticeable on Olly’s recent post. I look for it on all M1 images now!

Started in Feb 19 and 42 hours, wow, but worth every minute. Patience is certainly a virtue in AP, which I need to learn.

Since moving to the dual rig, I have been getting better guiding with an OAG rather than a separate guide scope, but I’m sure that is down to the humongous amount of hardware now riding on the Mesu. It had it easy for too long.😊

That is bizarre, and something else that’s strange, after opening the image in a separate window to take a closer look, when I close that window and return to your original post, the star has disappeared from the image! I guess that’s something wrong with my browser. As to the artefact, I’m at a loss to explain it, as you say something on the optical train unless it was very close to the sensor would affect the other bright stars. Maybe a drop of moisture on the sensor which has since evaporated? I have had that on cooled cameras particularly when imaging near the zenith.

Yes, there is a lot of weight sitting on the adjustable saddle, a bit too much for the existing lateral adjuster bolts, so fine adjustment is a bit of a challenge. The tiny FOV of the 178s doesn’t help either. A re-engineer could be in order....

It’s about doubling (theoretically at least) the data captured in a single session. I think there are two schools of thought on this in the UK: 1. With our meagre clear skies it makes sense to have the equipment to capture as much data as possible when the opportunity arises. 2. With our meagre clear skies it makes no sense to have twice as much equipment tied up doing nothing for weeks on end. I obviously fall into the first group!😊

First image off the dual ED 150 rig with the ASI 178 cameras on board. The image is unfortunately very heavily cropped, mainly because I had a really hard time getting the two cameras aligned. Over two hours had elapsed of clear sky trying to get them close and I was determined to get an image from the session. NGC 2336 is a spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis some 100 million light years from Earth, discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1876. Capture Details: Lum 106 x 60 sec ASI 178 with retro fitted Peltier cooler, captured with Sharpcap. RGB each 25 x 60 sec ASI 178 with retro fitted Peltier cooler, captured with SGP. Dual Esprit 150 refractors on Mesu 200 Mk 1 mount Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP and GIMP. Thanks for looking.

This thread might prove helpful, how to set up the horizon limit is in there.

I think there is some slight evidence of walking noise from top left to bottom right? l have recently used dithering between 60 sec subs and initial indications are that this has removed the walking noise. Nice image of M33 btw.

Last night my version of SGP was saying it no longer supports ZWO native drivers. I must say in my experience Sharpcap appears to have a more robust communication link with these cameras than SGP, but I do like the integrated features of the latter package. However, Sharpcap is catching up fast.....

Tried to set up the two ASI 178s tonight, so 3 ZWO cameras coming down the cables to a single laptop. The idea was to have SGP running one for RGB, PHD connected to the ZWO 120 mini, and Sharpcap running the other 178 shooting Lum. We could not overcome the USB port conflicts, the software just wanted to connect to one camera, and I had a corrupted copy of PHD which would not recognise a ZWO camera. Interesting, as one laptop would run 3 cameras (but all different) no problem on the previous set up. So, a second laptop was brought into play, PHD re-installed and success, all three cameras communicating. We then encountered auto focus issues with SGP, and then the so called clear night gave out with persistent high cloud. Still, a bit more progress made.

Many years ago when myself and Tomatobro were active participants in motorsport, there was an advertising slogan from a certain American performance exhaust supplier which went, ‘Why waste your money on food and rent when all I need are my Hooker Headers’ , now substitute Mesu mounts, ED 150s, etc etc.😊

In my case the main driver for putting them as close together as possible is the limited aperture width of the Pulsar dome.

Yes, M33 fills the sensor on this configuration as evidenced by this image taken with the single 150 rig, but they do appear remarkably similar.

I took some test subs of this galaxy last night with the dual ED 150 rig, checking for flex/sag on the second scope. Not exactly a deep image, but the subs were Ok so I thought I would process them. I did a major goof on the camera alignment, got them out by 90 deg, so the image is cropped significantly. Lum 16 x 300 sec with Esprit 150, G2-8300 RGB, 5 X300, 5 x 300 4 x 300 sec with Esprit 150, Atik 383 Calibrated and processed with APP, finished in GIMP. Thanks for looking

The bracing plate was installed last night and a few test subs taken. The first thing is I managed to do was align the cameras 90 degrees out, I wrongly assumed that Moravian and Atik orientated the sensors in the same way relative to the power and USB ports on the camera body, not so, but this hasn’t affected the test. Tightening of the bracing plate had to be done very carefully as expected, uneven tightening of the bolts could impart a bigger deflection than those made with the adjustment saddle. The good news is that no flex or sag was observed on the test, so far so good. Guided Scope Slave Scope

Here you are, sorry but this was worth putting a cubic metre of concrete under it, and I ain’t taking any out for anybody.😎