Owmuchonomy

Hmmm.. aside from other features I'm not familiar with yet I can't accept that a 35kg payload constitutes a 'Pro' label.

Sounds like you have a weird cable. Mine is just a coiled cable that has the potential to stretch out a significant distance before catastrophe. You could also just get the wifi dongle in place of the cable and run it from Synscan on your phone. I believe FLO do some nice silicone upgrades too?

Good advice above. Are you certain it's a focus problem with your images? The pixel size of the 224 and your Mak's focal length are close to the sweet spot for the camera (f/15). If you are using a barlow then potentially you will be over sampling a lot thereby degrading your images (among other possible reasons). There is also little benefit in using an OSC for the Moon. Much better results can be obtained using a mono cam. An IR pass filter combined with a good NIR camera such as the ASI290 will also combat to some extent the seeing issues in UK skies.

If you wish to use a DSLR for planetary imaging it is possible. However, you will only get decent results if your Canon has video crop mode (my 60D had such a setting). This crops the sensor capture down to something appropriate for planets for example 480 x 640. Then you need to take video and use Autostakkert to stack the best of your frames. I also got better results with eyepiece projection (rather than prime focus) using a Baader adapter to connect the T ring adapter directly to the eyepiece. The best results I obtained were when I used a 15mm plossl on my 102mm refractor. I have moved on to using a 9.25" SCT and and proper planetary cameras, it's much less faffing around and gives you decent focal length and small chips.

By far the best telescope to buy is one that will be used. We have a steady flow of disgruntled beginners who bring their gifted telescopes to the obsy to receive advice on how to set it up and get the best out of it. Mainly, they are Newtonian reflectors on cheap and wobbly EQ mounts. Simply put, the easiest one to use is as Robin describes, a refractor on an Alt-Azimuth mount. Look no further than that.

Your issue is that you are trying to do two somewhat unrelated processes as one. PA is to align the RA axis of your mount. Star alignment is to set up your GoTo function. They are not related. Are you imaging or observing? If you are observing, PA does not have to be accurate. Set the equipment to the home position. Do a rough PA using the polarscope then leave it alone. Next do your star alignment. If you think your set up is suffering from cone error then do a 3 star alignment using the handset routine. If you are not so concerned about cone error do the 2 star routine from the handset. You will then be good to go. If you are imaging, repeat the above but do a TWO star alignment using stars on the SAME side of the meridian that you wish to image. Next, run the PA routine from the handset. It will take about 2 or 3 iterations to produce accurate results. Then, repeat the 2 star alignment if it has moved somewhat during the PA routine.

I presume that's the IOS version. As far as I know the MAC OS version is not yet released?

That’s an excellent scope choice for planetary imaging. The harder choice is to find a planetary camera in your budget. I have the same type of scope and choose from any three of my cameras. ZWO ASI, 290, 174 and 224, the latter being the colour option. You will need a couple of Barlow lenses to match your focal length to your camera’s pixel size. If you search for Chris Go and his planetary imaging lectures on You Tube they are very useful.

Looks like you have the EQ3 mount, if you wish to take up Astrophotography then a better mount such as the HEQ5 or better is required. Even that will require guiding with a guide camera for exposure lengths over 30 seconds or so. Tracking objects in the night sky for visual enjoyment is done much more easily as some error can be tolerated.

It's very nice to see that your children are so interested. We have hosted 100s of events at the observatory for all groups. We still get a buzz when a youngster sees Saturn for the first time. Being very honest you will find it extremely hard, in fact virtually impossible to find an 'all rounder' solution. Everybody will end up disappointed. From experience and to occupy the children's imagination one should aim for a low maintenance, easy to use GoTo set up. The children can then get involved in the experience. A Newtonian on an equatorial mount does not fit the bill as pointed out above. In your position I would purchase a decent small refractor (E.g., ED80), put it on an AZ-Gti mount and and upgraded tripod (like an EQ6 tripod). You can then use a phone and iPad to open up the night skies for your youngsters. It's also a portable system; ours runs from one drill battery for a couple of nights viewing. When you get the bug for imaging you then have a decent imaging scope and tripod ready but you'll need to go for a more sophisticated and expensive mount. Enjoy!

The basics for planets in my view are: 1) Lots of focal length (hence the real need for a tracking mount, Alt/Az is fine). 2) A fast frame rate planetary camera (colour if you don't want to faff with filters). 3) Stacking software such as Auto Stakkert. A DSLR is not really ideal because you need a very fast frame rate say 200 fps and you don't need a huge chip. I have performed planetary imaging with a DSLR but it was a model with movie crop mode (rare) and I needed to use eyepiece projection. It's really not ideal. For example, my setup is a C9.25 with an ASI 224 or 290 camera. I adjust the focal length to get the optimum using a Powermate. The simple formula is to times your camera pixel size by 4 or 5 to get the optimum f/. So for the 224 I use a 2x powermate which takes my scope to f/20 and a focal length of 4.6 metres.

It is also visible in the evening sky just before Xmas. Greatest elongation is on 21st December.

For planetary you require lots of focal length so bear that in mind. For example I use a C9.25 but the well known imagers are using such beasts as the C14. For cameras there is a lot of choice so do plenty of research first. I have 3 cameras, all ZWO. The 224 colour and the 290 and 174 mono.

For the public events it’s purely visual.

We have used the AZ-Gti and ED80 combination for 3 years at all the Observatory events so far. It is the perfect combination for that purpose, quick to set up, user friendly, high contrast and can be wide field. Look no further.

Just use a FOV calculator to help you choose too. The objects you mention have vastly different angular dimensions in the sky. For example, my image of M31 was taken using a fixed 300mm focal length lens attached to my Canon crop sensor. My image of M42 was taken with my (0.63 reduced) C9.25!

That information came originally from Chris Go. Applies to all scopes as far as I know.

Over my head but its all good and I believe everything you say. 😁

Good advice above. Your FL is dictated by your pixel size and the best results are obtained at 4x or 5x that hence the advice to go to f/12 (4 x 2.9 = 11.6). Use the smallest ROI you can get away with which will help get the frame rate up and limit the total capture time to 30 seconds for Jupiter otherwise you will need to add in a de-rotation step in your processing.

Good advice above. You need lots of focal length, the smallest chip area possible and thus fastest frame rate possible. For example I run my SCT 9.25 with a 2.5x barlow so fl around 5 metres with a ZWOASI174MM. This gives me a f/ of about 25 which is close to the sweet spot of 4x to 5x the pixel size for that camera. You may also benefit from an ADC but that's too fiddly for me.

What type of file is PIPP outputting? Do you need to use PIPP? I just put the original SER files into AS!2. Have you tried that to see if the same problem occurs maybe.

The 400 will just restrict the image a little compared to the 600 but give it a go. The big issue with the Lunt 50 is the terrible helical focuser. I had one a few years ago and this let it down for imaging immensely. Which focuser do you have on it?

What mount/software have you got? If it's only visual you are doing you can use other methods and avoid polar alignment on Polaris completely.

Hi both, I was looking for the profile conversion as I recall doing that in PS, so thanks again. I've quickly done a full disk test with Alex's method but I am familiar with the curves suggestion from Olly so will try that too. Many thanks, Chris.

Hi Alex, thanks again but it still remains greyscale when I follow your method and I make those adjustments in R, G and B. I'm using the stacked TIF file from AS!2.