Dinglem

Have you tried shift and connect to the camera and checked it's connecting to the correct setting, digic 3 I think for the 450d, I had an issue as it was set to a newer version, I can't show you at the moment as I have a seperate astro-laptop.

@Jiggy 67 I wish I could but I live on a corner and it would be in full sight of everyone who walks past.

Simon, I went straight to the EQ6 thought it would last me a long time, which it should, it's a bit of a lump though to be lifting in and out everytime. My retirement pressy to myself in a couple of years will be a permenant set up. Regards Mark

Hi Simon, like me I started with that EQ5 and a 200p for visual and found it ok. It was only when I started to try and do astrophotography with it I realised it was not up to the job. So I purchased an EQ6R-Pro and the difference was unbelievable. Unfortunately that was not the end of it for me, as I have to set up and strip down everytime I found that I needed to fiddle with the 200P's collimation constantly. I have now purchased a refractor and haven't looked back. @Stu made a very good point about mounting your 72ED on the EQ5 and getting experience in astrophotography before spending more money on something you may regret later. Good luck with the wedding. Mark

APT for me too, once set up and configured to your equipment it just seems to work everytime for me. If you have any issues you can always ask on here or the APT forum you will quickly get an answer. I've never used Backyard EOS so can't comment on it.

I totally agree with @discardedastro I changed my 200p focuser to a Baader Diamond Steeltrack and the difference in feel, quality etc. was very noticable, I also tried the clicklock with it and had to remove it due to issues with inward focus.

I'm not sure about how they will fit together, you may be adding flexure, but how critical that is is debatable, I've used a vixen to vixen female clamp before with no issues to mount a guidescope on top of a scope.

You will need an imperial one not metric as I needed one recently and @FLO recomended this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-losmandy-type-d-series/adm-losmandy-style-universal-dovetail-bars.html it's not cheap but it fitted my Skywatcher tube rings perfectly. already had an altair astro bar and the holes didn't line up.

I know my little granddaughter would love those.

@Allinthehead those are stunning. I have the same scope and I'm using a modded DSLR but have been thinking of getting a dedicated astro camera and was looking at the ASI294MC pro after seeing other peoples results on here. Looking at those with little processing I now think it may be worth spending the extra money on one of these cameras.

@Wiu-Wiu thanks for the reply, not going to see it through any of my scopes then. Must get to a Star Party and have a look through one of those big Dobs.

@stu that's very interesting thanks for sharing. So what would be the best type/size of scope to be able to see the seperation, from a back garden in a bortle 5 area?

@tomato & @Tomatobro Nice dual rig you will have there when up and running. Mark

So I had a free day yesterday and decided to sort out my equipment and update my astro laptop software packages. I downloaded the latest Stellarium and managed to get it to sync with APT. I installed my Xmas present from my sweetheart (Optolong L-eNhance filter) how did she know it's what I wanted??? I recently installed the free trial version of Pixinsight on my main laptop so after watching a few YouTube videos decided to get some Dark and Bias frames to create some masters ready for my next session. The weather was good yesterday and it stayed clear here as the sun started to set, so I set everything up outside hoping the apps were wrong and it wouldn't get cloudy. As it got darker I launched Sharpcap and completed a polar allingment, I used Stellarium and APT to slew to Vega and checked the focus was good. I then used Goto++ in APT to slew to NGC 7380 (Wizard Nebula), I set PHD2 off guiding and then I had my first issue; my laptop would not connect to my Lyn Astro dew controller so I manually set the temperature to quite low as it wasn't too damp at that time. So I started capturing 5 minute subs went inside and remoted into my astro laptop from my main laptop to check how it was going, all appeared good. I recently set up a Rpi NAS at home so I'm able to transfer data to it and then to my other laptop on the go, so after I'd got a few subs I opened them in PI to check the quality, they looked ok to me. after about an hour PHD2 started binging a lost star warning so I went outside and the clouds were starting to cover the sky, I then took loads of flat frames using my main laptop, Notepad and 3 sheets of white paper and decided to take some more darks in case it cleared. I then set about trying to process the 9 subs I'd managed to capture with the 200 flat frames the master bias and dark frames I'd created earlier. Despite the lack of subs I'm quite pleased with the result, I have done a quick Histogram stretch, and the knowledge I have gained, I'm definately going to purchase PI when I can afford it. So this morning I thought I'd sort out the issue with the connection to the Lynx Astro dew controller, you won't believe it, my Astro Laptop will not turn on, it's been playing up for a while I suspect the battery has died. So just when I thought I was getting on top of this frustrating hobby I get another spanner in the works. So do I gamble and order a new battery then discover it is the laptop that has failed, do I set up another old laptop I have and hope it will be ok, do I set up my Rpi3 with Indigo or do I buy a mini PC as I know my way around windows? Anyway here's the calibrated stacked image as it is in PI with a quick stretch.

@Yoddha That is a very nice image thanks for sharing it. It proves to me that I need to sharpen up my processing skills and to capture more data.

Thanks @AbsolutelyN I should probably have asked @FLO first.

@apophisOAS for so little data and no darks, flats etc that looks pretty good to me. I keep thinking about getting Pixinsight as I struggle with AstroArt to get anything that good. I've watched loads of videos and bought the book Inside PI, the results from others using it inspires me. I've just got a more powerfull laptop so think in the New Year I'll download the free trial version and give it a try. I look forward to seeing your improvements as you learn more about PI.

I've been off today with a list of jobs to do, which I managed to get completed about an hour ago. So I thought I'd tidy up my scope setup and the wiring to everything. My intention was to replace the small Skywatcher losmandy dovetail bar with a longer Altair-Astro one I have, so I can velcro my Lynx astro dew controller and USB hub underneath out of the way, then get a shorter dovetail bar to put on the top to mount my guidescope. So I removed the tube rings from the little SW dovetail and attempted to fix it to the other dovetail only to discover that none of the holes matched up. So I've put everything back as it was and put it outside as it may stay clear here for a few hours. Anyone know what's the best way for me to resolve this issue.

Nope off snookering now I can do that when the clouds cover the skies 😁

I understand all that but these are produced in China so won't importing them into the USA also incur similar charges?

@FLO Thanks Steve, that's what I suspected

@FLO am I missing something to do with taxes but why are the prices in the USA the same in dollars as the pound over here? Or has sterling fallen that much 🤔

This may be of interest " The NEW ZWO ASI 533MC-PRO camera is now available to buy at FLO 🙂 " I've been thinking of getting a 294 but not sure now!!!

It's done that twice to me recently 🤬

I second that!!