Marky1973

Or maybe I have already taken them as I have loads of gear, no money and no idea how to use it all! :-)

Now I am going to have to look into pixel mapping! :-) If it's not one thing.....at least I remembered to remove the Bahtinov mask before starting my run this time....... :-)

Can I take one of each?

Definitely PS as I have no idea what microlensing is.... :-) I used Noel Carboni's toolset for PS....I was just fiddling around really. I quite like diffraction spikes, but it can (IMHO) make a picture look a little twee if you over do them!

I'll have you know I write all my own material! Thanks! I like antediluvian! Keep it simple is my motto... (ell, not really, but maybe it shouls be!) - not had too many problems with finding targets on subsequent nights yet, so have been reluctant to start getting into things like plate solving as yet, as I don't want to find myself losing rare imaging time as I fluff my set up with new software! I have learned not to look for solutions for problems I don't yet have :-) Not looked much at SGP though, so not sure I was aware of the free trial, so may have a look now you mention it, thanks for the heads up! But I DO like ARTEMIS, it is so simple and just works.... :-)

Only when trying to decide what to buy next from FLO! **boom-tish** Thanks Mr G.... As for the black dots,I am not sure I even noticed them, but will now be looking! I don't dither at the moment, as I am not 100% sure how to do so in ARTEMIS, but will look into this as I know it should help!

Finally a clear night....albeit it only a few hours! Struggling to get a full set of LRGB data at the moment - mostly because of other stuff going on in my life, so thought I would stick to Ha for a while and hone my processing skills...although I did very little with this one. Just stacked in DSS and fiddled with curves and levels in PS. Just 5x1800s Ha 1x1 with 4 Darks, BIAS and FLATS. I like what this small amount of data is showing and will try adding more data over the summer to improve it. Was even happier that I managed to get 30 minute exposure from my fast and dirty polar alignement ED80 on NEQ6 Pro, ATIK 414ex and Baader Ha filter

Better job? Are you a perfectionist by any chance? I've been working on M51 (seems to have taken months with my luck recently) and I am not going to get anywhere near that! Its a great image!

Don't.Lose.Anything!

Yeah I have had a little play with it and it seems capable of stopping slippage with a light tightening, it is only if tightened fully that the draw tube seems to shift slightly. To be honest the tube seems pretty solid without any tightening, so I think it should be pretty solid with just a planetary camera in it. Thursday and Friday seem to be clear here (at the moment) so will look forward to having a look through it!

Hi Dave, yeah, very similar to the GSO, and it is a 10:1 version. Really nice bit of kit so looking forward to trying it out. I soon discovered what the fuss was about with SCT mirrors when trying to focus on Jupiter to image it, so looking forward to trying with the Crayford....I just need to try and talk the perfectionist in me into being a little less of a worrier! :-) Cheers Mark

Hi Paul, no, I removed the 1/4" visual back - the thread on that woudl have been far to small, so this is straight onto the SCT thread at the back of the OTA. From what Dave is saying below, it looks like this might just be my usual overly fussy approach to "things needing to look right"! If only it had been clear last night I coudl have just gone out tested it! Cheers Mark

Happily received a Skywatcher Crayford SCT focuser today to stick on my C9.25. Nice weighty focuser which should help with getting fine focus with the usual mirror problems...slight bit of play with the focus lock screw, but seems well-made and solid. One quick question for anyone with the same set-up, when I screwed the focuser on to the back of the SCT, it doesn't screw all the way onto the thread on the OTA - as per the picture - is this usual, or a problem? It is all fairly solid, but just thought I would check I wasn't missing something....wouldn't want it falling off or letting stray light in if it is not properly fixed. Cheers Mark

If you are sure your PA is spot on, have you calibrated PHD when you have a guide star? You can force this by holding down SHIFT and pressing the button to start guiding. Once complete you can view the calibration data which will show a cross hairs with a blue and red trend line showing the corrections made. My understanding is that the closer these are to over-laying the cross-hairs at 90 degrees then the better the alignment/guiding. I can't remember which menu "VIEW CALIBRATION DATA" is, but you'll be able to find it by click on each quickly. Also, have you entered your guide scope/camera details into PHD2? You can click on the "BRAIN" icon to add that information. If that is all fine, I may be out of my depth! You could also try drift aligning via PHD, although I have not had to do that myself yet! As you can tell, I am not an expert, and I am sure more experienced imagers will be along to help soon! Info about your guide camera/scope and how connected to your mount may also help! Good luck!