richyrich_one

Easily

Moving the mirror up the tube, by replacing the mirror cell screws with longer ones and using threaded spacers,  is also an option. It's reversible. No hacksaw required, just a bit of nerve to dismantle the mirror cell. 

Got a bit more data this morning so total of 18x300.

Getting tired of processing this one now and I think I've settled on this version. Used the arcsin stretch in PI which has always produced pink star cores but a slight adjustment in curves brings them back pretty well. The colour comes out a lot more natural.

1 minute ago, spillage said:

PA is out as well. I am just playing around with the gain/offset and exposure times to see what is best for me. It definitely a lrf. Once I am happy with the camera settings and sorted out the calibration frames I will pull my socks up and pay more attention. Going from the dslr to dedicated is a bit of a learning curve for me. Even using live view took a while to sort 

What camera?

1 minute ago, spillage said:

I should reply that I am manually focusing for every filter/temperature change. In reality its using my home made bahtinov mask (cornflake box) and live view in apt at the beginning of the night then leaving it at that. I am looking at getting autofocus for the 130 for my next purchase.

Notice the double difraction spikes? That shows the focus is off.

That's looking really nice.

How are you getting focus?

7 minutes ago, spillage said:

Just a quick and dirty go at the horse head. No flats, No darks, No bias just 10 lights (180s) stuck into DSS and a quick develop in startools. I really need to get my calibration data sorted.

spill

Looking good. 

1 minute ago, tony8690 said:

 

wow...thats incredible. 

 

what times did you do on this one? setup?

 

Tony

Thanks Tony, edited to show capture details.

Posted elsewhere but it deserves to be here now I've fixed it.

ISO 800 12x300 lights, library bias, 30 flats, no darks

Processed in PI

7 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

It's not the end of the world if you can't dither. 

True. But that then makes darks necessary? I couldn't be bothering with all that nonsense! 

For the small outlay to get the mount controlled by pc so dithering is possible/easy it's well worth it in time/hassle saved. 

Not that I'm aware of. I've always used eqmod. Perhaps someone else might know. 

3 minutes ago, Galen Gilmore said:

Quick question for those of you who use a DSLR for imaging. How many of you use dark frames in your images? I have heard a lot about how dark frames might actually hurt the images more than help them.

Large dither and no darks.

4 minutes ago, Galen Gilmore said:

So the Optolong filters are just Chinese knock-offs of astronomic filters? 

I'd say so...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hot-2-034-OPTOLONG-UHC-Nebula-Filter-for-Telescope-Eyepiece-Cuts-Light-Pollution-CO-/201580249527

Some info on Optolong filters...

http://www.astronomik.com/en/news/chinese_copies_en/

Reprocess of October 2016 data

35x300

NGC 281 Pacman Nebula

9x300 lights, 30 flats, no darks

Processed in PI, rotated and cropped.

I had 62 lights but lost most of them to dew. I decided to leave it going while I went back to bed, big mistake, turns out it dewed up not long after. A longer dew shield is definitely required.

Works for me too. Have you tried changing your DNS servers?

None whatsoever.  The P-DS scopes are designed for this.

22 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Does anyone know the percentage central obscuration on the 130PDS?

Cheers,

Adam 

Not sure how accurate this is...

Posted in Deep Sky...

1 hour ago, al-alami said:

Hi All.  

I've got sort of an issue, I think with the focuser. In theory I have the correct spacing between the Baader CC and my QHY 163M (with a manual filter wheel in between). It looks like I have some tilt.  I tried aligning the focuser and it seems to be okay, well at least without the imaging train attached.  Is there any way for me to work on the tilt with the camera attached during the day?  It is kind of frustrating at the moment.  I've included an image which I shot yesterday.  To be honest the image was just shot to see the stars and not for anything else, it was also shot from my light polluted roof. 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Fakhri

 

Not sure how accurate this will be using a single jpg but this is what CCD Inspector chucks out.

Do you have any visible movement if you apply some wieight to the focuser? Something I'm having to deal with at the moment. Not tackled it yet but hoping it can be adjusted out.

ISO 800 16x300 lights, superbias, 30 flats, dithered, no darks.

Stacked and processed in PI/PS

Still some spacing issues to sort but it's good to get something...

3 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. Thanks. It's only a matter of time, trial, error and a few cloudy nights before I get the right combination of twisting and turning to get the focuser o hold! The main issue is that the focuser lock tilts the field. If I can take the latter out of the equation, I think the issue will have been solved. Until...

One last time...

Have you checked the mounting screws either side of the tensioning screws?

On 20/05/2017 at 19:23, alacant said:

That's the problem; tighten it and it tilts the focus tube and/or changes the focus. The only way I could keep it flat was by trial and error between adjusting the two screws which hold the camera-cc combination in the focuser tube to 'anticipate' the tilt before I turned the locking screw.

Am going to try your adjustments to see if I can get the focuser to hold without having to tighten the lock screw. Thanks for posting. There is hope...

Might be nothing, but check that the 4 mounting grub screws( the outer 2 both sides of the plate under the focuser) are tightened down. I couldn't get the focuser on my 250 to hold until I noticed these were not tight.

If you know when it happened it shouldn't be too difficult to identify and remove the offending update and see if it fixes it.

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-uninstall-and-reinstall-updates-windows-10%3Famp