szymon

Still for sale -- waiting for the right person to see it!

Update: anyone want to offer £60 so I can put that towards the filter I want to buy?

Update: £80 if anyone is interested in buying. There must be people out there who bought just Ha and Oiii initially and now want to add Sii!

Anyone out there use 36mm unmounted filters and looking to buy or trade for an Sii filter? Brand new, unopened, bought in error (I was looking for 1.25” mounted!) but not able to return. Would like to trade for either a good quality mounted Sii filter (1.25" or 2"), or a dual band filter (L-Enhance, Altair Triband etc), or a decent LP filter (Huatech D2 or similar). Make me an offer I might consider! (Edit: apologies, I forgot to add a price, so to keep with the rules, if selling I'm asking £120 via bank transfer or plus fees if PayPal and plus delivery -- make me an offer). -simon

Where are you based Gaz? Usually wherever you are in the country there's a radio ham or two local to you who will happily repair this kind of thing for free in a few minutes with a soldering iron. I've certainly done so for people local to me (if you're any where near Sudbury in Northwest London then get in touch and you can pop by with it ). -simon

Actually when it works the HitechAstro system is really pretty damned good at approximating focus steps; I have used it in NINA to achieve very good autofocus. Where it gets sloppy is in repeatability -- swapping filters, with a stepper motor you can use focus offsets and you'll be bang on, but with the DC focus you need to re-focus again from scratch. NINA has excellent autofocus (and in the nightly builds a huge choice of different algorithms) and is able to achieve the absolute best HFR possible for your seeing conditions with the DC focus. That said, because I image in narrowband and swap filters often, I have upgraded to a real stepper motor solution -- a DeepSkyDad AF3, which is absolutely brilliant.

Please jump onto the NINA discord (click the discord link on https://nighttime-imaging.eu) and we will try to help you out. We're a friendly bunch .

Yes please. Will send PM.

If you're using it with a CCD or CMOS camera and not a Canon DSLR then the autofocus is probably irrelevant anyway (set it up with a wide-field autofocuser like the Deep Sky Dad AF3 ). I use the Canon EF200 F/2.8L with both a Canon x1.4 extender (at f/4) and a Phoenix x2 extender (at f/5.6), and even with both at the same time (at f/8 560mm), which even autofocuses with the 6D (not on the 50D though). I look forward with interest to seeing the responses on how it works with astro cameras. It's an awesome lens

Something odd with your software -- histogram looks fine, e.g. in GIMP: or in a random online tool https://pinetools.com/image-histogram

Of course the answer is to set up your imaging equipment in a dedicated remotely controlled observatory that you can run from an iPad or something -- that way when you're feeling too tired, you can just run it from bed before going to sleep That said -- it's a hobby! If you're feeling guilty about not doing it, then you're doing it wrong. If you're just feeling sad about having missed an opportunity, that's different, but please don't feel guilty! -simon

Ok, still looking . For clarity, I am after something like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-pillar-mount-support-for-heq5-eq6-series-mounts.html I want to get rid of the tripod and be on a mobile pillar or pier. If anyone is selling something like this, to fit an HEQ5, please let me know!

Oh wow that sounds wonderful! Will send a PM

Looking for a Pillar Mount for my HEQ5. Ideally one with wheels a-la the SkyWatcher one. If you have one that you no longer use please let me know.

Hahaha yeah I know right? Actually one of the NINA developers helped me configure it, no way I'd have gotten it working myself (I am not a windows guy at all).