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almcl

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Everything posted by almcl

  1. Don't have any experience with the EQ6-R, but have been using my Az-Eq6 for almost 8 years now and it just works. On nights of good stability it guides down below half an arc second (it did this evening in a gap between the clouds). It lives in an unheated shed and has been carrying my SW 190 MN which weighs something over 14kg as assembled, without any problem. I did have to replace one leg extension lock bolt a little while ago when it seized and the head sheared off when brute force was applied and the counterweights need repainting every now and then, but otherwise that's about it.
  2. No greatness this year, I am afraid. All captured with SW 190 MN, ASI 2600mc mounted on AZ EQ6 GT. M20 M16 M8 NGC6781 M86 and friends
  3. I have not used a Polemaster but I do have a guide scope and a ASI 120mm. Using this combination with one of the three polar alignment routines built into PHD2 usually gets me sub 5' polar alignment error which is more than adequate for my mount (AZEQ6) and scope (F/L 1000 mm). That said, the polar scope often gets us within 10' and sometimes closer. Not sure if a Polemaster, which seems quite expensive, would see much of an improvement?
  4. Got it to work! Thank you, Han. I hadn't thought to reload the images after the batch solve... but now I have, the column is filled. The values look a bit unusual but that's a minor issue.
  5. Can't answer your question directly, but when Juan Fierros sold me an Astro modded Canon 700d some years ago, he fitted a replacement filter, I think a Baader BCF1, in place of the Canon original. This lets through a lot more IR but, with a custom white balance means the camera is still good for day time terrestrial use. In fact it has now retired from Astro in favour of a 2600MC but is still much in use for terrestrial. Unfortunately, I don't think Juan is still doing this work, and not sure if a screw-in filter of the same transmission characteristics is available, but if you're up for a re-mod? There are a couple of example images about three quarters of the way down the thread here which show how the filter performs
  6. Thanks Han. Unfortunately the first time I did that I get this message: The second time, it ran but the column was still blank. I ran analyse and organise, and still nothing. I may have missed a setting soemwhere, but not sure which?
  7. I think it might be top right, 95 Arethusa, that Steve is referring to?
  8. Does anybody know how to get ASTAP to populate the SQM column in the stacking window? The SQM measurement works fine on individual files in the viewer, but it would be really good to see the column in the stacking window with all the files scored. Can't find any info on this in any of the documentation. Have tired ticking the box for "Add limiting magnitude and SQM" and while this adds the SQM to the FITS header, it doesn't show up in the last column in the lights tab. It's the right most column here:
  9. Carole It looks as though he hasn't visited this site in over 3 years (last visit 20 October 2020). Last update of Blackwaterskies site was in June 2022 according to the Waybackmachine. May not be active any more?
  10. They look very much like hot pixels. The repeated similar pattern between the different colours tends to support this. Don't know enough about APP to suggest a remedy, but in other stacking software a Sigma clip stack would normally eliminate this, provided there are enough sufficiently dithered subs of course. There seem to be about 20 pixels, or so, if this corresponds to the number of stacked subs it is probably a bit low for an effective sigma clip. Can you get some more data?
  11. Not sure where the idea to image IC10 came from, as I seldom have an original idea for a target, but in a rare cloud free period, I managed 90 minutes at this dwarf galaxy with the SW 190 mn and ASI 2600. What prompted anyone to find out that it was an external galaxy rather than a nebula, I've no idea but it's definitely a slightly odd one. Small, irregular, starbursting and approaching us quite quickly and difficult to study because of intervening material.
  12. Ah! yes of course it does indeed look like a Pinwheel/catherine wheel!
  13. Wonderful Image and the detail is stunning, but why a competitor to the Fireworks galaxy? I have always understood that NGC 6946 is named the Fireworks galaxy because of the large number of supernovas (ten) observed there in the last 100 years or so, (reference here) whereas I can't find a reference to a single one in IC 342? Happy to be proved wrong, or perhaps I've misunderstood?
  14. There is a specific Canon OAG which attaches directly to the camera and on my 700d this gives exactly 55 mm, 44 mm in-camera and 11 mm of OAG. Here's the one I used https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p2722_TS-Optics-Off-Axis-Guider-fuer-Canon-EOS-Kameras---ersetzt-den-T-Ring.html As for filters you might want to look at something like the Astronomic clip filters (https://www.astronomik.com/en/clip-filter-system.html) these fit inside the camera body and sit very close to the sensor. I found the OAG made a huge difference in guiding quality and was very worthwhile.
  15. Turning out to be a strange month with clear skies around the time of new moon! Managed to grab 40 minutes on the Trifid nebula (M 20) a few nights ago. APT informed me that we were imaging through almost five times as much atmosphere as at the zenith so was moderately surprised at how this turned out. SW 190 MN, no filters, ASI 2600 mc, 60 sec subs.
  16. Hi Matthew Nice ro meet you last night, and that image has turned out beautifully, hasn't it? Looking forward to seeing more. Cheers
  17. Thanks for the kind word, Elp. I think we may still be in with a chance, below is what Stellarium gives for the dark site at the start of Astro Dark on the next (possibly) clear night. There are so many interesting targets there that would be fun to get, BUT I don't want to fall into the trap of only getting a few subs of each and then regretting the quality later, a trap I fell into before! Thank you, Peter. I was a bit further west than Telford, sure you can guess where. Enjoy your contributions to the Shropshire Star BTW, not to mention the stunning images you post here.
  18. Seeing some of the great images of M16 that have been posted recently, I thought I would add mine. It's not an easy target at 52 1/2 °N, barely getting to 20° above the horizon and with a lack of Astro dark during the time it is visible, only a fool would try, right? So here's the 53 minutes worth that I have managed to capture this year and last with the SW190 MN and ASI 2600 MC from a windswept, dark sky site on open moorland. The question I am building up to, is: Should I go after more data for this target if the opportunity arises, or switch to one of the other targets such as M17 in the same area?
  19. Before you prise up the back cover it may be worth checking if the knurled top of the brightness switch unscrews? If so there may be a battery underneath:
  20. I have an Astro modded Canon 700d. It was modified from new for me by Juan Fierros at Cheap Astrophotography and I think his work is very good. It has the Baader filter mod described on Juan's web site and I certainly use it for day time terrestrial photography, with the custom white balance. Here's one of the daytime pics: and one of the night time ones: and one shot through a 7nm Ha filter:
  21. The 'crater' effect can be caused by the dust moving relative to the sensor between the time the lights were taken and the flats. Is this a possibility for your acquisitions? If you blink btween a stretched flat and a stretched light, can you see any movement?
  22. I hardly do any visual these days (LED street lights have made it all but impossible), but the guiding accuracy for photography is just as good as it ever was, and this is with a fairly heavy SW 190 MN and camera gear hanging off it.
  23. I'd say go for it. I fitted the extension tube to mine and haven't noticed any loss of stability. Another advantage is that I can image well beyond the meridian with no danger of collision with the tripod legs. Getting it set up so that it didn't slip round, completely destroying the azimuth part of polar alignment, took a bit of doing but once set it was fine.:
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