Rico

I agree, I would keep the ED80 if possible and invest in another for observation. It's a good scope which is able to punch way above its league. Only issue with it, is that if you want to get the most out of it for astrophotography, you need to invest in a better draw focuser like the Baader steel track which will set you back £300 or so, and of course all the rest that is needed for tracking stars . I've had mine for almost 10 years and it still amazes me. Good luck researching for a new scope, always fun when we get a chance to upgrade our setups lol.

At the moment I keep an eye on it. I don't trust the AMF to work without my presence. Hopefully, though, I can sort this out, and can get a full night of sleep without worrying about the scope hitting the tripod, or the session failing because of the AMF.

I recently, upgraded my setup to capitalise on ZWO's ecosystem. ASIAir Plus, EAF, EFW, etc., and it's been wonderful to not have to deal with buggy drivers and hiccups with EQMOD etc. The ONE thing that I still have an issue with, is the MERIDIAN FLIP. I go through the process of setting up a PLAN in the ASIAir app; lately with the knowledge that the target will cross the meridian line during the session. The ASIAir recognises this and warns me that it is Xh:Xm away. I have it setup so that the ASIAir waits 5 mins before and 5 mins after to continue the imaging session. However, when it decides its time to perform the flip, it places the scope on the opposite side of the RA axis, but it doesn't point to the same target, it ends up way off. It will usually take more than 4 attempts to correctly plate solve and position the scope, however, there are times when it slews the scope close to the horizon. Of course, it's all downhill from there. I end up having to intervene, as it can't find any stars on my neighbours back wall . I was wondering if anybody has had similar issues in the past and if anybody has any suggestions on how to fix this. Whether it's a polar alignment issue, clock issue, backlash issue, some internal setting in the mount that I need to change? I don't know. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Clear skies.

Just a small update on the topic. I had a session last night, with no power/connection issues . Prior to this, I swapped the USB3.0 camera cable for a 2m Lindy cable, cleaned up the cable routing to avoid any snagging and all seems good. It was colder last night, so the power draw from the camera was lower than when I tested it last month, but at the moment I'm still using only one power source for the ASIair, dew heaters, guider, main camera, EFW and EAF, with no issues. I suspect that on hotter days, it may be worth to power the main camera with a separate power source. Clear skies.

I did a bit of problem solving this afternoon. At the moment the issue seems to be the camera usb connection. I originally used the short cable supplied with the camera, and on running it in preview mode, having everything still connected as described in the opening message, it cut out when I also ran the autofocuser. I went ahead and wiggled each of the cable connections and the camera usb connection to the Asiair was very sensitive to the touch and easily killed the connection. At the time the autofocuser was pressing against the cable. I swapped the cable for the longer one supplied with the camera AND secured it so that it wouldn't move. Ever since then ... I have no issues. I tested everything I could. It was hot and so the cooler was running close to 100% and the dew heaters were still connected to the Asiair. Moreover, I removed the independent power supply to the camera and supplied the dc power from the Asiair and it still works. Therefore, my conclusion so far is that the camera USB connection to the Asiair could be the source of all these issues. My recommendation if anybody has a similar issue, is to use a good quality cable and to secure it to relieve any strain from the connection and avoid any movement during a session. I will update the thread if anything changes. Thank you all for your feedback.

A lot of suggestions there. @Ouroboros and @Elp... yes I need to figure out where the problem is coming from and I'll go back to adding one at a time to see where the source of the issue is. @Elp and @bosun21, dew heaters could be a problem. I will try without and see where I get. But I was only running them at 30%. @Budgie1, I've ordered a Lindy replacement from Amazon (the camera usb cable to start off with), to see if this is the issue. But as @Elp says, I would of thought that 3 power supplies would be enough, surprised I've had this issue.

Past couple of weeks I decided to dust the cobwebs off the astro setup and in the process decided to upgrade a few bits and bobs 😃. As you might guess from the topic, I decided to give the ZWO Asiair a go ... coupled with a new EAF, EFW, guider and 2600mm. The issue I'm having is that during an imaging session, the power appears to be unstable. Either I get the exposure failed message from the camera, or the camera seems to freeze and the cooler switches off. I also tested the EAF yesterday, and it appears, but too early to tell, that when the EFW starts the autofocus sequence after the filter change I get the same issue. FYI, this is my power setup (all running from the ring circuit in the house): DC Power (12v 6A)-> NEQ6 -> Serial-USB->ASI 2600mm DC Power (12V 5A)-> ASI 2600mm -> USB3.0 (ZWO cable) -> Asiair Plus USB2.0 (ZWO cable) -> ZWO 2" EFW DC Power (12V 5A)-> Asiair Plus -> EAF + ASI120mm (ZWO USB2 cables) DC Output -> Splitter -> 2 dew heaters I originally had the ASI2600 being powered by the Asiair, but with this issue decided to give it its own power source. This hasn't resolved the problem. Next thing I'm thinking of doing is replacing the usb cables, starting with the USB3 Type A -> Type B used by the camera. Anybody have any suggestions? Thanks,

You can buy step down adapter rings that screw into the filter thread at the front of the lens. I got a few from: https://www.crookedimaging.co.uk/products/kood-stepping-step-down-ring-lens-adapter?variant=31154001289 They reduce the f ratio as follows: 72mm->67mm (f/2.8 ->f/3) 72mm->62mm (f/2.8 -> f/3.2) 72mm->58mm (f/2.8 -> f/3.4) 72mm->52mm (f/2.8 -> f/3.8) The 200mm lens is amazing and I shoot wide open all the time. But I think if you step down a bit, you can improve the shape of stars at the corner of the images even more. I haven't used the rings yet, so I can't first hand tell you that this is true, but I'll be testing it soon. The positive of using a step down ring is that you avoid the diffraction spikes from the aperture blades. Looking forward to more of your images!!

Very nice image. Are running the 200mm wide open at f/2.8 or have you stepped down?

Thanks Adam. The green channel definitely looks a lot cleaner than the blue and as I suspected, they're both receiving the oiii signal. Do most people scrap the blue and red channels and simply keep the green when doing a narrowband combination? A dual band filter sounds nice, but I like to image with 200mm lens, so a clip is ideal for me (which nobody does as a dual band anyway).

The idea of a dual/tri band filter is really appealing. Narrowband imaging on a dslr/osc should be more efficient as you're shooting both Ha and Oiii at the same time. I would separate the channels as @AdamJ suggested and process them individually to get a custom bi colour palette (I don't think an SHO palette is achievable here). Is it possible that the focus may be slightly off between the channels especially since you're using a doublet. @thomasv could this be the issue you're seeing in your image?

If you're plate solving, this shouldn't be an issue. It should resume where you left, regardless of when you stopped. I find that doing a phd calibration after the flip can leave the scope away from the target though. It would be nice if it would do a goto++ after the calibration as well. I have mine set to 5 minutes, but I only started playing with it last week. It ended up waiting 15 minutes before reimaging. So I'll be looking at minimising that a touch as well.

I have an astro modified 700D, which I've been using for the last few years, and while I would love to take the plunge and get a mono ... I can't substantiate the 2 grand price tag at the moment. As well as the regular RGB images, I've been using an Astronomik 6nm clip filter, which has given me some wonderful images. Processing them isn't too difficult as it is all isolated to the red channel. My question here is ... does anybody have any experience acquiring and processing oiii data on a dslr? Are you satisfied with the astronomik Oiii filter? More than anything I'm intrigued about the fact that the wavelength sits right bang inbetween the blue and green filters on the bayer matrix. Does this mean that I need to extract both blue and green channels and combine them? Does that improve noise compared to the ha filter as I'm essentially using the other 3 elements of the bayer matrix (despite the fact that the blue/green filters only allow 50% of the light through at that wavelength as well) Thanks