jimbo747

I've just bought that exact lens for £40 off ebay, yet to try it out but that image is fantastic! I'll be using mine with a cheapo SLT mount and inferior 1300d (which I'll be modding) but 30s at that focal length should be do-able. I've seen a few posts where shooting at f/4 isn't that great and you don't like the resulting stars (I love diffraction spikes personally ). Was there much CA to deal with in processing?

Superb. Wouldn't look out of place on the 'proper' imaging forum. Give it a few years and I really think cameras will be sensitive enough to mean an EQ mount isn't required.

How did you connect the camera to the lens, and then the whole assembly to the scope? (Sorry to go OT, I used to attach my DSLR using rings to my 127slt but it's too heavy for the mount.

Apologies to anyone in Derbyshire. Since my starsense arrived 2 weeks ago there hasn't been a single clear night, it's still on the box in fact. I'm off out Friday, so of course it's forecast to be crystal

Can't get behind the scope to align by sight, need to use a combination of the dSLR to find a bright star, finder scope with webcam to get closer and then with APT and sharpcap try and get a star bang in the middle of the 224mc tp get goto spot on- not easy to do with a 2.5 Barlow on a slow scope when the 224mc, ps3 eye cam and 1100d don't exactly line up. Decided to do what i normally do when i have a problem, chuck money at it. Got a starsense and Bluetooth serial adapter arriving Monday, just in time for a fortnight of cloud. (They both on Amazon which swung it for me and massively cheaper than elsewhere, there's one starsense left in stock now @£269). Probably have to get skysafari now.

Seething. Raging even. Last night I decided to properly sort my scope out, focused the mak with barlow and 224mc ready for some jupiter shots, attached the IR and UV cut to my 1100d, perfect focus at 10-12 degrees, spot on alightment, set scope to park, connected via my remote intel nuc in my mini observatory ready for tonight. Moon looks good, jupiter now above houses, will see orion, lovely calm night, best one this year. Turn on mount, get laptop and a glass of wine and boot up teamviewer... no connection. Try another laptop and same... Just read as of 10 minutes ago teamviewer down for 8 hours of maintenance!!! Just my nonefamilyfriendlyword-ing luck!!! Remote desktop not setup. None of the software setup on my laptop and I'd have to do another alignment which is a pain to do without line of sight (took an hour last night). I just wanted to use the 224mc and modified dslr for the first time, and the Gods are laughing at me. If something happens tomorrow night, theres a free keter max storage box, raspberry pi with linear actuator, SLT mount, 127 mak, 1100d, asi 224mc, intel NUC and a load of filters, web cameras and storage cases available for collection from derbyshire FOC.

Well if you happen to find out, please let me know (mines a SLT mount but imagine should work the same). Don't know whether to get the wireless adapter instead, or both... Stellarium no longer playing with my mount so it's sat outside unused for 6 months. Cheers James

With starsense can you control the scope remotely still like with pc stellarium or mobile app?

Don't blame you, you've pushed the envelope with alt az imaging as much as anyone, your processing is pretty damn good so you're limited by the quality of the data now. Improving the mount is the next logical step. I will pull my finger out one day and finally setup and use the equipment I've spent hundreds on and join in (still not taken a single image with it, its just sat there outside!), would love to get something half as good as what you've achieved.

This site doesn't work properly on my mobile. Every time I reply it tries to include a quote from parallaxer! Anyway Filro, version 2 is spectacular. Short of full on observatories with camera rotators I doubt anyone has made better images on an alt az mount. I need to pull my finger out, remotely opened my observatory to use at night for the first time yesterday, went to get kids to bed. Came downstairs and had no stars on my finder guider or 224mc on laptop. webcam showed clear sky. I know mak was in rough focus and finder never loses focus, just wanted to align then I'll remotely alter focus on mak after. Reinstalled sharp cap, rebooted remote PC, installed drivers, still nowt. Sharp cap showing frames being sent. Went outside to give it a right kicking. I only went and left the friggin solar filters on from last week... proper head in hands moment. Didn't bother setting up so went to bed in a sulk, need to put my DSLR on anyway. Have bought some hosepipe rings as can't find telescope rings for a 127mak, will bodge it this weekend and then join the fun!

Agree. I think that image proves beyond all doubt you no longer need an eq mount. The Ollie's of this world are now dinosaurs. Small caveat being you need a hell of a camera!

Yup. Was really clear at about 7.00-8.00. BBC showed clear skys all night. Opened observatory lid a few hours ago, and just went to check focus on moon/align and its cloudy... Thankfully in an observatory, I'd be in a huge sulk right now if I had to go and fetch my scope in after all the palava I used to have setting it up. Might take this as a chance to try the hibernation feature. Saturday night might be the next chance. Will probably put my solar filters on seeing evening times are a write off at the moment! Edit - Hibernation works! Why didn't I know about this before!?! For some reason I just assumed only fancy pants EQ mounts had it!

Think I need one. Focusing at a focal length of 15 in the cold with laptop in one hand, knob in the other isn't easy. Only on SGL could you get away with that sentence...

1s exposures. I've got my mak and guide scope setup. Annoyingly I still can't get nexremote to launch with a virtual port - just crashes so can't use stellarium. Focused it earlier this evening, logged in to team viewer just now and may need to adjust focus on the mak before using it in anger. I've got the 224mc connected to the mak, may add my focal reducer to it while I'm at it. Moon disappearing soon, forecast clear, can't wait. No doubt something will go wrong... Edit - jesus I'm a slow typer, about 10 posts appeared!