AKB

Just to record an answer to my question, here is one from another thread... Kudos to @f300v10 Tony

...with a keyboard command from within Stellarium?? If, how, please? Tony

Yes and no. Unless I am mistaken, this is a problem...

Just for the record, here's a stack of 50% (102) images. Think it's better, although the tones look slightly posterized?? Tony

Absolutely cracking shots! How do you focus? Are there single shots, or stacks? Tony

I don't usually image the moon, but there she was looking lovely in a bright blue sky. I haven't been in the observatory for ages (weather, mostly), but rushed out, cracked open the roof and shot 200 x 3ms captures: Esprit 120 ED ASI 294 MC Pro (OSC) Here's just one of them (mono). Further processing may take a while! Tony

The Esprit FL of 840mm is not especially long. OAGs are good for anything with moveable optics... SCTs and reflectors... so it can track with any shifts in FOV.

No, why would you that? I use a guide scope, sometime on the opposite head (it’s a dual mount) or clamped directly to the Esprit. Yes, absolutely. Most directions not a problem at all.

I’m not sure I’ve come across anyone using plate-solving for EEVA, but I might be wrong. It seems to me that EEVA is more observing-like than imaging-like, so some manual navigation is not unnatural. I certainly use go-to mounts, usually in combination with software like Stellarium, so just use whatever you need to get near enough (within FOV, for example) and then manually browse around. I do sometimes use guiding if my exposures are more than 15 seconds, or so, but mostly so that I can dither to improve the noise with live stacking. It’s so quick to do that it doesn’t really get in the way of spontaneous enjoyment of the view. However, there’s really no right or wrong, just what’s easy for you Tony

I have both an Esprit 120, and an Avalon M-Uno. Both are fabulous. However, in combination, you lose the massive advantage of the mount, that of no meridian flip, since the scope is so long (even with a pillar extension on the head.) Of course, that’s not a fault of either device, and you’ll have the same problem with any refractor. Tony

Works wonderfully well! With the monitor at just over arm's length, I see a 'miniature' stereo image floating about 10cm in front of my face. No strain at all, once you're there. Actually rather hard to get rid of and focus once again on the actual page after a while!

That's most gratifying! Great piece of kit. I must confess that I'm deeply interested in how you achieve such enormous SNRs for your guide star. In yourGuiding Assistant image I see 161, and on the PHD screen 289? Typically, I see 30 - 40, and this with a dedicated guide scope with ED glass, and Bortle 4 skies. Can you explain this? I can't help but think that if I achieve a better SNR, then guiding will be better too (I have a very good mount, although not Mesu!) Thanks Tony

Thanks for all the work on Stellarium. I have just tried the direct ASCOM control, which works just fine, but, unless I am not understanding something, this does not include the functionality that StellariumScope provides to sync the mount to a target or to abort a slew? Tony

Thanks. You really think so? I was comparing it to 90 minutes worth from my C9.25 Hyperstar setup with the same camera (and no filter): Perhaps it's just the f2.3 to f7 difference, but normally the Esprit's star shapes are SO much better than those of the Hyperstar...

It's always nice to have someone else to blame when things don't turn out quite right... What should have been a good session (no clouds – amazing!) appears to have been negatively impacted by this phenomenon which I photographed earlier in the evening: smoke from a neighbour's bonfire sinking towards the ground and just spreading and hanging there. I could smell the bonfire when I was out in the evening setting things up. The next four hours went absolutely like clockwork, acquiring 48 x 5 minutes subs with guiding ~ 1" RMS. Unheard of! However, the results are rubbish. Two hours on each of the Spider and Foxfur+Cone nebulae. The spider is so poor, it's not worth sharing, but here's the Cone... There's a distinct mistyness here, and where has the blue gone? The central star looks dreadfull too. This is my current setup (Esprit 120ED, ASI 294, Quadband filter.) The filter in normal use does seem to suppress lighter blues, to some extent, but this is extreme. I'm wondering if the smoke/water in the air has scattered the blue more than the rest, and just made the whole thing hazy? Tony