AbsolutelyN

I got new felts for the Esprit 100 at same time as you with same issue. They gripped it for a couple of months but it now slides down the tube again. I resigned to putting a lens cloth between rings and tube and it holds it again but not ideal and looks a bit messy. 

Many thanks for the help here. I've ordered some M6 from Boltworld. I can't for the life in me fine an M6 with pitch of 1.25 anywhere so will try pitch of 1, can't really go wrong for the price. Much appreciated.

Hi. One of the bolts that joins the dovetail to the tube rings of my 200PDS has broken and I just wondered if anyone had any alternative source to get a replacement? I can get one from OVL but I'm guessing if the thread is known then you can probably pick one up locally or on ebay for a few pence. Any thoughts appreciated.  

Thanks Alan, I completely forgot about that 1/4" mounting hole on the zwo. First attempt uses the dovetail plus a second ball head but I suspect I can reduce this down with various bits and bats to reduce weight. Thanks very much, really appreciated!

Anyone have any ideas how to mount a finderscope to a williams optics plate - or to anything other than a standard telescope mounted finder mount shoe? I'd just like to use finderscope for polar aligning the star adventurer with sharpcap but can see any way to use the finderscope in a non telescope setup.  Any ideas much appreciated. 
Ideally I'm looking for ballhead and a finder mounted to this plate but struggling to figure out how.

Superb images as always Alex 

It's a blend, one for shadow side/clouds and one for light side.  

6 minutes ago, Scooot said:

Lovely shots. 

@AbsolutelyN that looks great, very atmospheric, I like the way you’ve managed to partly overcome the sharp contrast between the two halves. 

Thanks Richard, never really tried such a blend before so bit of an experiment, very difficult make it look right. 

Unfortunately the moon didn't break through clouds here until around half past ten which scuppered my plans for a moon rise image. So I ended up with a more standard long focal length image of the moon high in the sky but thankfully the clouds and haze added a bit of atmosphere. 200DPS with Sony A7r3. Blend of exposures.
https://www.astrobin.com/415718/

 

I run my 1600mm pro via a 20 meter USB3 cable. It does work very well but I do sometimes have issues with it. I also only run the camera on it, all other devices bar the filterwheel go on other usb2 leads. My understanding is that although USB3 is faster it is less reliable than USB2 when longer cables are involved. If you're building an observatory I'd place a PC in the observatory and run a network cable out so you can remote desktop on the PC in the observatory rather than running usb cables into the house. That way you keep your USB length short and don't need lots of hubs and you're using an ethernet cable connection designed for long distance. I only use a long USB3 cable because it's running a permanent outdoor mount with waterproof cover so can't put a PC out with it.  Will be interested in other views.
 

Thanks Carol. Is it because the composition is possibly improved by the blue jet of gas sticking out to the upper left? I can absolutely see regarding image composition that I prefer that, the shape it creates seems to have been lost with more data.  Interesting in terms of more data doesn't necessarily mean better image.  

Third version of this image. The contrast has been increased by lowering the black point as kindly suggested by MarsG76 ... though possibly still not low enough? After clipping so much data previously I have an aversion to going too dark. This one is also full resolution for any pixel peepers (like me). Any feedback much appreciated. 

Thanks, I think I'll have a look at reprocessing this one with that in mind, I completely see it now. At first I was absolutely clipping the blacks too much with astro images so have been really trying to avoid this and probably gone too far in opposite direction. Agree on saturation - so easy to go too far but I've always tried to keep things realistic in my photography. 

15 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Excellent.. the second version, aka 3 hour process, is better with its darker black level (space) and therefore more contrast.....

Thanks, that’s interesting and really appreciated. You don’t always see things like that when too close to the image. There is something about the 3 hr version I like but couldn’t quite figure out what.

Yes I can see your reptile easier than I can see a wizard. To me it looks like how I'd imagine a rift in space time / wormhole portal entrance to look. Can just imagine seeing this in the sky and an alien spaceship coming through. Perhaps just an overactive imagination....

Just researching this camera myself as could be handy for both astro and travel. The M50 should be ok for astro regarding connecting the PC. It's the first M camera to support remote pc connections. It's not listed on BackYard EOS site but it is listed on APT as compatible: https://ideiki.com/astro/EOS.aspx

42 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Wow, stunning clarity in that shot.

Thanks. I was quite please with data from a single night (if you can call 3 hours a night) but doubling it really made a big difference in resolving detail. This is a quick processing of just 3 hrs.  

First attempt at the Wizard Nebular in Cepheus. 6.5 hours over last two nights with Esprit 100 and ZWO 1600MMPro. 

32x HA @ 5min
22x OIII @ 5min
25x SII @ 5min

https://www.astrobin.com/413346/

My 1600mm pro (or SGP) occasionally goes completely unresponsive or crashes when cooled to -20 and it becomes impossible to warm it back up or it's totally disconnected. I'm not sure on the cause, it's running on a 20m usb3 cable which I suspect could be the culprit. Query is is it likely to damage the camera if the PC crashes when it's at -20? I assume the camera is left to warm to ambient in an uncontrolled fashion. 

This second version looks much better, lots of blown out details in the original which are far better controlled here. What's it taken with?  

Very impressive from a good old 40d. You're making me want to mod the 100d I've had sat around doing nothing for the last few years. 

Very impressive. I'd guess a combination of excellent sky, conditions, technique and processing and he's obviously a master at those last two. I suspect excellent processing is a major part of the image to tease out such detail. As far as I know the 294's are all based on the same chip so I'd expect them to be all very similar. 

You need to take local conditions into account such as darkness of sky and light pollution. I've been doing narrowband last couple of nights and have gone with unity gain and 5 min subs as I don't want to blow highlights and sky doesn't really get properly dark. 

Is it a permanent setup? Perhaps something in the light path internally if camera was removed and put back? Lovely image even if it is only quickly bashed through PS.

I think unity gain is a good starting point - 139. I vary gain depending on what I'm imaging and am still very much experimenting and figuring out what works. I found gain 0 really nice on M13 to hold highlights in the core, unity gain as a great all rounder and higher settings such as 200 great for narrowband.