AbsolutelyN

9 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I must admit a lot of people say they use these very successfully, but I tried two and never got one of them to work. 
I put it down to getting the cheap versions from Amazon, maybe Ebay can't remember now, although not that cheap at around £16 to £20 I think.

Some of these cables are super expensive, especially the ones on Astro sites, at £50+, so I was never sure why I could not get the repeater cables to work, tried with good powered hubs and without, so I assumed I was just using poor quality ones and due to the price of the recommended ones I gave up with them.

Is it only the relatively expensive ones that work reliably ? or was I just unlucky ?

If so then I would say id depends what you want to do, just leave your laptop inside and so require a lengthy USB cable or use a laptop of some description near the mount as you can get reasonable sized SSD hard drives now pretty cheap.

Steve

They can be problematic. I've got 4 of them running to my setup. Only two of them now work. The relatively expensive USB3 one and a really cheap £20 USB2 one which is by far the best of them all. I think mine fall to the weather/damp as they are always outside. 
I think adding a powered hub at the end can possibly help though. Ideally I'd like a little mini pc running things at the scope end and to remote desktop onto it. 

3 minutes ago, irtuk said:

+1 for those active USB repeater cables, exact same product I have, although I do use the power supply that came with it.

Yes probably the best idea. I didn't use it as the cable is permanently outside and I don't have appropriate plug available where its situated. 

41 minutes ago, LeeHore7 said:

Can anyone recommend a USB male to male data transfer cable az I have an old Samsung r519 laptop that I can use when outside imaging and the transfer onto my main laptop as I don't want to risk taking my main laptop outside anymore 

Clear skies 

I use 20 meter USB active repeater cables that run from my PC to my scope. They do cause connection issues sometimes but it does all work. I don't use the plug that comes with them, I add a powered USB hub at the end if needed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BLPSWTI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07T8F2D3B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Powered hub

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Z59NCL9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edit - I misunderstood the question. 

Don't see why you'd need to do that - just run it from one laptop inside and use 20 meter cables.

If you need two laptops then just use remote desktop over wifi? 

Just pointed my scope at the moon whilst waiting for it to get dark. 250 frames stacked with 1600mm pro and 250 pds. Best viewed at 100%. 

Beautiful image, very nicely done. 

Just wondering if anyone knows of a way to make SGP do a platesolve when it exits recovery mode? If clouds pass over and block the target then it keeps trying to restart which is great. But if there is a reasonable time gap before it can recover the target will often drift and you lose framing. When it restarts it simply carries on with the sequence but does not check if it is still pointing at the target. I'm wondering if I'm missing a setting somewhere as it seems strange not to platesolve or recovery just as it would with a meridian flip.  Any suggestions much appreciated. Thanks

Great image, very nice colours and processing. 

Beautiful. 

That's stunning Adrian, great work. The structures in the starless version are very detailed and intricate. 

That's a cracking image of M101, I'd be really pleased with it. The colour is superb and loads of detail. I think it just has quite low surface brighhtness which  can make it tricky.

1 hour ago, fwm891 said:

It turns out that the WO version of a Vixen dovetail bar is narrower than a standard Vixen dovetail bar so when mounted the whole optical train is shifted over to one side and unless you add extra weight to the opposite side it won't balance. A loolly stick shifted the OTA assemble back to it's central point...

I've had that issue too. Bought a Primaluce Lab dovetail clamp only to find my William Optics vixen dovetail bar (bought years ago) is too narrow. Very annoying. I jam a long allen key in  alongside the bar which fixes it but far from ideal. 

Looks superb to me too. If I was super critical I'd say it has a possible yellow cast so perhaps just and a touch more blue via curves? Could just be my screen. Lovely image and nicely processed. 

Loads of galaxies here looks great. I've never heard of a mono DSLR before though. How does that work? Has the sensor been swapped out? 

When scouting for targets the unusual shapes and textures of these two galaxies drew me to them last night.  Unfortunately the forecast looks like that might be my last galaxy for a while but its been great to finally get some clear skies with no moon. 

SkyWatcher 250PDS with 1600MM - 5.35 hours 

4 hours ago, tomato said:

That's a cracking image, one of the best I have seen on SGL of this FOV, and only 5.5 hrs integration, you have made the most of every minute. 👍

Thanks much appreciated. Bit of a miracle really as looking at the files I've somehow managed to get 60mins of green, 30 mins of red and only 20 mins of blue!

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Really nice image Tristan, you have a really strong processing skills.  The background is smooth but yet doesnt look overdone or forced.  Would you mind sharing an outline of what you do?

Thanks Adam. I tend to process things differently every time as each image throws up a new challenge, so always experimenting with different ideas and passing it between pixinsight and photoshop trying to make it work. 

11 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

You certainly have been making the most of your opportunities! Another very nice image. Colour and detail are impressive and you would never guess that you had to "tidy-up" M106.

Thanks, new moon and clear skies seem rare these days so I'm willing to lose a bit of sleep. The diffraction spike wasn't too bad.

1 minute ago, Adreneline said:

Great colours, framing and detail. A winner!

Adrian

Thanks Adrian. Typically somehow managed to get a big diffraction spike from an out of frame star running right through M106. Had to carefully clone it out. 

Making the most of this clear spell .... this time M106. I was particularly drawn to the varying scales of all the galaxies, from big to barely visible. 

5.5 hours with 250-PDS and 1600MM. Gradient issues solved, assume it was light leaking in the back of primary, possibly when taking flats during the day. 

Full res on astrobin - https://www.astrobin.com/8p4x95/

42 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Hi Tristan,

I layered B and D together with B at 100% lighten blend mode on top of D knocked back just a tad to 97% Normal mode. I also applied a gradient removal as I think there was one running broadly left to right.

What do you think of this version?

Looks great, best of both. Definitely an improvement to me. 

37 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

I paid £6.5k for my preowned mount 5 years ago. I am least the 4th owner....!! I won't be letting go of it anytime soon if I can help it.....

That's way out of my budget, I'm thinking more reasonably priced CEM70 or similar.  

13 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

The AP1200 mount is a monster. It's a 2007 model which hasn't been upgraded and I'm not even running any PEC. It barely knows that it has a C14 + 4" APO riding on it. I'm guiding through the OAG of my QSI583 and typically get ~0.5" total RMS, though some nights sub 0.4". Imaging scale is 0.43", so I'm around 1px.

That's insane. I managed 0.8" the other night with AZEQ6 but the 10" is too heavy and even dithering can make it lose it somewhat. I thought I'd invested in a mount that would handle anything I needed when I bought it 5 years ago but I think I need to consider something a bit more robust soon.   

4 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Tristan,

I know what you mean and I did wonder about doing that, or something similar, so maybe I'll give that a try. This is a C14 with native FL of 3910mm (F11), with an approximately x0.63 Optec telecompressor, so allowing for the moving mirror, then net FL will be ~2500mm.

 

Wow. You must have some seriously good guiding at that focal length for 15min exposures!  I can only manage 1 min at less than half the focal length 🙂 

3 minutes ago, gorann said:

Thanks a lot Tristan! Yes the RASA-ASI2600MC combo is amazingly good at picking up faint colour signals.

Yes I know ... had an accident with mine and I'm missing it a lot.

I really like the smooth background of version B on astrobin which has nice softer background. Personally I'd try layering them up and allow the smooth dark background of B to blend into your final image? What focal length are you working at?