Star101

Not so. Having been on a couple of science talks at a couple of universities. The dark matter subject was still open to question. 30% ( as a show of hands in the room ) still questioned DM as needing more proof.

Do you mean https://openphdguiding.org/news/

Taken Sunday night 22 Nov 20. 45 x 300s Celestron C11, Atik 4120EX OSC with IDAS D2 Light pollution filter. In a Bortle 5 zone. Guiding using a Lodestar X2 on ZWO OAG. Mount Mesu 200. Captured using SGPro and PHD2. Processed using Pixinsight. Thanks for looking. Dave.

If you paid via PayPal, talk to PayPal, they are on your side. If you paid by Credit Card, Talk to the credit card company. I made a huge purchase using PayPal, the item arrived broken. The shop, I felt, just delayed and delayed giving me my money back. So, I spoke with PayPal on one Tuesday and had my money back in my account by Friday lunchtime. Good luck. Dave.

As Globular says. Also, you could be in a Bortle 1 area but a street light is just next to your rig. Yet, 200 meters down the road its very dark.

Sorry to hear that Olly. Iv'e been using SGPro for a few years. I'm moving from SGPro V2 having purchased it just before they moved to V3. ( I was not too pleased ) And I waited for SGP to introduce dual rig dithering, which I was informed will be in V4. Then I get a email saying SGPro is going down the never, never a owner, route of annual charge/rent. (From: $149.00 now then $59.00 / year) So, I am checking out the FREE TO USE N.I.N.A. as it does have dual rig support. The only night I have had chance to test it, the Plate Solving, using ASTAP was lightening fast ( were are talking seconds ) compared to SGPros, Planewaves PlateSolve 2's sometimes minutes, when imaging at 2800mm FL. Centering on a object was quick. So far, I am impressed. I have checked for Stellarcat-Argonavis and N.i.N.A. but so far, sadly, found nothing so far.

The in/out of focus is the "seeing" conditions. Usually caused by the jet stream or just poor weather. If the stars are twinkling, so will the planets. Check the weather forecast for the jet stream and winds in general. If possible, try imaging when the winds are minimal and the jet stream is elsewhere. Consider the circumstances, that's not a bad start. I am not a planet imager. Others, who are I'm sure, will have some other suggestions to help improve your imaging. Even on windy nights

I agree, more subs are needed. I have been working on it this morning and no matter what I do it does not improve it any. I just need a few more clear nights and will go back to this. I love the detail but its just not clean enough.

I am experimenting at the moment Olly. But it works with my Mesu 200. Have the ZWO 183MM on the TS65Q, Atik4120EX on C11 with ZWO OAG and Lodestar X2. All on Mesu200. Have the SiTech selected in NINA as the scope mount. Works well so far. Plate solving using ASTAP is very fast, even using the ATIK 4120EX at 2800mm FL. https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/master/site/requirements/ I will start a new thread with my setup and any snags if anyone is interested.

Very good for 20 x 180s. /channel. You do right to be pleased Well done.

....................

With N.I.N.A. one can use dual scope and dither. Synchronized Dithering with PHD2

Sorry, xthestreams. The RC arrived broken and the shop had no more of the same at hand to send out so I got my money back. My personal circumstance has since changed and the RC has been put on the back burner for now. Maybe next year

Reduced background

Taken, Sunday 27 Sept 2020. 15 x 300s using Atik 4120ex OSC camera. Celestron C11 on Mesu 200 mount. Guiding using ZWO OAG and Lodestar x2 mono camera. PHD2, Pixinsight, Artemis, Affinity Photo. Mel-15 in the center of The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190. Thanks for looking.

Just a thought! This may help, it may not!! I have the TS65EQ which was giving me worse issues than you have here. Real cone shaped stars similar to pinching. I separated the scope and slackened off the retainer rings around the lenses, then gently shook the casing and lightly tightened the retainer rings back up being extremely careful not to touch the lenses with the fine watch screwdriver. Images look as good as new now. Check out this video from 3mins in - Scope lens Good luck, P.S. Excellent image by the way. Dave.

Thinking positive. If we had clear nights every night, I think, one would soon get blasé about the night sky. The slim chance of a clear slot between the clouds gives us the exciting impetus to stargaze. Also, take these cloudy nights as nights of rest....you will need them for when the sky does clear soon

Recently, I bought a 2" Astrophysics 0.67 Reducer for another scope which got sent back. I kept the 0.67 reducer for sometime in the future. While waiting for the future I was playing with my TS65EQ 420mm f6.5 scope as ya do! I placed the reducer on the front of the ATIK 3 nosepiece and slid it into the scope then wondered if I could find focus. Well, blow me down, I did And I was impressed I could now fit objects in the FOV that would have needed a mosaic before. On closer inspection, I noticed the corners of the image were not that great compared to the perfect flat image of the TS65EQ without any additional optics. The TS65EQ already has a field flattener built in. My question is, are there any focal reducers out there for such a short focal length scope? The ones I can find are for SCT's not APO's. Unprocessed Trunk. Corner edge Trunk from basic TS65EQ no crop.

Very nice Mark. Nice processing too.

Thank you for your kind words morimarty. :)

Thanks Mark, I'm on my stay-cation so don't have to get up the next day :) It was quite a clear night here last night. Only threw away one sub because it looked a bit hazy, I assume cloud This one was my second attempt at processing. First attempt earlier today was a failure. I did some noise reduction and lost a lot of detail. So, decided it was easier to start again using the Master stacked lights. Only an hour wasted...I'm on holiday, I don mind :) Good luck with your image Mark. I look forward to seeing it.

WiKi NGC 7380 in Narrowband (SII/Ha/OIII) Constellation Cepheus Distance 7.2 kly Physical characteristics Radius 100ly Other designations NGC 7380, Sh2-142, Cr 452 NGC 7380 (also known as the Wizard Nebula) is an open cluster discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. William Herschel included his sister's discovery in his catalog, and labelled it H VIII.77. It is also known as 142 in the 1959 Sharpless catalog (Sh2-142). This reasonably large nebula is located in Cepheus. It is extremely difficult to observe visually, usually requiring very dark skies and an O-III filter. Located 7200 light years away, the Wizard nebula, surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380. Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer. The active star forming region spans about 100 light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus). Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being formed may outlive our Sun. Takien last night/early this morning 6/7 Aug20 14 x 300s S2,Ha,O3 (3.5 hours) Scope TS65EQ Mount Mesu 200 Astrodon 3nm filters in a Atik EFW3. Guide cam Lodestar X2 in ZWOOAG on C11. PixInsight, PHD2 and SGPro Master Bias/Fats/Darks About 4 hours processing. Noise Generator/Normal, Noise Reduction ACDNR on all three Masters. Stretch using old Histogram Trans. Added using LRGB combination without the L. Extract Lum. Adjust RGB using curves. Add Lum using only L on LRGB and select Chrominance Noise Reduction. Adjust again in Curves. Check noise using ACDNR. Done Thanks for looking. Dave

Found this on FLICKR. Looks great for the cost :)

It would be very interesting to see images taken with any PI camera. At £cheap they will definitely be onto a winner if they work well. I do have the Pi Noir Camera. I may give it a try for fun in the next few nights

retret66 already has a triple scope setup see this and this