blinky

Thanks guys, that’s very informative! Will measure it all later, just having a wee beer in the garden gazebo, got to make the most of this summer !

Just bought one of these reducers for the ZS73 https://williamoptics.com/adjustable-reducer-flattener-flat73r-for-z73

what backfocus setting do I use on the adjuster for my setup? I’ve got a ZWO ASI1600 mono, a9mm thick OAG, then the ZWO filter wheel. I can’t figure it out at all, the page says 1.8mm for a DSLR,  it is that the same for my setup?

I was thinking of doing exactly the same! That would fix it once and for all and save me needing to worry about leaks.

5 hours ago, carastro said:

Mine leaks at the pivots too.  Think many have the same problem.   I just place a bucket under the pivots and empty it if there has been a downpour. 
 

l use a dehumidifier in the winter months to keep everything dry so if need be l can suck up any splashes.  
 

Not ideal but works for me.  I have also read of someone fitting a piece of gutter  under the pivots with a hose through the wall to drain it back outside. 
 

carole

I do the same with buckets but its just not great, all that kit and 2 buckets full of water!

5 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

Got it now- it is where the opposing halves of the dome slide over each other.

Yep thats the place, try as I might I can never solve it

I’m no good at explaining these things! Think of the skyshedpod pod as like a spaceman’s helmet, the visor slides up right? The big bolt at the left of the image is the pivot where the ‘visor’ slides up. Water keeps coming in and I can’t stop it. I might have had a breakthrough though…. When opening and shutting I could see there is a pinch point and the gasket was getting jammed, I’ve now cut the gasket short, so it now ends before the pinch point meaning it no longer jams. I need to wait on a wet day to see if the water is dripping off the gasket on to the other gasket and draining away though…

I’m sure it will be fine, I’ve went even smaller and got one of the intel compute sticks, it’s a few years old but has USB3. Runs everything I need it to and plate solves in seconds as well, it’s amazing how much computing power you can get in tiny packages nowadays!

Just redone the first pivot seal…

I’m not sure if @SkyShed - Wayne is still in this forum? I’m having leak issues with my pod, mainly at the pivots which I’ve redone the seal on tonight but…. When I open the pod up, water seems to pour out from inside the section that I lift up, I’ve no idea how it gets in there to seal it up? Anybody got any ideas/experienced this before?

great, thanks for confirming folks

I plate solved an image in Pixinsight and got this result for field of view, is it indicating its 1 degree, 14minutes by 56minutes?  Im looking to download the correct catalogs for ASTAP and it mentiones downloading one or other depending on field of view being more or less than 1 degree

Field of view ............ 1d 14' 53.3" x 56' 37.0"

This is data gather over 3 nights, around 14hrs in total - amazing for Scotland, some years thats a whole season of data!  Guiding was also excellent, due mostly to it being so high in the sky I assume?  Was getting around 0.6"/Pixel from my self belt modded EQ6

Qh ok that worked, would have been useful if they still gave you the option to mark a file as a master though

In the latest WBPP script where do I set a frame as a master frame?  I cant run it as it says it cant stack less than three frames, but Ive a master dark so dont want to stack!

Question...... My skies or rather my guiding is generally around 1 arcsec, sometimes a little better sometimes (more often than normal!) a little worse, anyway! I have 2 scopes, an 8" F4 Newt and a William Optics ZS73 and my camera is a ASI1600Pro. This give 0.98 Arcsecs/pxel in the newt and somewhere around 2 in the Frac. My question - is there any benefit to using the newt? Its a smaller FoV, so more 'zoomed in' so to speak, but that zoom, do my skies allow it? Am I just better off sticking to the nice simple to guide Frac as when using the newt, although I can get a more zoomed in image, there is no extra detail in the zoom due to my crappy skies (and guiding, and crap collimation...)

I can see a beam yes, but it is now starting to cloud over with some high cloud, so I suppose that must be what it is and not a faulty cam!

Dunno, maybe but never thought it would make that much difference

Even if I up the gain to 300 I still dont see the same detail as I did at gain 200 last year, Im confused.....  Looks like cloud but it seems 100% clear to me and my guiding would suggest the same.  Dawned on me one difference - last year was shot with the native ASI driver (Hence why I can see offset is 60) whereas this is with the ASCOM driver

I have went back to SH2-232 to get some more data at the bottom is the original post early last year. Anyway, same scope, same camera, same gain, same Ha filter and no moon.  The left image is a few minutes ago and the right image a year ago with the same stretch applied in Pixinsight.  Im trying not to get paranoid and think I have a problem with my ASI1600MM but why is this years data so much fainter than this time last year?

just about to order the dew heater for the front of the ASI1600, hopefully enough heat will also transfer to the filter wheel assembly as well.  Actually wondering about just leaving it powered on all the time (in winter)....

Never had that before - everything has dewed over, Primary of my Newt, even with a dew shield attached,  the filters in the filter wheel, the Coma Corrector and even the front cover slip of the ASI1600! All covered in dew.  Was calling it a night as it clouded over anyway, but Ive never had a Newt primary dew over (actually been out twice with the hairdryer tonight!), never mind everything else.....  Was cold though, around minus 3 and everywhere is covered in frost/snow. 

Yeah looks like you need longer exposures - long time since I've used a DSLR but I would have thought exposures in the 5mins plus would be what you are aiming for.  What confuses me is that you said the mount is in Az mode until you can polar align, I would have expected to see star trailing at 90 second exposure length...

Final process - used Starnet then sharpened the nebula a little, did a correct stars on the star layer, messed about with the colour of the nebula then added them back together

Ive never done colour calibration on narrowband images, thought it was not supposed to work but that looks a lot better. Star colours are definatly improved and there is more colour in the wispy areas, thanks

29 minutes ago, TerryMcK said:

I suppose it depends on how much saturation and contrast is given to the background nebula. I've seen plenty of tadpole images that are similar but pop because of the contrast.

Very nice data though. You look as though you have sorted the problems you had with the F4. 

Yeah got the F4 sorted - borrowed a cocentre for the secondary then used a laser on the primary and did a wee tweak under the stars, a lot happier with it now.