wimvb

Good old sneakerware at work

Vignetting seemed almost nonexistent anyway. DBE will clean that up nicely, so as far as vignetting is concerned, you're good. But how about dust bunnies, eventually? Your master flat is very clean at the moment, but that may change.

No dust bunnies? Btw, I doubt if you need darks for flat calibration.

Thanks. I'm very interested in these cameras to replace my aging Pentax. I'm very much aware of the much smaller chip size of the 185 and 178, but lack the funds for the 1600.

Gina, in your original post you mentioned that you have 3 ASI cameras, how do these compare quality wise, other than the obvious chip size? I'd be especially interested in the 185 vs 174.

Definitely counts. It's dual and it's a set up. FL wasn't specified in the thread title. But it is one of the less usual set ups. Thanks for sharing.

Finally! First time with the AZ EQ6, that is. It's just about getting dark enough "up here" to think about dragging my scope out. This night was first light for my AZ EQ6, bought in june (!). Tried setting up a few nights ago, but during PA, polaris suddenly disappeared. Behind clouds. But tonight clouds thinned out enough for some observing, and a quick imaging session. PA through synscan routine. GoTo worked like a charm, targets on both sides of the meridian came in view of a 17 mm eyepiece without exception. I hopped from M13 to M27, M57, M31, M29, M39 and M81, with a couple of NGCs thrown in for good measure. I really love this mount. Compared to my old mount (EQ3 Pro), polar alignment is a breeze. There's still some backlash in the dec axis, but that should be easy to fix. RA axis is free of backlash after some adjustment of the worm gear. Here's an image of the rig after the action BTW, here's a shot of my old setup (same scope)

All components in a circuit are numbered; resistors are R1, R2, R3, etc; in the same way capacitors with the letter C, connectors with J (jumper), integrated circuits with U, and transistors with Q The other number on the device indicates the component value or type. On a resistor 103 could mean that it is 10 000 Ohms (3 for number of zeroes). But you may have to check a component datasheet to get the right information. You can't replace it with just any capacitor, it needs to be the right value. Have a look at this: http://www.robotoid.com/appnotes/electronics-capacitor-markings.html According to this 104C means that it is a 10 0 000 picofarad capacitor (10 with 4 zeroes), or 100 nF = 0.1 uF Unfortunately, you can't assume that C3 has the same value as C4 without knowing its function. Your best bet is to compare with a working hand controller, as per your original post

C means it is a capacitor. There will be a printed number on the device. Use this if you want to replace it. This part is cheap, but you will need to solder this tiny part. Can be done with a fine tipped soldering iron and a steady hand. Good luck

That's about as grab 'n go as it gets. I like this simple setup.

I like your eyepiece cap. Btw, us that dew on the grass? That doesn't bode well.

My SW 150P on EQ3 just after the action in March.

I just wondered, why the double finder? Yes, at least a Nikon-strap man.

I like your "view down the barrel".

I understand the problem. If only there were calibration frames to delete trees ...

"Blobs" count as well. But I wonder why you haven't got M81 and M82 in your list? these are certainly easier than many others in your list. Cheers,

Great effort, Neil. I guess you keep us updated as you fill your checkerboard? How far south does one have to travel to have a chance to catch them all? Messier was french, so I wonder if Olly would be able to see them all from his site? BTW, I make small marks in my sky atlas whenever I spot/image an M object. Not quite as fancy as your system. Good hunting!

Even the cables are colour coordinated, BRG. But since it's a movable (kind of) rig, how do you polar align such a beast?;-)

Nice image. There are two ways to go with this camera. One way is to use it as a standard DSO imaging camera and go for long exposure times to get more signal; or you can stack LOTS (hundreds, or more than 1000) of short exposures, and use the fact that these cameras have very low read noise. http://www.astrokraai.nl/viewimages.php?id=250&cd=7 Good luck.

That's still a good image you have, with lots of detail in the nebula. I haven't tried narrowband yet, but I guess: as the moon reflects allmost all sunlight (wavelength-wise), my guess is that a narrowband filter won't work. The reflected Ha from the moon will interfere with the Ha from the object you're trying to capture. To capture the faint details of Ha-nebulae you'll still need a dark background; so, no moonlight. Just my thoughts on this.