Allinthehead

Hi all, this is sh2-126 in Lacerta. If you locate Andromeda and trace a line towards Deneb it's about half way. This is a large star forming region approx 1200 light years from earth. The source of it's ionisation is the intense ultraviolet radiation of the star 10 Lacertae, a blue main sequence star. I had great fun collecting this data, on the first night I noticed what looked like a pinched mirror in the images as they came through so I had to perform surgery with the scope on the mount. I removed the primary mirror, loosened the screws on the mirror clips and put everything back together. The scope held collimation throughout which is a testament to how well built the Epsilon is. The battles continued on through the rest of the data collection with cloud, humidity and fog all adding to the fun, oh and not forgetting a lovely new floodlight my neighbour installed that points right at my scope. Data was collected with an Asi2600mc through an Epsilon 130. 6 Panels and a total of 24 hrs rgb with 10 hrs of Ha taken with a Samyang 135 and Asi 1600mm. If anyone is ever thinking of imaging this be aware it's quite feint and I found the image is nothing without the ha. Image is uploaded as .jpg and reduced to .5 to keep the image size reasonable. Hope you like it, Richard.

Wonderful mosaic, looks seamless. Working on one myself at moment, they're a bit of a slog but well worth the effort.

I got one of these for my now sold 1600 and it worked very well.

Thanks Dave, yes the sensor in the 071 is very good but housed in the Asi body it has a serious flaw. With mine at least, going beyond -5 resulted in ice forming which would ruin an imaging session. If you're buying new then i would go with the Qhy version. Another issue is one of halos when paired with a reflector. Not an issue with a refractor. As Adam said the 247 is a good option or of course a camera with the imx571 sensor is another, although pricey. From my perspective the imx571 is not enough of an upgrade in terms of image quality over the 071 to justify the price. It's as good a sensor but without the issues i outlined above, so it was worth the upgrade for me. Altair have just released the 26c which uses the imx571 so might be worth looking into.

That's a lovely pair, especially the Double Cluster.

Cracking image Emil, mosaics are hard but well worth the effort. 150 hours is insane🤪

🤣 I can't see the secondary dot in that image. Do you first align the secondary dot on the crosshairs? This ensures the secondary is aligned with the focuser

Do you have the secondary mirror mark in the center of the crosshairs?

Might be worth taking the primary off and check how the mirror is fixed in place, adjust if too tight. My 130 arrived pinched from factory but as i said they use different mechanisms.

From the image you posted above collimation looks perfect. Is it possible you're pinching the mirror somehow? I had stars like this when i over tightened my mirror clips, I'm aware the 180 doesn't have mirror clips but could there be another way to pinch the 180 mirror.

Very nice, and I feel the same excitement when scanning the sky. Nice to do something that feels unique. 😂 I admire your honesty. Hate when that happens.

Sorry to see you having such difficulty with your Epsilon Adam, messing with a scope at 02:30 when you're working the next day is no fun at all. If I were in your position I'd get the original focuser back on. Is it a big job to change it?

Exceptional image, from the perfect stars, beautifully balanced looking colour and great detail. Get this one up on the wall.

Great M31 and a massive improvement on the older version.

Wonderful M31 Lee. Very natural delicate processing.

Great image Alan, I can't recall seeing detail like that in this target.

Beautiful image Peter, I find this target is even better in rgb and you've presented an image with a great range of colour and detail.

I found this on cloudynights. "Yes every image from the back yard , but the scope is very portable And the collimation is like a newt , but the tak tools that come with the scope are a must . The tak stock focuser is fine and works well ( add a motor though ) , even though I have a moonlight focuser on it I would not recommend it to anyone as It was not up to the job and it took a long time to get it working well ( disappointed would cover it ). Yes I would buy it again over a frac , cool down time is better - no colour problems at all and its very fast indeed of course if you do not like spikes !! Regards"

You mentioned before you have the Tak tools, I find these are essential to collimate properly. Have you tried it with the stock focuser?

Where in the frame was Deneb when you focused? I slew to a bright star near my target when focusing, I also center that bright star. You should however have focused stars across the frame so something is up. It could be collimation or tilt. Are you using the stock focuser?

That's a pity. Amazing clear sky in Cork tonight, maybe too still, I hope I don't get fog. Just gathering subs now on my favorite star forming region. https://meteoradar.co.uk/infrared-satellite-UK-Ireland Not looking great for you up North.

How did you go last night? My forecast was for clouds but it cleared around 22:00 and remained clear all night. It usually goes the other way so I reckon I was due. Clear again here tonight hopefully.

Congratulations to the winners, well deserved. Great data and project.

Yes, I see a bulge on the right side of the stars too all across the frame and the stars at the edges are quite fuzzy too. I'd be very interested to see how your Nikon performs tonight.

@mftoetand @sharkmelleyboth use an Epsilon, maybe they could share their thoughts.