alacant

What do you use to stack the dark frames? Maybe a good idea to send us a list of your software and the stages you use to stack images, otherwise we're guessing. cheers

? Point the telescope toward polaris with the couterweights down. Lock the clutches and polar align the mount. Do not release the clutches again until you have finished imaging. Plate solve somewhere near your target. Now plate solve again to centre your target. Most software will do this last stage for you. HTH

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Hi It's difficult to recommend; we don't know what software you're using. Does it for example include a dark optimisation algorithm? Are you guiding your mount? Cheers

Yep. HEQ5: once the clutches are tightened, they STAY tightened until you tear down. Use the setting circles to set the Polaris -home- position so you don't have to fiddle each time. One solve near your target should be fine for alignment. Cheers

Hi The data has a few issues which make it difficult to process. Flat frames, if they were applied didn't work. There is horizontal and vertical banding and the image is noisy. Details of the image including hardware and stacking methods may help us nail problems. But anyway: make certain that the flat frames are at the correct exposure and that the master bias has been removed do not use dark frames unless with an optimisation algorithm dither between exposures and stack with a clipping algorithm. This will remove the blotches and noise. Apart from the addition of banding and star repair, the workflow is as you posted. I had to do the final denoise in DarkTable but I've posted the end result in StarTools too as that my be acceptable to you. The first screen is your .tif in siril which shows what we're up against. But hey. well done indeed. Any astro-image is an acheivement no matter what and that you are self critical means you're heading in the right direction. HTH

Good. So now eqmod knows exactly where the telescope is pointing. Now eqmod has no idea where the telescope is pointing... ???

Remarkable achievement. Love it.

Hi everyone Day 45 of lock-down here in Spain and only 4 clear nights during. Cygnus and Sagittarius are already upon us and my extensive optimistic seasonal target list looks heavily unfinished. The worst spring I can remember. About 1/2 hour of a break in the haze earlier today enabled a whopping 3 x 5 minutes with the wrong telescope on this. Ekos shows galaxies galore, alas at this focal length, barely recognisable. Cue heavy dose of self pity! Thanks for looking, stay safe and wishing you your fair share of clear nights. 700d on nt150s 15 minutes @ ISO800

LOL, yeah. I can see now where you're coming from. Hopefully things just got a lot easier:) Cheers

DSLR attached to main telescope, yes. No need for the guide telescope to be aligned.

Ah, OK. So after you have solved and synchronized with the actual fov, you should then have have the option of slewing to and centering your target; no need for a finder. Sorry, I don't use sharpcap so can't help with other than a general description.

Hi My immediate reaction was to say 'plate solve' but I then saw 'manually'. Before I discoveded the above, I made sure that the guide telescope was well aligned with the main telescope, slewed to the target and then used a keypad's 2 4 6 8 keys to centre first in the former at say x64 and then finer adjustments, maybe x4 at the main telescope. Orient the keypad so as to mimic the moves when you press the keys. The slew rate can also be changed at the keypad. As you can see, I packed my keypad away some years ago. When you've tried plate solving, you never go back! Cheers and HTH

Unless you simply want to photograph the moon and bright planets, imaging at 1000mm focal length is challenging enough as it is. Using a Barlow will not only make the task more tricky, the results you obtain are unlikely to be anywhere near those which you would obtain with the correct adaptor. Cheers

Which is why you need to unscrew the 1.25 eyepiece holder first. This then reveals a male t thread which attaches to the t ring of the camera. The camera then focuses fine. No Barlow needed nor recommended. HTH.

Hi. yes. No need to use a Barlow; the quality of your images will be worse. Much better to attach the camera directly to the telescope. Unscrew the eyepiece holder first. See here for details, but send a photo anyway. You may have the wrong adapter. cheers

Hi You've probably still got the eyepiece adapter attached. Can you post a photo of the focuser with camera attached?

Hi After two years, you probably already know. If you have clear skies and time to spare fighting the many variables which astrophotography throws your way then I'd say persevere. If OTOH you have precious few clear nights during which in hindsight, you'd rather have been something which will guarantee your personal satisfaction, sell on and start enjoying. Cheers and good luck whichever way you go.

Mmm. Don't forget the collimation myths You're there already. You may now replace the hammer in its rightful place. Cheers

Ahhgghh! What a pity because your framing on the most interesting bit of the chain is great. The other 85 would have made this into a wonderful shot. Catch it earlier, keep doing 5 a night or move to a treeless location? Cheers

...and small. Perfect. Let the imaging begin. Let's hope you've started a trend; phd2 users looking at their images, not their graphs! Cheers

Yes. That's fine. Doesn't matter. Not used in calibration or stacking. If you don't, it will just give you the three channels anyway. Choose after you have finished.

Unless you renamed it, the correct file has the form: r_pp.xxx_stacked.fits r registered p pre-processed xxx the name of the sequence of light frames Otherwise, send a link to 3 bias, 3 flat and 3 light frames. Cheers

Hi. Not pre-processed and so not debayered. Details here. Cheers

IOW, it puts you, the user, in control. You tell it what to do, rather than vica versa. It also does totally automatic a la dss if you prefer. Cheers