alacant

Hi. Yes, absolutely. It gives you a chance to check focus, guiding and seeing. If all is well, you can add the frames to the rest. Cheers

Hi For this one, I used StarTools. It's the quickest and best I know. AutoDev - bin -crop - wipe - Decon - colour - grain remove. In siril it's: crop - asinh transform - histogram transform - background extraction - colour calibration It's a nice image but there's not much data to be able to overcome the pollution gradient. Take more frames and you'd begin to see detail beyond that here I'm sure. Keep taking the snaps... HTH.

Hi Sorry to hear about yet another case of excessive street lighting. Anyway, perhaps no need to crop so much. I had a go at the background in Siril and GIMP but the .jpg doesn't have much to go on. I'm sure that with the linear image, you'd fare better. I sincerely hope that you succeed in getting that light removed. Good luck and HTH.

Hi everyone Full moon? Why not try some faint galaxies? This has to be the thinnest of them all. Field of view? No one laugh please; we have use of a big reflector for the weekend. Meanwhile this was the biggest we could muster. There is colour available but it means forcing it, which makes it look manipulated and takes too much time. I think the other blob in this image is quite well known. But not at this scale. Gradient galore. can't get the background:( Thanks for looking and all comments most welcome. eos 700d @ ISO800

Unless you're only intending doing video of the moon and planets, you're also going to need a coma corrector or other method to correct the field. There are no 42mm fit correctors AFAIK. The items to which I link are economical and are always useful to have around or buy a t to 1 1/4 adaptor and simply either cut the tube or use longer primary mirror bolts. HTH.

Hi This and -if it really is female m42- this will do it and bring the dslr sensor closer. If not, the next step is to bring the two mirrors closer. HTH

SW quattro equivalent with better build quality, aluminium tube and proper r&p focuser: https://www.bresser.de/es/Astronom-a-bresser/Telescopios/BRESSER-Messier-Tubo-optico-NT203s-800.html Don't stress about collimation; there's a lot of misinformation out there. You'd need to add a 1:10 fine focus and a longer, wider dovetail. The latter would be recommended for to the SW too. Still well within your budget however. Is that the sort of thing you're looking for? Cheers

Hi Canon 700d. We image all year, including summer where sensor temperatures can hit ~40º. We dither in between frames, thus giving around 30s of sensor inactivity. However, the 30s does little or nothing to the sensor temperature; you'd need a lot longer than 30s to do anything like in that respect. We go 5 minute frames all night with perfectly acceptable noise levels. Conclusion: don't waste precious imaging time by waiting. Just our €0.02 but HTH.

Hi. We have three. The 6" f8, 6" f5 and 8"-f3.9. A notch above the SW equivalents in all respects, especially build quality. Another advantage is that you can cut out the dealer and order direct. The German shipping and support is first rate. Examples with the one in which you are interested: here and here. The only difference being the three (rather than 4) vaned spider. Don't miss the current offer. HTH

Hi. Yeah, I think so. I'm with @andrew s on this. Anywhere near the meridian and equator for az then around 90° east or west of there for alt. Operatives being 'near' and 'around'. It doesn't matter if the guide telescope is aligned. It only takes a few minutes; there's even a cheat sheet for you to fill in;) HTH

Hi So it maybe, but way above average in dedication and the true spirit of the art. Superb shot. Well done.

Hi If you've an observatory to protect from the wind, I'd try the 200 on the new mount but I'd volunteer you'd have a lot more success and fun with the 130 on the same. SW 200s don't seem to have much resale value and come up frequently on the used market so -guessing- your price would have to be competitive. Or keep it and get an eq6 and a 130. Best of all worlds? JTOL, but HTH.

Hi. Answer in my post. Cheers.

Hi everyone Full moon again so time to find a spot away from the floodlight. This month it's m47 which, starting far too late, we tracked into dangerously horizontal telescope territory finishing just 15º up; most certainly a case of switching off the PHD2 guiding trace;) Anyway, we've another few days of this so do tell us if you have a go. Thanks for looking happy full moon. 700d, about 45 min @ ISO800

Hi What length do you want? 1cm longer than...? Guesssing and JTOL, but how about these? Make the shoulder using two locking nuts and/or locktite and take up any extra using washers? HTH

Hi Not sure, whilst I think the filter you mention has something to do with both long wavelength red and ringing effects, I think its presence would be to minimise the effects rather than enhance them. It certainly looks however like the effect obtained when glass surfaces interact. Could you take a flat frame with the same lens on a newer camera body?

Bright enough to read a newspaper over here. 29 frames of m47 so far. Anyone else? We thought it maybe of interest to compile a list of doables under said conditions. Cheers EDIT: it worked

I'm with @bottletopburly regarding Siril, not least of which that it doesn't cost €silly. It puts you firmly in control. It does exactly what you tell it rather than what it thinks you should be doing. Excellent same day/hour/minute support, almost at the PHD2 support level. Recommended. Siril: free download HTH

Hi Sorry you're having trouble. Easy fix? My guess would be that within 5 minutes of arriving at your local astro society meeting with said hardware, the group's celestron expert -there always is one- will have everything sorted out for you. In the -very- unlikely event he can't, he'll know someone who can. Cheers, don't give up and HTH.

The OP has canon. Cheers

Hi Nice shot. To focus, choose your focal length, set the lens to auto and focus on the moon. Now set the lens to manual and tape the focus ring to prevent it moving. That's it. HTH

Hi. No. I'm afraid not. You'd need this modification to be able to goto and plate solve.

Looks OK. I'd redo the flat frames. Next time out, remove any filters from the imaging train. E.g. set a white screen on your 'phone and place your lens face down on top of it. Use AV to shoot a few frames. HTH

Hi Yes, but not the one you uploaded. That file has been stretched. We need the linear file direct from the stacking software. Cheers

Hi. Sorry, my fault. We also need your light frame stack.