alacant

Good point for star colour. Call the colour module twice. After StarTools has made the star mask, hit 'grow' and save the mask. Use the mask directly on the stars and invert it for the nebula. Cheers

Hi. No need to make adjustments for a guide telescope. In fact it's recommended not to do so; anything to make the connection between it and the main telescope more rigid, rather than less. Bolt the guide telescope using its regular tube rings to a rigid plate bolted itself along the top of the rings of the main telescope. A a second dovetail plate is good for this. HTH

Hi You need 58mm from the m48 threads, not 55mm. A 3 to 5mm filter ring will do it. The extra spacing will cure the coma but not the astigmatism visible top right. Loosen the primary mirror clips about 1/4 turn for each screw. Cut 10mm or so from the focus barrel, the end which protrudes into the tube. I think the camera isn't held square. This is almost impossible to do with the supplied sw focuser and the mpcc. One thing which may help is drill and tap another m4 screw at 120º to the existing thumb screws to get purchase on the cc, but make sure they are rounded so that they avoid the undercut on the cc. Now collimate the telescope. Or as suggested, just leave it as it is and correct in software. It sounds a lot but can be done in around an hour. Cheers and HTH

Hi. Maybe before you get to the other questions and before you go ahead with the camera, have a good look at the mount. Make sure it is up to the task of tracking the telescope and the other stuff you'll need to attach. Also remember that you'll need to introduce the filters and perhaps a coma corrector - you'll need a 1-1/4 inch version- into the optical path somewhere, so another thing to check is whether you're going to have enough inward travel on the focuser to accommodate these extra items but still enable the camera to come to focus. As @Cornelius Varley commented, I'd question the recommendation of this model for astrophotography. HTH

Hi It works with Linux out of the box using USB2 with the indi drivers you already have installed. That's both usb2 cables and sockets. If you want to update the firmware anyway, there's a copy here. Cheers and HTH.

Hi Yeah, that confuses me too. Patrick Moore mentions it in 'The Observer's Book of Astronomy', so maybe in the 1960's they were? Anyway here's a side by side. The reflector is bigger. Weight wise, not much in it. Cheers

Light haze gave way to high cloud. This is the best I got about 20 minutes in:( An hour or so to go here but not holding out much hope...

Anyone know where should we be looking as it moves onto the sun? The dslr is more or less vertical. On a refractor, I think were inverted... Guessing about 10 o'clock.

Just remembered, If it applies and you're on eq, don't forget the meridian flip. We're gonna start west.

Live: https://www.space.com/mercury-transit-2019-webcasts.html

Alicante: around an hour to go. High haze...

Hi. Lovely image. I don't understand the colours, but I'm trying. I think however your idea for star processing is great; we're no longer limited by old algorithms. Software seems the way to go. I'd be delighted to see the end of our coma correctors. Forever! Cheers

Hi everyone OMG this solar stuff is really difficult. Lashed together the big refractor and filter, eos450d and slewed to the sun. The tip about looking at the shadow the telescope makes on the ground is a good one and I got it on sensor after a but of fiddling with EKOS' n-s-e-w buttons. Major problem: focusing. There's nothing apart from the edge of the sun to go on and too much turbulence to be able to get a snap focus on the live view. I think the only way I'm gonna be able to focus is on the moon tonight. I'll have to remove the filter but am hoping that this will not change the focus position (?). Not looking good for tomorrow: And here is the state of the art solar setup (and no laughing please😞

Yes, camera only, although the filter seems safe. Holding it up to the sun cuts out so much light, it's difficult to see where the sun is located. IIRC, using the same filter, we needed an exposure of 1/8s with an ordinary eos zoom, but have no idea what that may be with a 6cm opening over 1200mm...

Hi This one. Thanks. **Oh, and focus. I was thinking the moon or say Vega with a B. Mask tomorrow night and then clamping the focus barrel...

Excellent. Thanks. I'm guessing that getting the sun on the sensor is going to be the most difficult bit. I'm gonna have to track and I know that both the eos screen or laptop are pretty useless in sunlight. Dry run tomorrow. Never done solar stuff on this scale before. No idea what to expect. So much easier at night!

Thanks. Do we think that 1200mm gives enough magnification to show mercury?

Will the sun's full disk fit in a DSLR frame on a 1200mm telescope? Cheers

So in this diagram, for Alicante, I must add 1 hour to the times shown? TIA

Thanks. We're planning for the Mercury transit on Monday... Alicante is 1 hour ahead of London, so Alicante is UT? IOW the times I see as UT on the transit diagrams e.g. this one, are Alicante local time? Sorry, plain English to the rescue. I'm being yelled at in several different languages!

TIA

Hi everyone Looking reasonable in Alicante. Am thinking about a 6" refractor f8 so 1200mm focal length. Do we think this will work? No idea how to fix onto the sun at that fl without having plate solving. Trial and error? Exposures for a dslr? No idea! Any advice most gratefully received.

A marketing slogan came to mind, 'Turns a week long nightmare into a hobby' perhaps? And yes, I admit to being guilty of more than just a touch of envy; a 45 minute gap in the cloud indeed! Lovely image.

Hi everyone Not had the little 130 out for some time but this session gave me the chance to try out a cheepo non-branded cc. It plate solves to 585mm so gives a bit wider field than out of the box. The stars are not very good, not as well defined as with the -rather nice- gpu cc,, and the colour aberrations surrounding them are noticeable. So, wider field, worse colour, fat stars. You win some you lose some! ngc457, eos700d

Hi I don't think it's the tube material which matters. We found that the tube flex came from too short a distance between the tube rings. Replacing the existing dovetail mount side with a longer, wider plate than the flimsy affair which is usually supplied [1] and bolting an aluminium box section to rigidly tie the rings along the top of the tube tamed even our f3.9; spread the load along as much of the tube as possible. To eliminate what little flex and mirror movement which remains, you can use an OAG. HTH [1] e.g. the rings on our steel tube sw-250 are 50cm apart.