alacant

Hi Quite often, randomess between frames allows stacking to make the stars rounder. Maybe that will be good enough? Otherwise... Unfortunately, the Baader gives astigmatism at f4; the cross star shapes you see. If you have to stick with Baader, the Rowe will cure the astigmatism but is super prone to tilt. If all else fails, the -designed for Quattro- GPU just works. HTH.

Hi IMHO and as with most things in Spain, it's best done by word of mouth, beginning in the local bar. These guys should get you started. HTH.

Agreed! But not all is lost. There's something which I believe to be accurate. The illustration at the beginning showing the relative size -if not brightness; I recall being unable to fit it across the dslr diagonal on our 130pds. Cheers and clear skies everyone.

Hi everyone Couldn't see more than 10 stars through the mediterranean mud haze last night but hey, let's have a go anyway. Set the EKOS scheduler for 4 clusters, 24 frames each and went to the bar sleep. This one turned out best. Or at least it had the most stars. Interesting to see how the star density changes between scutum and cygnus. Thanks for looking and what do you think of the star colour? 450d on bresser 150

Hi. OK. I see what you mean. So yes, plenty of adjustment within which only a -very- small subset thereof will work. Cheers

Hi vlaiv, hi everyone Thanks. Nice post I don't think we have a choice. The guide camera sensor has to be at the same distance [1] from the prisim as the imaging camera sensor, [1] Agree. Setup with the filter in place. Focus the imaging camera then focus the oag. In that order. My oag has a mirror rather than a prism (better/worse?). Using a cheap t7 camera on a 254mm f5 has never been a problem even in the most barren stars fields of galaxy season. The improvement over using a guide telescope is remarkable. Cheers and clear skies.

Hi everyone There's something there, but it's lacking colour. Increasing saturation makes the stars look silly. Looks like we're gonna have to get the masks out of storage. Or maybe it just needs a bigger hammer on levels. Or the haze; last night we could see only bright stars. No milky way. Took the levels left in small increments, saving along the way, expecting the colour to emerge, but nada:( Any ideas? Thanks for looking. eos700d

Well done. You cracked it:)

Hi everyone. Another in the series, 'globulars whilst you wait for it to get dark'. This one is quite cute. C'mon guys. Have a go! 700d on 1200mm 40min @ ISO800

Hi Am assuming sw200p and eos6D This is what it looks like. No stars:( The eos will come to focus with a a 200p with a few mm to spare when racked most of the way in. Perhaps best to start by removing the barlow, rack in the focuser -with the 6d attached- all the way toward the tube and point somewhere in Cygnus. Now very slowly rack out the focuser. The telescope will only cover only a small central part of the 6d's sensor, so concentrate just on the centre of the field of view. Live view on your 'phone at iso 102400 is good for this. Keep racking outwards -very slowly- until you see stars. That's it. I'm lost again now! Cheers and HTH.

The OP's is neither... No idea! Probably best to recommend taking some shots with the DSLR and forgetting the technicalities? Cheers

Hi. The images are in colour BUT the fits header is wrong. The debayer information is incorrect: 19:19:05: Conversion: processing... 19:19:05: Reading FITS: file frame_42.fits, 1 layer(s), 4144x2822 pixels 19:19:05: Bayer pattern found in header (BGGR) is different from Bayer pattern in settings (RGGB). Overriding settings. 19:19:05: Filter Pattern: BGGR 19:19:09: Saving FITS: file a_00001.fits, 3 layer(s), 4144x2822 pixels 19:19:09: Execution time: 4.01 s. Cheers and HTH with the issue.

Hi everyone This should have been m7 but the turbulence that far south was impossible and even with an OAG, finding a single star reliably without other candidates in the guiding box was never going to work. So a little further north and through a pea soup of a mediterranean haze, here is the trifid instead; no filters and with the eos sensor well over 30º. Thanks for looking and do let us know what you think; the blue is weak/wrong I think... eos700d on 250p 100 minutes @ ISO800

What, now? Who's round is it anyway?

Hi and thanks for your post. Yeah, there's a lot of fuss made of cooling. This is with the sensor well over 30º. Anecdotally, the gentlemen across the way with an enormous atik were still trying to get their filters turning as the sun rose;) Oh dear. Get well soon. I suspect you may have used language akin to that used to describe the dead filters as outlined above. Indeed, I'm sure the atik would have been better used as a cold poultice whilst we fried you a few eggs for breakfast using the Canon's sensor!

Hi everyone Night by night venturing further south. Wondering what it is with orange stars in globular clusters seemingly brighter than their neighbours; more likely our poor quality camera of course. Thanks for looking and do post your images of the same. It must be cool beer time soon! 700d: 80 minutes ISO800

Hi To what does nifty fifties refer? TIA

AFAIK it's the same; the one bundled with the cd. BUT... I thought we were talking about getting the camera to work with PHD2. If so, the best way to focus is using a short exposure loop in PHD2. The advantage being you don't need to look at a star on a screen, rather the hfd value which is given in a large font that you can see at a distance specifically for focusing purposes: https://openphdguiding.org/man-dev/Visualization.htm HTH

Hi. How about a vintage Takumar 55mm or 100mm? Or both? Get the latter soon before it becomes like the 85mm; collectable. With prices to match;) Cheers and HTH.

Hi everyone Last rehearsal for our optimistic push south; m22, m6 and -the big prize- m7. This is 2 minute frames. Maybe we can use 3 minutes if the seeing allows. Alas, strange things can happen in horizontal telescope territory. Has anyone any guidelines? Cheers, thanks for looking and clear skies. eos400d @ ISO400

Hi everyone PHD2 has a guiding assistant which recommends an exposure depending on the seeing so removing some of the uncertainty. Using a range of telescopes, it's never recommended anything over 4s. After a while, you get an feel for what the seeing is like. A good indication of atmospheric conditions can be had when focusing zoomed on a bright star. HTH

If not, post the logs to the developers. It will not be long before you get a fix. Cheers

Hi There are more recent versions. Always worth a try when things are not working. Please see this post. Cheers

Love it. I de-mottled, but it loses its wow-ness.

Hi Gina How about the EKOS scheduler? Automation from start to finish; hit start, get a good night's sleep and the next day you have all your frames ready for you. The only worry would be the observatory roof. Unless it's indi compliant of course. Just a thought:)