alacant

Hi We use a long 500mm Losmandy style wide dovetail with a stiff box profile to tie the top of the rings. For AP we also needed both an OAG and a proper dovetail clamp. Oh, and a black shower cap. HTH

Many congratulations to the worthy winners. Love them all.

Hi everyone Not a fan of the star removal layer stuff, but tried it again with this one. For my liking, not nearly enough stars. Almost certainly me overdoing it... Thanks for looking. DSLR users, do post your experiences with this target. eos700d ~4h ISO800. apilado: Siril procesado, estrellas y capas: StarTools 1.8.518

Hi Nice shot. In StarTools, don't forget to leave room for the fainter bits of the galaxy. I reversed the development and included some of the outer areas for the second AutoDev. Don't forget to correct the stars! The new SVDecon (available in the latest version) in the latest beta works very well. I'll attach a screen of it. Agree with the cc closer comments. Then you'd have no need to correct the stars. Cheers and HTH

Using the orientation you posted... Loosen the centre screw around 1/2 turn and refit the three adjusters an equal number of turns until the slack is just taken up. Loosen the bottom most screw of the secondary spider. Rotate the mirror so the top edge moves closer to the focuser. Take up the slack using the top most screw. Repeat until either you're satisfied or your patience runs out. On the 130, the secondary adjustment isn't that critical. Get it somewhere close and leave it, but be sure to get the primary bang on the Cheshire cross hairs. What does a star field look like? HTH

We can't say because we don't know what 'high' means relative to your description viewpoint. Please post a shot both through the Cheshire and looking along the drawtube toward the secondary. A guess would be that you need to turn the centre screw of the secondary anticlockwise after first loosening one of the three adjusters, then collimate again. But it's just that. A guess. Cheers

Hi No. No filter.

Hi everyone Never had much luck with this. This is around 2 hours, but I get the feeling another two or so more isn't going to make much differnce. Any dslr tips for this one? Filter perhaps? More ISO? RASA?(!) eos700d 17x5m @ ISO800

We need an acronym for that. In case there isn't already, how about 'KWPS'. ' [...] In summary, the stars from the latest Costafortune Super 100 Pro certainly KWPS.' Any takers?

Hi Only fat I think. Maybe that's not how to say it in English. Sorry!

Hi everyone We have a refractor for a few days either side of new moon. Despite having been told to expect fat stars with coloured halos, we were pleasantly surprised by that which emerged. It also gave us the opportunity to really put StarTools' SVDecon module to the test: very easy to overdo though, as it's so good. Thanks for looking. eos700d @ ISO800 ~3h apilado: Siril. procesado st 1.8.518

Yeah, that's much better. Did you try the SVDecon [1] this time? Try selecting non saturated stars against a dark-ish background. Ten or so from random but evenly spaced areas of the image is all you need. You could also try SuperStructure darken at about 30 or so %. Cheers [1] Not sure 512 has it. 518 though definitely does.

Is that the windows or the linux version? Yes, I believe so too. Just trying to ascertain why the OP gets different results. Cheers and thanks for replying.

We're sure that the theory is good, but it's not what we find in real life. The main advantage of silicone isn't the reduction of star size, rather the retaining of collimation at any angle. Cheers

Hi Love the image:) A few hands on before-you-process ideas from our 208mm f3.9 which saved us a lot of head scratching and should help clean the mottle... Lose any dark frames. Dither between exposures and stack with a clipping algorithm. Remove the mirror clips and instead, fix the mirror using neutral silicone sealant at the same points you find cork/felt/nylon to glass. Cut the secondary end of the focuser barrel if it is protruding into the light path. It most likely will be. Cheers and HTH

JTOL and I doubt it, but I wonder if this has anything to do with OS? We're on Kubuntu 20.04.3. I know there are a few other st users on the forum @almcl, @bottletopburly but I don't know which they use. I've no experience of st on mac or windows and only a few pokes around on android. Anyway, there is a file produced in the startools folder -on Linux at least- called startools.log. It records the steps you took. Maybe post -a link to- the contents? Here's the first bit of mine to the second AutoDev: Image size is 5202 x 3464 --- Type of Data: Linear and was Bayered, but not whitebalanced --- Auto Develop Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [Off] Parameter [Outside RoI Influence] set to [15 %] Parameter [RoI X1] set to [190 pixels] Parameter [RoI Y1] set to [477 pixels] Parameter [RoI X2] set to [4251 pixels (-951)] Parameter [RoI Y2] set to [2955 pixels (-509)] Parameter [Detector Gamma] set to [1.00] Parameter [Shadow Linearity] set to [50 %] --- Bin Parameter [Scale] set to [scale 35.38% / +3.00 bits / +1.83x SNR improvement] Image size is 1840 x 1225 Undo Image size is 5202 x 3464 --- Bin Parameter [Scale] set to [scale 50.00% / +2.00 bits / +1.00x SNR improvement] Image size is 2601 x 1732 --- Crop Parameter [X1] set to [95 pixels] Parameter [Y1] set to [269 pixels] Parameter [X2] set to [2021 pixels (-580)] Parameter [Y2] set to [1488 pixels (-244)] Image size is 1926 x 1219 --- Wipe Parameter [Synthetic Dark/Bias] set to [Off] Parameter [Gradient Edge Behavior] set to [Absorb 50%] Parameter [Synthetic Flats] set to [Off] Parameter [Sampling Precision] set to [256 x 256 pixels] Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [1 pixels] Parameter [Gradient Falloff] set to [0 %] Parameter [Synth. Bias Edge Area] set to [100 %] Parameter [Gradient Aggressiveness] set to [75 %] Parameter [Correlation Filtering] set to [Off] Redoing stretch of linear data --- Auto Develop Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [Off] Parameter [Outside RoI Influence] set to [15 %] Parameter [RoI X1] set to [0 pixels] Parameter [RoI Y1] set to [0 pixels] Parameter [RoI X2] set to [1926 pixels (-0)] Parameter [RoI Y2] set to [1219 pixels (-0)] Parameter [Detector Gamma] set to [1.00] Parameter [Shadow Linearity] set to [50 %]

Nice data. There is some lovely detail emerging. StarTools v1.8.518 I think the noise is under control. All I did was set a 2px NR after tracking had been turned off. TBH, I don't think it needs any. Cheers

No idea. Why did you remove it? What will help with the halos is careful choice of the second AutoDev ROI, including the selection I already indicated. If that's not what you're after, you then have st's Deconvolution (use the manual non saturated star selection) and as a final line of defence, the Shrink module. Post your data if you like. Cheers

Hi You still can and should use flat frames. Just take a set for each night. Pre-process each session's light frames with their respective flats. Then register them. Stack as normal. Stars: make sure the second AutoDev includes at least one saturated star, but don't forget to leave some room for the fainter stuff. Nice image. HTH

Hi Nice shot. +1 @almclregarding flat frames. They can make or break an image. Or at the very least, make it easier to process. There is also a corner gradient. Moon? This is with StarTools' latest beta. Synthetic flats to the rescue!

Silicone responds well to any constraints placed upon it without introducing any of its own. A rigid adjuster allows the mirror to slide or introduce stress. On our Bresser f3.9, silicone is the only way we've found which allows us to retain collimation throughout a session. That has a 9 point support. Placement of the silicone is pretty straightforward; wherever you have cork/felt/nylon to glass contact. On the small 130 mirror, it's self explanatory. Cheers

Yes. Have a look at this post. The firmware indicated in this post has been tested and known to work with the t7c and t7m cameras. Connect your t7c to a usb 2 port. Next, navigate to the bin folder: cd /whereever/you/downloaded/to/bin Then it's simply: cd armv7 $ ./zwo_FWTool_USB2 -i ../firmware/ASI120MC-compatible.iic -t li2c That's it. If you only know windows, then best to get a linux user to do it for you. It takes less than a minute. Cheers and HTH

There is a file called: readme in the the folder in the link I sent. Try doing what it says. Tell us which bit you can't do. Or just go along to a local astro club. They'll be happy to install the firmware for you. Cheers

Hi The t7c works well under Linux. You need to upgrade to this firmware. The same upgrade works also for older zwo models. HTH

Hi everyone Can anyone confirm these as the correct motor? TIA