alacant

Hi This with the latest ST v1.8.511. Apart from wipe using synthetic bias and flats, I stuck as close to the default values as possible. It seems that maybe the flat frames are not correcting the field too well and there are vertical bands which new dark frames may help with. Both succumbed to Wipe however. Not definitive by any means. Yours has more detail and colour, but as I thought, there is more galaxy to be had. HTH anyway.

Hi That's the shadow of the camera's mirror. The star changes shape because the focus tube is entering the light cone resulting in 'D' shapes instead of circles. Fit longer springs and screws to the primary to bring the focus position away from the tube. If that doesn't cure it... If you are certain that you're collimated then the next thing to try would be substitute the secondary mirror. An astro club is good (essential?) For this. After that, rotate the primary relative to the tube to see if that changes the mask pattern. Cheers

Refractors in general I believe. Certainly our 72ed and other camera lenses. The mask will get you close, but the final tweak is best done by a human. We find the opposite. I'd say that the second development ROi in AutoDev being chosen wrongly. Post the stack if you like. Cheers.

Hi Lovely shot. The Russian lenses are very good, but I'd put good money on there being loads more galaxy in your image. Maybe don't be so harsh on the development? Here is our version, also with a tair3 and StarTools. Focus on our tair is a compromise; viewing a medium bright star on a large screen, move toward infinity until a red halo is seen around the star. Now back off until the red halo just disappears. Oh, and we find f5.6 is fine. Cheers and HTH

Hi Set a lens to M and focus with your un-modified camera. Anywhere in Cygnus would be fine. Now without changing anything on the lens, mount it on the modified version. Set to RAW at -perhaps- ISO800 and take a 3-4 minute as you would normally. Post -a link to- the RAW frame here. Beyond this we can only guess as we don't know which camera is which. HTH

Hi everyone In our continuing don't-give-up-at-full-moon series, this month we chose m39 and ngc7789. To give an idea of the moon gradient, here's the result of StarTools' first look at the luminance, along with its final renditions. Do post your full moon dslr efforts. It really is doable:) Thanks for looking. eos700d @ ISO200 90 minutes each m39: cygnus ngc7789: cassiopeia

Hi everyone Thanks for posting the frames from the observatory. There's some lovely detail. Not a fan of the FN stuff. The galaxies are so much prettier. So using only the H, red, green, and blue frames. There's a hint at the cloudy stuff, but hopefully without detracting from the beauty of the galaxies. 10 minute coffee-break processing using Ivo's latest StarTools v1.8.511; gotta love the new SV-Deconvolution module. Thanks for looking and for the other interpretations. Love them all.

Thanks. Used 6 x 60s. Perhaps not enough to make much difference. Overdid the saturation. Not given up yet. Still thinking...

Any guidelines as to exposure time for the set without filter? We used 5 minutes with the UHC. With the full moon tonight, that's gonna be too much direct to camera. Cheers and TIA.

Hi Using live view at 10x -preferably on a large screen- get close focus using a Bahtinov mask. Now remove the mask and focus a tiny amount away from that position until the red halo just disappears. HTH

Thanks. It was more the tiny false looking stars which looked wrong, But yeah, good idea for the colour with the non-filter layer.

Hi everyone Full moon and faint target, the challenge being to try HOO from the UHC and IR filters screwed to the end of the coma corrector. At least the red stayed red but I'm not a fan of those false looking stars. We spend many hours and $ getting images of stars. And then obliterate them! Any dslr users had a go at this? Please post your images too if so. Thanks for looking and wishing clear skies to all. 700d @ ISO800

Hi Lovely shot. We're at 38ºN and yeah, the air shimmer Sagittarius way in early evening can play havoc with image stability. To minimise the effect, using the EKOS internal guider, we set a large RA minimum move with a 3s guide exposure under SEP multistar and of course start with something higher to begin the session. The turbulence seems to play less of a role from around 02:00. Switch then. Cheers

JTOL... Would it perhaps be possible instead to simply start a new thread and continue the discussion therein? Maybe include a link back here or a summary with any conclusions and clarifications? That way, we may all benefit. Cheers

Then remove the difficulty? Fortunately these days you don't have to manipulate graphs and histograms to get decent images. Cheers

Hi This seller supplies caps for all cameras. Cheers

Hi 200p? Old, new, blue tube, black tube, Crayford, rack and pinion... This one just works. Does corner to corner over aps-c at a back focus of 75mm giving fl ~1090mm. Oh, don't forget to remove the visual attachment;) Cheers

Hi StarTools: simply open the .fit and stay as close to the default values as possible. For your image, I made a second pass using the deconvolution and superstructure modules. PS is what we call stretch-and-hope-for-the-best software. It consists of a series of unrelated modules working on non-linear data which have remained largely unchanged since the 1990s. Fortunately these days, there are alternatives. I suppose that in the end however, if you're producing images with which you're satisfied, you'll use the software with which you are most familiar. Very much a guess, but there is stray light over much of the central region of the stack. The wipe module may support my suspicions though. Note the rectangular effect which wipe reveals. This could also be a passing cloud or haze which is present on some frames. Examine the individual exposures before stacking and reject those which are sub-standard. Be ruthless! Cheers and HTH

Hi A few pointers: lose the dark frames take flat frames dither between frames (even if it's RA only) leave some dynamic room for the galaxy be gentle with the background sky (you took a lot of the galaxy with it!) cover the camera viewfinder use a long dew shield/lens hood ...and of course, take loads more frames. Will the sa do longer exposures perhaps? But hey, loadsa credit for having a go with whatever you had. A few minutes in StarTools gave this... HTH

Post the data if you like.

Hi Lovely shot. It would be better though to use more of the information in the data you captured in the final result. Cheers

Hi Assuming you have the guide camera connected (via whatever-your- guidecamera is called) in the guide module and dither pulses are indeed being received by the mount... To lose the walking noise, you need to move the camera in declination as well. To optimise RA at 135mm, set the maximum dither in EKOS (currently 10) and delay the start of each frame in capture by say 10s to allow the rig to settle. Whilst you're in capture, set something reasonable for the guiding settle distance. 1.5 px works ok for us. Stack using a clipping algorithm. sigma 5, 2 or windsored 3,3 work well with our 700d, but YMMV. Cheers and HTH

I believe this bit: That is incorrect. It is the opposite of what is written;) Cheers. @CraigT82 please accept my apology for answering. I thought it may save the OP some hair pulling if he were in the act;)

+1 They're m4.

Hi Unfortunately, there is a lot of mis-information out there. Try Seronik and Telia. Both tell it just as it is. Cheers