alacant

Hi Do your images confirm this improvement? Cheers

Hi Keep it simple? Perhaps best to lose phd2 and use the EKOS internal guider instead. The latest SEP multistar is excellent. Cheers

Hi What is '8" f12 CC'?

Hi Try a 32mm eyepiece. No need to pay a fortune. This one is fine. Cheers ** I should add that I've never seen detail in any galaxy by looking through -albeit relatively small up to 30cm or so- telescopes. It was one of the reasons I started to photograph them instead.

Hi Nice shot. Lots of detail. Don't know what app you use, but try deconvolution if it has it. Cheers

Hi I think those moving from IKEA effect apps have the worst experience; there is no longer a fixed order in which you are obliged to perform operations. If you don't like what you see currently, go back and redo it. Remove gradients, tree branches and apply deconvolution when and however many times you see fit. A good rule to follow initially is to keep as close to the defaults as your artistic restraint will allow, knowing that whatever mess you make you will always be working with linear data which knows not only exactly what you did to get where you are now, but more importantly, when you did what you did to get to that same point. I call it a database (on Linux it's held under /tmp), Ivo, it's designer calls it tracking. On a gaming machine under Ubuntu, most stacks can be brought under control in around 20 minutes. ... guaranteed to fetch at least an extra million at auction. Cheers and HTH

GIMP doesn't seem to handle cropping and resizing without losing information. Best to use StarTools throughout. Bin for resizing. Crop for cropping and simply change the .tif to.png, .jpg or whatever to choose your preferred file format for the final version, although I'd recommend at least a .tif in case you wish to change anything. There is walking noise and the -FWOABW- 'refractor' stars are a bit overwhelming; I tried deconvolution both before and after colour with the latter giving something more reasonable. Don't forget to dither between light frames and fit a uv-ir filter. StarTools is at it's cutting edge best with noise, but perhaps easier with a minimum to begin with. Still, there's loadsa detail, so keep on adding frames, go with the dither and deconvolution, but above all, keep it simple, I think then you'll be onto something. Cheers and HTH

... €1.2 million when it's done its tour of Tate Modern London. Centre Pompidou, Paris and Reina Sofia, Madrid. Think of a title. Something most people have to look up is good. How about, 'Rama Night Vingt'

Hi To get anything like in just 46 minutes is an achievement in itself:) StarTools works best with images which have been minimally pre-processed and simply stacked. Fed with such, it will look after you from start to finish. Do nothing in Siril apart from the basics. I'd lose gimp completely. So keep taking frames until your patience leaves you and have a look at the StarTools guidelines. Post your stack if you like... Cheers and HTH.

Hi Try f8 or smaller? Whilst not as good as telescopes, there are a few affordable lenses which do ok: 55mm 200mm adapter HTH

Hi The UHC is a filter which (in our case at least) is not used against light pollution, rather to bring nebulae to the fore. It also prevents the stars from overwhelming the frame too. I'm certain however that they maintain telescopes in first rate health no matter where they aim in the universe:) They're only around €30 from Chimese outlets, so well worth an experiment. Cheers

Hi everyone Why not an in-your-face elephant? The UHC really does help with the contrast of what seems otherwise a constant mush of diffuse coloured blobs; at least that is, with our bashed around equipment. BTW, the sensor was showing 32º. Not sure about the horror stories about non-cooled cameras. Noise, yes. But not enough to give up. As the t-shirt recommends: just do it. Thanks for looking, and dslr users, please post your images of the same. eos700d on pn208 4h @ ISO800

You must subtract the bias. Make a master bias using say 60 frames. Use this to calibrate the master flat frame and light frames. In Siril this is a 5 step process. Stack bias Flat - bias Stack flat (Lights - bias) / flat Register and stack light I'd strongly recommend using bias as bias. HTH

Perfect. So, like us you worked out for yourself what was best. You didn't get bogged down in theory. There will be the armchair theorists who will tell you it is totally insane not to include dark frames in your calibration; they can't cope with pragmatism. But wait. Can we generalise? No, of course we can't: Your 60D: bias only works fine. Our 700d: 1200d, 2000d and 4000d: bias only works best Our 450d: the only way we can control the banding is to use dark frames Someone else's dslr: until we've done your L+D etc, we don't know. My mate's asi294 at -5º: darks are essential Hands on is perhaps the only way to go. Just our €0,02 Cheers

astrometry.net is an app which runs natively on Linux. You do not need an Internet connection. Just install the program locally. Another alternative is Astap. Again standalone. HTH

700d: a nice clean sensor. Just noticed for sale. Or simply remove the banding in software. Interestingly they appear only in the green and blue. Here you're lucky they missed the galaxies:

The original looks better to my eyes;) Maybe by processing to remove the banding, you lost detail in the galaxies? Our dslr method is with Siril. Having first dithered between each light frame: use bias and flat frames stack using a clipping algorithm That's it. No dark frames of any type. We would however recommend at least trying a non compromised camera. This game is hard enough without starting at a disadvantage! Cheers

You don't need most of the facility a DSLR offers. No autofocus, exposure meter, flash, the myriad of useless stuff on the PASM dial... So long as B works and the shutter opens; a faulty DSLR would be fine.

Well done. It's such a pity there isn't a sw200pdsosc 'made for osc camera' tube with a smaller secondary and longer tube, so giving a more sensible focus position. With the camera that far out creating such a turning moment, you're always fighting tilt with the sw issue focuser. If you still have the chance of exchanging for a 200p, that would be a good move. Otherwise, I hope the collars get you there. cheers

750d onwards. 850d and newer are fine.

Not necessarily. You could use an OTG cable. Even better, control your astro sessions with a dedicated image capture program on a laptop or NUC.

Much easier, clearer and practical viewing/focusing on your 'phone.

We tested a 2000d but prefer the 18mp sensors which seem cleaner and more sensitive. The 60d may however be going just a bit too far back. Unless you need the bells and whistles for daytime shots, just go with the most basic. Cheers

Hi The 18mp eos' along with the more recent 24mp versions are pretty much band-free. HTH