alacant

If there's decent Internet and someone on the ground at the far end, you're probably there already; the EKOS scheduler does the rest. Tell your guy it's not as bad as it sounds either as it will shut down and close the roof/shutter for you too. Keep a SSH session open just in case and get your ports protected. Good luck:)

Hi Caution. Hands on experience with long focal length telescopes follows. We consider ourselves lucky if we get 2 nights per month when the atmosphere is stable enough to allow us to image even at 1200mm. DSLR. Neither does there seem any reliable way to determine what the seeing will be on any given night, but do tell us otherwise. What we normally do is plan a session with a shorter focal length telescope. Then, if we find the guiding up to it, swap to our long reflector. [1] Your big advantage over our Newtonians is that you don't need to introduce glass into the imaging train. Even our -good quality- 4 element cc introduces annoying colour and fatter-than-need-be-because-of-it stars. Our €0.02 would be to wait for the good nights for your RC and image with something shorter on other occasions. Cheers [1] EDIT: Our current changeover record is around 7 minutes. But that's with two of us. One on the hardware, The other on the software. We're working toward sub 5 minute changes!

Here with 60 minutes more exposure. Maybe a little better? The only advantage from our POV was that it was easier to process with the extra frames; it could be stretched developed more. In StarTools we are mercifully released from the stretch of old:)

Hi Imaging apps like M:) Find the exposure using Av, then switch to M and dial the same settings into your imaging app or intervalometer or WHY. HTH

Hi everyone Discovered Arp's catalogue of peculiar galaxies a while ago but it fell into disuse during the hectic nebula days The pdf in the link is formatted in wonderful old html. Here is the catalogue page for Arp 18 with a 200" reflector, with our attempt at a 1960s style plate from our original using an 8" reflector. Totally addictive. Although not perhaps with an 80% moon. Thanks for looking and so post any Arp you may have had a go at, dslr images especially interesting for us. ngc4088 Arp 18: 700d on gso203 2 1/2 hours @ ISO800

Use flat frames?

Hi everyone After our galaxy session ended at around 02:30, we went on to sunrise with these. Each is 66 minutes in 3 minute frames, limited by -what we thought would still be- the gibbous searchlight. In fact it was well out of the way by then, but when you're setting the scheduler early evening and you don't need a head torch... What is strange is the difference in the local star-fields in front of each globular; the processing was along the same lines -StarTools 1.7- for each. You notice the same thing when comparing fields in e.g. Cygnus and Sagittarius. These two however are in the same constellation. Most likely my non parallel (equal?) processing. Anecdote: we've never been able to get anything but a mush for the centre of m92, but this time with sparse attention to detail, it's popped out a bit. The more you try the less... etc, etc. Thanks for looking and do post your dslr globulars. 700d on gso203 ISO800 --- --- ---

Hi everyone Never thought a dslr would get anywhere near this in such a short time. The two clusters look like mini Markarian's Chains. No excuses. We cut this one short realising Hercules was rising, bringing with it something other than nondescript fuzzy galaxies to aim at. No idea where we'd be without the EKOS scheduler. Certainly not much sleep and equally few images! Makes one wonder whether there's anyone over there looking over at us. With an 8" GSO of course, and how fortunate for them to have a nice spiral to target. Frustrating we'll never know. Thanks for looking and do post if you've got any galaxies with an old dslr. 700d on gso203, 2 1/2 hours ISO800

Yes, the cheepo f5:)

Lovely shot. The 200p is perfect for galaxies.

Hi everyone In search of galaxies that weren't boring fuzzy ellipses, this one popped out of kstars' skymap with a galaxy cluster thrown in for free. Not as dim as reputation has it. I thought we'd need all night, but with more fuzzy ellipticals on the menu, this got curtailed at around 2 1/2 hours. Do post if you've had a -dslr- go at this; not sure whether it's worth doing an all-nighter... Thanks for looking and clear skies. 700d on gso203

We use it only for guiding. Never used it to take photos. We guide everything from a 72mm refractor via a 60mm guide telescope to an old blue tube 254mm f4.7, the latter in an oag. It works out of the box with INDI/EKOS' pulse guiding.

Linux. Not tried on camera. Had assumed that you used windows. If not, ignore the bit about the drivers.

Hi We use the t7m. It works fine using the zwo drivers, just download the latest version from the asi site, as you would for a 120 anyway. The drivers supplied with the camera work, but our version was 2 issues old. If you need it to work via usb3, you can update the firmware. HTH

If e.g. you dither between frames, phd2 can tell apt when it has settled sufficiently to begin the next frame. HTH

Absolutely wonderful. Just in time for galaxy season. No tiny fuzzy areas in a sea of nothing with a 200p:)

Ssme issue. Different lens. The BM focus is for the dominant g and b, leaving the red fuzzy. The best we can do with our Zeiss is a compromise; none of the colours is at its optimum focus. Compromised Infinity for RGB is the BM position with a tiny rotation of the focus barrel away from infinity toward closer distances. A similar trick can be used with refractors where usually it's the blue which is compromised. Here is the compromised infinity on the Zeiss and a similar fov to the above using the technique: HTH

¿Málaga? Looking perfect:

If that's a Zeiss then you just stuck gold with the 2.8! The adaptor looks fine to my eyes but take along your camera and check it anyway. If the camea throws a wobbly, just tape over the electrical contacts on the bayonet of the lens. Here's our mc-s 3.5 focused at infinity. Good luck:)

we've been here many times;)

Should do. Got a photo? If not, a M42 to EOS adapter which will is only around €3.

You'd be over budget. For ap with a DSLR it's gonna need a field flattener:(

The sensor on the z6 dwarfs the miserable version in the 183'. Proper wide images. For me at least, a winning consideration:)

Hi How about keeping it simple (and economical!)? This adapter allows you to use standard telescope fittings, just as you would with a F. All that wonderful back focus to play with:) Cheers

Hi If your final image is now OK, do nothing? Or... Assuming your image is a dark flat frame, unless light is leaking [1] into the imaging train, optics have no influence upon dark or bias. If it's a flat frame, has the fw rotated far enough? To determine if anything is wrong with the secondary mirror we would need to see -links to- a light frame, a flat frame and a view through the sight tube, preferably one with cross-hairs. Cheshire types usually have these as standard. Cheers [1] cover the mirror cell with a black shower cap, use a dew shield and until the source of the gradient is known, take dark frames with the camera removed from the telescope in a lightproof container.