alacant

Yeah. Of course. Pity.

I think they mean that that's what you spend after you've bought the book.

I used overlay mode but there are far more elegant ways to do it. Perhaps best to use GIMP (or better DarkTable) simply to add finishing touches after you've done the heavy lifting in e.g. Siril. The latter gives good calibration and stacking solutions too. There's probably a lot more to be had in your current image. Correct calibration with flat frames would enable you to use the full frame. Or maybe that's a limitation of using an eyepiece Did you try without the eyepiece? It would probably be better that way. HTH

Hi Excellent. Take proper flat frames and you're there:) I think that the way 'phone camera sensors are going, we're about to see a change in opinion as to their use in astrophotography. Sorry, no time to have a go at the vignetting -which flat frames would cure anyway- but you'll get the idea.

Hi I'd strongly recommend you start by using the program manually. Go through e.g. stacking something simple like a bias or dark sequence. The app is self documenting. Hover over any item for an explanation. Once you've done the basics a few times, it's then easy to understand what went wrong with the script. In fact, unless you've thousands of frames to process, it's just as quick manually anyway. HTH

Hi You don't need a lot of processing power e.g. a 2gb rpi solves fine. Given that you have the correct index files downloaded, the next most common source of non-solved images is that the local version of astometry.net isn't running. One check is to download the ansvr installer, disconnect from Internet disable defender/antivirus and ensure it is now live. HTH

That could be it. I don't think the 'phone makes a lightproof seal with the eyepiece; the bias and dark -at least- would have to be taken with the 'phone wrapped/isolated/darkroom.

Hi AFAIK, Huawei raw produces a .jpg along with the raw file. Are you sure you are working with the latter? Cheers

Hi EQMOD will make your learning process considerably easier. On-camera introduces another layer of difficulty and yet another cable to fail. Here's the cable you need. Cheers

Hi everyone Heavy lifing: StarTools 1.7 Make-it-look-nice: DarkTable Thanks for looking.

Dark frames. Try without? If you do use them, make sure that bias has been subtracted and that you have a decent dark optimisation algorithm in place. If it persists, the best way is to remove the banding before registering and stacking the frames. The best we've found for both is Siril; even the most stubborn old camera banding succumbs. With DSLRs, dithering really isn't optional. Cheers

I think that if you want something like what we imagine the correct colour to be, the idea is to take unfiltered frames and use the bi-filter to make l for lrgb. Or just settle for bi-colour e.g. hoo. But yeah. A filter can never add light to a frame. It always removes some of it. In the case of the l-extreme, most of the visible spectrum. Cheers

You're on a budget, right? The main advantage your telescope has is that it does not need any further correction. Any affordable refractor is going to need a corrrector; more expense. The length of time you can track depends upon how well your mount is polar aligned. Maybe you could tease 60 seconds out of it but for best results at 1200mm, guiding would be recommended. But it sounds as if you're doing OK as it is. The heq5 will be fine. The usual advice is to get the heaviest mount capacity you possibly can, so there is always going to be someone who will advise you to get the eq6. Or eq8;) Cheers

Hi Perfect. Guided on an eq6 using an oag, we use our Bresser 6" f8 for galaxies. It gets you away from the tiny-grey-fuzzy-patch-in-a-sea-of-nothing type images of shorter telescopes. Galaxies look like galaxies. The purity of the images is first rate; the light passes through no glass on its way to the camera as there is no coma to correct, even over aps-c. As you've already shown that it produces good images un-guided, be prepared for a nice surprise when you guide longer exposures. I'm sure that with good balance, the heq5 should guide it well. Cheers

If you thicken/reinforce the tube around the clamp so as to spread the load, maybe. However, with the tube and mirror now being held adequately and unless you really do want to drill and rivet, I'd go for the top rail;) Cheers

Ah, ok, but I meant rather the guide scope in the sleeve.

Mmm. Not sure. Ideally it needs bolting directly to the rail: cork or felt padded u- bolts are good. The bracket will allow the guide telescope to wobble. But hey, try it. Cheers

For what do you need a 3d printer? I thought you only replaced the springs and dovetails, no? AFAICT, only a 30 minute job. But do tell otherwise! Anyway, well done. It looks as though it's gonna produce some great images:)

Hi You already have what you need for perfect guiding, so why would you go to extra expense? An oag at 420mm is about as easy as it gets and significantly lighter.

But be aware that those do not have European warehouses and will take longer to ship.

Hi It seems an awful lot to pay for a guiding setup when this (we can recommend the 60mm version from hands on) and this (likewise) would do the job just as well. BTW, both items can be shipped from Europe. Cheers

Hi You would need to modify your 550d to see any useful effect. I tried a l-enhance with my modified 700d and it seems to do much the same job as a -more reasonably priced- UHC. I think that to see any effect, your choice of the l-extreme is the way to go. Cheers.

Love it. Absolutely love it. A bit heavy on the blue filter, but looking good so far.

Hi Yeah. Have the unstretched image in the bottom layer and the stretched image in a new layer above. Mask the top image. Carefully paint the mask away using a fuzzy brush. Cheers

Clear night you say? Speculate no more. That's exactly why it didn't slew!