alacant

Hi Lovely shot. Keep the stars, do. I don't understand the trend of removing stars. We spend ages recording them. And then throw them away! Cheers

Hi everyone There's been a uhc filter hanging around for some time. So... Not sure. One thing for certain though, I'm not doing anything with the colour. With big chunks of the spectrum removed. this is what you get. And that's that! Anyone else? Thanks for looking. 700d @ ISO800

Hi. Sounds like you're there:) The main issue with ST4 is that it has no idea where the telescope is pointing; you need to calibrate each time the mount has slewed. You can get around this by using the mount's ascom driver either as a direct mount connection or in PHD2''s aux mount connection. PHD2 can use either its native así driver, the ascom asi driver or a simple ST4 connection. HTH

Hi You don't need the ascom driver for a ST4 connection, although it's a much better alternative. For ST4, simply choose 'on-camera' for the mount. Connect the ST4 cable from the camera to the mount and the camera USB c to the computer usb port. That's it. HTH

Hi and thanks for your prompt replies. So longer exposures and OIII but it's gonna be the same size, dslr or otherwise I'm afraid. Maybe try our UHC. I believe that's good for OIII. Will see if I can get the 10" f5 for next weekend. Not given up. Yet. Although the temptation of Cepheus, Cygnus and down toward Saggitarius is gonna be hard to justify much longer. Cheers.

Hi everyone. This is nearly 2 1/2 hours and still barely an outline. Does anyone have any advice on capturing this? eos700d @ ISO800 Cheers and clear skies.

That's good enough. Well done. Now stick in a coma corrector, point at a star field -anywhere in Cygnus is good ATM- and take as long an exposure as you can without the stars trailing. Now ask yourself if it's good enough;) Cheers

That's fine. You only need to be able to see the reflection of the primary centre spot and the crosshairs. You have already centered the secondary. The Cheshire will notw take you to the correct tilt and rotation. A nice way to do the secondary adjustment is with your 'phone up against the viewing hole in the Cheshire. Make sure you have m4 bolts to be able to adjust the secondary. It's well nigh impossible with a hex-wrench. You're close to the point where it will suddenly dawn upon you when something clicks and you finally reach the what-was-all-the-fuss-about category. Collimation then takes you 10 seconds instead of 10 hours! HTH

That's fine. Ignore the flat bit. It's probably where the aluminising has failed. Or the bevel hadn't been done properly. This is now where you need the Cheshire sight tube with cross hairs. Point the telescope at the sky or a bright surface with the 45° surface of the sight tube orientated so it is eveny illuminated. Take a shot through it with your 'phone and post it here. Or get someone to do it for you. You're very close now... Cheers.

You need to cut around 10mm from the end of the focuser barrel. You can see how it intrudes into your light path in your photo. NP. Just take it along to a local astro club. They'll tell you if it's defective, or fix it, and even say thank you for letting them have the honour! My money is on the latter;) I think you've just got another case of SkyWatcher's non existent quality control. Cheers

Hi It maybe that the primary mirror is moving rather than the focuser. Or the secondary is loose or missing a spring. Maybe the primary adjusting screws have come off the end of their thread... Loadsa stuff it could be e.g. I had to fix my primary to the cell with silicone 'glue' before it would hold collimation. As it is, it will work, but you'll lose faint detail and the stars won't look good. Assuming you've got the secondary more or less in the centre of the tube, insert the Cheshire with the focuser at the same position as where your camera/eyepiece focuses. This way, you'll collimate out any the tilt. Adjusting the secondary only, get the Cheshire cross hairs on the primary donut first. Or at least somewhere near. Then leave it. Now adjust the primary until it's concentric. Now move the telescope. Does the collimation stay? If you want it for astrophotography, best to dismantle and reassemble, especially the 1º mirror cell. The focuser can be adjusted too but remember, at this price point, you're gonna have to do some work to get it up to the necessary standard. Before you give up - and remember that it's always best to leave stuff like this 'till the next day- be sure to read the collimation myths. It's a lot easier than you think:) Below, I've put the current state of play. Good luck and do tell us when (sic) you have it fixed. Cheers, good luck and HTH.

Hi StarTools, but any decent photo app will fix it. Perhaps best though to go easy(ier) on the development of the image early on. HTH

Hi Lovely image. i agree with @MarkAR. I had a go at the mottle. It's very much personal preference though. Cheers and HTH.

Hi IIRC this was DarkTable cmyk after StarTools had done the heavy lifting. In fact, I can't remember setting the camera profile. That could be it. I'll certainly take a look at the blue channel, but I think a lot of our colour -or lack of- issues are due to length of exposure. Puede que is all that is expected of a dslr over 2 hours. Especially with the sensor well over 30º and still 25º ambient at dawn. Cheers and stay safe. 😷

Hi I'm sure the reading is interesting but for us at least the best way to remove any uncertainty was to get involved. In our experience and by comparison, it has improved guiding over single star in PHD2. That's not the oft ill quoted RMS figures, but rather the fwhm of the stars. Perhaps best to lose the theory and just do it though. No guarantees though. Just fun! Oh, and remember that it's not just SEP multistar which is now available in EKOS. There's the new GPG guiding and reusable calibration. That's great news. Do report your findings. Cheers everyone, clear skies and stay safe.

Here is the multistar option in action in EKOS. Simple to setup, easy to use and well worth a go. Just started The Cat's Eye Nebula. Wish us luck:)

Yeah. Blue stars. I just can't get them. Almost certainly my eyes. And process. No filters and the only glass is a cc. Still thinking... OTC. It's a simple and effective option by which to guide. We need all the help we can get, especially when setting up guiding. Modern software helps take the pain out of astrophotography. Especially for the beginner. Cheers

Excellent. Veliciraptor Nebula it is then. There was a discussion some time ago but at the time I think the coding was in its infancy. Had a quick search on the PHD2 forum but it's getting close to astro dark here... Cheers and clear skies.

Hi and thanks for your comment. It would be great if you could. The more real world testers, the better: This repo: git://invent.kde.org/murveit/kstars.git this branch: git checkout guider-fix2 Cheers

Hi everyone My gf labelled this 'El Dinosaurio' (The Dinosaur) and brought along the evidence to prove it. 6992 will never be the same again. Our first proper outing with EKOS' new multistar guiding which despite the heat shimmer and haze, has consistently knocked our fwhm down below 3. The only algorithm I've tried which challenges the seeing on its own terms:) Pity about the colour. My better half, who advises upon such matters, was tied up in the Jurassic era at the time m'lud. Thanks for looking and of course comments -colour or otherwise- most welcome. Especially if you had a go at this recently. 700d @ ISO800 2 hours @ ISO800

Hi OK. This should be easy. Need to try the same fov with: - telescope only - telescope + flattener - telescope + filter If it were a reflector, I'd say you'd missed focus but... I think you're seeing the hexagon because of diffraction spikes. Cheers and HTH.

Hi everyone This is unusual. Thought to be an open cluster up until 1970 -it says here- this is now believed to be a globular cluster outside the mw. So -I think- we must be viewing it through a sea of stars. We also learned that metallicity isn't a rock band. Warning: if you're part of the remove-most-of-the-stars movement, look away now! Thanks for looking and please post if you've had a go at it yourselves. 700d @ ISO800

It you want the latest version -recommended- on windows or anything else, you can build it from the source code. HTH

JTOL. Your 150 would fit into a flight case and go with you for the cost of another bag. Are you a member of any groups over here? Cheers

Conclusion: z6 nef doesn't work with your version. The workaround does however. Tell the developers? They usually fix stuff the same day. Cheers