Demonperformer

Hi and welcome to SGL. If you are only interested in visual, use an alt-az mount rather than an eq mount (which is essential for decent AP). Learning the sky is a good skill to have, but you an do this whether you have GOTO or not. The question I would ask is: do you want to observe objects, or is hunting them down part of the fun for you? For me, hunting down the object is just a means to an end, so GOTO is really useful (with limited "between the clouds" time), but if it is part of the fun for you then save yourself the extra cash. Enjoy the journey.

Well, I can understand why they would want to concentrate on getting images rather than transmitting them during the flyby itself. But why it takes two days to receive an image from something (fractionally over) 6 light-hours away - I'm not sure how that works.

Hi, Korhag, and welcome to SGL. AP is a slippery slope, but, if that is where your passion lies, I would recommend you get a copy of this book. Will save you time, money and heartache in the long run. Enjoy the journey.

On the evening of 23rd, it is passing within less than 1 degree of Capella.

According to clearoutside it will be 13% cloud until 5pm then 100% all night. Are they trying to be funny?

So that should guarantee cloud/rain/snow/hurricanes/...

I just plug my power leads into a long extension lead with no shoe box. I do have an old plastic sweets tin (the sort that are prevalent at this time of year) which I place the end of the extension on to keep it off the grass when it dews up so a shoe box would probably be adequate. The whole lot even survived Friday evening's downpour without frying all the house electrics. I have never had any problems with running the system like this, but your gear must be in good condition (no cracked plugs!) and be aware of how dangerous mains power can be. If conditions turn dodgy, your first port of call should always be the plug inside the house, to disconnect the power before unplugging anything outside.

Neither of me SE purchases came with any sort of power supply.

That should do the job nicely. Be aware that there is a well-known issue with the connector on these scopes - they can be a bit loose and wobble when you slew, resulting in power cutting off. You may need to "open" the connectors in the socket on the scope. If attacking your new scope with a screwdriver is not your idea of fun, an alternative (which is the one I used) is to secure the power cable to the mount (I used electricians tape) so that there is no movement in the cable at the plug when the scope moves.

I don't know this camera, but any camera that can be attached to a tripod can be attached to an astro mount: piece of dovetail bar with a countersunk hole drilled in the right place and a screw/bolt through the bar into the tripod hole in the camera. Your camera is now attached to the dovetail bar which can be put on your astro mount. I use this method quite a lot.

Thanks for the update. Something worthwhile to do on New Year's Day ...

Don't live in London - just can't justify the extortionate cost of car ownership now I am no longer working.

Also, there are people in the UK who do not actually own a car!

The link in the first post only relates to EQ5/EQ6 mounts. The manual for AZ mounts is: Syntrek manual (AZ mounts).pdf (MODS, can you pls add a comment to the first post - I can't get in to edit it - to direct users of AZ mounts down here. Thanks.)

If yours is anything like mine, getting your SLIK tripod ready for "proper" astro work is going to be quite a challenge. I will follow your progress with interest.

Do you happen to have a link to your videos. Just bought one of these nd it would be good to see it done by someone who "never had an issue". Thanks.

Hi, Mark, & welcome to SGL. I think an SE mount would struggle with a 925. I wonder if you have anywhere you could house a permanent setup? There are some ingenious suggestions in the observatories board for small secure housings. Permanently polar aligned and ready to go in a few minutes might restore your enthusiasm.

Yes, excellent. I do like monochrome Ha images.

Looks like your project is coming along nicely, Andy. Was originally confused by the apparent absence of the lines in the 'off' graph from the 'on' graph ... then I noticed the scale on the Y-axis!!

Stopping down will basically sharpen the image but it remains the same size & resolution.

I'm no expert, but it is all a balancing act between using a small aperture (big f number) and exposure length. So 60s at f2.8 is roughly equivalent to 120s at f4. I will often play around with single subs using a couple of apertures and a couple of sub lengths at the start and see which I think is going to give me the best results. I find that even the act of taking the subs can be an art rather than a science ... maybe this reflects differences in the way I set up as I do not have a permanent setup so have to do it every time. Unless the f4 subs look quite a bit better than the f2.8 subs, I will usually go with f2.8.

I run mine at f2.8 or f4. When you stop down the lens you are only using the central part of the glass. The curvature on the elements is strongest at the edges and is hardest to get "perfect" and tend to be the worst part of the lens (that's a relative term with a manufacturer like Canon). Stop it down and you are only using the "best" bits of the elements within the lens and so overall get a better result.

Checking at the info on the FLO website, it looks as if you are using the correct spacing (no extender for the 1600) - as such I really don't know what is causing the star pattern. Someone else may be able to shed some light on it. In the meantime the first thing I would do is check if you get the same effect when you take astro pics with this lens on your 550D. If you do, it might be a problem with that particular lens. If you don't then the lens is ok and the problem must lie elsewhere.

Canon 55mm lens? Is that the 18-55 standard zoom that comes with canon dslrs? IMO this is not a wonderful lens. For a canon you can do a lot worse than pick up a "nifty fifty" - 50mm f1.8 II - but make sure that you get the Mk II version. I have used this with my 1600 and got some reasonable results. That said, the way the stars are stretched is almost as if there is insufficient distance to the chip (see attached pic). Presumably you are using the zwo adapter? As you have the filterwheel, I wonder if you are using the "short" adapter (that allows for filterwheel to be added)? If so, you would need an extension to make up the distance if using it without the filterwheel.

Still-only-prototype horizons?