Nigel G

HappyKat, Perfect for Valentines day There has been lots of moisture in the air, what is going on with the British weather. So few clear nights, when it is clear seeing is awful. Nige.

Well done. My best image of Orion was only 60 x 20s and 60 x 10s. Its such a bright nebula, short subs should be fine. Nige.

If you download StarTools you can try before you buy, the only thing you can't do is save the final image, but you can screen grab and save unlimited use. ST costs around $40 Aus I think and the money goes to charity. Nige.

I hope you don't mind but, A quick run of your jpg through ST, Your previous work has started showing as I stretched the image, but there's more in there for sure. I masked and isolated the DSO's and re stretched, There's sharpening showing as I developed the image which limited the amount of developing. From a autosave file there will be plenty to work with. Nige.

Bob, I just downloaded your processed image and I think there's plenty more there, I managed to stretch it a fair bit before heavy gradients appeared. Both nebula were fuller. Using Startools. Nige.

My pleasure Bob. There was quite a lot of processing to get these images, the stacked fits was a mess of multi coloured pixels after the first stretch. With poor conditions, the gradient wiping needed is very aggressive, I see on the right of your image a light stripe, have you cropped at the stacking artefacts out ? That can make gradients worse. Even a single pixel missed can make the difference. What processing software do you use ? Nige.

almost all, it's probably the polar alignment not spot on, I set up pretty quick last night and only 2 star aligned. I haven't done a drift alignment yet. Waiting for my ST4 cable to turn up.

Yes I believe the refractor is mainly responsible for the stars rather than the mount. There's no spikes, they are smaller and sharper, this is without a flattener as well. The whole setup is more stable than with the reflector. My camera shutter makes the 150p wobble so a bit of both I suppose. My 135mm lens also gives fairly good stars, large bright stars seem to blow though. Nige.

Here's a 60s and a 90s sub, with ISO 1600, 80mm refractor F6.25 Poor seeing. And a 45s sub ISO 1600 135mm lens F3.4. Good seeing. All with modified 1200d and CLS filter. All direct from raw file. You can see how much moisture was in the air, the 90s has less visible detail, compare them to the 45s in good seeing. Nige.

My first images with my EQ3 pro. with my new Equinox 80ED Pro, Modified Canon 1200d and CLS filter. Polar aligned but unguided. Poor seeing last night caused a very poor S-N ratio but got some data anyway. First M31&co 28x120s with flats and bias. Second, Horsehead and Flame nebula, 40x90s with flats and bias. DSS & StarTools. I'm quite pleased considering the poor conditions with mist in the air. I have had to do a large amount of noise reduction, but the stars are the best I have had. No spikes and sharp. A promising start. Cheers Nige.

M42 with 80ED and Star Discovery mount. 20 minutes of 15s + 20s, flats and bias. Could do 30 - 40s without blowing the core I think. Quite poor seeing caused poor S-N ratio. But impatient me as usual had to try new toys. Loads of noise reducing as you can see. Have had better but conditions were far from perfect, the stars are noticeably better than ever though. Cloudy for the next few nights, what's going on...... Cheers Nige.

I took 15s and 20s on M42 with a keep rate of about 95%, only about 20 minutes worth in total. I'll be posting the EQ images in the other thread. Nige.

Its about the same weight, balances perfect with the camera fixed, the focuser is smooth high geared and I can rotate the camera without loosing focus. It tracked very well on the star discovery, so solid compared to the 150p. Nige.

I'm heading that way but not giving up on the Alt-AZ imaging at all. First light with my refractor had to be Alt-AZ Once I have re installed DSS I will start the processing. Must admit though, time spent setting up EQ is gained back with almost 100% keep rate, unguided. Cheers Nige.

I have a clear sky tonight, First try with the new refractor and the star discovery mount, I took a few subs on M42 again, I am amazed at the difference, much much more ridged and much sharper stars. Much better keep rate. I love it. I have got to download DSS again as I had PC trouble last week. I have now roughly polar aligned my new mount and giving M31 another go. Still waiting for my guide cable to turn up though. First impression, quite quick to set up, 15 minutes and starts tracking straight away. Easier than I had imagined. 120s 90 % keep. Nige.

Thanks. I use the camera direct on the Alt-AZ mount, I found my 135mm lens better than my 210mm lens, both F3.4. These images were taken with the 135mm lens. Here's the original image no cropping other than stacking artefacts. And the camera on the mount. Well worth using lenses for DSO's. edit. I either align the mount with the scope first or just use live view on the camera to align the mount, both work well. Cheers Nige.

I cashed in my scrap copper I have been saving ( 2 years worth ) and treated myself to a refractor The Equinox 80ED Pro. A big problem being I haven't seen any stars for over a week now, I'm itching to use it, first try will be on the Alt-AZ mount but how long will I have to wait. Monday night looks possible at present. Nige.

I wonder if you add bias frames if it would help with noise levels. You have captured a lot of data, it seems over powered by noise or light pollution. ( your loosing a lot during processing gradients ) maybe a lower ISO setting ? Getting better though Nige.

I have been reading up on guiding and it can be done with an Alt-AZ mount, either with a camera rotator or the usual short exposure lengths, but I'm not sure its worth the cost of a guiding setup as your still limited to exposure times. Most of the time the mount tracking is good enough for shorts. Cassegrain Alt-AZ scopes seem to be more commonly used with guiding, for some reason. My synscan handset has a ST4 port which can be connected to auto guiding Cheers Nige.

Steve. If you have focused on the moon, no problem DSO's will focus. Either your 150p or your refractor will be fine. The refractor will probably be more stable on the mount. Good luck Nige.

Here's what I mean, these images are cropped from 135mm lens image to compare against 150p images. They are all similar exposure times, the 135mm lens appears to gather more. Nige.

Steve, you might not be able to focus a dslr at prime focus on the 150p without making modifications to the telescope. You need a canon t ring which will able you to connect the camera direct to the scope ( prime focus ) available at FLO. I had to modify my focuser to allow 25mm more inward travel to be able to focus. Nige

Hoping to be ready by September, got a lot of things going on this year. I had a bit of a play with my modified camera and 135mm lens over the weekend, as there was cloud rolling in and not enough time to image an object, I kept moving the mount around randomly and grabbing 15s shots. The modded 1200d and CLS filter seem to pick up more Ha than my scope on the same targets. I found lots of colour around the night sky, I didn't save any of the images as I was just wasting time having fun. Out of a dozen, few shots were just stars, most had some sort of colour in, small patches to large faint clouds. FUN.. Nige.

Well chaps, I am soon going to be posting my own images in here as well as the no EQ challenge. I have got myself an EQ3 Pro. Can't wait to use it. Cheers Nige.

Indeed, I have already got my Orion planetary imaging/guide cam and ordered the Orion mini 50mm guider scope, so will be able to guide as well. Now my wife has agreed to let me build a summerhouse (observatory) at the bottom of our garden 100ft from the bungalow, which gives me 360 degree imaging field and be able to leave the mount set up. Project for the coming months.