Nigel G

Correction, as Steve has said, you need 1 tube ring and no dove tail bar, the camera screw comes with the ring not the bar, alternatively a dovetail bar. FLO sell the Skywatcher 130 tube rings and dovetail separate. This is a 200mm ring with the camera screw and a dovetail bar with slight addition to be able to turn the camera 90 degrees. Nige.

You need tube rings and a dovetail bar, which will add a couple of pounds to the weight. Another alternative is to get a dovetail bar and connect the camera direct to the mount, shown in the photo. The bar will cost around £15 and I think you get the correct screw to attach the camera with it..The 210mm lens in this photo was £30 on ebay, Nige. Nige

Ideally the 2 chosen stars would be within 100 degrees of each other and a similar altitude but its not that critical As your image was taken through a x2 barlow star trails would happen much sooner so your alignment might not be that bad at all. Nige

Ok, with a barlow you will struggle with tracking and loss of light. I had the same trouble and had to modify my focuser to allow prime focus. I have the 150p. Leveling your tripod and a good 2 star alignment should get the required tracking. Good luck Nige.

Hi Yamez, Welcome to the No eq DSO challenge . This is a great image first stack or not. Well done. I see you used 3200 iso, this could be the main noise contribution, I normally use 1600 iso as most others do I think, occasionally 800 iso. Mind you the moon doesn't help either. Flats are well worth the effort, making processing quite a bit easier, Maybe try 20 to 30 seconds at 1600, the more subs you get the less noise there will be also. Cheers Nige.

Victor, I used StarTools to process, which I have finally got to grips with the colour module, then a final touch up with PS express. It takes quite a while to extract some detail and colours but you lose out on the finer detail with noise reduction, theres a lot of noise to remove. Nige.

Thanks Bossen. No to both, just prime focus no filters or correctors. Nige.

I got a chance to do a bit last night. Conditions were not idea but ok. First NGC 6960 aka West Veil, !50p, canon 1300D iso 1600, 45minutes of 20s & 30s with a couple of 60s, 75 matching darks, 40 flat 50 bias. DSS & ST finals in PS express. A tough one to capture, high altitude. Second M45, 150p, canon 1300D iso 1600, 20 minutes of 30s dark, flats, bias. I particularly like the spikes in this one, note the spikes in the first, due to turning the camera to keep in right frame. Cheers Nige

I would have thought as long as the images are the same scale it doesn't matter about the size/ Personally I would crop both images the exact same size pixel wise, hopefully I will get a chance to try later. Nige.

I have been told about a software program which is a plugin to photo shop, Light room and more. It does a good job at finding details. Topaz Adjust, its a months free trial program, I must say I'm impressed. I tried a couple of images with good results. Worth a look. I have posted a couple of images to compare, these were done quite quickly so much room for improvement. Nige.

Steve, as the sky was so clear I didn't have it covered up but got there just after the heavens opened so it was not much wetter than a heavy dew, fortunately I had not mounted the scope. My conservatory observatory doors were wide open with my astro pc fired up waiting, that was in danger so a swift drag away from the wet stuff, a little water on the tower unit but luckily no water inside . Rain lasted 1.5 hours and still light clouds so all shut down and packed up. Met office still say clear but changed their minds about the rain half hour after it started. That reminds me of a time I was sailing solo from IoW to Brighton, forecasters said 15 -20 mph wind, I got hit by 45 mph wind squalls, 1 hour later met office gave a strong wind warning over the VHF with gusts to 40. Clear sky's are coming. Nige

20 minutes ago I set up my mount ready for the scope, the sky's were gin clear all round, I just made my dinner and could hear a sound coming from the conservatory observatory. Popped out and it's bucketing it down with rain. Mr weather man said clear sky's all night. Hopefully just a passing shower, anyway mount indoors and dry now. I need a new weather man Nige.

I like it, this is one of my next targets. It is better than I expected we'd be able to capture. Nice Steve. A little more hope gained Nige.

I haven't tried yet but I'm going to, In the layer module there is tabs to offset one image on the vertical and horizontal planes, any rotation will have to be done before hand. Cropping shouldn't be a problem as long as you crop identically size wise ( should be easy enough using crop measurements ), a few pixels around the edge can be cropped out after the layer. Nige.

I Think the spikes came from taking my subs between cloud cover, I had to wait for half an hour several times, this is noticeable in the stacking artefacts, normally theres no waiting so DSS sorts the spikes into 1 set. the fact that they are not slowly rotating but 3 or 4 big jumps caused it. I'm sure startools can sort it, I'm going to try this evening. Cheers Nige.

I think I made a better job of it this time, seem to have sorted the core out a bit and its fairly sharp too, got to be my best stacked image yet, The triple spikes on the big stars came from DSS as there was an hour between some of the subs due to cloud, I've not seen that before, its rotation not focus I think. Never did I expect results like these when I started about 10 months ago, For only 30 minutes of sub's and a full moon, I'm chuffed with this if I do say so myself. Cheers Nige.

Thanks Ian. There's a noticeable difference in the ease of processing these 3 images. Easiest was the combined subs, hardest the 10s, but it seems the 10s is as good if not better than the 20s. The 20s had most noise I think. As usual there's quite a bit of difference in colours but that's down to me. First approx. 10 minutes of 10s subs. Second approx. 20 minutes of 20s subs. Third combined subs.....My fav #3 I'm going to look into layering images, but first I'm going to run the combined again lazy Sunday afternoon. This one I would love to see from Kens CCD. Cheers Nige.

There's much better colours now, Looks great, Nige.

Thanks Neil, its not that bad your right, the 10 second stack isn't that much different, not quite as sharp but I got a bigger crop due to less rotation. I'll post them after finished processing. Nige.

Thanks Steve, I'll start looking, Ian mentioned it a few posts back i'm sure. Nige.

Cheers Stacking the 20's now. 10's done and in ST I think shorts has given a sharper image but its such a bright nebula we can get away with very short exp's I just finished the 10's and the outer nebula is not as clear but the core is better. waiting for the 20's now Nige

The weatherman was wrong, I had intermittent clear sky's this morning between 2.30 and 4.30 . I managed to get 30 mins on M42 despite the full moon. 10 minutes of 10 seconds and 20 minutes of 20 second exp. plus 70 dark and 45 flat @ 1600 iso, The core is over exposed so I'm trying stacking the 10s subs alone. Its a nice neb to image as there's plenty to look at on screen, it's my first attempt at stacking M42 and I'm pleased apart from the messy core. I tried short subs to get a sharper image, I think its worked, the 10s stack should tell. 150P Canon 1300D DSS & ST, touch up in PS express, Alt-Az goto. Any ideas on core exposure welcome Cheers Nige.

That is interesting Steve, it would be handy to know the outside temp at the time. That's something I have never taken in to account. I had noticed that the first few image's taken do change in colour as the camera settles in, I guessed it was temp but didn't know whether it was cooling or rising. It could be either by the look of your findings depending on outside temperature. Cheers Steve. Nige.

Steve, twas a Jura superstition I bought back from Scotland, nearly empty now though Very nice. This image is s single shot single malt of around 15 years . No stacking or post processing just a drop of water to bring out the full flavour. I might have to sail back soon to get another one. Well next summer anyway. Nige.

Oh for a clear night sky, I sit here swirling and sipping a single malt thinking what I'd do for a whole night of clear sky's, the weather man says no clear sky's for the next 5 nights. I really hope he's wrong. Doesn't he know we have lots of things to try....... I'm going to re process an image or 2 with the recent findings. This will be my 3rd reprocessing, it is great to be able to go back and start again with anything from re stacking to final tweaking ( depending on weather you kept your sub's ) I hope your weather man is telling you better things. Cheer's Nige.