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They are really nice - but where are you getting the clear sky from??? I live probably no more than 5 miles from Didcot and have had 1 night of clear skies over this holiday period so far

I keep the outdoor laptop and dew heater in a plastic container similar to this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wham-Plastic-Stackable-Storage-Containers/dp/B07RF93JB5/ref=sr_1_14?keywords=Plastic+Storage+Container&qid=1671213283&sr=8-14 Laptop is on a wooden standoff I made so that its lifted off the base and is close to the lid. This allows all the other cables etc to be stored in the container when not in use as well as being where the dew heater controller lives. The laptop is then also high enough for the container sides to not interfere with using the keyboard. Once all set up, polar aligned and the session started I close the laptop lid and put the container lid on, the cables coming out at one end leave a little gap but that stops it all getting too warm in there. It stays warm enough in the container that no dew/frost etc form and is nice and dry. I run on mains power rather than batteries and put a polythene bag over the garden extension reel which is next to the container. The only downside with all this cold weather is the cables are VERY stiff after a session and I'm sure one day I'll experience a failure somewhere that I'll then need to track down. I've searched high and low for silicone sheathed mains cables (as opposed to PVC) but there doesn't seem to be such a thing, a shame as they remain much more flexible in low temperatures. If anyone knows if/where you can purchase them please let me know! Ed

A few comments on your query: 1 After you did the 3 star alignment did you put the scope back to the park position before connecting to NINA? (you should do) Not actually sure that use case works to be honest, where you use a mix of handset and NINA. 2 Assuming you set up time and date in your handset, make sure your date format is right.... its American format with month first. I go caught out with this a few times when I still used the handset and the scope would go off in the wrong direction. 3 Sounds like you're doing a funny mix of using the handset (hence 3 star alignment) and using NINA. I would strongly suggest dropping the handset altogether, get plate solving working and spend the next few years wondering why you didn't do that sooner 4 When you tell the scope to go to park in NINA, does it go back to pointing at Polaris? That should give us a bit more info to go on. Ed

I store mine on its side with dslr, guidescope and guide camera all still attached. I just make sure it's already gently rolled so the dslr is resting on the surface it's stored on....if that makes sense.

Thanks all, I shall do some more digging on this using the sage advice given above! The 600d does indeed have the cropped video mode and mine is also upgraded to magic lantern, so I should be good to go on that front once I get my head round what it actually all means 😀 Ed

I use stellarium to have a good browse around the night sky, you can set the time and date and then just use the mouse to see what's there. Once I have chosen I then import directly in to NINA, though I appreciate that bit would be different for you. Ed

Don't think you're imagining it at all. It's been rubbish weather all year for me, coupled with losing my astronomy mojo in the summer. Getting that back now though.

Hi, I know my gear is far from ideal for planetary (sw130pds and eos 600d) I've seen posts recently where people are getting reasonable results out of similar gear. What would be a good Barlow to use if I were to attempt this? And what kind of results could I expect? Thanks Ed

Do you know how this is done in APP? I'm on the calibrate tab but nothing obvious jumping out at me. Thanks Ed

Just to add though, I didn't try without dark frames, but I was dithering at the time, though subsequent revisit of the dither amount has lead me to believe that I was not dithering enough at that time. I am indeed now dithering at about the 15 mark. Still doesn't explain why the switch to APP for stacking eliminated the issue!

I have a modified 600D and went through this exact issue!! in fact that heavy band you have is in an almost identical place. Are you using DSS by any chance? Basically I tried everything I could think of to rectify it, running the camera through DC supply, battery, different USB cables, images being copied to laptop or to SD card, cable routing, exposure lengths etc etc. I was at the end of my tether then I tried the 30 day trial of APP for stacking and the problem went away immediately. I don't profess to understand the differences in the way DSS and APP do stacking and calibration, but I have read that APP's method is quite a bit more advanced (which you would hope is the case given its payware rather than freeware!). Ed

Excellent 1st image! As everyone else has said - get more data and just keep at it with the processing. Regarding post processing - this is my biggest hurdle, and I think it always will be. I've tried Photoshop, SIRIL, StarTools, APP and now I'm on PI. I have to say I got furthest with Photoshop, with APP running it a close second but for me it has quite a clunky interface. Having tried and purchased PI now I feel I am finally getting further and things are starting to click in to place, though it was a steep learning curve. I do still use APP for calibration and stacking though, lightyears ahead of DSS! Not tried that in PI yet. Everyone is different though and I think the biggest issue for me is how far do you go with each stage of processing, its VERY easy to overdo it and that messes everything up down stream. Less is definitely more! Ed

Just to add to the mix: 1 if you are going for a wider field setup as some here have suggested you may not need the guide scope and camera straight away (going back to the comments about building up your knowledge in stages). That would allow a few ££ to spend in a different area such as the post processing software or towards a better mount (which in turn would need less guiding input etc etc). 2 Don't rule out a newt such as the 130PDS, sure you need to collimate and its improved with a few mods, but it does work out of the box. None of the mods are beyond the capability of most people and its certainly not necessary to get you started. Just a thought.

Thanks, I had completely forgotten about that option!

And now a reprocess in PI of some old M51 data with new data added earlier this year. Feeling a bit more comfortable with PI now

Indeed - I've taken to using this method for denoise pre stretch for my last 2-3 images and it seems to work well with my clunky ham-fisted approach https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/effective-noise-reduction-part-2/

Hi, Should applying DBE also result in quite a considerable amount of noise also being generated? Below is a before and after image of a Whirlpool stack I'm working on. While DBE has killed the background gradients etc, it has also introduced a lot of noise. I saw the same with the M106 image I did recently as well but don't recall seeing it when I first started with PI..... though that may have been because there was so much going on with my learning curve I just didn't spot it lol. Thanks Ed

Well it all depends on your routine tbh. Personally I use an old laptop at the mount to control mount, cameras, guiding and imaging. However, as part of my setup routine each session I use the DSLR display to set focus (along with a Bhatinov mask on the scope). That way there is no lag at all between whats displayed and what I'm doing at the focusser. I could use some kind of live view in NINA I guess but I also intend to go to an NUC when the laptop dies, so there won't be a laptop screen at the rig end at all other than the DSLR so the articulating screen has future proofed me from that point of view. Ed

M106 taken earlier this year. Early(ish) days for me with PI but fairly happy with this one!

Thank you, I'm pretty happy with it but I suspect I will come back to it at some point and have another go at getting that background right 🙂 Ref MT, I wasn't too sure about it tbh. Seemed to reduce the small stars quite a bit but no impact on the big ones. I must confess I moved on from this part of the process quite quickly though as I was getting impatient for the end result. I do want to give Bill's method a go though. Thanks Ed

hmm... very interesting thread which has triggered a question for me... I use an NEQ6 on which I mount a SW130PDS with DSLR for imaging, and a SW ST80 with ASI120MM Mini for guiding. I use Sharpcap to PA, but connected to the ASI120MM Mini on the guidescope. Is that the right thing to do? should I be connecting to the DSLR (or ideally a camera connected to the mounts Polar scope?) I'm questioning whether any misalignment between the guidescope, main scope and mount would all be adding up when I PA, effectively putting the mount in the wrong place to correct for any error the guidescope has? Thanks Ed

Thank you to everyone for your help on this one. Still a big learning curve for me but I'm getting there. Attached is my finished image. Not 100% happy with the background, still gradients in there which I've disguised a bit by bringing down the black point. Hopefully not too excessively though! My processing steps were: Dynamic Crop DBE x2 Background Neutralisation Photometric colour calibration Canon banding removal TGV Denoise Multiscale Median Transformation (for medium/low scale NR) HistogramTransformation StarNet2 SCNR on galaxy image to remove green cast Curves with masks on the galaxy image to tame background and enhance galaxy / boost colour UnsharpMask to increase detail Curves on the star mask to boost colours Morphological transformation on star mask to reduce star sizes PixelMath to recombine the stars with the star mask ADCNR as final touch of NR Curves to tame the background further and lightly boost galaxy contrast Now to decide the next target! Thanks Ed

With regard to a modified dslr, I would suggest one with an articulating screen. Your back and knees will thank you! Ed

If I'm understanding this correctly there are two things sticking out. 1 is that you are plate solving in different screens depending on whether you are doing a mosaic or single frame? 2 after framing up in framing assistant you are using slew and centre in that screen (not sure I understand why). My understanding of the plate solve button in the framing screen is to plate solve an image you have loaded in from a previous session in order to get the same position and rotation. I've done a 2 panel image of the veil nebula by doing the following. 1 With the mount parked, Pull the target in to framing assistant. 2 Set mosaic parameters for number of frames and rotation and lining them up as required on the sample image loaded at the time of target import. Not clicking on slew or centre etc. 3 Click on set as new sequence 4 Go to sequence tab and set everything up, no. Of frames, dither, guiding etc. 5 click on the start button. Mount slews to target, takes a 10s image for frame 1 and plate solves. It then adjusts position as required until centre of frame is spot on, it then tells me whether I need to rotate the camera and by how much. That's an iterative process but once right it automatically starts taking the first imaging shot and just gets on with the sequence. Might be worth giving it a go this way to see if you get a better outcome? Ed

For astro, just shoot in RAW and adjust in post processing. WB is irrelevant with RAW.