Adam J

Why not just rotate the whole scope in its rings? Seems no disadvantage to doing that with the FMA230, it has no focuser to orientate for example and the guide scope wont be attached to the tube, its on the rings. Adam

good start, try using the Light pollution removal tool in APP it's very good and will balance your background. There is also a cropping tool in APP that you can use, I would crop the image first.

Not surprising you are improving your ability to reject outliers by having a larger sample size if you stack the stacks then each stack will incorporate more outliers as the lower number of frames means that they will incorporate additional outlining pixel values into the average value for each sub stack. At that point you would need a very large number of sub stacks to enable outlier rejection to the operate on the stack of stacks (25 or more usually) and you don't have that many sum stacks. Adam

if you are autoguiding don't get the EC version, I have heard some say that the EC can actually end up in a fight with the guiding, not sure on how true it is. But if you are guiding on short exposures ~1second an EC will add very little to the accuracy. Just something else to go wrong. Adam

am also interested, the main point is backlash on the Dec and guiding RMS and max errors.

top one looks like a guiding error, maybe from the jump at the start of your guide graph? Either way it doesn't look like a camera or corrector spacing issue, it could also be collimation.

Interesting question of the dew heaters, I cut the connectors off mine and changed them to 2.1mm connectors like on. the deep sky dad stuff..you can also get some that can be powered by USB as available on the Deep sky dad power box. Quite a few are available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Telescope-Temperature-Regulator-Condensation-Astrophotography/dp/B0BHNNG5FF/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=1EOOF22J3CXZB&keywords=usb+dew+heater&qid=1704675155&sprefix=isb+dew+heager%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-3 but the better option is to use this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-21mm-dc-male-to-rca-plug-for-dew-controller.html with this type (check size) but should be right for your scope. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/lynx-astro-30cm-dew-heater-strap-for-3-telescopes.html Yes the Pegasus should fit the gear 80. The deep sky dad is just power distribution. One 12-13.8volt input, place it on the scope and the the rest of the jacks are outputs. 2.1mm are 12volts and the USB will supply 5volts, to be clear it's not a USB hub, you may need one of those too. If you put the mini pc on the top plate the you don't need a USB hub just plug directly to the PC. So (12 -13.8 volt power supply) to (Deep Sky Dad Power hub) to (Camera / Dew Heaters / Mini PC / Mount / Focuser etc). You will want a 12volt 10amp supply if you don't have one already. Don't cheap out on it... Adam

Yes I have a V1 and a V2 Pegasus focus cube. Adam

Looks like FLO also sell Mini PCs but you might get the same model cheaper on AMAZON. Beelink GKMini 8GB Memory 256GB SSD Mini PC | First Light Optics Adam

DC HUB 2 v2 - Deep Sky Dad or via FLO but it will cost you more: Deep Sky Dad DC Hub 2 v2 | First Light Optics Adam

Honestly I would go with the Altair I recommended: Altair Hypercam 26C APS-C Colour TEC Astronomy Camera 16bit (altairastro.com) It is exactly the same camera as the one Olly just recommended but under a different brand and cheaper even. Its the same sensor as the ASI2600mc and will perform exactly the same and you will have UK support from Altair. I know its not in stock but 2-3weeks is not a long time to wait considering the savings. Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) (Dustin_Lee_Astrophotography) - Full resolution | AstroBin Example image. If you must have ZWO then you choices in that range are: ASI071 ASI533mc / mm ASI294mc I don't recommend the 294mc for a beginner, the ASI071 is a older but still capable sensor and the ASI533 is as discussed small..... A difficult choice, but I might actually say the ASI071MC Pro....see this video, its a look at the 2600 vs the 071 sensors. Adam

Honestly, I cant make a recommendation on imate as am not familiar with it. But so long as you have a guide camera then I will say that you don't need to pay more for Ipolar. My opinion is that nothing gets close to NINA at the moment, it just does it all. I guess that if it's cheaper than a mini pc and HEM27 combined and Ipolar is well integrated then it could be attractive for that reason.

I would always go mini pc as ASIair it way too limiting from my perspective in terms of what you can use with it (only zwo devices), I dont like the idea of allowing a single company to become my only viable supplier. As for the rest, its true that the AM5 will be an great place to start in terms of mount, however its very pricy £2580 with tripod....so a large part of your budget is going to drop on it. Its effectively pushing you into getting doublet optics and a smaller OSC sensor. Other cheaper options still provide ample performance at your intended focal length. iOptron HEM27 Hybrid Harmonic Drive Equatorial GoTo Mount | First Light Optics or even the AM3. That would let you get a triplet and corrector. Starfield Gear80 80mm f/6 Triplet APO Refractor | First Light Optics and potentially a larger senor like this: Altair Hypercam 26C APS-C Colour TEC Astronomy Camera 16bit (altairastro.com) All in all you will have a more balanced and higher performing system for your money. The AM3 is going to handle up to a 100mm refractor easily and the HEM27 certainly will and more. Heck even the mini PC is likely to be cheaper than the ASI Air I paid £140 for my mount PC 5 years back and it runs everthing great, you don't need a high performance model a celeron with 8gb ram is fine. Adam

How about this and buy am separate mount for it? Adam

No idea to be honest.

Sorry to say this but your not going to be doing any imaging using a chrome book. You need a good old windows PC with windows 10 or 11 on it. Not sure what I can suggest, there is a small chance you can install windows on it but to be honest your just as likely to brick it trying.

I would go with the 180 once you have a larger sensor you would regret not having a little more focal length.

There is nothing wrong with using this lens for astro many do, just don't expect perfection from it...or to different degrees anything else. It just depends on how fussy you are really and what software tools you have to mitigate where it falls short. Some people rave about blur X terminator and how it helps with stars, I tend to think it's cheating a bit and can look artificial to be honest, but many don't see it that way. But you can't get something from nothing. Its not a bad lens it's just some are better like the Samyang you mentioned. But personally I would move away from lenses due to the connection type and not being optimized for shooting at infinity. For wide shots I use the FMA180 as I value image quality over speed. I find F4.5 sufficiently fast for my own use but I am not taking an image in a single night but over multiple nights so I don't need it to be. The new pro seems better than the original. The FMA 230 also seems to do well. Collimation of the optics really doesn't have to out by much at all at the speeds you are shooting at and it's difficult to see when using a OSC camera. I tend to star test with a mono camera and a green filter when looking for collimation. If you are removing stars.in processing then why not shoot with a fast f-ratio for the target data and then add stars in shot at a slower f-ratio in processing? Best of both worlds. Adam

So for me the first shot is not too bad but the second is showing a collimation issue as the rings infact don't appear concentric to me. The center of the pattern appears offset to the 10oclock position. It would only be worse at 2.8. That will be your odd star shapes. So essentially the center of the optical axis is not passing through the centre of the sensor although that in itself can be an oversimplification in these lenses with multiple elements / groupings. You might improve it a little by trying to adjust sensor tilt something that the small sensor is going to allow you to get away with a little more than a larger one but in the end you will be fighting one problem by introducing another. The lens is not perfectly corrected either and the red is clearly focusing to a different point than both green and blue. But to be honest the cannon 200mm prime was never the best astro lens, more an ok for the money solution that you should not expect perfection from. Adam

I can recommend a setup like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html Portable compact with GOTO mount that connects to a phone. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-go2-telescopes/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-go2-wifi-maksutov-cassegrain-telescope.html Same thing above on a cheaper mount. Ignore the bad review the chap did not know what he was doing. Adam

Just the mobile imaging rig. So I don't get to the top of a mountain and find I am missing a USB cable.

Do a Star test, post a image of a bright out of focus star in the centre of the FOV, show between three and five rings. Will let me diagnose the issue.

I side by side mount mine with the guide scope. So one of these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-mini-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html and two of these 18cm dovtails: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-dovetail-bars.html The you can just mount side by side and balance in both directions. easy. There is a second one here too that i am using to clamp it to the back of the esprit 100, ignore that one, its effectively your mounts vixen clamp equivalent. Adam

Well so long as the wood was not sourced from the Red forest then your fine.

That is not a major worry for me, I don't need my dove tails to look pretty. If its digging into it then its secure. Adam