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mikeyj1

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    Astronomy, Astro-photography, Photography, Camping and Caravaning
  • Location
    Gloucestershire, UK

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  1. I'll Start by saying i've never stacked Afocal DSO images... but i think there's a fundamental problem with the image stacking when you have such a large non- image area...everything surrounding the 'eyepiece area' Also not sure how you took bias and flats on a camera phone, but maybe all manual settings? the only Afocal images i ever had any success with were of the moon, a deep sky object is always going to be really difficult. Dont bother thinking about cooling the phone, thats a red herring in this case, same thought about changing the scope.. if you want to do deep sky astro on a budget, plenty of 'webcam' cameras that will get you started. If you have a DSLR you can attach that and get MUCH better images... even without cooling. Siril is great, and the youtube Deep Space Astro is a great resource for learning all things Siril, especially with a DSLR. If you do manage to stack and stretch successfully with the camera phone, well done! i decided that was a dead end road, only useful for capturing what you can see through the eyepiece, even Jupiter is problematic with afocal in my view. Sorry if that comes across as a bit negative, but my afocal images only got me started on the long road of astro-imaging...got me really excited, and wanting more...good luck 😉 Mike
  2. I suggest you start the focusing part a bit more simply than that... do it in daylight? if you can see a distant object or position your scope and camera to see something about a km or more away, then use the finder to roughly point at it ( trees on a hillside are good), and if you have some software that allows auto exposure (like Sharpcap free version), just set it looping and try to focus. when you get in focus, make a note of the scale measurement for reference. then go back out at night and give alignment and platesolving a better go (I'm sure you are already starting from pointing north weights down position..?) Edit if you dont have autoexposure, start on 1/250 second or less (also the moon will need this shortness of exposure if near full) Mike
  3. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned SGP so far. I also started with APT, moved to SGP and loved it, (Autofocus, meridian flip, auto centering, plate solving framing, scheduling targets, etc), but I'm stuck on version 3.2 now as I refuse to pay for the annualized latest version. I've also tried NINA, I want to stick with it, as I see many of the features in SGP have found their way into NINA. The Interface is less intuitive than SGP in my view, and, although I can still quite happily run all my kit through SGP, I see NiNa being actively developed, especially the plug-ins as Ady says, so I do need to persevere through the learning curve (and stop thinking 'SGP does that'...). Learning curves seem to get harder as time goes on ..
  4. I started guiding on my 250pds with the SW finder and a guider adapter, this arrangement commonly called the 'finder guider' with a QHY5ii colour camera. it worked well, and was easy to set up. I've also changed to an OAG now and a 250 Quattro, with mixed results. I agree with @RolandKol that the OAG is more difficult to set up, for not much improvement in guiding performance. It also affects the back focus, so the Baader Quick lock that I was using doesnt fit in the image train any more, which has led to a bit of Tilt in the images i think. In summary, the finder guider and big pixel colour QHY worked very well, is cheap to start and easier to set up. I would start this way again if I had to do it over. Mike
  5. Very nice gesture on your part for sure! I'll throw in Bishops Cleeve Comp in Gloucestershire. I have done some outreach there with the STEM club, and that would support them nicely!
  6. Dave, no amp glow on the 071, or 2600, none at all... but you should mention the difference in megapixels and pixel size and bit depth.. QE ratio between the 2600 colour and 071 is very similar ~80%
  7. I think you are better slewing to either east or west depending on your available sky, and then start from there..
  8. I had the same error. Make sure the setting 'start from current position' is selected ON (assuming you have slewed to some area of clear sky)
  9. Looking at your picture, i see the 5" of back focus is done with an adapter. Its a similar setup to mine, with the filter drawer, i just have the OAG in front of that, so could potentially use the OAG arrangement. Any details on the adapters used? Also, I'm not sure how your guide scope is attached, can you explain? thanks Mike
  10. Hi, I want to try to image a few things with the C8 SCT, and was wondering about guiding it. My ASi-071mcpro has an OAG, which I guess would be the best option, but its a 2" nosepiece, a it bigger than the visual back on the scope. Does anyone mount the normal 'finder guider' on an SCT, and if so, how do you go about it...? thanks Mike
  11. Beautiful image, done with (I hope you don't mind me saying this..), 'normal' equipment, congratulations! Mike
  12. Welcome Dave, both Ady and I are just north of Cheltenham, and there is also an astronomy Club (CAS Cotswold Astronomy Club) which (in the normal past times!) ran monthly meetings in Shurdington hall. cheers Mike
  13. that really is excellent, something to remember for many years as a family!
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