lux eterna

Hi Giorgio, One of my most valuable modifications is this combined hinge and raiser. It lets me fold down the head so I can transport the complete mount & tripod in the back of my car. And because of the height extension (the wooden block) I gain a few hours before having to flip the mount (to avoid the camera touching the tripod). https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_2016_07/heq5_1.jpg.2654501a8aa167c12703b71679fc4fcc.jpg Of course, you can just do the wooden block & threaded bar if you only need the height adjustment. Ragnar

I agree the colours could be tweaked a bit, but besides that I see a very good picture with lots of detail. And not over-processed. I experimented with the jpg (hope you do not mind) : I was aiming for replacing green with blue, and enhancing the red a little. So I copied the blue channel to a separate layer, and then the same thing with the green channel (on top). Then I changed blending mode of the top layer to "lighten", and produced a third (top) layer by pressing shift-ctrl-alt-e (called "stamp visible"). Copy & paste that "stamp visible" layer into the blue channel of the original image and delete the three temporary layers created as above. Then I tweaked a bit with adjustment layers "selective colour" and "hue/saturation". Not saying this is better, but different, and in the end it´s up to personal taste. BTW, what equipment did you use ? Ragnar

Not much to improve here. The background is perfect. If anything, I would desaturate the blue a bit. And maybe you could work out a little more detail in the core if it was not as bright as it is here, but overall a very nice image. Ragnar

Hi all, This is 6 hours (30 x 12 min), taken with my modded Nikon D7000 @iso200 and Astronomik 12 nm Ha 2" filter on Meade LX200-ACF with reducer (=1600 mm FL @ F8). Guided with NexGuide on HEQ5 Pro. The plan was to do a Ha O3 bicolour on this target, but the O3 may be a future thing due to weather conditions. I usually remove the stars during part of my processing workflow and put them back later on, but this time I think the nebulosity and dust came out best without them. I did however try to find out which stars belong to Melotte 15 and include only those, just to portrait the Melotte 15 without anything between it and us, but I could not find that info. Processed with DSS, Starnet and PS. Ragnar

I had been working quite a bit on a barndoor tracker, and finally it was time for testing. I remembered some wise words saying what counts is three things: dark sky, dark sky and dark sky. So I went out of the city and polar aligned (sort of), put my standard dslr and a 300 mm zoom lens on the tracker and managed to find M42. This is the least catastrophic of the 4 sec exposures I took. Then I was hooked... Ragnar

Great result ! It´s hard to believe you had F10 and so little integration time. Nicely processed. Ragnar

I like the natural look you get with that gentle processing. Ragnar

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That looks great. I have a similar thing myself, and found it to be a huge time saver. I searched the net for "scale" images and found one that could be resized in PS to fit the circumference of my focuser base. I also replaced the original grub screws with thumb screws (some of these I had to cut off the head a bit to allow for focuser rotation). How did you produce your (more sophisticated) scale ? Ragnar

Wonderful processing - not too much an not too little ! Ragnar

(This multi-standard issue reminds me of Groucho Marx “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well I have others”) Anyway, here is a simple relay based solution with zero voltage drop. The D2 doide can probably be omitted, it is more like a standard with relays for cancelling out inductive voltage spikes. Any small diode can be used for both D1 and D2, like 1N4001 etc. Ragnar

I can see a small tilt of the sensor plane, probably due to focuser flex or misalignment (see my own effort of focuser alignment here), most obvious in the upper left corner. Maybe there is also a small collimation error since I think the stars are a little soft in general, but I realize it is not an easy task with such a fast scope (maybe collimation is temperature related ?) What is your focusing procedure ? A very nice picture anyway ! Ragnar

Thank you tooth_dr ! Ragnar

Thats the whole point - you will definitely stay warm 🙂 Ragnar

My Meade LX200-ACF and TS ImagingStar71, busy capturing something in Orion. The small tripod is carrying an Android tablet that controls both dslr:s - and it doubles as a dining table. I cannot think about a more relaxing moment than this. Just a little wind, the cameras are clicking on, the sounds of nature - and the sky. I think I will have another cup of tea, and that bag full of sandwiches is not empty yet... Good to have a few images like this when clouds have prevented any astro activity for so many weeks now. It helps keeping the spirits up. Ragnar

To me, just being under a dark sky is such a wonderful experience, and the increased image quality is like a bonus. I have the same (?) autoguider as you (mine is Nexguide), and I really love it for the guiding precision and quick & easy setup. Only thing is the handset buttons do not respond well, but no big issue. Doing portable AP, do you use a tablet or just an intervalometer ? I use the qdslrdashboard Android app, it makes life much easier (provided you have no laptop). Nice pictures ! Ragnar

Lunar imaging does not benefit much from a very dark sky, because the moon itself is so bright. What matters most is the seeing quality. Nice picture ! Ragnar

I was in a big nature reserve area, heading back to where I had parked my car after a long photo session by the shore. It was pretty dark but not pitch-dark, so I could just see where to put my feet without using my headlamp. Then I noticed some large stones (?) lying here and there in the distance, and I just got a feeling it was not stones. My sixth sense told me it was cows, and then my seventh sense was convinced they were bulls (at least). On the way out, in the afternoon, I did not see any 4 feet animals at all - just some of what they leave on the ground. If they were just lying resting now I did not want to disturb them, so I diverted my route a bit and did not turn on my headlamp. Maybe 200 meters from the gate at the parking area I first heard some kind of sneezing sound and then suddenly the whole horde was running. Towards me. I could feel the vibrations in the ground. Running away from them would probably have beed my last action on this earth, so I managed to walk slowly, shining my very bright headlamp on them and also holding my extended photo tripod like a stick (I knew these animals are used to respect sticks). They slowed down but sitll approached me, and when I reached the gate they were all around. From the safe side of the fence I noticed they were mostly heifers, some of them very upset and butting each other - glad it was not me... I would never set up my telescope and stuff where cattle can reach me. Wild boars etc are more predictable - just make a little noise now and then and they will keep off. Ragnar

My next move towards comfortable winter nights under the stars may be an old sleeping bag to be used as an extra insulation over everything else. I intend to cut a hole where the feet are supposed to be, for the head. Then cut the length so I can walk around without stepping on it, and also cut two holes to allow for sticking out the arms. This should be very quick and easy to put on and off. Ragnar

Beautiful ! Ragnar

I have one permanent cable harness on the mount. It can be attached to three smaller parts: primary & secondary dslr (secondary at the end of CW bar), and the main scope alu panel. The main scope panel and guidescope can easily be moved to another scope. Everything is controlled from an Andriod tablet. (The two winter gloves are used to store one handset each, plus some minor tools etc). Ragnar

M3 Ragnar

With inductive loads (like the stepper motors in a mount), voltage spikes are generated from the current transients that happens when you break the current feed, no matter if it is a battery or a PSU. 50 volts in a 12 volt system is quite possible. If you switch off the mount power switch, there will be one (very fast) voltage spike at the battery side of the switch (which should do no harm). But if you fiddle with a power connection with the mount turned on, there will be multiple spikes that can reach the mount electronics (and other equipment as well). But I agree that a battery is still safer than a PSU. The battery itself will never be to blame. Ragnar

I agree, a switch is a good thing. I was talking about a bad connection or a short cirquit, which can kill the electronics (if not designed for it - and the HEQ5 Pro motherboard is not). A capacitor (or even better, a few of them with different capacity) as close as possible to the vulnerable electronics will help a bit, but it is still not 100% safe. After my last nightmare, I have a 1 ohm resistor in my power distribution box with a switch in parallell with it. That switch is always open when I power up or down the main switch on the mount, and closed during operation. Ragnar

A quick short cirquit, or just a bad connection (like disconnect-connect-disconnect etc ), can produce transient voltages greater than the power supply itself. This is likely to happen with inductive loads (like the stepper motors in a mount) and it becomes worse with longer power supply cables. These transients will reach all devices connected to the same supply. Ragnar