Adreneline

That's a good start Sean - definitely something to build on. It is such a difficult target and I too only get a limited window of opportunity as it passes between the neighbours trees and the neighbours roof - my neighbour has got a lot to answer for when it comes to my astroimaging! Thanks for sharing Adrian

Prior to using an ASIair I used a NUC-i3 at an NEQ6 mount with ED80DS for three years running ASCOM, SGPro, CdC, etc and Atik cameras. I chose to hard-wire connect to the house network but wireless worked fine - most of the time! I operated the NUC from a laptop via Windows Remote Desktop without any problems at all. The only reason I stopped was because I moved to a light-weight setup using an iOptron mount, Samyang 135 and ZWO-ASI1600 - hence the move to an ASIair (which is Pi in disguise! - operated from my iPad - and I love it!!!!!). Good luck! The above clip-lid water/moisture resistant box is located next to the mount with usb connections to two cameras, the mount and the focussing unit. The filter wheel plugs into the usb hub on the back of the camera.

Thanks Alan, Aren't they just! I fear another day - 24 hours - might be what is needed! 😂 I first imaged this target in October last year at the end of a session, just to see what was there. I've been trying for months to get more data but the weather has conspired to stop me this year. As it was I had to temporarily relocate the scope to the very bottom of the garden to gain an extra hour before it went behind the house; imaging from the front of the house is a none-starter as we have a street light at the end of the drive! Adrian

Sounds like a plan! Just need another clear night and no moon - we get about one a year Thanks for the advice. Adrian

I started with a 600mm ED80 but rapidly got tired of taking images of tiny galaxies; there was never any prospect of buying a bigger or longer focal length telescope. I can be up and imaging in less than 15 minutes now and packed away in less than five and it's all down to a smaller mount, the 135mm/1600 combo and the wonderful ASIair. I also like to see these nebula in their context and am happy to trade a wider FoV for less detail. Good luck with the Samyang once you get it up and running and I look forward to seeing your images. Adrian

Well it is the top of Orion but I'm afraid I don't understand: Sorry. Adrian

I know I've broken all the rules but this is just a bit of fun lest we get too serious. In my defence I did use the Samyang 135mm. Sh2-264. In theory they are kissing angel fish but they could be kissing gourami fish! In some respects this image could be a metaphor for life. Adrian

I've found this image really difficult to process. This is 20x 180s of Ha and OIII using a Samyang 135mm at f2.4 + ASI1600MM-Pro; gain 139, offset 50 at -20 degrees - unguided. There was virtually no OIII that could reveal. With this target relatively low in the sky over my most light polluted horizon I had real problems removing the gradients. Pre and post processed in PI and finished in PS. There is minimal cropping, just enough to clear edge effects; Bellatrix is just off the bottom right corner of this image. As ever comments on how things could be improved are always welcome. Thanks for looking. Adrian

Hi Graham, I bought the rings from TS Optics in German - they are somewhat overkill but they also make it easy/easier to mount anciliary equipment. I use the ZWO EAF but the ASIair does not support autofocus. I have determined the focus positions for each filter using a Bahtinov mask and I manually change the focus between filter changes. (I have used the autofocus system in SGPro but never successfully - probably due to my ineptness! I have wasted so much time trying to get autofocus to work that in the end I just gave it up as a bad job.) Not that great so far. I initially found it very difficult to focus the mini guidescope/mini 120 combination. I have now achieved an acceptable focus and the guiding system works well in the ASIair. Having said that the iOptron CEM25-EC tracks so well that I don't really need to guide unless I want to dither. It does work well and it is excellent for a light-weight setup. The backfocus on the ASI1600 is 6.5mm. The ZWO EFW is 20mm and I have had to add the 16.5mm ZWO spacer and 0.75mm of spacer rings. I believe the Astojolo M42 replacement end plate adds 3mm. So that gives 40.25 + 6.5 end of lens to sensor. The 'infinity' focus position is as shown at f2.4 : HTH Adrian

Set up to do some imaging last night with varying degress of success. First up was Sh2-264 in Ha and OIII, 60 mins of each before it disappeared behind a neighbouring roof; it is proving really difficult to process. Next was an Ha mosaic from the Rosette to the Cone (10 s 180s on each) which worked surprisingly well but I've done it before. This was a single 60s test shot of the Seagull Nebula IC 2217 - no processing at all - it is a screen grab off my iPad using the ASIair interface. Using the lens at f2.4 with 1.25" Baader filters and ASI1600MM-Pro at gain 139, offset 50 and -20 degrees. What is interesting to me is the the star shapes are pretty good right into the corners (excluding where the neighbour's roof is!). I've rotated the image 90 degrees CCW so (going by my previous stacked images) I would expect to see some significant coma shaped stars in what is now the top left hand corner but in fact they are not too bad. If I have a small amount of corner coma in individual subs does/could stacking exacerbate the problem? The nebula was below 30 degrees and well in the light pollution zone so I am surprised it is visible at all. Thanks for looking. Adrian

You won't regret it Carole - money well spent! Whilst you are on a spending spree I would definitely recommend one of the M42 end plates that are on offer from FLO or Astrojolo - very easy to fit and makes using the lens with astro stuff a lot easier (IMHO). I have also purchased a Hoya Pro UV filter which has helped reduced blue/OIII bloating on stars. Enjoy! Adrian

We can't have this thread languishing on Page 3 so here's an image - not a great or even memorable image by any means but an image taken with a Samyang 135mm combined with a ZWO-ASI1600MM-Pro and ZWO-EFW. I decided that it was time to give my Canon 200mm a rest and reinstate the Samyang back on the mount, this time equipped with the Astrojolo M42 adapter to replace the EoS end plate. It took a bit of experimentation but then I finally found that the M42 adapter + ZWO 16.5mm spacer and 0.75mm of ZWO spacers plus the EFW gave me focus exactly in the middle of the infinity range marker on the lens. Decent targets are now pretty much out of sight from my location so I decided to go for a star test with M67. This is 600s of R, G and B pre-processed in APP and the post processed in PI with both Histogram and Arcsinh stretch. The two images were layer combined in PS followed by a little bit of noise reduction. Since fitting a Hoya UV filter on the lens (and on my Canon) my bloated blue and OIII stars are now largely tempered and the focus positions are very similar for all seven filters. APP reported very similar FWHM on all filters; if anything the red is now bloating. I've cropped off the very edges of the image so there is some coma type star distortion in the corners - best not to zoom in too much! Plate solved and annotated in PI: Thanks for looking. As ever any advice on how to improve are gratefully received. Adrian P.S. A few more images of my current setup showing the spacing and focus arrangements.

I bought one of these two years ago; it runs SGPro, APP, PI, and PS-CS6 faultlessly. It also controls my Intel NUC (running all the same software) via Remote Desktop. At £260 I can't really fault it! OK, the display isn't on a par with my MacBook Pro but everything else is great and you could buy a 4K external monitor and still be quids in. I replaced the DVD caddy with a second SSD caddy off eBay for £8.50 and fitted a 500GB SSD for image storage. Refurbished, recycled, upcycled!

This was taken paired with an ASI1600-Pro which is a fairly large sensor cooled camera. The Samyang 135mm is also an excellent lens but again very much better suited to larger targets, e.g. nebula.

Not sure I would agree - 200mm is a great lens especially for many nebula targets - M31 also works well but other galaxy targets would be disappointing perhaps. I rarely use my 600/510mm ED80DS. I took this with my Canon 200mm at f2.8 Good luck with your deliberations!

At the extreme you can remove the stars completely using the Windows release of Starnet++; it works standalone or as a Process in PixInsight (if you have it) - it's free to download. I use Annie's Astro Actions to (a) reduce stars in a PS image or (b) to remove them completely - costs about £15. HTH Adrian

I took your image into PI and plate solved it and it revealed this: HTH Adrian P.S. Very nice image - I like it a lot.

I think the primary issue is can you connect to the camera via USB. If you look on the BackYardEoS website they list supported cameras: this is a screen shot of the mirrorless section of the table - the M10 is not listed despite the fact I understand it has a high speed USB port. I am currently considering buying an M6 MkII for general photography which is supported by BYEoS - unlike the MkI which had no usb connection. HTH Adrian

I for one don't know - I'm sure someone will though.

Sky Safari would seem to confirm that: Adrian

Interesting! I could be tempted and I've bookmarked the page - thank you David. For now I will stick with my fixed 'landscape' orientation. At 135mm most things fit the frame anyway, however, if I get around to imaging again with my trusty old ED80DS one of these might be very handy. Thanks again. Adrian

I am interested in how you do this Gina. I image with an ASI1600 + ZWO-EFW + Samyang 135mm. If I rotate the camera through 90 degrees then the EFW rotates through 90 degrees as well (and of course the lens) and my whole dec balance goes completely awry - not to mention having to release the EAF belt to allow the lens to rotate. Do you rebalance your dec axis every time you rotate the camera? It's taken me ages to balance out the offset moment due to the focus motor; I've ended up using small (150g, 100g and 50g) laboratory scale balance weights on the opposite side of the lens mount. Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious. Adrian

Thanks Alan. I will give it a go and see how far I have to go to reduce the problem; I usually end up cropping off the corners anyway. I was getting similar problems on my Canon 200mm at f2.8 but I was putting that down to droop as I was reliant on the EoS adapter holding things tight and aligned. The Canon 200mm does not have an aperture control ring so there was no chance to experiment without removing the lens and reattaching to a Canon camera - definitely too much faffing around! Thanks again for your help and advice. Adrian

Hi Everyone, I've just remounted my Samyang 135mm + ASI1600 combination having modified the Samyang with an M42 end plate. The image is Polaris - just 4 x 2s frames at f2, calibrated and stacked in APP. I think I've got the spacing spot-on but the star shapes in the corners of the image are not consistent, as per the screen shot above. Bottom left looks quite different to the other corners and I am at a loss to know what might be causing the problem. With the M42 adapter I am convinced there is no droop or misalignment between the camera and lens; I am also supporting the lens as well as the camera and have gone to great lengths to ensure everything is level/aligned. My ASIair reported HFD on the target star of 1.1 - 1.4. APP reported FWHM figures of ~1.9 so I think the focus was reasonable. Does this look like optics or a sensor problem? Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for looking. Adrian

Whilst checking old external hard drives I came across this; it would seem that two years ago I collected more data than I had time to process. This is M31 captured with a Canon 70D and ED80DS-Pro and NEQ6; a combination of 20 off 300s, 180s, 60s and 30s subs that I never got around to processing at the time other than to produce the stacked masters in PI. Better late than never this is now processed in PI and layer combined in PS. I've tried not to over stretch the image so there is possibly more to be extracted. I found all manner of other unprocessed images on the same drive - exciting stuff! Thanks for looking. Adrian