newbie alert

Higher light pollution would make me choose mono over colour Mono isn't fancy tech.. When I first started I went directly mono and never had any reason to go colour.. still don't..

Yeah good call.. I use a crayford with my SCT

A true telecentic will keep the light beam parallel So does that mean my power mate is faulty As my focal length is 380mm shorter than it should be ( according to firecapture)

I used to focus with a mask on a nearby star , but now I focus on the planet, think they call it jogging, in and out of focus until you reach the point of best focus... Bahtinov masks are very close but it can be refined abit further..

The 5x rule for some seems to be set in stone or written in a Bible as a written law Same for Nyquist.... Real world scenarios prove the point.... Fact is where the sensor is placed also dictates the focal length... So even if in your mind's eye you should be bang on optimal sampling, you may not be... So it's best to test your system Chris Go released a couple of images between his new mono 462 and the qhy200 the other day, presume the 462 still has 2.9um pixels and the 200 has 4um... He also has a variable Barlow... Take a look and see

Very good, thanks for sharing Nigella

I would set up, make sure that the coordinates/ date time are correct in the handset, polar align, star align in the handset so you've taken the air out of the equation... I know you probably bought the air for ease of use but it wouldn't be the first time software has been wrong.. Or you could plate solve the image after you've pointed to the target, take it the air re-adjusts the mount if it isn't pointing where it should? Polaris is something like 44 arc mins away from the ncp

Agree with this...should see you learn the ropes for a good few years ,fairly hassle free

A needed firmware update won't cause a connection issue.. You can check what versions you have on the handset From memory you need to do 3 firmware updates and one of those you need to reposition a cable

I don't see that it's quicker with OSC, yeah you will get an image from the first sub but side by side comparison, but that's not what the threads about What issues are you having with the oag? First what version zwo is it? Or more directly, what size is the prism? A larger prism will pick off a larger section of light Are you using the supplied extension rings so not to have the focuser too far out and cause flexure... The oag can be used to take up some of this room, you're not adding the oag to the combination that you're using to achieve focus are you? The other thing to have in mind with a oag is to get the main imaging camera to focus first and then measure the distance from the prism to the sensor and then have the same distance from the prism to the guide cam sensor, note that the backfocus distance on the guide cam will be different from the imaging camera so see the spec from the manufacturer...

Yeah m45 is another fantastic target.. that's reminded me to pay another visit..

Phew🫡🫣.... Yeah but you have cloudcember,and clouduary etc yet to come... Most if not all of us probably started with m42 as it's pretty bright, easy to find and you can get a pretty decent image regardless of short exposure lengths... It's sort of the same as m31 where it's easy but hard at the same time... Hard because as you have really bright areas and dim parts in the same target.. m31 has a bright core and dim lanes, m42 has a bright core( the trapezium) and dim cloud areas at the edges... Some do 2 sets of exposures, a few secs for the bright parts and as long as you can for the dim parts ,then merge together in processing Anyway, you seem to be heading in the right direction What mount do you have?

Corrector plates are a magnet for dew, dew shield and a dew heater sorts it out... Found hair drying method is only short term and your focus changes for a few mins after applying, so you have to wait a while it sorts itself out, then repeat once dew forms again

I take it you're relatively new to imaging, that's not aimed at being insulting, it's just when we all start we all did the same thing, stack a few subs, get a result that excites you, and so it should, that's why we all do it ehh.. As time goes on you see what you can do to improve the image, for sure that's stacking more subs as the aim of stacking is to get the signal( what you want) above the noise( what you don't) signal improves with stacking, noise averages out..so in essence the worst noise you get is in a single sub, if you stack 10 subs you get an improvement, add a 100 you get a further improvement, and say 1000 you will get a improvement even more, while adding more signal... That's the reason behind stacking, signal to noise ratio... Generally there's 2 types of noise, 1 that comes from your sky quality, so less noise in a dark sky location and more noise in a heavy light polluted sky... The other is noise created by you camera, thermal noise, read noise.. these are why we use calibration frames, to reduce noise or cancel them out... You say you get star trails at 120 secs, and don't at 60 secs... So there's your exposure length that you need to capture at with your current setup... There maybe room for improvement on your sub length such as better polar alignment, better balance, maybe adding guiding etc as these contribute towards longer subs Seems like you're asking the right questions so continue to do so

Touptek is still a Chinese made company, if you wish to have them make you let's say a ONIKKIEN brand they can, would that be classed as a cheap Chinese knock off... There's plenty of those out there Zwo ,Qhy and player one make their own cameras, that's why they differ in some specs.. that's why the prices all differ, it's not just the sensor and the colour

What mount are you using

Lucky imaging for dso.. new to me... Do you mean EAA?

Nice but at 6.071 arcsec/pixel.. some have self combusted

Point your scope at the moon with a ha filter... It's not emitting any hydrogen alpha and the light we see is reflected sunlight... One explanation is that the witch head is using reflected light from the star Rigel so it could be why that's showing up in the image... The true ha part is in the coned hat area way out of shot... Olly had an image a few years back First time I shot this target I was out in a bottle 4 area and 6 min DSLR subs wasn't showing anything, wasn't until I stacked and stretched it showed the outline... Moving on a few years I was just packing up for the night at home( bottle 5) and done a single 5 min sub with my atik 460... It was there in a single sub.. although this seems to be my bogey target as everytime I plan to shoot it, something happens, like it's a full moon, or clouds come from nowhere and destroy my evenings, only to become clear again the next full moon...arh!! Sorry Rodd, this seems like I'm questioning what you wrote, I'm not...

I guess that prioritise what you plan to do initially, I don't personally use the EAA but I know this guy Luke promotes EAA with Player one cameras... https://youtu.be/ADYdWiDfeZ8

It's number 3 from me! What version do you have.. if it's a XLT there's no point going above 4/3rds in size.. if it's a edge then that can increase to APS-C... You will need a reducer and personally I'd vouch for a oag... Cameras are a personal thing but having the bigger sized pixels helps

I'd be quite surprised if you had damaged the worm or it's ring gear.. if it's clicking I'd fish out the gear, turn it by hand and you should hear it click if there's any damage.. then if it's not showing any signs of damage to check the worm or the bearings the only way is to take it apart... I'd be really surprised if they were

Sorry I uploaded the wrong image, in apt you can use basically 2 circles, one inner and one outer and get the inner one central

Ok what happens when you park from the handset? Without the air

As your title says about autoguiding why not start on a easily found target like M42 With PhD you will need calibration before you can start, and running the guide assistant will help give a better guiding experience