RolandKol

Hi again, can you please advise, which offset I should go for? AstroBaby's or Ocal World? AstroB pic: Ocal World:

Hrrr, I spent all night yesterday with that.... Ended up with perfect view via cam and Cheshire, but constantly failing to get a proper offset....

Yep, completely forgot you are with CCd and large pixels. Guys with CCD's do go for binning x2 quite usually. It looks like it's your case P.S. Oops, sadly no... it will get even worse with binning... My apologies

in short, - no you should not... better go opposite way and get reducer. I am sure, guys can support it with maths, but I am not so bright... So why no? I testest in on similar set up, - what you will end up getting with x2 barlow, - VERY large/thick stars and kinda image which you will not want to show to anyone, even if the main target was quite small and fits into FOV. In addition, - are you sure about your mount? as with x2.5 barlow, you will have to guide extremely well.. I greately doubt Skywatchers belew EQ8 are able to accomplish it. On another hand, reducer will enable you to take looooong exposures 5-10min as guiding will not be an issue, plus most of the nebulas will nicely fit into your FOV.

I saw a cam online around 3years ago, it was something like 5K USD, it had additional sensor built in and was advertised as 2in1. Cannot find it anymore

Actually no. The reason was, - I simply could! More data is always better than less, as you will want to get as much SNR as possible. I had 2 clear nights, - and used them... Just keep in mind, I have not used all 6 or 7 hours on the target per night as my backgarden was very strickly covered with the treas and etc... 5k short subs, - can be done easily during one night (depends how short they are), just count ~6h per night, usually DSO images are done per several sessions or even split into years... One night image is kinda, test image. As per live stacking, - sadly, cannot advise... I am more than sure, it will be ok with 15 - 30sec, but cannot tell anything about the shorter ones. P.S. Thanks

In fact, slightly yes.... Not actual mount tracking, but substitute... If ROI imaging applied, you can set up FireCapture to track target to keep ROI central to target. I do not remember if FireCapture has options to send any corrections to the mount, but ROI tracking was usually enough if imaging is started with planet slightly off center of FOV https://skyinspector.co.uk/firecapture-features-explainer/#ROI_Position

I just want to insert my 2 pence... Short exposure DSO imaging is a real headache mate... Just in 2 hours you may end up with the amount of 5k or more subs (16-32mb each), later stacking will take ages and software may even freeze or crash... (not even talking about selecting best images, - blinking is not the option... Any other solution will also take ages, so you will end up dropping all images into the stack blindly). Unless you have lots of patience and good hardware to process all of that. You can read my experiences of a similar imaging below (process was done on MSI gaming laptop, with i7 9gen CPU, 16RAM and GPU GeForece 1050). My suggestion, - go for the second hand cam which you will be able to use for guiding later, play with it on some galaxies and planets and if you decide to stay in hoby, later get the better mount or smaller scope and move from there.

Hi, thinking of this focuser as an upgrade. Any update on this field? BTW, will ZWO autofcoser have an option to fitted to it? I could not find any proper pics of the focusers bottom online.

Hi guys, I was out of hobby for a while, now struggling to process my "welcome back" Heart The image is OK, however I am still not happy. Main issue, - are stars.... they are not very round... I keep improving on reducing coma and tilt and at the moment this is the best I have, so please ignore if possible. In pix, - I keep blurring them (the stars) out, cannot keep them sharp... Also, star colours do not listen to me, even Starnet v2 is not the tool I am able to use properly... Looks like my both hands are left... Some channels, have larger stars, - I cannot find the proper way to reduce SII or OIII to H level without funny artifacts... If someone does not mind spending some time and "playing around" with my data, - I would be happy for any advice. The aim, - to keep stars sharp! P.S. I do recall, it is handy to BIN CMOS images, - however I do not recall on which step... Before Deconvolution or after? (or maybe Before stacking? if so, before or after calibration?) P.P.S. Images taken with ASI1600MM, Antlia 3nm glass on 130PDS, 120sec, gain 200. H - around 4h, the rest 2h each, - all almost under the LED street lights. Files are here: H - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit OIII - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit SII - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit Finally, my result...

Happy to see my design of the back cover 3D print

have not used my pix for a year or so, - it was interesting to test the memory... (cheated a bit, used StarNet2)

yee... most likely one of these "Elon Musk toy alikes"

Yep, I know But it was sooo cute, - I could not hold myself from sharing Especially after quite a period of time without imaging

After quite a long pause in this hobby, - I was setting up my scope this night. I decided to check the focus, the collimation and etc on Capella and got this nice result "I am not saying it's Aliens!" but also, have no idea what that was, - never had such a nice flares/glows previously At last I had some joy this night P.S. 4 sec subs, 2022/09/17 time: 01:17:30 - 01:31:45

I failed to achieve focus (on the secondary/primary mirror view) without it at all. if it is possible without the lens, - I would be very happy to get rid of it as off-centre view causes lots of headache. P.S. As per question "how" - I am a bit confused... Simply, screwed it in and ZWO 224 becomes as a wide view web-cam.. P.P.S. just in case, - ZWO224 comes with the fisheye lens in the box if I recall it correctly... or maybe I bought it ages ago.

I have updated my initial post, - maybe you have not noticed... it is strange behaviour of ZWO 224 in the drawtube (tried 2 of tubes I got). Camera simply does not look directly and probably is not the best choice for collimation... I suspect, the ZWO fisheye lense creates a slight offset. at the moment I have ended up on this stage... sadly will not manage to do a star test today...

Hi guys, Is it normal to have cam so off centre on 130PDS? I guess focuser is placed really bad (as I have removed him previously for scope flocking), but it seems there is not way to place it back so camera would face dead centre... Maybe I should try to rotate whole focuser 180 degrees? please ignore the secondary mirror, just pay attention to the crosshair position (placed by sharpcap) update... silly me... it is the cam position in the focuser's drawtube.... anyway, cannot get it look directly....

Sorry, I hope it is not too late, if you will decide to go my way. that 10mm thickness... it actually had a purpose... in my case it aligned the shafts of the motor and the focuser.... So be careful, - slightly slimmer one may be more universal, as washers and etc can adjust the position of the motor shaft.

In my case (not for your scope, so dimensions are probably different), I used Nema Stepper Mount bracket for around £2.5 and from ebay bought test size of Clear Polycarbonate Sheet 10mm x 50 mm x 120mm (if I recall dimensions correctly), - drilled holes = holder.... P.S. (10mm is probably too thick, but it is not heavy anyway) setup does not look nice, - but works flawlessly

It will be quite difficult to find the part for your specific scope and motor, - try to draft it yourself. Similar to the one below (it may actually fit yours with a good amount of luck, will not fit.. missed PG5 part in your message initially) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4705351

In our covidsteria times, - performance indication options are most likely scrapped So I will avoid framing them into any timescales initially.... The auto-response email states something like "due to covid, we will look into the matter within 6 months", but I was lucky to get a call back after 3 days P.S. It loos like my Council works much better than DVLA giving/extending HGV driver's licenses

I am almost sure, I will need to down exp or iso if I will try to image via my window as cam will get blind hmm or maybe I should try using my Ha 3nm filter? hahah joking These LEDs are actually bright as a welding lights.... I do not need to invent anything.

Email/Reply: "I completely agree with all statements related to energy efficiency of LED lanterns in statements described under "The benefits to residents include:" and do agree with most statements of benefits to the environment, however: 1) These street lights are very bright and have no shading. (I feel I need to add more here) 2) NonShaded light covers around 20-30m distance which includes private gardens and any nocturnal wildlife. (I feel I need to add more here) 3) Street lights are in the same height as our house windows. (I will add pictures as @IB20 suggested also think of drawing googlemaps based scheme of light protrusion to our gardens followed by pics). 4) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/light-pollution#how-much-light-shines 5) https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=513 6) https://jech.bmj.com/content/69/11/1118 "Results from this study suggest that when risks are carefully considered, local authorities can safely reduce street lighting saving both costs and energy using switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, and white light strategies without necessarily impacting negatively upon road traffic collisions and crime. The participating local authorities included a good range of communities in terms of population density, geographic location, and economic resources." 7) https://cdn.buglife.org.uk/2019/08/A-Review-of-the-Impact-of-Artificial-Light-on-Invertebrates-docx_0.pdf 8). https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Shedding_light_leaflet.pdf 9)