Jkulin

I've had the 60EC and now have the 120EC and have just ordered a 40EC, I think that shows how much I like the iOptron brand, I was going to buy the 25EC which has a 12.3Kg payload and weighs 4.7Kg, but reckoned that for a mount weighing just 2.5Kg more I could increase the payload to 18Kgs which would cover most of my requirements apart from my 10" Truss and 10" Newt. For the money iOptron is a leader in its price bracket, the only thing you need to make sure of is that you keep up to date with the firmware as iOptron are constantly evolving. I've been using my SA for widefield but wanted a goto facility, so that's why I am changing to use the 40EC for widefield as well.

Hi Steve, I thought there was a load more data there for 21hours of Ha and a quick stretch in PI and sure enough you have some lovely detail in there. I wasn't aware we could get this up in the Midlands, I'm going to have to research as I would love to do this, probably because I was getting confused with the Fighting Dragons. Lovely capture BTW.

Ooops my apologies for the confusion, but the display driver issue could still apply.

I've been on the latest for a while and have had no problem with it, I have black writing on a grey background as normal. Just wondering whether your laptop has had a display driver update as that could cause something like that, here's mine, I'm on version 3.0.3.169: -

Don, can I ask how you are getting the colour images in CdC, if I choose to download I just get the B&W, so I am just wondering if you have a different catalogue? Can you advise please? This really is a lovely image.

What is the recommended back focus? For CCD's it is usually 55mm from the CCD to the flattener shoulder.

I use these then seal the ends with pre-glued shrink tube, been using them nearly 3 years now and all I do when disconnecting is to tuck them inside a zip bag and leave them inside the pier opening, they work brilliantly.

Ahmed, you need to make sure that SGP processes a meridian flip before the commander software wants to, I have SGP to flip at 12 minutes past the Meridian and to auto centre after a flip, I can't check the settings in Commander as it needs to be connected, but as long as you set commander to flip after SGP then all will be fine.

Excellent Steve, I have only just bookmarked this myself to do as a mosaic. This is really lovely and with such short exposures?

Apart from my good looks and being charming and debonair (And if you believe that they you'll believe the earth is flat)

I'm booked and going both days as there are a number of talks I fancy listening to. Hopefully see you there, look out for a mad bloke with a Handlebar Moustache!

I take 25 of each filter for flats at 30K ADU My reasoning is that although I have a permanent pier, putting a cover on each night and with an open truss design, does encourage more dust as they are more exposed. If I was shooting most of the time with my Esprits then things may be different. But to be truthful I now shoot my flats before the session starts in twilight, so it really is no big deal and takes up very little time. Since obtaining some really nice flats panels, I have found a massive improvement in my images: - A4 Flat Panel, perfect for smaller OTA's A3 Flat Panel, perfect for upto 12"OTA's They run on a 12v feed from my Pegasus UPB. I ordered some coloured perspex cut to my sizes and then sandwich lighting gels between to get the perfect ADU vs. speed, I acknowledge that with the G2-8300 that to avoid the shutter curtain showing you need exposures over 2 secs. I have different panels for NB and RGB.

Unless you have an observatory and even then you should take flats after each session as dust bunnies can happen during any period of imaging. I do them after every night of imaging for the filters that I have used on that session

Thanks Tony, you have certainly improved the MW, one of the things I was trying to do without creating a composition was to keep the foreground as that was key to the image for me. You have given me some ideas as to what is there though, thanks.

I feel as I am doing OK with my Deep Space objects but really struggling with my Widefield of the Milky Way. Over the last 3 years I'm managed to get away to some dark site including Southern Spain where a Sand Storm ruined the week, Le Mans where I was in a really lovely dark site about 30 miles south of the race course and then a couple of weeks ago in Selkirk in Scotland. I have a Star Adventurer that I have had hypertuned and originally had a Nikon D800 mounted on it and it provided some marvellous tracking, such as this 450 second unguided image of the MW, I know it's fairly boring and to my mind a total failure, but the detail is quite good for a 450sec image without any guiding at all. This was done with a 14mm Samyang Len F2.8, ISO 160, 450s, so I have to admit that I feel a complete failure at the composition and exposure. This was supposed to be Bortle 2/3 Skies So last year I had very little opportunity for any widefield, so this year an opportunity arose to have a weekend away with my wife Deborah at the Tushielaw Inn, Ettrick Valley, Selkirk (Yes of 4 in a bed fame), some of the best skies I have ever seen, although it was claimed to be Bortle 3, I have never seen such clarity, even my wife couldn't believe how pronounced the MW was. This time I have changed over to a Sony A7RIII (The first time of using it due to health issues) from a lifelong Nikon/Leica/Medium Format User, I changed all my lenses and obtained an adapter for the Samyang 14mm and it was that that I chose to use with the SA in Selkirk. Now one of the main reasons for switching to Sony was its amazing ISO range up to ISO102400 and sensitivity not to mention the great flip screen that saved my back, so I hoped to capture some scenic shots using a higher ISO than I would normally use and shorter exposures to avoid foreground blur, yes I accept that I could do a composition and lay a sharp foreground over an enhanced background but being stubborn I stupidly stuck to my originally thinking of higher ISO with shorter exposure, this was a unprocessed image as the mist was rising from the river: - This image was taken at 10secs ISO16000 with the Samyang 14mm F2.8, so the composition is better but I feel deflated with the quality of the MW, there is no colour or emotion in it. I did bracket the shots but this one gave the greater detail. Now from my understanding of seeing @Daniel-K's work is that the MW needs capturing in the summer months, my question is, is this the reason why the my MW is not powerful and dramatic or am I not processing it properly? The above was taken on the 20/09 at 21:10 (if you check the exif the date an is wrong) and I was facing South as per the X on the map Map: - I really enjoy widefield, but can't walk far thus the limitations of not doing more/enough, with this image I could drive the car down and work out of the boot and Deborah didn't moan about the cold as she could sit in it once she had seen enough, but to be truthful she thoroughly enjoyed it. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for your input.