Jkulin

Adam, if you want the plans for my metal pier, then I can send them to you..

I'm going with a couple of mates, but not worked out which day yet.

Hi All, So having skimmed through 20 pages and with very limited understanding/skills with a budget of up to around £700 should I look at the Prusa MkIII or would you recommend something else, I am not an engineer and have no CAD skills, just a simple Joe Bloggs off the street? Looking at mostly Astro stuff with maybe other small household gizmos later.

Very nice Adam, nothing wrong with that.

Beautiful 😎

Duplicated

For me this one is far better Rod, less noise, less magenta and a cleaner image. I like it a lot.

David, some Baader filters had a manufacturing error and you can't get rid of them, if you bring this to their attention they will change them for you. Originally they denied it possible but then agreed and changed them, so i would send them back and send them the images as proof.

I use Chroma's and from I am told they used to make the Astrodons, I bought my Ha, OIII and SII 3nm in 50mm unmounted for about $1500 direct from Chroma, so that is less than a 1/3 of the price of Astrodons. NB, All my LRGB Chroma and NB are parfocal, so I just focus using the Lum and know everything is bang on 🙂

Can I suggest that when people have got a clean working system that they use something like Macrium Reflect Free and make a perfect image onto a USB stick or old HDD of their operating systems and software, I had loads of old 500GB HDD's and I always partition my computers so that the operating system and hard drive is installed on a separate partition to my files. Now if anything goes belly up, I just use Macrium to restore the entire operating system and I am back up and running again, the software is free as long as it is for personal use, but it really is a tremendous piece of software that is so easy to use. Dave, now that you have a clean operating systems and software, do yourself a favour, with Macrium you can resize the partitions for the backup as well.

This is the sort of thing I log into my database for targets: - And then when I have captured the data I enter on another form, like this: -

Hi Carole, if I see something interesting then I look up the RA and Dec in Cartes Du Ciel, by searching the image, then right clicking and getting the info, then in SGP I use the Ra and Dec figures in the planning wizard. I wrote a database about a year ago and keep a record of each interesting image, with the complete data, images, URL etc. Its proved very useful for those images that you find that you don't want to forget, I also bookmark in Astrobin. HTH

Hi Ahmed, I sent you the firmware that works 100% have you not installed that yet as providing it is the firmware then your problems are sorted?

Thanks Rod, I'll have a mess as soon as I get a chance, the Ha was really nice, just lacking a little contrast, I have another variant that I was working on that has a lot less noise, but misses out on the contrast, I'll get a couple of hours sleep and then have a bash later. Thanks for your advice: -

I tried for this last year but the filters I was using created Halo's. I know the moon is that big white thing in the night sky, but couldn't resist trying for it with virtually identical settings as I used for Melotte 15, as its position was very similar. Acquisition details are the same as follows: - Technical Data: - RC10" Truss Moravian G2-8300 MkII CCD Lodestar X2 Guide Camera QHY-M OAG Moravian 7 position 2" FW Chroma 3nm HA, OIII and SII 2" unmounted filters iOptron 120EC Mount which is finally starting to produce the goods and guiding around 0.3-0.4 8x1200s of each filter, 8 hours total Processed in PI and finished in PS CC2019 Bortle 5 Skies 19.51sqm Processed in PI:- Batch Processed ABE Histogram Stretch TGVDenoise SHO Combined Magenta Removal SCNR - Green Various Stretches Miultilinear Transform Unsharp Mask Then into Photoshop for a final tweak Here's the link to Melotte 15 from last week: - I have the detail but still am unsure about the noise, but for now it will do and I can always revisit. I am wondering if the noise is a by product of the Moon? Here's the Bumf: - NGC 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is a H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575 (BD+60°2522). The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. The star BD+60°2522 is thought to have a mass of about 44 M☉. Even though there are more clear nights forecast this week, I need some sleep as I didn't get to bed until after 6 this morning and I am going to stay in Selkirk on Friday and Saturday, so hopefully I'll get a chance for some widefield of the Milky Way?

Brilliant thanks Dave, I thought I was going to have to get involved with some programming which at my age I am useless at

Thanks Dave, not too clued up with Pixel Maths, I tend to use a predefined instance that someone else has designed and then use that as a process icon. Problem I had was that the Star removal module won't install, so need to fix that first. I'll have a chat with my mate who is a programmer and see if he can assist with your suggestions, thanks for your help.

Hi Carole, Yep the second one is really cool.

Hi Dave, as you know I did mine with a full moon, I started with Ha and the moon had no affect, I then did OIII early before the moon really was glowing, but I was pointing NE and the moon was SE, and then I grabbed the SII as quick as I could the following day without the moon interfering. I'm using Chroma 2" Unmounted 3nm filters.

You'd be surprised how often I start my sessions looking N / NE, my home blocks some it is but I really would be careful about obscuring it completely. My latest acquisition was a prime example as that started off above my home and finished over my neighbours to the East.

Here's a picture of mine with 2 covers over it, I am up and running in 5 minutes, I do fine tune my PA each time in case I have knocked it when removing the covers. I have the 365 underneath as from experience I don't trust it to be 100% waterproof and then the taped seam one from ENS which is breathable and 100" waterproof, I have a smaller 365 and ENS cover for my smaller scopes. This is a Link to one of the ENS covers that I use, the smaller ones are excellent value. HTH

I bought the 100 and was just amazed at the contrast and quality, then an 80 came up at the right price which I couldn't refuse, sold my ED80 Pro and that funded part of it, they are simply amazing clarity and quality. Haven't used either for 12 months as we had a terrible winter with only 5 nights clear last year and I had problems with my mount on those clear nights and then I have been playing with my 10", I will switch shortly to one of them for NB during the colder months. As to which I would use most, it will depend on the FOV that I need.

I have two Esprits, says it all really, truly beautiful Scopes, you need to make sure that you have perfect backfocus distances of 55mm with the flattener. I upgraded the focuser on the 100 when I really shouldn't have as the SW focuser is in my mind better than the moonlite as it is R&P.

Thanks Indeed, it has so much interest in it, it is probably my favourite so far, I may reprocess and then mount it on an Aluminium plate.

Have you got your backfocus distance correct, usually around the 55mm, but I am not sure exactly for WO?