Jkulin

Adam, would you like the drawings for my pier so that you could give them to your engineers? All you would need to do then is get a modified top plate made for the Mesu. When I changed from the AZ to the iOptrons I only needed to take the measurements to my mate and he quickly drilled and tapped a new plate.

Cheers Dave, Yeah I tried a selective DBE and it didn't want to play ball, it is on the other bands as well but no where near as bad. I did think about making a pseudo Luminance and then custom address it as a flat, but I was worried that it might take too much detail. I'll have a play and see what I can come up with, if it doesn't come out too bad then may leave it in there to help others with the same problem. I've got so much data on this now and with the short nights and little sleep I'm shattered, so it might have to wait until it comes round next time. Thanks for your help.

Brilliant (Literally) thanks Dave, so what did you do...embrace it and include it in the image or scrap it?

Cheers Ray, with two of you saying that then I do trust your opinions, so that means I have to use it as it is then or clip the black to get rid of it! I checked the desiccant and they weren't bad, they were translucent whitey orange and they should be bright orange, so they are cooking at the moment! When I first started this object on the 26th I thought got to be the moon and retried with 4 lots of flats and four attempts at collecting Lum data it has produced the same results, can't be the moon or any light pollution so unless the camera has a problem it can only really be that. Ta Ray.

Just to add, my good Mate suggested that it might be diffraction spikes from the nearby star Phecda, so I grabbed the view from CdC and from the SGP framing Wizard and it would appear to be a very plausible reason, what do you reckon?

I have been trying to grab sufficient M109 data, and have grabbed about 85 x 300sec subs from each channel, I have tried new flats every time and processed each night separately just in case there was any gradients through the moon etc. Last night the moon didn't rise until 03:30 and as since the 26th April when I started it has been virtually at the Zenith. The filters have been cleaned and cleaned and they are exceptionally clean. Does anyone think it could be the desiccants could be the cause? The camera is a Moravian G2-8300 MKII and I have had it nearly 2 years. Just really lost with this, no settings have been changed and none of the optical chain has changed, so would welcome anyone's thoughts?

Dave, here's the link to where it is, besides your username is a drop down arrow and the plans are there: - https://www.astrobin.com/subscriptions/ I went for the premium plan. HTH

It is rare in life for people to be so kind, so with Ian at Altair Astro knowing that my wife has cancer, it was an absolute delight to receive a package from him and included in the box was a pack of face masks, what an absolute gem of a person. I truly didn't even bother looking at the goodies that had arrived, I was so very touched with his thoughtfulness in these times of the horrid and dangerous virus.

Thanks All, was worth asking. Btw if a seller states their full address is in the UK then I have successfully been awarded against the seller and to not to bother returning if something goes wrong and I get a full refund. It’s happened a few times. So that part never worries me, I was more interesting in the quality

I bought one and it is a work of art, simply stunning with from memory 8 bearings. I've not used it as still waiting to sort out my carbon tube.

Yes James, but the seller is in Stoke: - mohammad yaser 19 Josiah Wedgwood Street Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire ST1 4DG So no customs issues to worry about as eBay will be on your side.

Still debating, anyone know what these Prusa Clones are like? https://ebay.us/z52Tnn

Thanks Bob, to some extent it has helped having a permanent peer as I can be up and running in 10 minutes, but I really feel it will help with my imaging especially with not having to polar align each session and it will shield the mount from the wind making guiding even better. Hopefully it will be all in place by late summer. ATB Bob.

Hi Steve, Yes I thought about collecting it in one go, but without a crane it would be impossible to get into my back garden.

Thanks Michael

Well After umming and arhhing for more than I should and weighing up the work involved in making a summerhouse obsy, I changed my mind and bought @Steve 1962 Pulsar 2.1m Dome: - I will have to wait to collect until the lockdown is over and will still need to be careful due to my wife's cancer treatment, but already quite looking forward and now need to plan things. Naturally when we go to collect it will need dis-assembling and I had rather hoped that I could leave the dome intact to get it into the rear garden, however taking some measurements it would appear not. On one side of my home there is a passage that is 87cm wide (not neighbour friendly) and on the other side it is 89cm wide, but it would mean taking it over the leanto shed, not too much of a problem but potential to damage the roof and/or the dome, below is an image of the problem: - There maybe another option to ask my neighbour (friendly side) if we could take the roof through his side and lift a fence panel up ( its our fence anyway), but because of the lockdown I can't fully evaluate that option So the question, how much of a headache will it be to dismantle the dome, Steve has it setup for automation so I realise that I may have to take careful measurements before hand, naturally I will have to separate the silicone gel sealant and unbolt it, will this be a major issue for those that have done this before? My son suggested that it might be better to hire a crane to come out and lift the whole lot over the roof, but personally I fear that would be a major expense. I have a few weeks yet at the earliest before we can collect, so I can organise with my builder to come and put a concrete base down around the pier. Next question is that I have no plans to change my pier (1.2m high+ Mount) that I had especially made, with my 10" RC on my 120EC it measures 228.6cm high and I believe that the maximum height for the 2.2 Pulsar is 247cm, I do plan in the future to go for a 12" Newtonian F3.8, which I am advised is 36cm wide and 1 metre long, so will that fit or am I better to have a 3 course layer of bricks in a circle made so that I can bolt the dome to that? There would be another advantage in that I can fit joist hangers between layers 2&3 and fit a suspended floor in to allow some air flow through some airbricks and allow my electrics underneath. The plan is to have this all complete by the end of August subject to the lockdown being lowered. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. BTW @Steve 1962 has been amazingly helpful with this purchase, ta Steve.

I designed an Access database for Targets and captures and it has proved invaluable this year

Sssh, she'll hear you Wim...lol

Thanks Wim, Mark and Bob, I think after spending so many hours processing it I became colour blind, even my wife mentioned that it looked green but I couldn't see it. Fresh pair of eyes this morning and your comments accompanied by my mate Peter and all I got from my wife was....told you so, you wouldn't believe me😳🙄😅

Scrub that one above Wim, it gave it a red cast, so here's it tweaked: - Does this look better?

Thanks Wim, Indeed I have only processed this in Pixinsight. I've tweaked it with SCNR and it made virtually no difference, so I dropped the green curve a tiny amount, would you say this is better?

I didn't realise when I started to capture this image just how beautiful and interesting it is, neither did I realise just how hard it would be with my skill set to process. I had to throw away about 3.5 hours of Lum data due to some horrible artefacts which my flats wouldn't remove. I don't think I have ever spent so much time on a subject, it really has challenged me with the processing as well. We had an unusual clear spell which allowed me over a period of a few weeks to get enough data, but then I was getting problems with hot pixels which was finally resolved by Rob on the PI forum, turns out the rejection algorithm wasn't doing what I had hoped it would. I've learnt even more new techniques, and I enjoyed the challenge. A total of over 19 hours image time and nearly the same processing. Captured from my Bortle 5 skies with my GSO/Atair 10" RC, iOptron 120EC Mount, Pegasus UPB, Moravian G2-8300 MkII CCD and Chroma 2" Unmounted Filters. Dates: March 24, 2020 , April 13, 2020 , April 14, 2020 , April 15, 2020 , April 16, 2020 Frames: Chroma Blue 2" unmounted: 27x390" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Blue 2" unmounted: 8x803" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Green 2" unmounted: 27x300" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Green 2" unmounted: 8x600" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Luminance 2" unmounted: 55x300" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Luminance 2" unmounted: 13x600" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Red 2" unmounted: 28x348" -20C bin 1x1 Chroma Red 2" unmounted: 8x696" -20C bin 1x1 Integration: 19.3 hours More details here: - https://www.astrobin.com/ve12oc/ Here's the Bumf: - NGC 3718, also called Arp 214, is a galaxy located approximately 52 million light years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It is either a lenticular or spiral galaxy. NGC 3718 has a warped, s-shape. This may be due to gravitational interaction between it and NGC 3729, another spiral galaxy located 150,000 light-years away. NGC 3718 is a member of the Ursa Major Cluster.

Hi Alan, Great minds think alike 🤪😁, I came across that last night and just downloaded it before seeing your post, it really looks very good. Thanks for your comments.

@vlaiv In my opinion it is not just down to specifications it is down to performance, one buys on the specification and expects a certain level of achievement, at just over £4K I knew that I would not be able to achieve any image unguided as the iOptron is not marketed in that way. I would be fairly comfortable imaging guided at 30 or even 40 minute subs and still produce good star shapes. Through last winter I imaged mostly at 20 minute subs in Bortle 5 skies with an SQM of 19.51 I experienced good guiding (it can always be better) but there was no way with a focal length of 2007mm that I could have achieved anything resembling an image unguided. The EC encoders on the RA help guiding immensely, but they were never designed to replace the need for guiding. In my experience with any sophisticated equipment the 80/20 rule comes into play, in the main most can achieve 80% out of their equipment but it takes a lot extra to get the remaining 20%. @andrew s The 120EC/EC2 does not suffer from any discernable backlash, indeed when I run PHD2 it does not report any measurable, it was one of the main selling points.

Unless you have owned an iOptron then this is hearsay.