Spaced Out

👍. I'd like to see this please, did it take much fiddling with spacing ? I use the MPCC I find it very good but it is a bit faffy getting it set up and spaced correctly.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with this and how it compares to the Baader MPCC ! 👍

My first ever attempt at the Milky Way using the star adventurer mini, just a bit of a test. 2 images blended, one for the sky (using SAM) and one for the foreground (with SAM turned off). Canon 5d Mk4 & Samyang 24mm F1.4 80 secs, ISO800, F2 It's a bit messy with some quick processing and light pollution but it has potential.

Hard to tell what it is tbh ! It's maybe a sort of fibre board, almost wood like, nicely made tho, feels like a quality item.

Here's some pics of mine, it came with a little dimmer dial.

The Lacerta panel is great and the dimmer works well. Really impressed with the build quality too, it's quite solid with no flaky wiring.

Here's an alternative. http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/ I have used cheap astrophotography and astronomiser in the past, both were good.

I went from crop sensor to full frame in order to reduce noise at higher ISO's in my MW shots. I used to use the same samyang (rokinon) 14mm lens with my 7d but anything above 1600 ISO gets noisy, I got a 6D and can shoot happily to 5000 ISO, which gets you a lot more detail too. Now have a 5D mk4 and again high ISO performance is way better than my 7D mk2 crop sensor. If full frame isn’t an option then you could try stacking images, I’ve done this with landscape MW photos before and it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rydg7JGTAbw&t=308s

Not done any darks with mine yet but I was going to put the camera in the fridge to do them. I figured it's very dark in there when the door is shut (reducing risk of any light leakage) and it's cool too.

I caught them during in my lockdown garden timelapse the other night. Did only see them towards the end as it was getting light but could that have been because they happened to be there at that particular time an not there for the rest of the time, or are they whizzing by constantly ? garden time lapse 2.mp4

Looks useful ! I'm going to try this, thanks.

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on with this. I was considering purchasing this for DSO imaging, but have been put off by worrying about maintaining critical collimation, especially as I would be moving the telescope back indoors after every session (no obs). https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5881_TS-Optics-6--f-4-UNC-Newtonian-Telescope---Carbon-Tube---made-in-Germany.html

I've used a flocked camping mat for a couple of years, recently ordered one of these tho. I have agreed a delay in dispatch until things start returning to normal with the virus stuff. It doesn’t get properly dark here in the summer months anyway so I am in no big rush to get it. https://www.astromaniaoptics.com/astromania-flexible-dew-shield-for-telescope-front-outer-diameter-from-148-167mm-diameter-keep-dew-away-and-gives-you-clear-observing-for-entire-night-p0211.html

My 600D wouldn't do APT live view with "face detection" mode enabled. Maybe check this setting and disable ?

Welcome to SGL ! So..... Maybe the 600mm is a bit too heavy for that mount ? A longer focal length will magnify any little errors too. For DSO's I normally use fairly high ISO and stack to reduce noise, 100 ISO is very low to pick up detail of faint objects even with 2 min exposures. For example when I use my 6D with a lens at f4 I use ISO 1600 for 2 minute exposures. When I used to use a DSLR with my F5 telescope I used ISO between 800-1600 for 10 minute exposures of galaxies. What f. do you use ? Of course wide open lets in the most light but I usually stop down one or two stops to increase star sharpness with most of my lenses. For framing I use maximum ISO and short exposures (maybe 10-20 secs) to get stuff where I want it before running the actual images.

+1 for Rother Valley Optics, used them a lot and find them very good. Also FLO and TS Optics are very good too.

Thanks. I tried this using the index wizard thing but kept getting that warning. Uninstalled and reinstalled, same problem, just locks up and won't let me do anything at all. Did this a few times with no success. Strangely, when I logged out off the PC and then logged back in with a different user account it all ran OK ? I have two accounts on the PC so I am just using the second one now instead, I installed the indexes no probs and it seems to work OK so far. I wonder why it works fine for one user but not the other ?

It won't let me ? Just to clarify, I've downloaded ASPS only. I've opened it and gone to the index wizard thingy to try and get the correct indexes but it just keeps giving me that error message and won't calculate the FOV when I enter focal length/pixel info etc. Should I have downloaded something else (perhaps full indexes ?) alongside the ASPS download to make it work ? Thanks

Hi Can anyone help please. I've loaded PS2 no probs but I am having problems with ASPS. I have downloaded it OK but when I open it to set it up I get error messages about database files. Any ideas where I am going wrong ? Thanks

Hi All I'm trying to download ASPS to use with APT. I'm a bit stuck and keep getting this unable to open database error. All I've managed to do so far is to download ASPS and open it, then I get this error message. If I try to the index installation wizard it won't work even tho I've entered all of the correct info regarding my camera and focal length. Can someone please tell me where I am going wrong. Thanks

Looks great. I'd like to do this but I know nothing about 3D printing. If I just give that file to someone who has a 3D printer can they produce it for me and will it be scaled correctly ? Thanks

Agreed ! I use it with CDC and APT too, it's excellent. 👍

Is that a home made or shop bought dew shield ? Looks tidy ! I'm using a DIY flocked camping mat at the moment. I just bought an astrozap shield for my 200 PDS, it fits well and seems solid and well made, I'd like something similar for the 130 PDS if I could find it.

+1.... I agree, the MPCC works well for me too. Mine needed a little bit of initial setting up (just a few test shots) to get the correct spacing but that was easy enough to do.

Yeah I had some minor 'pacman' stars before I cut down the focuser tube.