Chefgage

I thought I had already watched this. But it was the episode Life on Venus. Which was the one recorded in secret before the news broke about Venus. Really worth a watch.

Finally!!!! It's been delivered after an 8 week wait. Typically now there is cloud for the next week.

The stacked image almost always looks worse than one of your single images. This does not mean that something has gone wrong, DSS (if that's what you are using for stacking) has just stacked the images together and has not done any processing of the stacked image. What it looks like is your red, green and blue colour channels are not aligned so the image has that blue/green look to it. I don't know what software you are using to process but if it's Photoshop or GIMP (what I use) then the process to align the channels is easy to do. When the image is loaded you need to change the histogram setting to show RGB instead of the default (in GIMP) setting of luminance. Then you can see all three channels and how much they are out of align. Then change each colour channel sliders until all three are lined up. If you google colour balance using GIMP you will see examples of this. As you further process you may need to re-align the channels or make one colour more prominent than the others depending on how you want the image to look.

I would say scale it right back. A tripod, camera and a wide field lens say 18mm. Short length exposures (plenty of them) and you will at least get something worth while. Scaling it up a bit try a star adventurer pro. I started out with this (still use it). It can be left set up with your camera and lens mounted in it. Polar alignment takes less than a minute when you get used to it. So you can be out and set up in no time at all. Get plenty of data then process when you get chance ( which I appreciate might be some time later).

Enjoy I remember when I first tried my new BST's , the sight at the eyepiece compared to the stock eyepieces that came with the scope was brilliant.

This scope would usually be used with a diagonal and then an eyepiece to gain focus when observing visually. For photography you will not use the diagonal obviously but will still need an adapter to gain focus. The idea is to use a field flattener/reducer for this purpose. Skywatcher do a dedicated field flattener (0.8 reducer) but another cheaper method is to use an OVL field flattener (no reducer). I use the OVL type and can then gain focus using a camera.

I was looking at clear sky app and various others I use. I see plenty of clear sky for the next few nights. Right I think to myself, time to put all the recent testing of the ASIAIR, guide scope, polar aligning using the guide scope etc.. into practice. Then it suddenly dawned on me, maybe not the best time to be out with all the fireworks going off. So I think I will wait until the weekend is over. Probably be a few weeks of cloud then

I use rechargeables in mine. They are the 2000mAh version. Seems to work ok for me.

Watch this video. At the 5.12 mark he explains how to measure the focuser barrel to gain focus. I was having problems focusing mine with a zwo120mm mini guide camera attached. Followed his measurements and it was then perfectly focused. https://youtu.be/2oiTVGA2zIs

Nice image. Still waiting the delivery of my lens. About 7 weeks now!

A few points and I am sorry if this sounds patronising (that is not how it's meant to sound). How tight is the clutch ring?, if this is really tight when imaging it can effect the tracking. Daft one, but is the button set to North (assuming you are in the northern hemisphere). Another daft one, is the rotary button set to the star setting (in the dark I have momentarily set this wrong).

Hopefully this will solve your problem. Never had a problem with mine using long exposures and 5 second intervals.

Thanks for that. Looks pretty much what I was after.

I have a asiair pro that I would like to mount to my 1.25" skywatcher tripod legs. The asiair pro has a dovetail type mount. Anyone done this or know of a mount/plate combination that could achieve this. I am trying to keep the weight down on my star adventurer pro mount.

I get the same with my canon 75mm to 300mm lens (it's the EF 4-5.6 version). This got a lot worse when I modified the camera (lots of red halos). The issue goes away when a telescope is used instead of the lens. From what I have read it's common with cheaper lenses.

Very nice images. Well worth the drive to the cottage.

Excellent image. I am looking forward to using my Ha filter a lot more in the coming months.

As a cheap alternative I use to use a duvet cover.

You can guide with the star adventurer.

M31 using the star adventurer, Canon 200D with CLS light pollution filter and Skywatcher 72ED. Lights 102 Darks 20 Bias 50 ISO 1600 Exposure 50 seconds.

A good starting point would indeed be the star adventurer on a good solid tripod. Check out the star adventurer thread for examples of what can be done using it.

My first go at M31 was taken from a bortle 3 or 4 sky while we were away camping. This one is from my house which is in a bortle 8 ish sky. Lights 102 Darks 20 Bias 50 ISO 1600, Exposure 50 seconds. Taken using a Canon 200D with CLS light pollution filter, Star adventurer pro mount and Skywatcher 72ED telescope. Stacked in DSS and processed using GIMP.

Stunning image. I am just about to post my M31, not quite in the same league as yours

It was a quick turn around as well. Sent it on the Thursday and it was back on the Wednesday 6 days later.

Just had my Canon modified by Astronomiser a couple of months ago.