geeklee

Stunning Mike, super crisp image and the full disc was great to view at 100%

Great first light report and even better you got to share those initial wow moments too. Plenty more to come I'm sure 😀

Lovely image @Adam1234

Interesting thread @johninderby I have to agree, I find it challenging at times when looking things up or referencing stuff. A staggering amount of knowledge without doubt and when I do reference them I get lost (in a good way) reading surrounding sections/pages... but it's not used as often as some of my quick reference lunar books. as @andrew s mentioned, it was clear this wasn't quick reference on purchase 😁

Love it and I hope it meets all the design expectations! Given all your constraints it's a really impressive approach over the traditional obsy builds👍 🙂 It does look a heavy load to lift that top half as you mention!

Further confirmed here 👍 https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440p/

As you mentioned, the SS is the key. If you have two with this, they should be USB3 (this is backed up by the additional device manager items) I have an older laptop that has some USB3 ports (not blue) marked with SS and these have been fine for two different USB3 cameras running high frame rate and also long exposure. As with all astro stuff though... best to test it all out.

All the previews looked fine for each sub, just varying light pollution. You weren't stacking NEOWISE in DSS recently and there's some settings still changed from doing comets? I threw the whole lot into APP and just said "Go" effectively. I got a nice image out the other end (just APP's DDP stretch, no processing for LP etc):

Awesome images Mike. Excellent, sharp detail... can hardly tell it's been processed. A cracker at 100%.

Something still doesn't seem quite right. This is a well known, matched FF/FR with a clear, documented back focus requirement of 55mm (little more with filter in path to sensor). What about taking things out of the equation next - filter wheel (add appropriate spacing back to 55mm).. and even the FF/FR (to check an image straight from scope only) It seems such a common route you've taken with the ZWO image chain and SW FF/FR... in theory what you did first should have been fine (maybe tiny tweaks later)

@Adam1234 You've got a pretty definitive answer from @MarkAR but I wanted to check the measurements as I've put two cameras on my 80ED with SW FR/FR and been a little liberal with spacing on a mono with filters and seen nothing like the above. Even seeing some other pictures of incorrect spacing in the past has shown minor trails. The SW FF/FR seems pretty plug and play on small to mid size sensors. Your description and measurements sound absolutely spot on and based on ZWO's guidance. Here's my OSC this time, that needs 55mm spacing. Does the 48.5mm distance mark look the same as your 49.5mm (that takes into account the filter with ZWO guidance for wheel)? FR/FF look the same? Just belt and braces...

A victim of your earlier success! Comparing your earlier image (I just jumped back to it again - it's a peach!), the data might not have quite been there this time (like you mentioned). Old Vs New (1:1) Did you have a process for the wavelets that you copied for this one? You've still got some nice detail in the new one 👍

New equipment and all green on the forecast - how unusual! 😁

It's an interesting camera, high resolution and those small pixels should hold up well for lunar and planetary (although USB2?). There are definitely many ways to acquire and process. I've used a smaller chip (USB3) and a slightly bigger one (USB3) and the resolution/bit depth obviously makes a big difference to capture speeds even with an SSD drive at the end. I usually put my output file from SharpCAp through PIPP to debayer, convert to grayscale, sometimes Region Of Interest, output in uncompressed AVI. Feed this smaller file into AS!3.

Those are good numbers, I definitely get mixed results with what I can take from AS!3. I usually fire off a mix depending how the graph looks and when the drop off goes below 25%. With some batches, I need to get one with some stuff closer to 50% so I can stack plenty of frames. Not sure if you've selected an application already for the mosaic but I've found Microsoft's free Image Composite Editor (ICE) very good. Give yourself a generous overlap as AS!3 likes to crop a little bit too. Bonus!

That's a lovely image, you should definitely be pleased with that. Doesn't look over processed either. Did you stack a sub set of frames in AS!3 as it rated them? (just the best xx%/X out of 900 for example)

Assuming the clamp is tightened so the scope and gear is secure, you've got a nice lip on the rendering above - perhaps make that slightly bigger? This should mean if it's picked up from either end, the top won't slide as the lip will stop it. Picking it up another way or a steeper angle would of course introduce the worries you have. If you go down the route above and as you build something, it might be more obvious what you can do and you'll find the right balance for each scenario.

Nicely put together so quickly and I like the accurate looking scope setup too - nice touch. The only thing I still see as a potential challenge is that back portion where the filter wheel would rest on. Getting that absolutely spot on so it doesn't create any undue pressure against the camera train looks tricky. The foam lining in the "U" shape would take up some slack of course ... and this might do it. I see a lot of digital calipers and sandpaper in your future 😉 I wonder if having the mid support, front support and then just a shaped foam block under a section at the back. Being all foam, there would be support but not too much resistance.

Fascinating landscape of galaxies captured in that frame, brilliant. I've not brought in as much colour as your initial image, but did the basics - background extraction, RGB combine, colour calibration, SCNR, small-med stretch of each, LRGB combine, cosmetic tweaks (colour, bright stars). It's the solved image that really highlights just what's in the frame: Thanks for sharing the data.

Some good ideas there and I definitely have the same goal/approach. There may be some more people pop up with tips and ideas. I'm not sure if most non-obsy folk fully tear down each night or not.

I think it's trying to be on level pegging with them though. I've had a copy for a year or so due to it's one off price, updates and "very generous similarities" with the aforementioned products.

It's that long train off the back of the scope that had me worried trying to pack fully away in foam. I was worried about any unnecessary movement on the focuser and trying to get that filter wheel etc snug each time while not bending something or snagging something. You'd have be super careful it was sitting right each time and nothing was applying undue pressure on something. I'm maybe being overly cautious though.

It sounds very similar. The closest I've come to full packing in boxes was splitting it in two. The scope, guidescope (piggy packed), cables, power box etc in one box and the imaging train (flattener, camera etc) connected but packed away in a separate one . Then connecting these each time. I wasn't a big fan of this. My current scope is a SW Evostar 80ED so I think length of whole train (with focuser in) was looking almost a metre like yourself (with padding included etc). Funnily enough it's now in "summer mode" with almost the described split above, expect the scope etc is on the alt-az mount (AZEQ6 is packed away separately) in the "dust shelter" and the camera is packed away.

Definitely in the same predicament @teoria_del_big_bang . I've been muddling through but with vulnerable scope laid out with a dust cover in a place with foot traffic. I have tended to "leave out" like this if the weather is looking like a good spell of several days (so, rarely!) and I have a more permanent "dust shelter" with another tripod and alt-az mount head. I attach the scope and whole imaging stuff to this the rest of the time. It's not great though. I've bought pick and pluck foam and i have tried a few case options but the size always gets me - it's the length usually and then the height 😅 I just realise it'll be a fairly BIG box if I can get the right size and then I have to find somewhere for THAT. I've pushed this back to a summer project to give it more thought... unfortunately that's coming up fast now so this thread is well timed. That would be quite exciting opening those boxes each session..... or just any time to be honest 😀

Absolutely stunning @CCD Imager Thanks for sharing.