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Uranium235

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Everything posted by Uranium235

  1. Uranium235

    I nominate myself muppet of the week... left the DSLR on AV... doh!

    1. Ibbo!

      Ibbo!

      :happy8:

       

  2. Uranium235
    Not to worry, I'll be super careful. It should be easy compared to the 200pds, thats always been a bit of handfull to get down the garden fully loaded.
  3. Uranium235
    lol... well spotted! The main dovetail is long enough for me to mount the finderguider underneath at the front end. That will also help balance the whole rig... its quite a compact (and surpisingly heavy) lump now.
  4. Uranium235
    Now updated with the legendary Samyang/Rokinon 135 f2..... its going to be quite a combination: A total of 16 elements class glass.
  5. Uranium235

    Samyang 135 f2..... Phwoarr!!

    1. Alien 13

      Alien 13

      Have you got one?, Im jealous its a lovely bit of kit...

    2. Uranium235

      Uranium235

      Yep :) got it yesterday - getting first light tonite!

  6. Uranium235

    Guiding tonite!

    1. Show previous comments  6 more
    2. PhotoGav

      PhotoGav

      Yes, I sorted the Star 71, though I haven't tested it, but it was obviously wobbly and is now solid, so will be fine. The new altair scope has replaced the old SW 80ED. It seems lovely and the autofocus is working well, pausing guiding while running it and everything is fine when starting up again. So, happy days!

      What you on?

    3. Uranium235

      Uranium235

      Im cooking up an "ultra pelcian"... 8 solid hours of Ha to really give it the beans. Just running the data through Ps now.... its looking really clean.

    4. PhotoGav

      PhotoGav

      Beautiful - nothing beats loads and loads of data. It also makes it much easier to process. I look forward to seeing the finished bird!

  7. Uranium235

    Starting to get cloud rage.... grrrr.

    1. PhotoGav

      PhotoGav

      Don't worry... Clear skies are on their way back now. With perfect timing too - the claggy cloud has been over the Full Moon, but we will all be enjoying perfect conditions for the coming New Moon.

      At least, that's what my therapist has suggested I keep repeating to myself....

      Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

    2. Uranium235

      Uranium235

      Well, if it isn't tomorrow - I might get some clear sky on mon/tue. But that's going to be a long, boring  weekend  in between... bah! 

  8. Uranium235
    I've already considered the tripod being titled, but ruled it out. And Im also thinking bad PA cant be a cause either, otherwise it would show rather quickly while imaging @ 1000mm (even when guiding). Not unless youre talking about just a small error being a potential cause. Next time im out (whenever that may be!) I'll run another test to see if I can replicate the error.
  9. Uranium235
    Just to further add to the mystery, I had the 200pds out last night and it had exactly the same issue (key stars didnt match up with artemis markers post flip).
  10. Uranium235

    Hmmm... 8" or the 71 tonite... cant decide!

    1. Alien 13

      Alien 13

      Has to be the 71 but I am biased.

    2. Uranium235

      Uranium235

      lol... well its all academic now as its been cloudy since I put the scope out (typical!). I'll give it another hour then give up.

  11. Uranium235
    Nah, it didnt touch the mount Im pretty certain of that ... touch wood that will never happen (well, not unless I fall asleep during an imaging run!). It might be worth me checking if the tripod is completely level, to try and eliminate all possibilities so to speak - though I doubt that would be the case, I triple checked it in setting it up after its trip to SGL XII.
  12. Uranium235
    This is the area I was imaging FWIW:
  13. Uranium235
    Cant have been flex mate, that Star71 is rock solid and held in the vice like grip of an ADM saddle.... Hang on... I'll just pop downstairs and see if a cable snag occurred (though highly unlikely as all cables are velcroed up)..... Nope... no detectable rotation in the camera from when I set it up.... hmm Im stumped!
  14. Uranium235
    Thats what I thought.... that proper mount calibration eliminates cone error. I realign the image by storing the current position in the handset and marking key stars in artemis (no plate solving here!). Flip the mount by doing another goto on the stored position, then line (or attempt to) up the marked stars with a rotated output in artemis (it has a rotate 180 function).... except I found that the stars didnt line up quite right becuase the image was slightly rotated. In the end I settled for an "average" closeness to the markers so I wasnt losing too much. But the flip needed to be done as I was imaging at the zenith and the camera was quite close to colliding with the mount. If I had being imaging towards the south (ie: Orion) I would have been ok to let it go perhaps four or five hours past the meridian as there is no danger of collision. Odd thing is, I didnt have anywhere near the same amount of rotation with Cygnus - and that was a 16 panel mosaic!
  15. Uranium235
    I couldnt be sky curvature near the zenith could it? I mean, it was a fairly wide FOV as I was shooting with the Star71 + 383.
  16. Uranium235
    It doesnt take much of a twist to cause it, you have to check very, very carefully. I know this because I had exactly the same issue which was only cleared up by ensuring all four vanes were perfectly straight.
  17. Uranium235
    I was pretty sure in setting up the camera beforehand though.... I usually eye up the edge of the camera body to the flat base of the dovetail to square it up (easy since the 383 is a square camera). I normally know whether ive got it right while calibrating the mount becuase the stars always move parallel to the crosshairs in artemis when Im making adjustments.
  18. Uranium235
    Ahhh I see, so fairly unavoidable then in most cases. Its not a massive loss mind, but one panel was taken pre-flip - the other post flip and the overlapping edge is the short one. I ended up with roughly a 5 degree rotation, and managed to reduce the loss by stitching the panels together then rotating the whole image back by 2 degrees. It probably also didnt help that the area im imaging is near the zenith.
  19. Uranium235
    Theres probably an obvious technical answer to this one, but would anyone be able to enlighten me as to why I get some rotation after a meridian flip? It been bothering me for a little while now, its not serious mind... but just a little annoying that I end up cropping/losing a bit of the frame when putting together mosaics.
  20. Uranium235
    The double diffraction spikes have been caused by having one of your spider vanes slightly twisted. Flexure of the tube on a 130pds is quite minimal due to its size. Check your spider vanes carefully, and tweak as required. Its easy to accidentally twist them when collimating but should take no more than a few min to fix.
  21. Uranium235

    Guiding tonite!

  22. Uranium235

    Clear skies all evening?... yea right... my foot!

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Ibbo!

      Ibbo!

      I have the 71 up and running now on 1499

      also being a slightly greedy chap have the C11 with reducer on NGC7662

       

    3. Uranium235

      Uranium235

      Heh :)  theres no kill like overkill

    4. Ibbo!

      Ibbo!

      LOL

      :biggrin:

  23. Uranium235

    Made EAPOD (yayy!) :)

     

    1. Robp

      Robp

      Congratulations, that image deserved it.

  24. Uranium235
    Youre probably looking at a camera lens then.... but thats going to be pricey. Fortunately, 2nd my Star71 turned out to be alright - but only when its perfectly focused. If im a bit off or I leave it to drift on a cold night then the corners do suffer.
  25. Uranium235
    I assume you ment "size" and not "side". Theyre M4, drill an M3 or M3.5 hole (personally I go for M3 for a better thread) then tap it out with an M4 tap (tap sets can be gotten from B&Q). Also its better if you have access to a bench drill (dont do it by hand!) to get a nice straight hole. Then, you can nick a thumbscrew off a barlow or other EP accessory (as theyre all M4).
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