Derbyshire Dave

The moon over Florence Cathedral. Tried a few compositions but liked this one centred on one of the crosses on the side chapel.. Single exposure processed in Photoshop, Canon M5, 150mm, f10 1/125 second hand held.

Agreed, truly beautiful

Yes, focal length in PHD2 is set correctly, but your comment has made me wonder whether the guide star tracking parameters are correct? This is the set up for the LX200 1260mm FL.. For my GT81 with reducer (focal length main scope 380 mm, guide scope 300mm) I have Should my guide star tracking parameters be significantly different because my FL is significantly different?

Enable Server is definitely ticked..

Re-calibrated the guiding, started PHD2 but did not start it looping. Started the SGPro sequence.. this started PHD2 into looping mode, I watched it auto choose a star, and then start guiding. Unfortunately this wasn't communicated back to SGP, or SGP did not register the fact, and so it just sat there saying:- And the sequence never started. BUT -when I went into PHD and stopped the looping, SGP immediately recognixed this and stopped the sequence.. Unbelieveable

Yeah, I definitately have. Just been out and tried with the GT81 gear, it did work, but only after a sunstancial re-calibration. As I understand it, each calibration should be maintained as you change PHD2 profiles. So, LX200 is back on the mount, I'll do a complete re-cal, followed by a guiding assistant. Then try again.

Good thought. I did the refresh, the name was correct. Interestingly SGP opened PHD2 to do that, so there must be communications between the two. Setting up outside now with the GT81 setup, I'll report back. Appreciate your help

Sure.. Appreciate you asking.. The SGP LX200 profile looks like this.. (Guiding tab first) ( I have tried with and without dither) Under PHD settings, I have this..LX200_OAG is the correct PHD2 profile Other tabs are..

My usual telescope is a William Optics GT81, which I use with a ZWO ASI120mc guide camera and a separate guide scope. For galaxy season, I am now using a Meade LX200 SCT with a ZWO 174mm as the guide camera on an off axis guider. Gear other than that is the same ZWO ASI183mm mono cooled camera, ZWO EFW filter wheel, Losmandy GM8 mount. I have controlled the the GT81 setup with SGPro and the GT81 for a couple of years now, and had no issues, SGPro controls PHD2 properly, starting and stopping the guiding process correctly. It's taken me a while to get used to the LX200, and originally I controlled it with APT (Astro Photography Tool). But have now migrated to SGPro. I have separate PHD2 profiles for the two telescopes, and separate SGP equipment profiles, the guiding part of which calls up the relevant PHD2 profile. If I start PHD2 stand alone, with the LX200 profile , the guiding works fine. But if start the SGP sequence (with the right SGP Profile), it slews to near the target correctly, plate solves for the auto centre process, then says "Starting Auto Guider".. but it never does, and the sequence doesn't start. It does the same whether the guiding has been already been started independantly or not. If PHD is alread stared I can see that it is actually guiding correctly, so it's not an issue that it can't find a star or anything like that. It seems purely to be an issue of the two programs not communicating. I haven't yet reverted to trying the GT81 setup, I'll try that next time out (maybe tonight!) Has anyone any suggestions as to how to diagnose, or fix the problem.. Thanks Dave

Thanks, I haven't got it, but I could download it. Thanks forthe tip Martin

Thanks Martin. I hadn't heard of CCD inspector. I'm not sure I have spotted a reflection source, just that if you are off centre in anyway, you can see that sort of circle. Can't see that I can do anything about them, will try and see if I can reduce the droop, if that's what it is.. Probably going to do a daytime test tomorrow, removing the focuser and see if I can adjust and get focus with the 'peg' mirror focuser. Same thread on both, so that will work. Just a little bit of extra infornation to the jigsaw.

if I look down the back of the reducer, with my eye slightly off center, I can circular surface akin to what might be appearing in the picture, so yes there are..

Thanks Olly. I've never done this sort of thing before. My usual setup is a GT81 with a parallel guide scope. I can believe what you say, if I look down the back of the reducer, with my eye slightly off center, I can circular surface akin to what might be appearing in the picture. I have a fundamental problem, but if I shorten things a lot, will I not have an incorrect back focal length

I have a Meade Lx200, and a Celestron f6.3 reducer, connected to my ZWO ASI183 camera via some spacers and an off axis guider. I get weird circular marks on the images, which appear to be some sort of reflections. There are several of these ‘circles’ of varying intensities in the image below. Tackling different targets results in these circles being seen at different points and intensities in the image. So the equipment is: Meade Lx200, with two stage focuser attached, Celestron f6.3 reducer Some spacers ZWO OAG2 off axis guider ZWO EFW filter wheel ZWO ASI 183mm mono camera. Guide camera is a ZWO 174 With the F6.3 reducer I believe that the back focal distance is 105mmm. I have tried various arrangements with distances from about 115 down to the latest, below, which has a back focus of about 95mm. I have tried so many iterations that I am beginning to confuse myself, but I think I tried without the OAG and had no circles. I have tried removing the prism from the OAG, and taping up the hole to stop light entry, but in that case I still get the circles. I am unsure how close the OAG should be to the filter wheel, but realistically it can’t go any closer because the holder for the guide camera is very nearly touching the filter wheel already. I was wondering if any of you has seen anything like this, and can offer any advice on how I might try and track down this problem..

Whoops, meant to add the jpg, not tif.

Thanks for the opportunity to have a go with this data guys. Processing started in PixInsight, some noise reduction using MLT with a starmask on each layer, and then layers each stretched to a similar extent using the histogram tool. Channels combined using channel combination. This RGB image, Ha and luminance files (all stretched) saved as TIFF files for use in PS. Main RGB image colour balanced in PS, then Ha added a an RGB layer in screen mode. Luminance then added, a final tiny bit of star reduction, tiny bit of selective sharpening on the core. Thanks for looking.. M33LumDFPost.tif

Congratulations to the winners, wonderful results, an inspiration to us all.

HI, Thanks again for the great data.. Here's my shot... Processed primarily in PixInsight, including MLT for noise reduction, and combination with SHO_AIP script. Luminance layer created from Ha. Finished off in Photoshop..

Thanks Martin. Having looked at this again, I think I have an issue with boosting the blue too much. I'm trying to track that dwon at the moment.. 🙃

Yeah, I agree, a mosaic would be a great chane ofr us all to improve our skills.

The tadpoles Nebula, IC410. Taken from my home in Derbyshire, on the William Optics GT81, ZWO ASI 183MM Pro. 35xHa, 32xoiii, 23xSii, all at 5 minutes. Combined with darks and flats in DSS, Processed primarily in PixIsight, finished off in Photoshop.

The Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 Taken last month from my home in Derbyshire. I know that the Crescent generally gets framed dead centre, but I wanted to try out a more quirky composition and pick up on some of the interesting nebulosity in the region in the rest of the frame.. Five minute exposures, 38Ha, 25Oiii and 23Sii. Stacked with flats and darkflats in DSS, processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.. William Optics GT81 with field flattener, ZWO ASI 183MM cooled camera, Losmandy GM8 mount, guiding with PHD2 via ZWO 120mc.

Hi, Wonderful data, thank you so much.. Processed this primarily in PixInsight, finished off in Photoshop. Images from the three filters were sretched and then made starless with Starnet. Combined using SHO_AIP script, to a coloured starlesss image. Luminance layer created from the Ha alone. Coloured and luminance layers converted to Tiff format and combined in Photoshop. Bit of colour adjustment and a tiny bit of selective sharpening added.

Hi, I've been really imressend with the recent Crescent and M16 data, and have enjoyed having a go at it. I think it would be really useful to a lot of people to release some LRGB data on popular targets such as M31, M81/M82 and M45. Maybe not even a competition, but there must be a lot of members who are not yet doing narrowband, to whom having some good LRGB data would be very welcome..

Hi, Thanks for sharing the data, it's excellent. Processing started off in Pixinsight with star alignment, channel combination and some basic histogram stretching as 32 bit data. Then switched to Photoshop. Added a threshold layer and used the color sampler to find the darkest point of the image, then used that to help balance the colour channels. A little bit of HLVG to tone down the green, then added a hubble palette tweak with selective colour. Stretching using curves. Tiny tad of selective sharpening on the main nebula.