Vroobel

Well, I changed mind and rearranged it again, but nothing significant. 🙂 The postman left my another parcel at wrong address. Anyway, thanks to @paul mc c I have 5th setup equipped with a Losmandy plate, now it's my 102ED F/11 planet killer. I had to enlarge two holes to adapt the plate to M6 thread at tube rings.

Finally satisfied. 😁

... unless it's turned off in the mount config tab. I do it often when work on my projects at home, so no stars - no plate solve.

Did I? I don't remember... 🤔🙂 Thanks. I changed idea and swapped the EAF with the guider, so I'm waiting for another 2GT belt now. 😁

Thanks for the info, I will look at the soldering iron too. 👍 I also work on my project, hopefully finished now. I got 2GT pulley and timing belt to drive a focusing ring of my Sigma 40mm F/1.4 Art lens.

You have to buy a precise soldering iron and a dedicated microscope. 😏

One of many from Liverpool.

One of many pictures.

I was doing polar alignment and preparing for another session of the Lion Nebula. I was disgusted when I saw clouds. No, again? But the clouds were strange. Reddish? Pinkish? 🤔 Then I realised that it must be the announced geomagnetic storm. I never saw the aurora, so the first time is the one which I should remember all life.

Liverpool...

Something like that? 😊

Did you think about a Hercules 1.25" wedge? https://a.aliexpress.com/_EGpC8Ld It's probably the cheapest wedge. It contains a ND3.8 or 3.0 filter inside a top barrel. I replaced it with 1.25" Solar Continuum, but didn't tried this filter yet. The wedge is really decent IMHO. They also offer a CaK version.

That makes sense, thanks. I've never met this problem because I always do the PA as best as I can. 🙂

Could you please explain why? IMHO, any drift brings exactly what the dithering does. BTW, I do it only when my setup is undersampling, but 1 per every 3 x 300s (300s Ha, 300s SII, 300s OIII) or so.

Did you check if your floor is leveled? I did, I had to use an old Dobsonian round base plate and level it before I started.

I already checked the tilt. My ASI2600MC Pro has a tilt adjuster, whatever I do with it, the illumination stays the same. My conclusion is that this change doesn't affect the position of illuminated area. It changes when I loose two screws holding the focuser, then the heavy camera, MPCC and filter drawer pull the focuser down. The sensor moves significantly then. I hope it's clearer now.

Please let me join the thread. I'm also a bit experienced in this hobby. Moreover, I thought I could properly collimate my budget Bresser Messier 10" F/5 Newtonian. I use a Farpoint triple collimation kit. https://www.astroshop.eu/laser-pointers/farpoint-laser-pointers-650nm-cheshire-autocollimator-2-set/p,61481 A while ago I performed some modifications: a primary mirror mask and a focuser frame to make it stiffer on the thin tube: Let's check if I do what I should do. Before I played with the collimation kit I used a string with a small load hanging in the middle of a central hole of a spider (with the secondary mirror unscrewed) to find whether the spider was placed perfectly over the ring mark. Unfortunately, it wasn't, the load hung rather over an edge of the ring than over its middle. It may happen that the mark wasn't placed perfectly in the middle of the primary mirror. I can use two pairs of four screws outside the Newtonian tube to pull the spider towards one of the four directions which causes the load hangs over the middle of the mark, but pairs of opposite arms of the spider are no longer in line then. It makes awful spikes which I cannot accept. I suspect that axes of pairs of holes used for screwing the spider aren't perpendicular. Taking the opportunity that the secondary mirror is unscrewed, I used the laser collimator to check whether the beam is perpendicular to the tube axis. Yes, it is. Moreover, the beam passes through the string which means it passes through the tube axis. I use a laser collimator to adjust the secondary mirror to aim the laser beam at a ring mark in the middle of the primary mirror. If it does, I adjust the primary mirror using a Cheshire collimator to see the mark inside a reflective ring placed at the end of the Cheshire collimator tube. Of course, I try to keep the offset, but it's not perfect. Then I use the laser collimator again to check if the beam comes back to its central point. OK, it looks like the scope is collimated pretty well, let's take a flat frames then. This is how the flat frame looks like: OK, so I used the secondary mirror collimation screw to find the best flat frame. I already know that the primary mirror is collimated pretty well. After plenty of attempts finally, I reached a perfect flat frame: Then I used the laser collimator again to check what I made worse... Well, the laser beam no longer aims at the ring mark and of course, it no longer comes back the the collimator central point. Why does it happen? Is the primarily performed collimation proper? Maybe the even illumination is more important? I'm curious about your opinion. I'm going to do a star test ASAP, this should give me the most trustful answer.

Both USB C fully support USB 3 Gen 2, so excluding the powering if one is for that purpose, you have 2 x USB A 3.2 (Gen 1 and Gen 2), 1 x USB 2.0 and 1x USB C Gen 2

The Mele 4C 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD seems very good, Cuiv the Lazy Geek reviewed it. Amazon has a bargain now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MeLE-J4125-Computer-Portable-Ethernet/dp/B09TKM8VGT/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Jk602&content-id=amzn1.sym.f4bf6248-c25e-4846-ab32-07f8b3e1cc4d%3Aamzn1.symc.afd86303-4a72-4e34-8f6b-19828329e602&pf_rd_p=f4bf6248-c25e-4846-ab32-07f8b3e1cc4d&pf_rd_r=CCCNPE8M9DSCYZNGAW00&pd_rd_wg=k7dyo&pd_rd_r=e5c16519-1874-4b92-adcb-af857eab5508&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m I'm not sure about it's powering. It works with USB C Power Distribution (PD), but I prefer just a simple 12V DC 5.5/2.1mm socket. I would buy it, but have other priorities now.

How to do it? Can I do it with masterBias files as well? For different cameras? 🙂

Thanks John for the tip regarding tolerance. I learn every day. 😊 There is also another way to add files with e.g. different exposure time by adding custom files. You can cheat a bit and declare that the files have other parameters then in fact they have.

I can recommend ASTAP if you are interested in free software. It can stack your all multi-night data with flats if you do them after each session. Be aware that flats allow shadow removal (related to dust on your lens/mirror or filter if you use any), so I can recommend doing them every time. Also, ASTAP offers plate solving and gives quite realistic colours.

The main part is called EL (electroluminescent) foil and I think you can buy it. There is also a powered from 12V power supply. This flat field panel sold by @steppenwolf looks like homemade, so ask him please for details. A few years ago I made a DIY flat field panel which I'm not sure if is fully OK for my 10" Newtonian. I made it using an LED kitchen ceiling lamp which is much different than the EL foil - the EL light is really flat.

The biggest flat field panel I ever had, thanks to steppenwolf. 🤩

Indeed, very nice picture. 😍