Vroobel

The only thing to complain 😁😇 it's a little bit too bright, I mean the OIII bright areas. 

That's sad, some people aren't honest. 

It can be fixed. You have to find a good welder who can weld aluminium.  Below is an example of how the aluminium can be welded.

Good luck. 🤞

Oh, yes, that's impressive! 🤩

I like your golden Ha.

Thanks for that. I would consider the QIDI Max3 though it's not as big printing surface as I thought about for one purpose related to a kind of business. 

It's a nice picture, though the central star is missing.  Did it happen during post-processing?

Also, if you use a mono camera and e.g. SHO for the nebulosity and RGB for stars, then you can stack them together and the benefit is that you don't need to align the stars after auto-crop. Using the L-eXtreme and any LPS filter, If you want to capture stars separately, just stack them in another run and use a Dynamic Alignment, it's awesome.

I think nothing is wrong and it's a common thing (I also have it). In my opinion, unless you define a filter wheel - as I understand, only EFW is allowed - you cannot inform the ASIair that you used a filter and what filter it is.

Happy with your pictures?  

Three hours using DSLR? Very good! Also, nice processing. 👍🙂

1 hour ago, Elp said:

Having a set of files at hand is useful too, filament files down quite well. It was useful when I made a model cast tool with removable tool inserts and sliding ejection system.

You can get hot tools too I've got one for punching holes, carving etc (it's a bit like a soldering iron with different tip attachments), you could repair that split with it. Its a messy process though as the melted filament tends to stick to the tool you're using (a bit like trying to carve hot melted chocolate).

I use a quick bonding epoxy resin to fix splits like this. I think it's less messy. 

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

It is actually fairly cheap if you print it your self. I'm not sure how much it would cost to have all the parts printed for you by 3d printing service though.

I've spent roughly 100 euro on plastics so far (4 spools at ~25 euro each), might need one more spool.  Aluminum profiles were less than 25 euros (for total of 25 euros I purchased all that and also tube for DIY small 80mm refractor that I'm building). Stepper motors are like 10-15 euro each and we need two, Raspberry PI pico is something like 5-10euro and drivers are 10 euro each. Assorted pieces of hardware are less than 50 euro in total (I'm just eyeballing it).

I believe that bill of material will be around 250 euro if you go with ASA or possibly around 350 euro mark if you decide to use stronger filament like Prusa PC Blend (which has very similar properties to ASA as far as durability / absence of creep goes but is at least double the strength and more stiff - but costs twice as much).

Again guessing, but total with external printing service might set you back 500 euro or so? Still much cheaper than commercially available options in this class.

 

I'll try to copy it in future (of course, if you decide to share it) using the Prusa PC Blend, just for fun, but first thing is to buy a Prusa printer with dedicated cage. Not because of fumes (Styrene-free (non-toxic compared to ASA)), just because of the temperature requirement. Thanks for the info about this filament, I didn't know it. 

Sometimes making things from scratch is the value itself. Many people asked me the same question when I was building my ATM EQ fork mount. Finally, it costed not less than a used EQ8, but I made it, it works quite well and I'm proud of it. That's priceless. 

7 hours ago, VNA said:

... CGX mount stay outside as there is no rain to speak of for at least 6-8 month of the year.
 

Yes, you shouldn't post it in the British forum... 😂😇

14 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

I continue to be impressed! Particularly those shifting big dobs often. I gave my 12" classic tube to my brother and nephew at they leave it in the dinning room and just open the sliding door to the garden and lift it out, for me it was load the car. 

Now it's az gtix,  st120 and mak127,  small trolley made from an old Pram,  and I tow it to the open green space at the end of the street.   I feel quite lazy compared to many here!

I look longingly at C8s currently but the realisation that it's not just the 5.6kg of ota but 22kg of tripod, mount,  counterweight and ota and my brain says 'no!'  Some here must by humping more weight and bulk though,  well done!

I thought we talk about the stuff which we travel (or plan to travel) with, so didn't mention my regular rig(s). 

I use a Celestron CGX, it's head weighs 20kg, I don't remember the tripod weight. Presently I use 4" Altair APO and mono camera with filter wheel, EAF, etc. - 10kg in total. For wider fields I use 2" Askar, also in the mono configuration, around 5kg. The heaviest is a 10" F/5 Newtonian which weighs 17kg without the accessories. The CGX mostly stays disassembled in a shed, 5m from its place when I'm imaging, all OTAs are kept at home. 

The CGX isn't the heaviest mount which I work(ed) with. I also have an ATM heavy EQ fork mount which weighs 90kg in total. Of course, I have to assemble it every time I want to use it. It's heaviest part, a wedge, weighs 36kg. I had to buy and adapt wheeled platforms to manage the wedge and a fork. 

Well, not to far, only 5m, but try to do it a few times, then you start thinking about a lightweight CGX... 😂

https://www.astrobin.com/4sm2ql/

Sorry, I cannot edit, don't know why.

Indeed, there is another smaller bubble. Lucky you!  

Hi, 

It's called a Soap Bubble. I also caught it accidentally while imaging the Crescent (not finished yet). I found out about it from a similar forum in Poland and indeed, I found it in my data.  

Congratulations, your one is explicit. 👍

What about a Bahtinov mask? It should be quite popular for the Samyang 135mm. 

Based on my recently obtained experience, playing with the perfect data from professional or scientific instruments may not bring pleasure as it's too easy. Struggling with data collected under a real city sky gives a chance to learn how to deal with gradients, background colours etc. But it's my opinion only.

It's not about the speed but the amount of data. All data will be shared at Google Drive, so you can download them when you want and as fast as you can. 

I can share my data with you, both from Canon 6D and ASI2600MC, but give me some time.

Don't forget to mention that they are mine data, if you want to publish your results somewhere.  

12 minutes ago, Ags said:

I don't want to spend all of Summer on one thing!  

Don't give up! It's impressive, indeed, but make it brain-smashing! 😁

I think it would be my next target after the Crescent (when I finally finish it...) 🤔

I'm not sure, but I think it's the best place for this information, as it's a kind of tip.

Recently I bought two 6 dBi antennas which replaced two original short ones provided with my AstroPC Pro. It's a second upgrade, I already replaced an original ASIAir Plus antenna with the same 6 dBi one and the gain is significant. Working with NINA is much more pleasant now. 🙂

https://www.dewcontrol.com/details/p3099125_21560791.aspx

I have used the AstroPC from the beginning of this year. All USB 3.0 ports are used, thankfully a camera has its USB hub. But the AstroPC also has a USB C port which I used till now with a SanDisk 128GB USB 3 USB A/USB C pendrive. I used the pendrive as a storage for data of sessions. 

Today I realised that the AstroPC which originally uses 128GB SSD has two M.2 slots, so my spare 1TB Intel SSD found its place there. As a person with a strong IT background, I should know what the change means, but I was surprised by the improvement made this way. Copying (reading which is faster than writing) a set of 50MB files from the pendrive to the 'new' SSD results in less than 40MB/s transfer while copying the same files within the SSD is more than 20x faster - the transfer reaches 900MB/s ! 😮 Previewing FITS files using ASIFitsView takes one second over an RDP (remote access) while my fast laptop equipped with a similar 2TB SSD for data only does it in a half of second. For me, it's no different! I'm curious about the NINA behaviour.

Summarising, if you have the AstroPC, I can highly recommend equipping your unit with the second SSD. It can be 128GB or 256GB which are cheap, but it's still enough for a few nights of imaging.

I'm going to travel to a darker sky around 1h driving from Liverpool starting at the end of summer. I'm preparing a 40mm lens and a Canon DSLR and/or an APS-C astro-camera, so nothing really heavy, 5kg. I'll use an EQ5 OnStep GoTo modified mount which is limited up to 9kg, still OK. Also, a Jackery power station to keep them all powered. Plus a few boxes with everything needed if problems appear. Everything easily fits my car. Of course, imaging. 

🤞

Waiting for the clouds to go away. 

Hi 🙂

I would suggest to read the following thread:

Good luck. 🙂

9 minutes ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Big thanks to Steve @Saganite for getting this in the post nice and quick. Really looking forward to having a play with it, as it's quite a while since I've bought a new eyepiece, and this feels very solid and well made and looks to be in excellent condition.

Despite Steve recklessly leaving a FLO sticker on the otherwise excellently packaged box, the weather gods don't seem to have noticed my new astro accessory, so I might even get a play tonight 😃🤣

🤞