david_taurus83

Since I took up the hobby around 5 years ago, every October through to February has been the same. Cloudy with rain. You get the odd night here and there in between but certainly not clear, frosty nights with sparkling skies like we all associate with winter. And when we do get frosty weather it tends to come with snow which makes light pollution even worse as its reflected upwards! I would say I have 6 completed images under my belt from the past year with multiple nights used for capturing data on each. That's with a fixed pier so no setup time and I have the luxury of leaving running all night until morning. I certainly couldn't do it if I had to setup and strip down every session.

I found in the past that if gain is set high on the camera it tends to pick faint stars that are more affected by seeing wobbles. If I lowered the gain it tended to select brighter stars that wouldn't saturate and were not as wobbly if seeing was poor.

You would be better to use one frame for aligning them all. Any edge artifacts can be more easily cropped out afterwards. If you align by individual channel you can end up cropping more out after you manually align. I can't say ive seen any strange artifacts by doing option b though. I would have thought your issues would be more down to the pixel rejection algorithm chosen when stacking.

I used a 25mm water pipe as conduit. Wishing I had grabbed that 32mm gas pipe instead now. One of the data cables and power cable need to be fed/pulled through at the same time. Bit of a tight squeeze..

I've changed the RJ45 coupler but it's no good. Looks like a couple of pins on the plug have completely corroded so it will mean stripping down completely and try to feed a new cable through the conduit. My dilemma is do I replace with ethernet cable and stay Limited to USB2 or take a chance and try and feed a 15m USB3 repeater down there 🤔

I'm going to seal the new couplers with some hot glue to prevent moisture getting in there again. I always leave a spare dew strap left on under the cover to prevent condensation from forming and its worked a treat so far. I'm hoping the connector issue is due to being exposed to rain for a few hours. The downward facing side is bone dry and fine so hopefully it's not long term exposure.

Yes will be replacing that connector. Thankfully the cable head itself isn't as gunked up so should clean off with a small brush between the contacts. The cable would not be so easy to replace as its buried!

I'd say this would be the cause. Don't know what all that gunk is though. This side faces up so looks like moisture has ran down the ethenet cable and mucked up the connector. The other side which faces down is dry and clean.

Thankfully all seems to be OK though I can't connect to the Pegasus powerbox on the scope now. Its definitely working as I've connected my laptop to it via the USB3 cable and it's fine. Can switch devices and dew straps on and off. But as I route the PB through a Startech USB2 ethernet extender to the shed, it's not detecting it on my mini PC in there. So even though its all dry I may just dismount it and bring indoors for a thorough drying out.

We had quite a heavy shower and strong wind here this evening about 6pm for an hour or so. Paid no mind to it and around 9pm I looked out the back to see this: Telegizmo on the ground, wet inside. It must have been a good gust to get underneath and lift it off as its usually pretty good at staying in place with moderate wind. Scope, kit, mount, all drenched. Have no idea how long it was exposed for either. Ive gave everything a good wipe down including the inside of the cover and turned the dew straps inside out and put on full power. Hopefully give it a good dry out. Thankfully I always keep the lens cap on so no moisture on the lens.

Just a standard USB type C cable. Same as most smartphones now.

Is it from a retailer or bought off auction? If auction them I think your stuck with it but if buy it now there maybe a return option? If so can possibly halt the sale?

Have you tried any of the iOptron Facebook groups to see if this is an issue or a characteristic of the mount?

They are dimmable whereas the old ones aren't. Did you see them change out the control panel on the pole?

Are those current draws something you have measured or just taking the figures from manufacturer specs? I'd be very surprised if you were drawing 12 amps.

I've had a few cameras and mounts since I started this hobby and I've never seen my power usage exceed 3amps. My current setup usually sits at just over 2 amps when camera cooler is on, mount running, dew straps etc. I do use a linear Nevada PSU with 13.8v to the pier at idle and with everything running is usually around 13.0v. My suspicion is that a lot of people use 12v AC to DC power bricks and when they encounter issues they are suffering voltage drop due to thin cables between devices, not exceeding the rated current for the power brick. If you can get 13.8v at your mount then I think your 6A supply will be just fine.

If any of it is steel then you risk the magnet just popping off the wire and attaching to the inside of the tube or attaches itself the part the swarf is resting on!

Essential though if you have the previous generation CMOS like 183, 294 and 1600 range of sensors. I don't use darks on my 6D though it's probably the best Canon DSLR for AP. Arguably don't need darks either for the new Sony IMX sensors.

Didn't think I had enough data for this but counted up all the subs and turns out I had over 5 hours each of narrowband data, so here it is. First image with the new Astrodon 5nm filters. Captured over 4 nights from September to October, this is presented in SHO format along with SHO stars. 63 x 300s SII 68 x 300s Ha 63 x 300s OIII Just over 16 hours total integration. Also visible just above the Tulip is an arc of matter being displaced by the relativistic jet from the Cyg X-1 black hole. Close up:

Thats a great close up view!

Thank you! I just had a look back through my images and noticed it's been nearly 2 years, Christmas Eve 2020, since the Canon was used in anger! Yes, I do like the star colours in this one. I used 3 different stretches in Pixinsight for this. A normal Histogram Stretch brings out the galaxy but blows out the stars. ArcSin stretch is great for keeping colour in the stars but mutes the galaxy. Masked stretch is similar to ArcSin and keeps stars from blowing out but makes the centre of the galaxy look like a star. I used Pixelmath to combine all 3, I think 0.4 HT + 0.4 ArcSin + 0.2 MS or something like that. I experimented basically and it worked out well!

I think this is the first image I've took with my Canon 6D in well over a year. It might not compete with the excellent new Sony IMX sensors but there's life in the old girl yet! There's a little bit of a gradient going on in the background that DBE cant remove but alas, LP and a colour camera. I'm still pleased with how its come out. 150 x 180s at ISO1600 Optolong L-Pro clip filter

You can never be too careful with checking clamps and hand screws etc. I was attempting a dual rig a few years ago but on the cheap so didn't have one of those fancy adjustable clamps that allow for XY axis adjustment. I was using thin plastic shims between the scope dovetail and mount clamp. Had a sudden cold feeling rush up my back as I heard a horrible metallic sliding noise as I was walking up the garden from the mount. The scope I was adjusting had slid all the way down the clamp and only caught at the very end due to a protruding bolt head under the dovetail. Never again! Sorry to hear of your misfortune and hope your insurance gets settles quickly so you can get another!

According to Google slug slime is over 90% water so it can't be that bad. I doubt it's as bad as Xenomorph blood!

I have to admit, they have twisted my arm a little with this. I have a Redcat on an AZGTI with my 6D that doesn't get used as much as it should. With the luxury of having my main setup on a permanent pier I have gotten lazy with regards to setting up from scratch the Redcat. That paired with an old laptop that struggles to manage it all puts me off the effort in. Despite me being a critic of the early ASIAir, it seems to have come a long way with regards to features. I've ordered one from ZWO. Hopefully have it by Christmas 2023 🙂