david_taurus83

I gave iTelescope a try a few years ago. Started out with their beginner package which was around £30 a month or something. Was interested to see what it was like to image with those big scopes you see advertised on the website. I can't tell how many times I set up a plan for it to either fail because of whether in Australia or Spain or the roof was closed for some reason. One time one of the administrators there cancelled my plan for whatever reason. I think I got 20 x 60s subs on the Sombrero Galaxy one session. Was expecting a great image but was a bit disappointed in the end as it wasn't the best quality. Not worth it imo unless your absolutely dedicated to invest £££ in credits to get a quality image at the end. If your that dedicated you might as well have your own kit. It's far more rewarding to get a good image with your own kit here with our rubbish cloudy skies.

I use RealVNC. You setup VNC Server on your imaging PC and you can control it from any other PC, tablet, phone with VNC Viewer. It needs an Internet connection to work though. I've been using it for a few years now and its never let me down, dropped connection etc. I've tried RD but i can't get on with it.

Is the mini PC connected to the Internet at all times?

Altair Astro and Rother Valley Optics both do repair services. Does he know what the issue is?

Is that 30kg on the bar?!

V2. Fresh eyes this morning. I think V1 is maybe a bit pale. Added a small bit of red and lowered brightness a touch to boost contrast. Looks a bit warmer now.

Love the M45!

I've sat on this for too long so after delivery of a new scope today its given me a proverbial kick up the backside to finally process. Ha collected back in November and both SII and OIII gathered up in January. Would like to have got more integration on it altogether but we work with the tools we have.. 5.25 hours SII (21 x 900s) 6.5 hours Ha (45 x 600s) 5.25 hours OIII (21 x 900s) Redcat 51 and Atik 460, Astronomik SHO 6nm filters Processed in Pixinsight, drizzled X 2 to remove blocky stars due to undersampling

I use one with a Redcat lol. Had issues before with a guidescope with some pretty bad flexure. Instead of wasting time trying to sort it I just went OAG as its pretty necessary for me with long subs on my rusty old CCD. For subs below 300s though, I'll be using a mini guidescope on the Redcat with my DSLR.

I need about 3 clear nights to finish my current target, IC443 Jellyfish Nebula with the Redcat before I take it down. Have about 20 hours Ha, maybe 18 or so with Oiii so really really want to finish Sii before I swap. But its past meridian now at 8pm when dark and I maybe have a 3 or 4 hour window each night? Will give it until the end of the month I think before setting the Esprit up! Be gutted if I can't gather enough Sii data!

Bonus Staurday delivery! Woo! Had notification from FLO that delivery was scheduled for Monday. Have waited 4 months so another weekend wouldn't have hurt! But glad it's come today as don't fancy the missus trying to lift it in!

Another night with GSS and pointing and guiding is spot on.

If you haven't bought a 250 yet then maybe consider a 200 as it's a similar focal length, F5 and will be much more manageble on an EQ6 class mount.

The master dark looks OK as the 294 amp glow is top right like other examples I've seen. I would guess that the lights have been aligned prior to dark subtraction for some reason. Load up all your raw lights in Blink and see where the amp glow is. It should be top right in them all.

Do not use the ST4 port! If your using an EQDir cable then you put it into the hand controller port on the mount, not into the hand controller. Alternatively, you can plug a USB type B (printer cable) into the mount just below the hand controller port but set baud rate to 115200 or something like that.

Perhaps your trying to cure a problem that isn't there? 700mm needs good guiding and your image looks great so your mount must be performing. There are ways to make the graph look flatter, you can change the scale to 4" for example. Perhaps you have it too narrow at 1"? If you also lower the X axis to 50 this will present a smoother graph.

You should be able to lift the lever up and rotate it anti clockwise without loosening the clutch and you can tighten a bit more them.

Get there early and setup before it's fully dark. AZEQ6 is a big lump to be setting up in the dark.

Do you mean the Alt/Az adjustment levers?

In case anyone has the WO wedge for setting the AZGTi up in EQ mode but you don't have that small vixen dovetail that comes with a Star Adventurer, you can use a 50mm quick release plate instead. These are available on the usual sites, Amazon, Ebay etc. I bought this one on Amazon for a tenner. At 50mm wide, it will fit into the WO jaws but just about. There is only about half a turn available on the clamp though so this won't do. I made some slight mods to the wedge. The guide bolts and the clamp bolt are M6 at 40mm long. I ordered some 45mm cap head bolts from Ebay for a few quid and I have a 50mm M6 bolt laying around in the shed. The guide bolt is held into the side clamp with some loctite but with a few nuts and a couple of spanners it comes free. I chopped the head off the spare 50mm bolt with a hacksaw to make it 45mm and put it into the side clamp. With all assembled again there is now much more clearance and more thread available when clamped tight. Can also still clamp up a standard vixen plate as well.

Here's my current target both on CdC and NINA.

In CdC, select Telescope, Connect Telescope, Select and then choose Ascom GS Sky Telescope as the driver.

Great guiding tonight. I haven't touched the mount. Simply switched from EQMod to GSS and PEC train. Also, the pointing accuracy is spot on. Slewed from home position to target and was within 52 pixels without platesolving. Meridian flips with NINA also work flawlessly. I will echo my comment at the top, its like having a different mount.

Guiding will transform the mount. It will correct for periodic error and slight polar misalignment. It doesn't need to be too expensive. A small 30mm guide scope will be fine and a camera. £150 all in if you look for used kit.

Im not sure of the exact specs for the HEQ5 but I can tell you a conservative figure for my AZEQ6 periodic error is say 30 arc seconds peak to peak over the 7 minute worm cycle. Thats a shift of over 4 arc seconds per minute and would be 8.5 seconds over one of your 2 minute subs. If you are using a 250P then I reckon you are shooting at less than 1 second per pixel so on my mount that would be an 8 pixel movement over the 2 minutes. Perfect polar alignment wont fix this I'm afraid. As David points out above, it is probably a combination of all things considered. If you are shooting with a focal length of 300/500mm then you will have a better chance.