Jbro1985

Having moved house and been collecting dust for a while I wanted to show my telescopes a bit of love by having them serviced, cleaned, re-collimated etc. Does anyone know of a good UK service? I haven’t found much online. I’m near Colchester if useful. Any suggestions much appreciated!

I used to have similar issues under the city sky. Switched to Narrowband pretty swiftly but obviously Galaxy hunting is not the best in Narrowband so you need to adjust your mindset towards nebulae too if you can.

Looks like probably LP to me. There's some good tutorials on LightVortexAcademy that may help if you've not been there.

Does anyone have any experience of these? https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p10904_TS-Optics-TSQ-80APO-80mm-f-6-8-Quadruplet-Apo-with-field-flatener.html

It is a horribly curved field! Thinking of removing and sucking up the extra time and narrower field.

Amazing. Thank you. I was looking at baader clicklock but frankly if I can screw it all on then even better!

It's the standard visual back. I'm terrible with knowing what thread is what... https://www.tringastro.co.uk/celestron-visual-back-317mm-919-p.asp?gclid=CjwKCAjwqZPrBRBnEiwAmNJsNrdcE_VByhh4eom3d57tbel5NrJ7RjYLfrrwtAAWSB04TzZYvKhn5BoCznsQAvD_BwE Not sure if this is a T2 or not, but none of my accessories fit it! I am using the pegasus focus cube for focussing. I looked into getting an in line focuser but I couldn't afford the extra mm with the focal reducer and required 115mm spacing.

Hi there, I think I'm getting tilt/sag on my imaging train as a result of the stock visual back not handling the weight very well. At the moment I'm sliding a 1.25" into the visual back and using the screw to lock it down. Firstly I don't feel like it is secure and, secondly, the way the screws work I'm not sure it is 100% straight anyway. I have an oag and guide cam, filter wheel and ASI 1600 hanging off the back and I think it is just a bit too much. Looking for recommendations to solve this issue. Thanks

I used SGP autofocus routine and have a pegasus focus cube. The image is very zoomed in. I initially thought coma but it's the same across the whole image. I'll share that later.

OK. SO I think it might be sag... Original Celestron thumb screw 1.25 visual back is not handling the weight of all the accessories. Has anyone else had that issue and do they have experience of the William Optics Rotolock visual back as a solution?

Hi there, See attached preview. I am getting strange stars but not sure why. I figured it was a collimation issue but just did a check using the "airy disk" and Als Collimation Aid and it seems fine... Celestron C8, ASI1600mmc, ZWO EFW Mini, ZWO OAG (with ASI 185mc), guided through PHD2 and captured through SGPro. Mount is an AZ-Eq GT6. Any insights would be much appreciated. Edit: There is also a f6.3 focal reducer in the imaging train.

Agree with this. I don't check in real time myself as once all seems to be good, I head up and let the automation do it's thing. Using a cloud based file enables the option though. Also means no mucking around with file transfers as everything syncs locally to the remote PC (which is my processing system) To be honest, I find that remote desktop has a high enough resolution that by using autostretch on sgp you can sort most of the wheat from the chaff if you want to anyway!

So, just to elaborate on where I landed with this, after a number of different options were attempted. I have a full outside set up, including laptop, which runs everything (mount, 2 cameras, filter wheel, focuser, etc.) through SGP and PHD2, primarily. Obviously, none of that requires an internet connection. I have a WIFI extender and that laptop is connected to the WIFI network through that. I control the outside laptop from an inside computer connected to the same WIFI network using Remote Desktop. The outside laptop saves images as they are acquired to a folder on its hard-drive that syncs with one drive (the syncing does obviously require internet). I have a folder on the inside computer that syncs to the OneDrive folder, so the acquired images are in three places; on the outside laptop, on One Drive and on the inside computer. This, by the way, would get rid of any file transfer throttling by Team Viewer if that is your chosen application. I don't use Team Viewer as above, but this system enables me to view the image in full resolution from the normal desktop of the inside computer in real time. After a session, to avoid clogging up one drive and the outside laptop, I move all the acquisition files to an external hard-drive I have connected to the indoor computer. If your internet connection is rubbish then this isn't a good solution. I am fortunate to have an OK connection.

Been down this road. Remote desktop requires windows pro, if you're using Windows 10. At least the computers I have did... Very annoying. I started to use teamviewer but I found it a little unreliable. Ended up biting the bullet on Windows upgrades.

Thanks Mark. That's a massive help!

Cheers guys. Amazing help as always.

If it sheds any light... I'm using the baader c7nm set for Ha OIII and SII and have guided through each filter previously without an issue though, including autofocus. Weird there's an issue this time. I didn't realise there was an option to not guide through autofocus - I'll have a look for that in SGP (or do you mean to manually do this?). I did reduce my PhD exposure setting to 3 seconds from 4 the other day. Perhaps that is it. Thanks everyone

Hi all, Wondering if you can help with an error diagnosis. Ten minutes after I go to bed (very frustrating!) last night I have an issue I have never had before. PHD2 lost it's lock, which put SGP into abort. The frame before hand was a good 10 minute OIII capture and it changed filter to SII, re-focused (I use an OAG and autofocus when the filters change - normally makes the guiding go slightly funny but has never killed it before). The OAG is in front of the filter wheel in the imaging train so I can't see that the act of changing filter would have made a difference to the guiding at all... Here is my SGP log (https://jbconsult-my.sharepoint.com/:t:/g/personal/jbro1985_jbconsult_onmicrosoft_com/ETlde73yTHRBn0OTeM_BL9sB0CFCaY-P3NzzVmeuDoiKGg?e=aG1Bav). The issue starts at : [10/29/18 00:41:17.930][DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] AF is complete, continuing sequence... Here is my PHD2 log (https://jbconsult-my.sharepoint.com/:t:/g/personal/jbro1985_jbconsult_onmicrosoft_com/ESsgHXBl_K5Brg4kYkDXLiEBeyP6eIBxdBZ0RArsx-PZFw?e=iKXpNW). It looks to me like it's possible that the focussing may have interfered with the guiding on this occassion, which would be annoying... Otherwise, the clouds rolled in although the image just before was very clear and the night itself was very clear. If some one has the time, I'd appreciate it if they could take a quick look and let me know if they reach the same conclusion or if I'm missing something. I am only just starting to analyse logs and I find them a little confusing. All assistance appreciated as always. Jason