teoria_del_big_bang

Thanks for the info. That clears both points up nicely 🙂 Steve

Probably a very novice question but after an imaging session where half the images are rotated by 180 degrees due to the flip do one half of the images have to manually rotated or is there an easy way to automatically do this? I am using APT for the session then I normally stack in either Nebulosity or PixInsight. I probably would only use PI but until I learn exactly how to use it I just find it easier to stack in Nebulosity just because I am used to it and then do the processing in PI. ALSO, In APT is it necessary to tick the box that says force PHD to recalibrate after the flip? Steve

Alan, There probably is a stand alone program that will do this but I have just tried in APT and I often do this as I am imaging so it is possible in APT. If you go to the Image tab. Then you can select your directory where you have saved the images to by clicking on here:- Then if you select autostretch when ever you click on a small image to the right it should appear stretched both on this small image and on the main screen. Then if Autostretch is selected and you click on a small image in the RH pane it should appear stretched in both the small image and in the main frame. If the image is bad then you could just hit delete which puts the image into the Recycle Bin so you can retrieve it if needed. Would this not do what you want to do, maybe not the most elaborate way but you should be able to weed out the bad images? Steve

Alan, Yes I know what you mean it saves an awful lot of heartache to weed these bad frames out right at the start. I use Blink in PixInsight but of course it is not worth the cost just to flick quickly through your images. Can you not do this in APT using the image tab? They will not be in color I am guessing but you will be able to see elongated stars, sat trails, etc and then move that fram somewhere elso or delete it. APT will automatically stretch the image when selected and display it on the main screen so should be quite easy to flip through them all. I.E :- Steve

I am not sure what you mean by Unit Gain, also it may depend on what camera you have. My CCD is a ZWO ASI1600 and I normally use Unity Gain (not sure if that is what you meant by Unit Gain? ) So if I click on Settings under the camera tab: I first get a question: When answered Yes I get the following: This is where I set the gain. I tend to use 139 which is Unity Gain but you can set what gain and offset you wish. Like I say other cameras may differ but I assume the principle is the same. Steve

Ken, I normally leave blank as I set the gain in the camera driver but if you enter something then that gain will overrideride the setting in the driver. APT is a great program and if new to it ensure you have Tooltips enabled. Then when you hover over any control a tooltip will explain what they are for. Tooltips turned on as follows: Then if you hover over the Gain control: Steve

Thats' a great image Steve

When I booked a caravan/Motorhome pitchon FLO it asked for your registration. As I had not hired a motorhome at that stage I just put down my car registration number but this will not be what I turn up in. Should I contact FLO or Lucksall when I know the correct registration or will I just be able to sort it out when I turn up? Steve

Hi, Yes I noticed the similarity in equipment as well. Regarding the guiding I have had lots of issues with guiding BUT ALL DOWN TO ME NOT THE EQUIPMENT. I am pretty new to Astronomy and even newer to AP so still learning, hence my issues with guiding. I just had issues with setting PHD2 up properly. So really most of my images up till now were unguided and so long as I was polar aligned well had exposures of 3 mins without too much noticeable elongation (although I am sure some of the guys on SGL that take these fantastic images would have noticed and not been happy with them themselves). Just recently I took what I consider to be my first real image I was happy to let others view (still a long way to go but I personally was happy that I was progressing and learning). This was also my first NB image with Badder Ultra Narrow Band filters so exposures really needed to be longer anyway. I still have not set up PHD fully but did the minimum needed in that I took Darks, set all figures correctly in PHD2 and then let it calibrate itself. So no fine tuning or running Guiding Assistant to get it better. And I then took 400 sec subs with Ha, OIII and SII, so over 6 mins and I do not think there is too much distortion of the stars. I am confident if I tune PHD2 in with guiding assistant I should be easily able to achieve 10 min subs, maybe longer. I do not have a graph to hand what I did achieve and as I am going away with work probably will not get another chance to image nti the SGL star party in November (clouds permitting of course).

And hopefully I now have been able to get the hired motorhome at 12:00 now so hopefully should be there for 2:00PM . Loads of time to get set up and ready for the curry 🙂 Steve

Giovanni, Sorry can't really help much with the question about the mount, I have a HEq5 Pro and am very happy with it but I have no experience with the IOptron mounts. However, am following the thread to see what advice you get as I am looking at an upgrade and had always looked at upgrading to a EQ6 Pro but now wondering id one of the iOptrons would be better. One thing that really improved my 2nd hand HEQ5 was the Rowan belt mod which I did myself. I also replaced all the bearings but to be honest the original ones were fine. So I if you go for the HEQ5 I would definitely get it with the mod. Not much more expensive than doing it yourself. And no reason to apologize about the post or the English (the English is perfect) 🙂 Steve

Better than my first attempt. Looks a good image Steve

I can't say too much as I have no experience of them but from what I have read I guess these would be a fine starter scope. Maybe best to get somebodies opinion that has used one or is more experienced. For slightly more than your original budget you can get it with a goto mount. Not sure how much more sturdy this is than the EQ1 but some reasonable reviews about it. The scope & mount seem a fair bargain at that price. sky-watcher-startravel-102 Steve

They are large and bulky but surprisingly light for the size. Whilst I would not label them as a grab and go scope they can me transported in a car so van would be no problem, but I wouldntt want to go too far from the van with it and the ground needs to be fairly flat. Regarding the ergonomics I have a bad back and bad knees (would have been shot years ago If I was a horse 🙂 ) but did't find it too bad even on some very cold nights. Always viewed sat down apart from standing up to rotate the scope maybe to approximate area, otherwise just kept shuffling around on my chair as I rotated the scope, but this would happen on most scopes even much smaller ones I would guess. Height wise the eyepiece does not move too much from pointing almost to pole star to the horizon, so I managed to stay seated when moving just in up and down plane.

Hi, I am a relative novice only buying my first scope around 2 years ago. So There are many others on this forum far better than myself that can give advice. But your questions are certainly not out of place on here and there will be many that are more than willing to help you. Maybe what I can give you is my experience I have gained in a short time and what I have learned is very much down to this forum. As mentioned already you are doing exactly the correct thing in asking these questions. I am sure many buy the wrong kit to begin with and regret it very quickly which is a shame as often I would think that could put you right off what is a terrific hobby (and it is a hobby for some but I think can become much more for many). I too started looking at various ready made setups, some on Amazon, Ebay and so on and after much advice and a lot of reading other articles in books and in line I bought a Dobsonian exactly as recommended by @Rob Sellent. And despite now having 4 scopes I still have this Dobsonian and still use it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. They are so easy to use and give fantastic views, they have such a big aperture you are getting a lot of light through to your eyes and so you can see very feint objects , clouds permitting of course. These often come up 2nd hand and I think I bought mine for £180. But even new full price they are a bargain. I have been told they would usually arrive ready to use straight out of the box without collimation but with a small columating tool they are very easy to collimate and would probably benefit from re collimating anyway and will need checking from time to time. cheshire collimating eyepiece For the sort of money you are talking I would go for one of these any day. If you manage to get one 2nd hand then you could spend the extra on a decent eyepiece or two as well as the ones supplied work fine but not the best quality. And despite saying Astrophotography is not on your to-do list I bet at some stage you end up getting a mobile phone holder that attaches to eyepiece to take a picture or two. You can get some decent pictures of the moon this way on this scope for sure. These are not goto scopes, and for the budget you are not going to get anything half decent like this anyway, but in my opinion this manual approach is better for learning (but many will have other opinions which are also valid) but my thoughts were how much more you learn about where these objects are in the sky at a particular time of year because you point it there yourself rather than pressing a button to get there. Steve Edit: I might be wrong about not needing collimation when new. As I said mine was 2nd hand and when I picked it up it already had been colimated. But the tool is easy to use and not expensive.

And further north ! Steve

Real nice image. I am so jealous of that imaging rig it looks sooooooo nice 🙂 Steve

I certainly am with you in that one. Whilst I am improving with Pixinsight I always have to follow some instructions, if I did not I would miss something for sure. And there are so many process I have not even tried yet. I wonder if anyone actually realises what has to be done after obtaining the data when they first get into AP? I did read up when contemplating getting into imaging, and realised a little of what was necessary, but until I started actually processing the data did not realise what was really involved. Anyway there is no easy way to bypass all this if you aspire to obtain images like we see on this forum and you are certainly well on the way to that goal. 🙂 Steve

Nice Images. You say the processing is not perfect but I would be more than happy if I produced something like those 🙂 Steve

Story of my life for last couple of months. 😞 Thanks for heads up about the com ports though, probably most people will have had their Windows updated recently. Steve

Yes great image 🙂 and I would agree with @fwm891 the uncropped image, for me, is a better fov and still you can see all the detail of the cropped view. Of course this is always personal thing and you do what pleases yourself. Steve

Really nice. You definitely made the best of what was probably one of the best few nights in a row viewing for a while 🙂 Steve

Nice shame about the 🌦️🌧️🌧️⛈️⛈️🌧️ though 🙂 Steve

That one looks fine to use.

No, that can only deliver 1A , it is possible to reverse polarity which is not a good idea.