teoria_del_big_bang

3 hours ago, barbulo said:

Beautiful target. “Different” colors, I would say. But nice framing. I like it. 
I’ve tried this target early this year, though Propus produced weird reflections somewhere along my optical train. Sad. 

Yes it does make this target difficult to process, that and Tejat were a real pain n the processing. I had some halos on all of NB data and OII halos were horrendous. I managed to reduce them but they are far from perfect.

Steve

4 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

That’s a shame, I feel like I have had the best couple of months for a few years….which is good for us here in the midlands….👍🏼

Yes I think some parts of UK have done well, which is good.
A lot comes down to me needing to get some sort of pier or obsy done as there has been a few partially clear nights but not all night and often raining by the morning so often either packed up early as I dare not leave my gear out and also some nights not bothered as my gear is pretty heavy and often by the time its out and aligned the clouds roll in.
I live in hope better days to come at end of the year 🙂 
 

Steve

9 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Well done Steve, super catch and nice colours…..👍🏼

Thanks 🙂 
It;s good just to get something processed, so far for me not had too many clear nights this year.

Steve

1 hour ago, carastro said:

A really good result Steve.  Love the colours.  
carole

Thanks Carole, I wasn't too sure, I wanted it to look red as on the RGB data there is a fair bit of red and little else but couldn't get the main nebulosity to look red and an awful lot of purple began to creep in.

1 hour ago, glafnazur said:

Wow love the colours  

Many thanks 🙂 

14 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

Really nice image, I would be very happy if I could ever produce something like that 

Thank you so much.
It takes time but a couple of years ago I always thought the same as yourself when I saw images in SGL and whilst I can now produce decent images, from time to time, I still have a way to go to get anywhere near what some of the members on here can achieve.
I think, that I am never fully satisfied with my results and it seems that many imagers are also very critical of their results which is maybe just part of the attraction so no matter what you can achieve I think the aim is to just keep improving. Sometimes I guess location is a big factor in the results with darks skies everything becomes so much easier.

Steve
 

I can't say I am over happy with this image, but due to cloud cover is all I have to show for 2022 so far 🙂 
I have struggled a bit with processing it and bringing out any OIII data, which was very feint.
I did not process it in the SHO as I did not want the majority of it green so it is HSO.

As I say I am not real happy with how I have processed this and my data was not the best, so will process again and intend to try imaging it again next time it comes back into view and get some improved data.
Nebula captured with Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and Sulphur II, then captured stars with Red, Green & Blue filters

Data taken over 3 relatively clear nights (rare events in Yorkshire) January to February 2022.
Processed in PI using StarXTerminator to remove stars from NB data and later replace with the RGB stars.

Nebula
Ha 400S X20
SII 400S X18
OIII 400S X30

For Stars
RGB 60S X20

Steve

Really nice image Adam, I love the dark stuff with the blue.

Forgive me being a bit naive but not familiar with OSC so when you say 3 hours luminance and 3 hours OSC does that mean you took the luminance with a mono camera or used the OSC and made a sort of artificial luminance by creating a mono image from the OSC images ?

And, you say you may not like the processing but you certainly can do it well when needs must that is beautifully processed 🙂 

Steve

That's a beautiful image. 🙂 

Steve

Or mount it on the front of the dovetail on the underside and route the cables carefully back so they cannot get caught. On the front it can never hit the mount throughout the range of the DEC axis.

Steve

The meridian flip will rotate the Ra axis around 180 degrees and takes place when the Ra axis is just past the 90 degrees.
But looking at your pictures that looks like the DEC axis that will cause the collision, the DEC axis is the one that rotates around the counterweight bar.


But even so personally I would not be happy leaving any equipment in a position that can hit any part of the mount and would make efforts to mount it on the top side of the dovetail somewhere.
I do not know if it helps but the video below shows your mount performing a flip.

Steve

8 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Im marking you down for using that awful pun , Laurence 🤣

I agree, that should be one of those phrases that gets automatically removed 🤣

Steve

Well good luck, update the thread with your final version and results, it may help somebody in the future.
I was very frustrated how little info I could find online about this, even Altair's own website.
This lack of info seems to be a repeating issue with a lot of astro gear, well that's what I have noticed anyway often having to find things out on various forums rather than a comprehensive instruction document.
Maybe we all should be geniuses before venturing into Astronomy 🙂 

Steve

Oh well good news you at least know the issue even if that gives you other issues 🙂 
How deep is the rotator ? Is that extra width going to be a big problem ?

Steve

27 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

+1 Thinkpad. They’re everywhere and really cheap.

I’m still on a ten year old one for work (T430) and it runs some fairly hefty GiS software ok.

Another one for Thinkpads.
Mine is a 2nd hand T430 from Ebay, not sure what I paid but it was not expensive and still works like a good un.

It did start running slow form time to time (very slow) and thought its time was up and started looking for a replacement. Then I noticed how hot the bottom of the laptop was and installed some temperature monitor software and the CPU was over 100 C so I bought a replacement cooling heatsink and fan. That was only £15 and found easy instructions on line how to replace and since CPU temperature has never gone over 65 C and is usually 55 C and never seen it running slow since, so really happy with it.
Whilst I was searching for the fan/heatsink found that most components for this laptop are available (I guess most rescued from dead laptops but my fan heatsink certainly looked new) at very reasonable prices.

I am no Guru when it comes to Laptops / computers but I believe if you intend to use Remote Desktop to control a remote computer at the mount then you should make sure it had Windows 10 Pro (or I guess Win11 if you want) and not the Home version but I could be wrong on that just what I understood.

Steve

The 55 mm has to be after any optics in the flattener / reducer so if the rotator is on the end of the focusser tube then that cannot be part of the BF, it has to be measured from someting at the rear of the flattener.
Your filters will be 2 or 3 mm anyway so the true BF is either 55.7 or 56 mm so at less than 2 mm over the stars should be much improved and you should be in focus in the centre of your image with maybe tear drops around the edges.
It would at least show if we are going in the right direction or I am totally wrong.

Steve

Actually I just found this image, its a different scope but it is an Altair and the flattener looks very similar to what you have EXCEPT you have that 11 mm and 2 mm adapter in the BF as well.
But this is also 55 mm back focus and from the back of that knurled adapter in this image we have:
15.5 mm M48 to T2 like you have.
17 mm Magnetic Filter holder
12.5 mm from flange of camera to image plane.

Total from rear of knurled adapter to image plane 45 mm.
So I reckon this knurled adapter is 10 mm and SHOULD be included in the BF of 55 mm.


Does that make sense ????

So I believe your actual BF is 65 which could be the issue, maybe ?

Can you just remove the 11 mm extension to try it if you do not have any 1 mm spacers just to try it if you are only 1 mm out then it should get much better focus at least as a test.

Steve

It might not necessarily need removing but just including in the BF distance of 55 mm, so that would be 55mm from the shoulder marked with red line.
And this is only a hunch, so could you remove the filter wheel and at least get somewhere 55 mm from that shoulder just to try and see if focus is any better ?

I have searched and searched and just cannot find another image of somebody with the same setup.

Steve

Okay I found this image on a USA website selling these and looks like the flattener is on correctly.

But I still have a feeling that knurled bit on the end needs including in the 55 mm BF (or 56 with filter) so maybe you just have the BF too much.

Steve

I really not sure but I would have thought that if you cannot achieve focus at all in the entire stroke of the focusser then the BF is not correct and by a long way.
I really cannot find very much info on this flattener and not even seen one exactly the same even on the Altair website.
One think that seems odd to me is that usually the back focus of 55 mm is from a shoulder on the flattener and I would have thought that was where I have marked below with the red lime so is there a chance that knurled bit at the end that looks to be around 10 to 12 mm long needs to come off and is only there when attaching a DSLR directly to the flattener via that T2 adapter ?

But just a thought I could be talking rubbish it was just a thought.
 

Apart from that I do not think the issue is any of the four points you mention.
55 mm is pretty common for BF of most reducer / flatteners, not all I admit.
You can check if scope is faulty if you remove the flattener then you should still be able to get focus for most of the centre of the FOV.
I am pretty sure the flattener is the right way round.
If you have tried 2 cameras then would be pretty sure it is not the cameras.

Steve

.
 

The 55 mm back focus is required only to get all stars in the entire FOV focussed the same you still have to focus using the focusser by winding it in or out, so are you saying that from fully in to fully out the stars never get into focus ?
If this is true are they closer to focus when fully in or when fully out ?

I have never seen a reducer so long as that when the focusser is fully out as in your images the camera looks a huge distance from the OTA.

Also by the way you need to add 1/3 the thickness of your filters to the BF distance so if your filters are 3 mm thick the actual BF distance will be 56 mm.
BUT, this is not you primary issue so do not worry about that yet, the small error would only make the stars in the corners slightly elongated or teardrop shape.

Steve

In my opinion no it will not help because the heater is in the bit that clamps to the scope and not in the light panel flap itself so all it will do is heat the end of the dew shield on the scope and water can still collect on the flat panel when open and it will all depend where the scope is pointing to whether the majority of the dew drips off because it is vertical or stays on because it is close to horizontal with light side pointing somewhere upwards. So I guess if the scope is heading towards the horizon and the panel is such that it is near the top of the scopes dew shield this will happen.
Does this make any sense so far ????

Now maybe because the scope is generally ending up pointing generally to the west side (as that is the way it tracks through the night) there is a better position I can clamp the panel so it is very unlikely to end up facing upwards I still have to look at this.

Other things you can do is to park the scope horizontally (like many do to ensure it misses the roll on roll off roof when it closes) and then ensure the panel is such that the light side is facing doen and I would think that and the fast slew will know most of any dew off.
 

I must add that this night it happened it was very humid and dew everywhere so maybe quite a rare occurrence but on the whole I am really thinking the heater is a total waste of time although all similar flap panels must have the same issue not just this one, unless some do have a heater around the light itself.

Steve

11 minutes ago, saac said:

I've damaged my bank balance on occasion ; thankfully never critical    

Jim 

Same here, seems to be a reoccurring injury as well 🙂 

Steve

I love this target and that is a very nice image 🙂 

Steve

I do like a happy ending 🙂 

Great images.

Steve

Absolutely agree with previous comments that is superb 🙂 

Steve

You've done well to get that this time of year 🙂 

Steve