AlanP_

That makes it a lot easier! Great to know. Thanks again for that

I figured it out now. I had the screws too tight on the focuser and I couldnt adjust. Then I loosened them and the camera just fell to the bottom of the focuser. I need to loosen them just a bit and then I can adjust focus with the camera in place. My mistake! That'll make it a lot easier now

Do the focusers not just change the distance from the lens to the mirror?

So I got setup today again for around 40 minutes total (between setting up and imaging). No proper photos yet, but I sorted out the focusing issue somewhat. I had round(ish) stars! I did a rough polar alignment due to the time constraint and quickly approaching clouds. With the coma corrector, im having to be extremely precise with the focusing. It needs to be absolutely precise to get round stars and I cant use the focus knobs due to the weight of the camera on it - I need to manually move it as slow as possible. Is there a better way around this such as a spacer or something I can use to fil

Is that a difficult thing to do? I dont want to mess with it too much.

Had a look at the collimation this morning and it was already out of collimation from when I did it last night. Can it move that easily from taking it off the mount and moving it around? I have it setup now on the mount and im not going to take it off until the next night. I also found a chimney around a mile away and set up the camera with APT connected to the scope. I found the perfect spot for focus and locked it in, so im not going to move that around either. Hopeully that was my problem. With the comacorrector, if I move the focus the tiniest amount, it is completely out of focus -

Update: Brougt it back outside and set up, but still the same problem. Nothing really visible through the live view and a couple of the exposures had that artefact. I just collimated it too with a laser collimator and had a the red dot centered along with the red dot aligned in the collimator. No idea why this is happening..

This is just the camera, t2 ring, coma corrector connected straight to the focuser.

So is what I have now ok?

No wonder! Between that and the terrible collimation it would make sense that I couldn't see anything. I may head back out so and get setup!

Ok, wow. I just collimated it and it was WAY OUT. I have no idea how it was that far out considering this is my first use of it. It's meant to be bright now until 2AM. I may have to get set back up again... It would be great if someone could fill me in on the coma corrector situation however to clarify if its ok.

So this is an exploded view of my setup. First I have the extension tube going into the focuser of my telescope, then the baader coma corrector, then the T2 ring which connects to my camera. The coma corrector says it requires 55mm of spacing to be focused (I think). Is this enough or too much? I dont know how precise it needs to be or where it needs to come from. The second image is it all connected to the telescope. Is this wrong the way I have it? its a brand new telescope so would it be strange for me having to collimate it?

This is the scope here:https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p12285_TS-PHOTON-6--F5-Advanced-Newtonian-Telescope-with-metal-tube.html Yeah it could be that along with it needing to be collimated. Im too nooby to pinpoint it

Cheers guys, I think you may be right. I just wasnt seeing any stars at all int he live view. No matter where I pointed it it looked the same to me. I've just packed t all up for the night and i'll get to collimating it tomorrow. I have a laser collimator, i've just never used it. Hopefully this will fix my problems though!

An the live view of APT im not really seeing anything either, just the odd star so its quite hard to know if im even in the right spot. I did polar alignment and all and slewed to the nebula and it did slew to that general direction - I jsut dont know how precise. Once I had an image, I was going to use the platesolver to do the alignment for me but it cant work with an image like that. Im at a loss as to why its doing this.

Thanks a mill. I got rid of that weird thing by adjusting the focuser, but now Im just not seeing any details at all. Im in a bortle 5 zone. This is a 30 second exposure at the rosette nebula. Any idea why im not seeing anything really? Single__0016_ISO800_25s__33C.CR2

No wind shield. I thought the artefacts looked a bit like the mirror in the scope, Am I wrong? I should note, im also using a coma corrector. How do my settings look in APT?

Hi, I just set up my astrophotography mount for the first time and im having an issue. There are these weird artefacts coming up on the images, and a 30 second exposure isnt bringing out any details at all. Is this because of a streetlamp or are my settings wrong? Its a heq5 PRO and Canon 600d. I've attached images of my APT settings and the image artefacts. Single__0001_ISO6400_30s__13C.CR2 Single__0003_ISO800_20s__20C.CR2

Thanks Steve. I tested my polar scope and it was surprisingly well calibrated. It did move ever so slightly, but it really was miniscule and I didnt want to touch it anymore - i'd probably do more harm I do want to get a guide camera down the line, but i'd rather learn the basics first before I get too deep into it. I've setup platesolver in APT and now its just a matter of getting out there! Sunday night seems promising weather wise. Another question, my garden is south facing and the only area with polaris in view is up near the top of the garden. However, it means I sacrifice a lo

Ok great, I was worried i'd need to buy another cable! Yeah, I can see the outline in daylight right now and I was testing it with a chimney in the distance to get a feel for it, but I am pretty sure theres an led that can be turned on which I think needs that firmware update. Thanks for that link too. Does sharpcap require a guide camera to do PA? Yeah, I think that I want to use platesolving as it seems to be a really nice tool. Thanks a lot for that information, im sure ill have other questions when the clouds part again!

Hi all, I finally have everything I need for astrophotography, now I just need to learn. I'm a wee bit confused about star alignment however. I think I know how to do polar alignment, but where im confused is star alignment/platesolving. Do I need to use the synscan controller to do the alignment? All of the tutorials i've watched used that, but my laptop will be connected to the mount via an eqdirect cable. How do I star align directly from the laptop using APT? I may be over thinking it, but the fact that all the tutorials used the synscan controller have me a bit confused. Anothe

So I spent a solid 4 hours trying to get my mount to connect to laptop. Crystal clear skies all evening. I finally get it all connected, everythings set up - CLOUDS! However, I am really glad I got the software bit sorted out now so at least in that regard ill be setup for the next night. Even if there were clouds, I probably wouldnt have gotten any images. I could not see any LED through the polar scope. I could see some stars, but not the polar circle where I line polaris up. I really didnt know what I was doing for the most part. Even if I was polar aligned, I d

I have it setup now! No idea why or how, but im not going to question it! Thanks for all the help everyone Its still clear too! Time for first light, if I can learn how to polar align

Ok! I've just somehow connected to EQMOD V2.00q. Not sure why or how but at least I know my mount is working ok. Now how to connect this elsewhere..

This is what it returned: