Erling G-P

Haven't tried the Veil myself yet, so don't know how faint it is, but impressed you can get so much structure & colour in just 2 hours. Which of the cameras in your signature did you use ? Couldn't resist having a go at reducing the noise with Topaz, but won't post the result unless you agree to it, in case it's considered rude to mess with other's photos without their consent

I won't haphazard a guess as to how suitable the processor is, not having tried processing on anything similar. Use quite old hardware myself (1-gen Core i7, Hexacore running at 4.25 GHz, 12 Gb RAM in triple-channel config). Processing times with DSS are resonable, but it's very important that its work folder is placed on an SSD drive. For lack of space on mine, I've had to use an external drive via USB3 earlier, which has a tremendous impact on processing time - it easily increases 10-fold, so make sure your SSD drive is large enough. The 120 Gb in your suggested config is on the smallest side, so would recommend getting at least a 256 Gb one, and preferably larger yet.

Greetings from a fellow Dane Victor - been an interesting thread to follow Is your local vendor lyra.dk ? If not, I'd like to give them my recommendation. Henrik who runs it is a pleasure to deal with, and they seem to have your chosen scope in stock.

I have determined the balance with camera and all necessary accessories, and put marks on dovetail & counterweight bar, so I don't have to do the balancing every time I set up. Just put scope & counterweigths where they're supposed to be. Do my star alignment with a crosshair eyepiece, which is lighter than my camera, so balance not quite correct while doing my usual 2-star alignment. Does not seem to be a problem though, and once aligned, I replace the eyepiece with the camera, and balance is then correct.

Would have suggested the counter weight bar not extended, if no one else did, but see you realised it yourself Like Padraic I would also recommend dimming the red lighting in the polar scope (via the utilities menu) - otherwise it will drown out Polaris. If using a smart phone, the Synscaninit2 app is great - it can show you a graphical view of what you should see in the polar scope, with the position of Polaris. It has both the 'old' and 'new' style of polar scope, so you must pick the one corresponding to your scope. For comfort and more precise adjustment, I use an angle finder for the polar scope. Comes with 2.5x magnification, which makes it much easier to place Polaris precisely.

That is really cool! It must hold some dark powers, with those red lightning bolts shooting from it...

M31 from last night. Not truly happy with it; processing difficult and have struggled with the colour balance. Disappointed also that I can't get any Ha areas to show, despite a modded camera. In contrast to my windy IC 1848 imaging session, there wasn't any wind last night, so had to fight dew with a hairdryer repeatedly during the night. Never thought I would find myself wishing for wind while imaging, but with the 130 on my HEQ5, it's ok. Other details: HEQ5 Pro w/Rowan belt mod & ADM saddle, Canon 700Da cooled & SW 0.9 CC, Staraid Revolution autoguider. Stacked with DSS, processed with Astroart & Topaz DeNoise AI. Darks, flats & bias used. Total integration time just under 5½ hours.

Size and/or shape can affect what you see. I originally got one large enough for my 200PDS. Used it a few times on my 130PDS too, as it has adjustable pins, to make it fit various aperture sizes. I then got a smaller one specifically for the 130PDS, but have only tried it once. Compared to the larger mask, it produced a more flattened view, which was considerably more difficult to adjust after, so I continue to use the larger mask. It's very loose fitting though, so stars near zenit are preferable, to prevent it sliding off.

Took this last night. Tend to use my 200PDS, if the intended target fits within its smaller field of view, but the more I use the 130PDS, the more I fall in love with it Details found here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/362564-ic-1848-soul-nebula/

Took this last night in a half gale force wind, with my SW 130PDS. Guider was showing some alarming spikes, so didn't have high hopes, but to my surprise, I've only had to discard 3 out of 119 3-minute subs. Imaging with my 200PDS would have been impossible in those conditions, but the 130PDS was virtually unperturbed. The wind also meant there wasn't a trace of the usual dew problems. Other details: HEQ5 Pro w/Rowan belt mod & ADM saddle, Canon 700Da cooled & SW 0.9 CC, Staraid Revolution autoguider. Stacked with DSS, processed with Astroart & Topaz DeNoise AI. Darks, flats & bias used.

With regards to focusing, you should simply use live view & a bright star. Center it and zoom in as far as possible. If you use a Bahtinov mask, it becomes really easy. I have tried imaging M57 with my SW 200PDS & a Nikon D7000, so a setup very similar to yours. It's a tiny target, so I have experimented with a 2x Barlow, but unguided I had to toss many subs, even at only 15 secs, due to tracking errors also being amplified 2x, and my HEQ5 Pro mount is on the small side for a 200PDS. I'm attaching my less than stellar image, just to give you an idea. There's some aligning problems with the right border that I haven't bothered cropping out. If you image without a 2x Barlow, the nebula should be half the size it is in my image.

Thanks for the info again; definitely food for thought

Thanks for the info That is a fair bit more for the 190MN - are the 11 kg for it also without tube rings etc. ?

As you have both the 190 MN and a 200P, can you tell me how much heavier the 190 is? Am imaging with a 200PDS on a HEQ5 presently, but have always drooled over the 190. Fear though that it would be too much for a HEQ5, but really don't want to carry something as heavy as the EQ6, so that's kept me off the 190 up til now. If it's indeed being discontinued, I do have to reconsider after all.

Me too - the one about the moon had me in stitches; just a couple of days before I was looking at Jupiter & Saturn with my 200PDS and decided to swing it round to the nearby, nearly full moon. Almost burned out my eye, and blinded me to the point of hardly being able to find my way around my own garden..