Petrol

Markarian's Chain region. Not sure what the problem is on the top right and lower left. Thought it would be interesting to see how many galaxies I could get Pete

Really nice setup and you live in a beautiful part of the world Martin. I found with my wooden obsy / roll off, that ventilation itself wasn't enough to keep damp out despite being insulated. I ended up with a small heater and dehumidifier to keep things in check. That said I live in NW UK where it's mega damp. Just a heads up and thanks for sharing your setup, much appreciated. Pete

Hope people are getting better skies than me! Managed about 8 hours on the Iris neb with a Player One OSC Cam. All comments welcome. Pete

I started imaging 10 years ago. looking back at my imaging dates, there were plenty of cold, clear nights this time of year. After a 10 year break I've noticed a significant reduction in clear nights. I've also noticed a massive increase in light pollution, then there's the satellite trails. I have a roll off in my back garden, but prefer to drive to darker sites. I'm in the process of building a second mobile rig to maximise the few clear nights we now get. Pete

I tried using the in camera time lapse but found I got better results recoriding real time and speeding up on the edit. It also gave me the option to speed ramp. Uses a lot of data and batteries though I've upgraded my kit since I started this project and also learned a lot. I'm already planning my next one. Thanks for the comments and feedback. Pete

This year I've spent quite a lot of time both at home and away searching the skies. This video, in 4K contains everything I've achieved including day/night timelapses and deep sky objects. There's been plenty of failures, lots of disappointments but more importantly, some fantastic fun and spine chilling moments. Equipment list is at the end. Thanks for looking, all comments welcome Pete

4 hours on the Heart and Soul, Player One OSC. Rig is still work in progress. Clear skies Pete

That's not an easy act follow Olly. Awesome doesn't come close! That's not an easy act to folllow Olly. Absolutely awesome but here goes. 9 hours from a dark(ish) sky. I stopped a couple of nights in my motorhome near Fleetwood to do this. Moon was out though. OSC, (IMX571) chip Please feel free to be brutaly honest, I won't be offended. All I want to do is improve! Clear skies Pete

Thank you for taking the time to help me out guys, I genunely appreciate it. This was suppost to be a 4 panel mosaic but I ran into problems with the other 3 panels. The mount wouldn't slew far enough in NINA after a flip because I had mount limits enabled in Ascom. I just stacked the one panel. I've had another look at it and as you say, I've clipped the darks by an awful lot! I use starXterminator then stretch the background using the histogram. I wasn't aware but theres a lot of data is in the stars image. I think I need to lift the darks in the stars image before using pixel maths to recompile them. I've stretched the original stacked image and I've lost a huge amount of data by not stretching the stars image properly. I get red halo's around stars of a certain colour and it's a real pain because I have to clone them out of the background image. From what I've read, the dual band filter doesn't focus certain star colours properly when using fast optics, a downfall of OSC. Next time it's clear, I'll go back to a dark site, focus on one target and get maybe 8 hours of data before processing. I've spent quite a lot of time setting up this mobile rig thanks to @Adreneline and I'm convinced it can produce some decent images with improved skills and processing. I appeciate it can be a delicate subject criticising someone elses work but it's so much easier to improve with guidance. It's also 100X faster than trial and error! Again thank you for your time, it's very much appreciated. Best regards Pete

Honest opinions on this please. 2.5 hours of 180s subs with flats & dark flats from a bortle 4 location Player One Poseidon-C Pro (IMX571) ZWO dual band filter (not recommended for fast optics) ZWO autofocuser EQ5 mount guided I appreciate OSC has it's limitations but I'm looking to improve All comments very welcome Clear skies Pete

It's great fun camping under good skies. I live in a light polluted valley which is often misty. I'm planning to go to dark sky locations this year and had a test run in my small motorhome. The full moon didn't help with the timelapse but everything worked out OK. I've now got a couple of scopes ready to go with a guided mount. Pete

I agree, it's a bit OTT. The plan was to stiffen it up a bit but I kept going. Thanks for the NINA AF settings, saved me a lot of hassle! Clear skies Pete

I decided to go EAF with the Samyang now I've got the back focus sorted. My options seemed limited but I went for the Thinkable Creations Hyperpod. I appreciate that 3D printed parts are not the most rigid so a bit of beefing up was in order. I made some pre preg carbon fibre plates to replace the 3d printed ones and fitted some further re enforcing. The dovetail was replaced with an alloy one and since the camera is a bit heavy, I fitted a WO guidescope ring to support it. It's all looking good. The next problem is to set up the ZWO EAF which I've never done before. If anyone is using NINA and would be kind enough to share their autofocus step size / backlash settings I'd be very grateful as it would be a great starting point. I know backlash varies between belt drive and meshed gear systems but I'm starting from zero ☺️ Clear skies and roll on the dark skies! Pete

I'm a newbie to mosaics (only ever done 1) but from my limited knowledge gradients can be a problem. I've started using the Normalize Scale Gradient plugin for Pixinsight and found it to more effective than WPB alone. I've had limited sucess with Pix and mosaics but I'll be trying the PhotoMetricMosaic when darker nights are back. Interesting thread and thank you for sharing your knowledge. Clear skies Pete

Might be worth a mention but I have a few of the 42mm gaskets that came with various cameras and accessories. They vary in thickness quite a lot and you can mix and match to get the right back focus. I also checked the tilt using the SY and Zwo 294MC camera and it was quite a long way out. It was the same on my RASA The tilt is a lot less on all my rigs with the Player One camera and from what I can gather, the sensor is very well aligned during manufacture. My advice would be to get the back focus sorted before moving on to tilt adjustements. It's also important to understand that any slop in the bayonet adapter will cause problems. I would also measure any filter holders, shims or adapters to make sure they are absolutely straight. You might be suprised how some components are poorly made. The bottom line here is we are pushing the boundries of everything to the absolute limit. That said, I have every faith in this lens and some of the images posted here are testament to that. Hope that helps @SAW I was at the point of giving up but after following @Adreneline advice, I'm sorted Clear skies Pete