Petrol

That looks great! Mucho impressed

That's a great image. It was my first target when I built my roll off shed. As you say, it's faint and light pollution is a problem, as is the lack of dark skies this time of year. I would be very happy with that!

Thank you for your reply. 1. I always had green / blue cast on my images when using my IDAS LPF. It was a lot of processing to get rid of it. I've taken it out now so I'll se how it goes. I have a UHC Nebula filter but never tried it. 2. Thanks, that one was easy. I'll order them along with a controller 3. I'm waiting for a gap in the clouds to test the guiding. Last time I used everything was on PHD1 and Win XP! I have upgraded the firmware in the handset and everythings seems good so far. The real test is when guiding starts and you can't simulate that. I need stars. EQMOD is no doubt the way to go for me, I'm trying to pick up where I left off. Oh and yes I'll test everything at home before I set off. 4. WO 72 is looking good then. Thanks. I have taken everything on board, thank you KP82 Pete

Its been a few years since I did any imaging but now I have more time so I'm going to start up again. Frustrated by light pollution, I now have a motorhome and plan to travel to darker skies. This is the kit I have Skywatcher EQ5 goto mount Skywatcher explorer 200P with a Skywatcher Startravel 80 guidescope WO Megrez 72FD With a WO Zenithstar 66 SD guidescope QHY5 Guide cam Atik 314L Colour ZWO ASI294MC Pro which I've recently bought New laptop to run it all The plan is to start with the WO scopes because they are easier to handle The questions.... 1. I always used an IDAS light pollution filter at home. I'm guessing this won't be needed anymore but considering Sodium vapour street lights have more or less been relaced with 56K led's here in the UK, is it totally useless now? 2. I'm looking at buying some dew heaters. 3 of my scopes are about 4" diameter. Looking at FLO's website they say the Lynx Astro 40cm Dew Heater Strap for 4" Telescopes. Is that 4" diameter? 3. What ascom driver should I be using for the EQ5 mount. I use the synscan handset to do a 3 star align, then use PHD2 to guide. The USB connection goes from the PC, through a usb to 9 pin adapter, then into the synscan handset. I only had one chance at trying it and had problems, not because off connetions. Com port was assigned but guiding was erratic. I thought it might have been the wrong ascom driver. 4. I appreciate my scopes are old but would I get better results if I upgraded? Thanks for looking. It's great to come back to this awesome hobby after such a long time. Any advice is welcome Pete

Those drivers have sorted it. Thank you very much 👍 Pete

Thanks. I'll try them when I get home. I'm on the road this week looking for dark site campsites

Thanks 👍

I'm building a mobile imaging rig to take to darks skies in my motorhome. I have a QHY5 which would be an ideal guide cam because it's small and light. It served me well back in the days of Windows XP, does anyone know if there are any updated drivers available? I've looked but can't find any. Thanks for looking Pete