KP82

The weather condition is one of the two major factors (the other being weight and ease of handling) for why I prefer smaller scopes. My 4" refractor allows me to capitalise on those brief moment of clear skys much more easily than larger Cats and Dobs. My 8" dob is probably at the limit in terms of setup and cooldown time for those nights. And when we do get a very clear sky for the whole night, I'll be imaging mostly.

The RDF on your 130p shares the same synta style mounting base as the SW 6x30 RACI, so there shouldn't be any problem attaching the RACI to your scope. And it isn't an overkill on a 5" reflector.

For visual and planetary imaging, EQ5 is enough although HEQ5 wouldn't hurt if your budget allows.

AZ-GTi. Quick deployment, lightweight and option to go EQ with the wedge should you need.

For a fast achro, don't bother with high mag. 12mm BST with a 2x barlow is about as high as your scope can take. You could try the Baader semi-apo filter on the Moon and planets to offset some of the CA at high mag. A more stable mount will be the best investment you can do now. A better quality finder could also be quite useful. A better diagonal could be a good investment if you plan to upgrade to another refractor in the future. It will be completely useless if your next scope is going to be a big dob unless there is something seriously wrong with your existing one and you need a replacement.

You will need a dew heater and stripes for these cold winter nights. Also I'd recommend guiding which would greatly improve your imaging experience and reduce the amount of wasted subs. The software is readily available and free. Personally I was using guiding from day 1. The only thing that would have stopped me was my budget. A mini-PC or RPi or an old laptop which you don't mind leaving outside in the cold would be handy if you're going to image from your backyard. You could wire everything to it and then control the whole rig remotely from another computer in the warmth of your house.

Excellent result for just an hour of integration. For predominant Ha targets like the Heart and Soul, the L Extreme works really well. At this image scale I don't see anything wrong, maybe just the fairly strong noise reduction (understandable for just an hour on a DSLR) and the gradient from the moonlight. Did you take any flats and use dithering? The flats would have taken care of the vignette and dithering would help eliminate hot pixels. It's worth purchasing the following addons if you are going to stick to PS: https://prodigitalsoftware.com/AstronomyToolsActions.html https://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/

I agree a guide log would be useful. As for the min-move recommendations by the guide assitant, I'd apply them. They compensate the backlash in both axes. Drift align is quite tricky. First you need to let it drift while the atmoshpere is steady. If there is a strong turbulance, it could throw off the DEC line giving erroneous readings. You then need to alternate between azimuth and altitude drift/adjustment until you get a good result. The best I've ever done on a steady night was around 0.8 - 0.9 arcmin PA error. During windy nights it would go up to 1.8 - 2 arcmins.

Star adventurer will be a good starting point if you plan to stick to camera lenses or very short refractors (e.g. WO Cat 51). With the help of guiding, you can easily get 2 mins subs if not more. Astroberry on RPi4 can also do plate solving polar alignment with your guiding setup. The iEXOS-100 will give you a bit more headroom if you plan to move up to a 70-80mm refractor. It has the same worm gear/stepper motor belt drive system as the bigger EXOS2 mount. Once you add the azimuth adjuster, a heavier tripod and more counterweights, it will be able to accept a 7kg+ imaging payload. However the price will go up to £500. I use mine for visual only with an 107mm triplet, a 2" diagonal, a 50mm diy eFinder and medium weight eyepieces. It's rock stable.

Wow, £30 for the 055CLB + RC141, what a bargain! I still have my 055CL Pro + RC141 3-way head which I bought new back in 2004 for way more than that. The fold-over levers are fantastic making deployment a lot faster than the traditional screw locks on the legs. When I had my WO Megrez 90, I briefly used my 055CL Pro with a SW AZ Pronto as a grab'n'go mount for the scope. It wasn't the most stable setup, but definitely easy to use. I could get the whole kit out or packed up in less than 5 mins.

You can load your RPi4 with Astroberry, create an INDI profile of your mount, camera, guiding setup and focuser on it, then connect to it remotely with Kstars/Ekos from your Mac. This is by far the cheapest solution. If you don't like to fiddle around and prefer something more plug'n'play, get a copy of Stellarmate OS for your RPi. Either of these are vastly cheaper than the ASIAIR which is basically a RPi4 + some power delivery circuit + ZWO custom software.

890 euros, that's like nearly £800. All these can be done with a rpi 4 + hq camera + astroberry + vnc at about 1/8 of its price. If you really need the fancy mobile app, buy a copy of stellarmate OS at $50.

The only motorised options that are available for your EQ2 mount are these basic RA motor drives: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/ra-single-speed-motor-drive-for-eq-2.html http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_accessories-motor_drives_and_goto_upgrades/ra_motor_drive_for_eq2.html If you'd like GOTO, you will have to upgrade to an entirely new mount. You can attach your 130P to the new mount with a vixen dovetail. The cheapest GOTO mount will cost more than the whole 130P/EQ2 package.

If you never bother with 400x for the Moon or the planets during those very occasional calm nights, the zoom should be enough for all the visuals you will be doing with the Mak. Maybe swap the 6.7mm with a widefield 2" eyepiece?

I can see in your sig you've got a ST80. Is that for widefield visual or guiding? If the former, you may want to keep the ES82. But yes I agree the 2x barlow is pretty much useless with the Mak 180 when you've already got a 6.7mm ep.

Use the histogram as a guideline. Usually having the peak between 1/3 and 1/2 from the left gives a good balance between the subject and the background noise/glow. You need to manage your expectations. Basic modded Canon DSLRs will be quite far behind in SNR (smooth image) compared to dedicated cooled astro cameras with the same amount of exposure. When I used my NB1 narrowband filter on the Sh2-101 Tulip nebula, I did 4 mins subs. Using these filters on targets with predominant Ha emission (e.g. NA nebula, regions in Cygnus) will skew your results towards red. Also post processing is just as important as taking the subs. PixInsight is a wonderful piece of software and could make your life a lot easier once you get used to its workflow and interface. But it costs quite a bit. Personally I've tried it but decided to stick to PS CC. Maybe when one day I get myself a dedicated cooled astro camera, I'll bite the bullet and order the license.

With the Moon in its waxing gibbous phase, the condition isn't ideal for DSO imaging. For targets mainly in wavelength Ha, OIII and SII you could still give them a try with your narrowband filter. But any broadband images will end up with most details washed out by the strong moonlight. I usually take breaks in imaging between first quarter and third quarter of the Moon.

In DSS RAW/FITS settings, did you check the option "FITS created by DSLR or colour CCD" under the FITS tab? If this option is unchecked, DSS would assume the source files are already debayered. Alternatively set INDI to transfer RAW images in CR2 format (native to your Canon) rather than FITS. I'm not sure how you access INDI control panel on ASIAIR as I'm only familiar with Kstars/Ekos when it comes to INDI.

Wouldn't the scope be limited in the altitude with this mount configuration? In order to point the scope at zenith, I believe the off-centre position on the AZ5 + the included mini pier are necessary.

If you don't mind the limited fov at the longer end of the zoom, go for it. Personally I enjoy wider fov eyepieces myself, so I stick to fixed focal ones.

Get a copy of Sharpcap pro and your polar alignment will be done in no time. Or if you want something free, either the polar drift align in PHD2 or Polar alignment assistant in Kstars/Ekos will do it for you.

What about balance on the DEC axis? Did you pick a star just above the equator and near the meridian for the calibration?

Look for a Tele Vue 32mm plossl or ES68 24mm. These are probably the cheapest eyepieces with good edge correction at f/5 and max possible fov in 1.25 format.

The standard flange distance in a Canon DSLR is 44mm and with the T-ring 54 - 55mm. The CMOS sensor inside your ASI533MC is about 6.5mm into the camera body without the T2 adapter. Once you add the T2 adapter (top left), the distance becomes 17.5mm. If you add the 21mm T2 extension you have there, that will make it 38.5mm. So in order to reach focus, you will need to move the drawtube another 16mm-ish outwards from where your DSLR focuses.

I bought an 1.25" refractor focuser for my 60mm Tasco on Ali Express before. It took about a month to arrive from China. I believe most of the sellers are genuine (based on user feedbacks). But be prepared to wait quite some time for your item to arrive especially with the current disruption to transport caused by the pandemic. Also I'd imagine it would be quite a hassle if you're unhappy with the item and want to return it for refund.