Stuf1978

Brilliant thanks, looks like it's easily sorted 👍

This is what I'd also like to eliminate if possible. So I'd be interested to see what others have to say about this.

The cloud cover in the north east just isn't letting up at the minute but I did manage to grab an hour to test out some changes to the spacing and focuser mod. After my initial efforts in my last post I'm much happier with the star shapes after adding another 1mm spacer and adding the third thumb screw to the focuser. There is some very slight elongation in one of the corners which moves to the opposite corner on rotating the camera 180 degrees but it's minimal. Here's a single 15 second exposure of Deneb which shows much better star shapes than my first efforts with the 130PDS. Just need the weather to play ball and then I might actually be able to use this scope for a proper session Stu

Beautiful shot 👍

Brilliant, thank you 😁

Quick question. Can you use an old image (from a previous session) to plate solve with ASIair in order to get the same fov?

Great M31 😎

Thanks, that's a great set of instructions, very clear. I'll try it on the next cloudless night and report back. If I can get stars like yours I'd be very happy. I've got a couple of dslrs so can try it with different cameras as well and hopefully pinpoint where the problem lies. On a side note, I've drilled and tapped the locking ring and added another thumbscrew which can only help 😁 Thanks Stu

Thanks that's great info. I'll have a play about with the spacing some more and try and get an additional hole tapped and take it from there. I purposely avoided the SW CC as I wanted to retain the focal length but I wasn't aware there were other options. If I cant get it sorted I'll probably just sell the baader one and try one of the others. Ideally, I want stars like the ones in your M45 above..... just lovely 😍

Thanks, was more of a test rather than an attempt at a complete image. Yeah I used the Baader Mk III MPCC

Finally got round to giving the 130PDS a run out and have decided reflectors are a bit of a faff aren't they. I was intending to shoot the Wizard Nebula and thought I'd just set up as as normal and away I would go without issue, the scope had other ideas. I initially set up with an L-eXtreme filter but as I had no way of knowing where the focus point was I couldn't even find a star never mind focus. So I changed the filter for a UV/IR cut and changed tactics 😂 1. Balancing - this is a bit of a nightmare, I couldn't seem to get it nailed in declination. I thought I had it close at one point but the when slewing the mount (HEQ5 Pro) I'd hear the familiar sound of the gears grinding so the balance was obviously way off. I think I need to add more weight to the rear and get this sorted during the day before giving it another go. 2. Star Shapes - These weren't great. I'm not sure if it's spacing or tilt. I managed to grab 6x3 minute subs on M33 (ignore the lack of flats) to see what my stars looked like after I collimated the scope after it was delivered. I suspect it's tilt (please correct me if I'm wrong) as the stars at the bottom of the frame were worse than at the top. I've included the image below with crops of each corner to show this. Would this compression ring help out in this case?: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-2-inch-compression-ring-adapter-for-sky-watcher-newtonians-and-72ed-refractor-m54.html 3. Diffraction/reflection pattern - This seems to be biased toward one side of the star (see centre crop). What's the cause of this? Although this doesn't look completely horrendous it will bother me so I would like to get it sorted if possible. I'm using the Baader CC for what it's worth. If I can get these issues sorted then I think it will be a great little scope as it seems to be a bit of a light bucket, so any help in getting these fixed would be appreciated. Oh and I did manage to at least get an image of the moon out of the session so it wasn't completely wasted 200x0.001 second exposures stacked in Autostakkert and processed in Photoshop (ZWO ASI294C Pro) Cheers, Stu

Lovely image as usual 😍

Hi All, I'm trying to process some moon images that I took with my ZWO ASI 294MC Pro but I'm running into issues getting any actual colour into them. I've done lunar imaging in the past the same way with a dslr (obviously no debayering required) so the technique should work. I'm trying to pre-process in PIPP and then perform the stacking in Autostakkert but I just can't get any colour into the images. They are just coming out various shades of purple or green depending on which option I use. The 294MC Pro has a RGGB bayer pattern but selecting this option in the colour debayer (on the right in the image below) options doesn't do anything. I've tried every available option and nothing seems to work. I've also tried all the different options on the 'debayer raw image files' options on the left hand side all to no avail I've also tried just adding the fits files straight from the camera into Autostakkert and stacking them but I get the same result. Again I've tried all the different debayer options without success Does anyone have any idea on where I'm going wrong as it's driving me nuts Thanks, Stu

Thank you Well most of it 😂 but yeah you're right, there is probably more to be captured outside of this frame, especially Ha. Good luck, you may be surprised. I find the Veil gives off a pretty strong signal 👍

Thanks chaps 😁

Thank again to both of you. I think an ASIair plus may need to go on my Christmas list 😉

Brilliant, thank you. Yes I meant without home network. Were you powering the pocket powerbox from the asiair or using a different power source altogether?

Thank you, appreciated 😁 That's my favourite part of the image, I was really pleased when I managed to pull it out. There is so much Ha in and around the Veil that's not part of the main structure.

I've posted this before but looking back on it it I was never happy with the stars as they were overly blue which seems to happen with the L-eXtreme. So I decided to have another go at processing it, much happier with this version 87x300s/ZWO ASI 294MC Pro/WO Redcat 51mm/HEQ5 Pro/Optolong L-eXtreme/Bortle 8 Critique welcome

Outstanding

Great widefield 👍

That's a lovely M31 😍 I've been ASIair curious for quite a while and have been contemplating ditching the laptop and trying it out. I currently don't have any means to power a laptop, mount, cameras, dew heaters etc in the field and I'm thinking not having to run a laptop would simplify my power requirements. I do have a few things I'd like to clarify before deciding whether I should hit the buy button: 1. Manual focusing - Not having an electronic focuser, could I just run live view on the imaging camera (294MC Pro) and manually focus with a bahtinov mask as I'm currently doing? 2. Can you run the ASIair without a wifi network? 3. Dew heaters - Does ASIair have dew control? Or could I just run my Pegasus Pocket power box from the 12v output of the asiair and leave the dew control to that? Thanks, Stu

Great shot, I'm in a bortle 7 zone and have always avoided dark nebula as I just always assumed I'd be wasting my time.... but this gives me hope

Well it definitely works that's for sure. Look forward to seeing more of this 👍

Wonderful 😍