Stuf1978

Haha yes wives are usually right 🤔

Slight tweak of the colours, not sure if I prefer this version?

Nicely done, looks great

All three are nicely done, but it's the second one for me 👍

Cheers mate 👍

Thanks, I've actually gone back and tweaked it a bit and I'm much happier. I'm still awaiting delivery of a Bahtinov mask, so I'll definitely try it in the field so to speak when I have the means to nail the focus down

Finally had a clear spell over the last two nights (although it was very murky last night especially), so managed to grab 6 hours of 5 minute subs on the North America and Pelican Nebula. WO Redcat/ZWO ASI 294MC Pro/Optolong L-eXtreme/HEQ5 from my Bortle 8 garden, stacked in DSS and processed in Siril and Photoshop Critique welcome

I'd be happy with it too. I'm busy shooting this at the minute as well. Managed a couple of hours on it last night and hopefully get some more data tonight 😀

Great progress, that looks way better. Some nice detail in the wall and the star colours are lovely

Productive day today, managed to get the guidescope attached and the scope collimated (I think). The primary was way off and the secondary needed a little tweaking. First time I've collimated a reflector and have to admit the secondary was a faff. I'm sure it'll get slicker over time though. Does this look OK? (Picture isn't great but it looked better visually) Also is there any adaptors available so that I can have everything threaded (i.e. CC to the focuser) Another thing I noticed is the amount of light entering the bottom of the tube at the edge of the primary. Is it advisable to make a cover to stop as much light entering?

Great stuff, thanks 👍

My 130PDS turned up today, very quick turnaround by FLO 👍 Anyway I'm looking into ways of attaching my 50ED guidescope so I'm going to add a dovetail to the top of the clamps. Does anyone know what size this screw is as I need another?

Thanks that's all good info. Really looking forward to giving the scope a try. I'm sure I'll run into problems at some point so this thread is the first place I'll refer to 😄

I've been wanting to have a bit of a play with a reflector over the last few months so I've pushed the buy button on a 130P-DS/Baader CC to go alongside my Redcat and 72ED. 650mm focal length at F5 is a bit of a no brainer for £229. Hopefully FLO can get it to me for the weekend although the forecast looks terrible for the next 30 years!! I'm planning to read this thread from the beginning but I have a couple of quick questions. 1. Flats: what's the best way of doing them with this scope? 2. Dew prevention: is it a dew magnet and how are people dealing with it? Is a shield sufficient 3. Image framing: what's the best way of rotating the camera to get the framing you want? Thanks Stu Some great images in this thread btw 😎

I reckon so, compared with other targets within Orion it doesn't seem to get as much attention

Very nice, an underappreciated target imo

Nicely done 👍

Very nicely done

I have the 294MC Pro, the first time I used it was with my 72ED and OVL flattener. I put on the required number of spacers (which come with the camera) to get the 55mm back focus and then attached it directly to the back of the flattener. I had no issues achieving focus, however I have had to add a nylon spacer (that also come with the camera) as the stars were ever so slightly elongated in the corners., apart from that no issues at all with both the 72ED and redcat. The 294MC Pro has a few quirks when it comes to calibration frames. Basically, don't use bias frames, use darks, flats and dark flats. Also try and make sure your flats (and corresponding dark flats) are over 3-4 seconds long as the camera shows a lot of inconsistencies in very short exposures. I use the APT flats aid for my flats with a target ADU of 25000, a double layer of white t-shirt and a white ipad screen and I don't have any issues.

Stunning

Nicely done, great image

After what seems like ages without any imaging (3 months) I finally managed to drag my gear out for the last three nights. As we still don't have any true darkness as of yet I chose to shoot the entire Veil complex as it gives off a nice strong signal. This was also the first time I've used the Redcat, 294MC Pro and L-eXtreme combo and it's safe to say I'm impressed. The image could probably do with some RGB data for the stars which I still may add that at a later date, but after 3 nights on the trot I need some sleep This was 87x300 subs (7hr 15m) with the combo mentioned above on a HEQ5 Pro Taken from my Bortle 8 Sunderland garden

I made the jump to a dedicated astro cam (ZWO ASI 294MC Pro) from a modded dslr that I had been using through APT/Stellarium/EQMOD and it's was pretty painless. Downloaded the necessary drivers for the new camera and it all worked like before with the dslr, albeit the slightly different interface in APT for the cooled CMOS. Being able to create a darks library and the massive improvement in noise levels is a massive win win

Nicely done, looks great

Nicely done, I definitely prefer the second process 👍 I can't wait to try this target as I have the same set up and it frames the whole veil nicely, unfortunately a huge tree blocks my view to the east at this time of the year so need to wait till it rises higher.