Rustang

Thanks, il give that look, fingers crossed it can be sorted and yes it definitely could have been worse👍

Thanks, these things happen and in the grand scheme of things in life its really not the end of the world but I'm still gutted. That was a much more expensive accident for that person then, and to think I was going to upgrade later in the year, very nervous about that now but life must still be lived

No, thankfully because I have to, I always remove the camera so it was safe in its protective box. The scope should have also been in its flight case safe and sound but due to the run of clear nights Ive been leaving it out ready to go.

SW 80 ED DS Pro. The draw tube doesn't now look 100 % straight in the unit as in the gap all around isant the same, it's slightly over to one side, there also seems to be a small gap one side of the focus unit against the main telescope body. I don't have a diagonal to to achieve focus with an eye piece plus very limited knowledge on star tests. Would a miss alignment in the focus tube cause the same stars and from my knowledge that's part of the collimation to make the focus unit parallel with the lens cell!? Il try and get some pics up tomorrow

Not built in but I've always been using the same reducer.

Thanks, I will contact FLO. It's probably best after a fall like it had to get a full test and go over.

It would be pretty strange to all of a sudden get out of focused stars like above when I've never had them before like that only since the fall they appear not so good. I'm not saying my focus has been perfect but I've always produced the crisper looking stars above until now!

I'm certainly leaning that way, it's been such a great scope 😔

I would hope so but I focused in the exact Same way as I always do with a mask and even checked it thoroughly before the last two sessions after the fall so I can't see why it would be that out, to be honest the target looks ok focus wise but not the stars!. In all of sessions using that scope and focusing in the same way I've never had stars like I do now. To take a fall from 4ft onto a wooden floor would it not be expected to be knocked out of collimation? I would need to buy a diagonal to do a star test but even then I'm not experienced enough to 100% tell if everythings ok. For learning purposes, if you think it's a focus issue, what would the stars look like then if I was a collimation issue!?

So I had an infuriating and upsetting incident last Saturday, I had been out imaging Friday night and packed up about 3am and went to bed. The next morning it was really hot so I always open the shed where my gear is stored to let the air flow through, as i opened the door our cat ran out, oh so I locked you in by mistake, i didnt even know he was in there! Then I stepped into the shed and my heart sank, my scope with guide scope with guide camera attached was on the floor! it was 4ft above the floor position at a 45 degree angle away from the edge of the work top where i always leave it. I went numb and just stood there waiting to be pinched and woken up from this nightmare. How it happened i dont know, it was obviously the cat but considering it all weighs nearly 5 kg and the cat weighs nothing he must have gone mental trying to get out!!! I didnt have the heart to pick it up for a while not wanting to accept any damage. I eventually did and started stripping it all down checking for damage. The bracket holding the guide scope on was pretty bent up including a screw on the back that holds the focueser to the scope body. The main scope sort of appeared unscathed but on closer inspection the focus unit appeared not 100% aligned with the body and the tube the same with the unit, it had taken a knock because it was locked but pushed in! apart from that it seemed ok. After sorting everything the best I could i decided to try imaging the next couple of nights. The guide camera still works, and all appeared ok with the images so I was relived but also not convinced i had gotten way with any issues just yet. Sadly after looking at my data tonight I can see the stars are not great at the same focus, see images below. The crisper stars from before the fall, the crap stars after! So i would say its now out of colimation which I'm not surprised about! I'm gutted, my gear is my pride and joy. and there was me worrying about the stars in the corners in my earlier thread! Does anyone know if i could be sent away and where to be sorted!?

I'm using a reducer so as said above, it could be that not correctly spaced, I will have to have a look at that when I get a chance.

Yeah I'm using a reducer so it could well be that, that's not correctly spaced!

Camera is definitely secure. If it happens to be the pola aligment thats out (i cant see how though) could that cause it even with guiding?

HEQ5 Pro

Could be but its pretty hand tight in its rings, i never know how tight to go though!

Ive known my stars in the corners of my images have always been pants so i felt its time to see how to improve this. The strange thing is, if you look at my image it looks like field rotation if you notice the direction of travel of the stars in the corners!? I use an app to see where to put Polaris for Pola alignment so I cant see how that could be so far out and I'm guiding also so any advice would be greatly received as always.

what else can I add so what they all said! 😊

I nearly brought one of these second hand which I would still consider to upgrade from my SW 80 ED DS Pro. How much better it would be though... https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/Telescope/ED-APO/80-90mm/TSAPO906-TS-Photoline-90mm-f6-6-triplet-FPL-53-SuperApo-2-5-CNC-OAZ-tube-length-adjustable::1055.html?language=en

Blimmey! what about light pollution, I'm in bortle 6!? would that limit my exposure time? obviously I can just try and see what happens. That will be a long process to get set of darks completed though! 😩

Yeah that's right, it's Adams old QHY 9 mono CCD with Baader NB filters. I've been doing 10min exposures for all of my projects. This short intergration time was only just to see what the data was like to start with, I do this with all of my images, stack the first couple of hours or so just to see before then gaining some more data. It was because I've never had it turn out like the above before which is what lead me to ask for help, my first initial test stack is normally noisy but never what was happening above!. I do normally try and get around 4-5hrs on each wavelength and know I should still be going for more.

I will hold my hands up and say I've been lazy with my integration time, I'm still fairly new to Narrow band imaging and probably will in time settle to longer projects, i.e longer integration time but for now its been fun trying lots of targets!

Ok, il try and get my head around all of that, it all makes some sense etc but I never realised that DSS could throw out some subs by itself! Thanks again for all your help, I owe you yet another beer! 👍

So going forward then, what ever the target, just use Average!?

Average does seem better! AveragetestStack.TIF

Ok, il give that ago, from what Ive said above then do you think its just either integration time or some settings in DSS nothing else of concern?