carastro

As stated above, you must be the Queen of DIY projects Gina, where do you get all your energy. We had a pond in the garden for some years from a sunken children's turtle playpool (lol), and all manner of wildlife arrived in it. Including, frogs and spawn and tadpoles, newts, pond skaters, water beetles, Toads arrived, and this is from the suburbs of London, so who knows what you may get down your way. Carole

Generally I take my full rig with me in the UK when I travel to astro camps. But this is my abroad travel kit: Ioptron sky tracker and DSLR (next time I will take my cooled CCD camera). This is set up on the patio of our friend's apartment in Southern Spain.

There is electrical hook up at the campsites we go to. You would need to buy one of these (with the RCD safety cut out) to connect to power: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mobile-Mains-Hook-Up-3-Sockets-230v-RCD-Camping-Plug-Protected-Lead-Cable/121872762458?epid=5008812385&hash=item1c602ec65a:g:UMUAAOSwAO9ZOSED My local group is the Orpington Astronomical Society, though lately the actual members seem to have dropped off and we seem to be more comprised of people like yourself who I have "collected" to make up the numbers, so if you private message me your Email address I will send you further details. Four of the new people I have recruited are from this forum. It will involve some driving though to get there as our regular site is in the country away from city lights (East Sussex). It takes me about 1 hour to get there from SE London and we normally stop 2 - 4 nights depending on the weather. We initially plan to do this at weekends so those who work can get there. Carole

Buono fotografia. Welcome to the UK and your continued Astro-imaging. I understand your concerns about driving too far in a strange country on the other side of the road, but hopefully you will soon get used to that. There are a number of star parties in the UK every year, PhotoGav already mentioned the SGL star party to you, and there is also a big one in September in Norfolk. Our local group from SE London/NW Kent go regularly to a campsite in East Sussex, but you would need a tent for most of these if you are interested, they are also a good way to meet like minded people. Carole

You've done very well Roland. I don;t find planetary imaging easy at all, in fact I had such a rotten time this year over 4 nights trying, I have decided not to bother any more. Done some images in the past, but those weren't easy either. Carole

What about trying it in HOS and seeing how that looks? Carole

Hi Sara, Up to your usual good standard, but I feel this is one target that doesn't feel right in NB colours. The data is excellent, I wonder whether you could fiddle with/change the colours a bit. I have done this is narrowband in the past and like you hesitated, and in the end I don;t think I even posted it. Carole

I did wonder about doing something like that, but had visions of it getting knocked off/falling off and falling down and hitting the secondary, so will just try to be careful about not racking it out too far. Carole

Further to my post a few back about circumcising my 130PDS focusser. This is the resulting star shape. I am also pleased to report that this is the first time I have risked taking it to an Astro camp, as I had always been worried about dew. I bought an observatory tent so the rig was inside that, and I took the precaution of wrapping a couple of long dew heaters around the tube by the 2ndry in case it helped (no idea if it made any difference), and I am pleased to report no problems with dew, I didn't even bother to use the dew shield I had made. Like the original poster of this thread, I am really starting to love my 130PDS. Carole

No, Roland showed me that this could happen and showed me how to push the focusser back again if it does rack out too far. I have just been to a local Astro camp for the last few evenings and got a chance to try out the 130PDS with both my atik cameras, and it does seem to be a marked improvement, I will post up the results when i have processed them. I will just have to be careful not to rack the focusser out so it slips off the rollers. It was also the first time I dared take the 130PDS to astro camp as I have always been worried about dew, but took the chance this time. I did take the precaution of using an observatory tent and putting a couple of long dew heaters around the tube near the secondary. I am not sure if either of these measures helped, but it seemed to be fine even without the dew shield I had made. Carole

Thought I'd post up on this thread the circumcision of my 130PDS This is my focusser - in focus BEFORE I have been wanting to cut off some of the focusser for some time, but have neither the skills or tools to do it, and was nervous of making a pigs ear of it. Recently I have got to know RolandKol (member on here) who has the same scope and has circumcised his own scope, and as he lives not too far from me kindly offered to come and do mine for me which he did last weekend. Thanks Roland. This is the defocussed star before and after, (very little clear sky last night, so after managing to get IN FOCUS, I wasn't able to take an actual image). the star shapes on bright stars I didn't like: The new view down the OTA (I blackened the raw edge with black ink in case of reflections): Just need some clear skies to test it out for real. Also need to check point of focus with my other Atik camera and my DSLR. Hopefully they won't be too different. The bit cut off: Carole

I have used a 200P on an NEQ6 with no problems, but it was inside an observatory. Carole

What about the 130P on one of those pronto mounts? They look pretty easy to use, much better than a cheap EQ mount. It's like having a standing height dob. (ish). Carole

Try this calculator - input your current scope and eyepiece and then try the one you are planning to buy for size comparison. http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.php

I agree over the advice on basic EQ Mounts they are very difficult to work with. However we should ask the original poster if he thinks he might want to graduate into astro imaging at a later date as an alt-AZ mount won't be suitable for that and he won't want to buy twice. Having said all that, on this budget, I would have thought the best option would be for a small Dobsonian, as these require neither an EQ mount nor an Alt Az mount and come in a lot cheaper. It's a "push to" system britto765 and you get more aperture for your money. Such as https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html £209 Carole

That's a good idea. Carole

Thanks for that Spillage, I did make a dew shield for the 130PDS with a metal coated camping map, but I can't seem to get the opening to stay circular, it could be my fault and I might have squashed it at some point, but even when it is on I find the focusser in the wrong place to keep it fixed on properly. So have not bothered with it the last couple of times but then I am in an obsy at home. Also I need to take it off to put the Bahtinov mask on. I think I need to have further thought on that and seeing your idea might have an effect on what I come up with. Carole

Thank you Frank. Carole

This has been posted in it's own thread, but thought I should post it in this thread too. Still haven't been brave enough to take my SW130PDS to an Astrocamp as still uncertain of dew control, but I took this in my obsy at home from my LP location in SE London. I did this with no dew shield, but I did wrap some dew heaters around the 2ndry location in case it helped, and now I have bought myself a observatory tent which hopefully might help with damp, I might give it a try at camps this year. Horsehead Nebula IC434from Home 27 & 28th December 2017 Ha 21 x 900secs + 10 x 600secs - Almost 7 hoursRGB 32 x 150 binned total 1hour 20minsGrand total 8 1/4 hoursSW130PDS & Atik460EX, HEQ5

Oh dear, my smaller HEQ5 has replacement bolts, but I always do PA fully loaded even with a dual rig, as I go to Astro camps with it, and am not going to faff around in the dark loading everything up afterwards when I could be getting on with imaging in the short time I have there, been doing this for quite a few years. Carole

That's correct.

When you say Do you mean the orientation is different because you removed the camera between imaging sessions? If so then you'll need new flats, if the orientation is different because of slightly different GOTO then you can use the same flats. I always find it easiest to stack the different nights individually and then stack the stacks. there is a group stacking function on DSS but I am not sure if it works well/at all if the exposures etc are different. Even when I used to use the group stacking method I still found I got better results from stacking the stacks. HTH Carole

I would say a mono would be the wise choice, if you get an electronic filterwheel you can capture Luminance and colour in a sequence. Also gives you the option to do narrowband. Also the mono camera (if you're spending all that money), will give much better detail. Carole

OK, well looks like your problem is due to something different. Carole

I am inclined to agree with Olly, but in the meantime, here is a tip I was given some years ago: Do you keep your SD card in the camera when you download to the laptop? I was told that removal of the SD card reduces this problem because something electronic (which I don't understand) can happen in the download due to the SD card being in place. Anyway, I removed my SD card and it greatly improved/got rid of the horizontal banding problem. This was some years ago, so I can't remember all the details 100%. Might be worth a try though, and as stated previously try not to let power cables touch USB cables. Carole