AndyUK

Brian - As Carole's noted the "secret" behind hubble palette is using selective colour - I always found THIS link pretty useful in getting something close, and you can then tweak the colour further, either by repeating some of the changes and/or amending the layer transparency to taste... ... But back to Carole's image... Very nice indeed, Carole! . (I'm hoping I might even be able to capture some data myself sometime - maybe this year?)

Great to have you back, John... .

Thanks Dave - It looks as though my error is trying to use the ball-head for framing rather than relying on the "fine tuning mount assembly"...

Hi Dave, I do have a hot-shoe mounted RDF and of course once calibrated that makes it easy to get to the closest high mag/named star (which I can just about manage using my phone to help :))... it’s just that hop from that star to the DSO I struggle with, especially when I’ve been trying to use the ball-head (ie not RA buttons / DEC knob on the adjuster)...

I'm fairly new to my Adventurer - I bought it last October/November so that I can take it abroad but I've been monitoring this thread for some time and have to say I'm very enthused about the prospects . With a mate's assistance, we took mine out for a test last weekend - The transparency was atrocious, but we went through the process of setting it up and all seemed to perform pretty much in line with what I expect to be using it for... However, as I've always used a goto mount (and/or platesolve), I knew that was one thing I was going to miss badly when trying to find DSO's at longer FL

For focusing, I know many simply open the lens up, ISO 25,600, zoom in 10x, centre a nice bright star and then bring it in and out of focus until happy that it's as good (small) as they can get it. However, I'm a great fan of bahtinov masks... There are 2 main types - Those that clip into the lens filter thread, and etched filters that slide into square filter holders. The clip in masks are a lot cheaper, but when I tried one I found the view using a 24mm lens (even f1.4 / ISO 25,600, live view 10x zoom) was too dim for me. There are also Y masks which might be brighter (but I've not t

Very nice indeed... and very good considering it was virtually full moon - You've got to love Astrodon NB filters for cutting through it! (I'm not sure what process you used for the Hubble Palette process, but I've always found this link quite a useful starting point...)

The ED72 certainly does indeed seem to be an excellent little scope, and I'm sure it'll be perfect for its originally intended use (visual / solar on the SW Adventurer) but I've only managed to get it on the mount once since I've had it (just to give it a basic test - The intra / extra focus airey disks looked very good ). Unfortunately my skies aren't that great at all (my SQM reading is c. 17.9 ) and when I had a modded 40D I definitely had to use an LP filter, but I'm still encouraged to give it a go...

Very nice indeed Mick . (I personally wouldn't have spotted the vignetting though....) I recently bought an ED72 myself for a "mobile" / SW adventurer setup, and am also getting a DSLR modded for milky way/night landscapes etc, but the more I see images like this the more I think it might be interesting to combine the OTA and the camera, put it on my AZ/EQ6 at home and see what comes out... . Do you use any kind of LP filter?

I agree - These are seriously impressive results!

It should do... 1. Select the imaging mode tab 2. Select a target [ie Messier - M31] 3. Select your telescope from the drop-down list (or custom scope and manually enter it - Focal length / aperture) 4. Select your camera from the drop-down list (or custom camera and manually enter it - Resolution / pixel size) 5. If you want to add a barlow or reducer, put that in the barlow option [Binning I usually leave at 1x1, ditto angle] 6. Click "add to view"... and M31 should be displayed (and you get all the calculations for focal ratio, resolution, field of view and Da

I had a similar problem... I first tried connecting my powered USB hub into a different laptop port (my laptop has 3 ports, although 2 share the same bus) but when that didn't work I plugged the camera directly into the laptop... and the images then completed downloading. (Unfortunately that wasn't the final solution for me as my USB hub was connected to my laptop inside the house via a 3m long active USB cable - I eventually bought a new powered hub, and that resolved the problem... Hopefully you won't have that problem!)

Very informative indeed, Steve - I've learnt a lot from that (I'd better go and lie down now!). And a stunning image too - Thanks for the inspiration .

I'll let you know... I can't say I can recall ever having seen a value of 0.00 when using Bahtinov Grabber (maybe it happened but I wasn't looking?!). I used to be very happy if I could achieve a focus error of +/- 10 microns (I'm not sure how that calculates but that would definitely be sub-pixel). It'll obviously be much easier with better transparency, and admittedly it's a little more difficult with narrowband filters. (I now have 3nm filters - that was the reason I decided to go for an auto-focuser!). If you wanted to practice with Bahtinov Grabber (to see if you like it), m