fifeskies

50 best frames from 10,000 , an indication of just how bad the seeing is since the rest were rubbish.

Even so there is still a stacking artifact in the middle

Out of 10,000 frames taken I only stacked 14 of them for this image. Usually I stack 200 but the conditions were awful.

How recently did you install your pier.   

It can take a few months for a new foundation to settle fully, however I would expect any day to day change to be very small.

struggled to get a decent amount of frames , this is from the best 150 out of a 3800 capture.

ZWO 585mc and 2x powermate

200 best frames from a 6000 frame AVI for each image

High winds so quite wobbly , 200 best of 10,000 frames

and later in the afternoon , a wider view of the region

200 stacked frames from 2500

best 200 of 10,000 very wavery frames.

Stacked and tweaked.

AR 3335 is the group on the right of the image

Herschel Wedge and continuum filter , false coloured.

The mono negative versions can sometimes make it easier to see the sunspot structure.

AR3321 and the AR 3323 are moving round and becoming much clearer

Added an evening view as it was not too bad viewing this evening.

I found that 9600 baud is the rate for the EQMOD USB to handset socket adapter with FTDI chipset.

115200 baud works when using EQMOD with a usb direct cable, ie just a simple USB connection cable.

I have 2 mounts , older one only has the handset socket , newer one has the inbuilt USB socket (and presumably interface on the motherboard).

Sun looks a bit grumpy about being photobombed today

18 hours apart so not strictly a full day , but hopefully might get more this week to add to the set

Fife this afternoon , showers about and thin high cloud , but worth a go anyway  

Zwo585 and 2x powermate

I have the Altair pier with 4 bolt rat cage set at about 100mm spacing between plates.

Guiding my EQ6-R with around 15kg on it , I get guiding of around 0.4 to 0.6 arcsecond accuracy most nights with a balanced payload.

This is already better than seeing in UK skies so the rat cage is not causing degraded performance as far as I can see.

I also have a pulsar pier with no rat cage in my ROR, guess what , I don't see any better guiding with my AZEQ6 , tho I usually only have my smaller rig (8kg) on that pier.

So in my experience, for my location and rigs, there is no difference in performance to having a rat cage top to the pier or having no rat cage.

for reference my pier has 4 x 16mm diameter threaded rods between the plates.

(if you were to have thin long rods , say 300mm long 8mm rods , then you will probably encounter significant vibration)

Dull and grey morning finally cleared away , but some high thin cloud still.

Sun over Fife

And now at 10:45 , looking at the main spot

Taken from Fife approx 8.50am today.

The image is taken using a Baader Coolceramic Herschel wedge and a Continuum filter.

Vixen 80m scope with a 2x Powermate.

Video capture with Sharpcap, best 100 out of 2000 frames stacked. ZWO 585mc camera.

Processed to false colour yellow/orange from the original green image.