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Varavall

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Posts posted by Varavall

  1. 34 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

    Pretty much of only way seems to attach the guidesscope to the underneath of my vixen dovetail on the front/lens end?

    Hi

    I wished to do similar using a ZWO camera and Nikon lenses and I have been down that route and found at certain points the guidescope fouled the mount. So I machined some scrap aluminium plates and attached them to the bar, and now I can fix the guidescape and mini PC to one plate and have a removable plate to attach the camera lens and focuser - see photo. It works very well for me.

    IMG_20240325_172618_600.thumb.jpg.3c00cb3b48fcef267bb16dbca65636b6.jpg

    • Like 2
  2. The Heart and Soul nebulas taken over 11th, 12th and 13th March.

    30x 600s Ha, 10x600s Sii, 13x600s Oiii

    Kit::  Nikon 135mm AI lens at f4, ZWO Nikon-filter wheel adapter, ASI1600MM-Cool, ZWO EAF, Astrodon 5nm Ha, Sii and Oiii filters, HEQ5 Pro modded mount, NINA, PHD2

    Processed in ASTAP, Siril, GIMP and NX Studio

    heartandsoul2.thumb.jpg.469c9961252f762947ae278e27bf31aa.jpg

    • Like 3
  3. Here is another effort of the Rosette Nebula using a shorter focal length setup to reveal more of the surrounding nebulosity.

    Kit: Nikon 300mm AI lens at f4.5, ZWO Nikon-filter wheel adapter, ASI1600MM-Cool, ZW EAF, Astrodon 5nm Ha, Sii and Oiii filters, HEQ5 Pro modded mount

    Ha 6x900s, Sii 7x600s, Oiii 7x900s

    Processed in ASTAP, Siril and GIMP

    Taken 5th February

    Rosettea.thumb.jpg.39eb0bc1a6e5ab0ee61fd5ea6d178fa0.jpg

    • Like 2
  4.  

     

    4 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

    when I open it in gimp or similar for stretching I get a different image that cannot be stretched.

    Hi

    GIMP has a native FITS reader and I have no problems opening and stretching such files. Maybe you could post the stacked FITS file in questio

    n here so we can see if I have the same problem or not. Then at least will will knw if its the file or your system that has a problem.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  5. Here is my interpretation of the Rosette Nebula in my preferred bold and bright colours.

    10 x Ha, 15 x Sii, 15 x Oiii all at 600s on the nights of 13th and 25th January

    Kit: SW 120ED with Mira 0.63x flattener/reducer, ZWO ASI1600MM-cool, astrodon 5nm filters, SW HEQ5 belt modded with upgraded bearings, NINA and PHD2

    Processed in ASTAP, GIMP and Siril

    Rosette1.thumb.jpg.aabc41d546c467e60f3d4fd3fe93d760.jpg

    • Like 5
  6. 12 hours ago, rockinrome said:

    I currently use NINA.

    Hi

    I have the same mount and use NINA and park to a custom position so I can close the cover. What I have found is that once the custom park is set in NINA at the end of the imaging session the telescope duly parks where I want it. However, on start up when the telescope is unparked NINA assumes the telescope is at the home position so all goto slews go wrong. So what I do when I start up is to unpark and then park to home position, telescope goes pointing north and then everything works as it should. Guess that's a "bug" in NINA, but nothing major once known abut the foible. Hope that's useful.

  7. My Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro with belt mod and all the bearings replaced with SKL ones, regreased with lithium-PTFE grease, gives me 0.3-0.6 RMS with my 8" Newtonian and the photographic paraphenalia. When doing the upgrade I discovered that the internal attention to detail was lacking in that some components were not screwed down properly and others overtightened. So it's well worth stripping the mounts down to get best performance.

    • Like 1
  8. To close this discussion off the problem has been rectified and all is good once more. The problem was someone had removed the lens cell and slightly cross-threaded it giving it a few millimetres of slant; perhaps Spanish Customs when it came through. Anyway,  I couldn't budge the lens cell so I took it to the official Skywatcher dealer for Spain in Barcelona and they sorted it for 80 euros and collimated it to perfection.

  9. On 01/11/2023 at 04:49, MichaelBibby said:

    I would HIGHLY recommend rotating the scope

    Thanks for the pointer, but the photo was illustrative and not how ithe telescope is used. It's all rotated and I have hypertuned the mount with SKL bearings,  etc. PHD2 guide RMS of 0.3-0.6. So all is well 🙂

    • Like 1
  10. 21 hours ago, Elp said:

    easy to fix with a tilt adjustment adaptor

     

    8 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

    Need a tilt adjuster!

     

    6 hours ago, knobby said:

    looks like pretty bad tilt ...

    Thanks for all the comments. Tilt is what my initial thought was, but as the fact hat by movng the camera and the very same extension tubes to my Newtonian did not exhibit any form of tilt to me pointed to a problem with the refractor. I rummaged in my box of odds and ends and found a refractor collimating eyepiece and lo and behold the collimation was way out. So its misaligned objective cell and/or focuser. I will report back once all is tweaked.

    • Like 2
  11. Hi all

    I have a problem with deformed stars- see attached photo. This is on a newly acquired, second hand Skywatcher evostar 120 ed pro. The pattern is identical with or without a reducer/flattener and in whatever orientation I put the camera and whether the exposure is 15s or 120s. One corner of the image appears almost in focus with round stars, whereas the diagonally opposite corner has elongated stars. The camera and flter wheel plus extension tubes when on my newtonian give pin point stars.  Tracking of the mount is around RMS 0.6. If anyone is familiar with this star pattern and can tell me the solution that would be fantastic!

     

    2023-10-09_21-41-06_L_-15.00_120.00s_0000139.thumb.jpg.190336d84743109b1ff8c42fa6dcd5af.jpg

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