mackiedlm

Thats really nice. Great detail.

What Dan said!! Brilliant.

These are really super images. The widefields give a sense of space and distance.

I think that's superb. Great colour and detail and the ominous presence of Barnards loop just edging in. Nicely done.

I'm in bortle 4 and in normal circumstances I'd not use it. But I have a big sodium street light VERY close to my setup and it causes awful reflections etc. So the L-pro deals with that. I've seen all the words about how LP filters destroy colour and signal but I've never had an issue with it.

Thanks for that Adam, I like a bit of drama me! 😆

While my osc and new 135mm was capturing away on the cepheus dust clouds My QHY163M was pointed towards Cygnus, west of Deneb. Again this is intended to be the start of a mosaic and again I'm not convinced I'll get it finished this year. QHY163m Sharpstar 61EDPHii ZWO 7nm Ha and Oiii about 2.5 hours per channel Processed in pixinsight with a Dynamic HOO pallete

thats excellent. I really like the structure you have pulled out in both targets.

This is a really nice rendition of one of my most favourite targets.

very nice. I recently got an L-ultimate and have yet to relly try it ou. this is pushing me to give it ago.

That is outstanding. i'd no idea there was so much structure in there!

Thanks Olly. I've read in so many places that it needs stopping down but to be honest, with this looking ok at only 2.4 I may give it a go fully open. My problem is clear nights are so rare here that I hate taking risks.

Thanks Dan, I brought it down to about 2.4 with step-down rings. I thought it might need to go to 2.8 but based on this image I think its enough.

Thanks Lee - yes, the mosaic plan (laid out on Telescopius) has a panel directly below this to bring in the Iris and the dust around it, then the third panel will be directly above this one stretching nearly, but not quite, to Polaris. But thats going to require several more clear moonless nights. Which here in the West of Ireland are a bit like Rocking Horse Sh....!

My skys have be really awful again, with over a month since my last night out. This is supposed to be the start of a 3 panel mosaic but honestly iIcant see me getting enough clear, no moon sky to complete it. As it is,this was limited to 5 hrs as cloud rolled in. I was hoping for at least 10hrs per panel. Anyway, this is; First light of my new samyang 135mm, with the ASI2600, piggybacked on the LX200 with the L-pro in place. 100 x 180s for 5hrs total.

And rightly so!!

Absolutely fantastic Adam, Wonderful processing.

Thanks for the advice Peter, sounds like a good method.

Thanks for that. I think, and hope, you might be right. I think I'm going to order a set of BobsKnobs to make collimation easier.

Thanks Stuart, as I mentioned, I dont think its tilt on the camera/sensor or even camera side of the focuser, I'm trying to understand if it could be tilt on, for example, the primary mirror or where else to look.

Yeah, I did try to look for play, and with the crayford there was certainly a bit of "wiggle" which is why I moved back to the meade. With that, there is no visible movement and the abberration really does not change if I nudge things around. Even if I loosen, rotate and retighten the aberration does not change - i'd have thought if it was tilt at the nosepiece connection that sort of resetting within the focuser would have resulted in some change to the abberation? Yes I'd prefer screw connections but I cant get a way to screw it together and still have the microfocuser in place.

thanks Craig, yes thats my thinking too and I think supported by the donuts I just posted. But I really am lost here so open to all suggestions.

thanks @Elp This how it looked. Which seems to suggest that theres a point in col in the lower left. and suggests, I think, its not simple tilt. But if it was tilt, where in the sct should I be looking to adjust?

I have been imaging with my LX200 GPS 8" for a couple of years using a 0.8ff/fr and a ASI2600mc. While not brilliant the stars were ok and acceptable to my eye and I produced some OK images (for that set up!) I then swapped the meade electric microfocuser for a crayford, to allow for autofocus. This required significant movement of the primary mirror to reach focus. Right away with this focuser my stars went crazy with bad shapes (coma?) accross the entire field. I assumed it was a tilt issue from the new focuser and worked to resolve that with no success.. I then refitted the meade focuser but the problem is still there. Images to illustrate These are un debayered single images of 180s with a simple stf stretch apprlied. The PI Abberation Inspector images show the problem more clearly. There may be some tracking error in these images but the starshape issue is seen even in 5s images so this is not tracking. 180 s images were my normal exposure previously and did not have this issue. I did star collimation before these images and thought I had done a reasonable job. But I would not claim a high level of competence in collimation. I know the focus looks soft but it was done with autofocus in APT (I worked out how to get that going on the meade focuser) and I think it is just the abberation that makes it look that way. Connection to the scope is with a 2 inch nosepiece as its not possible to do a screw connection. And that nosepiece connection was working fine before I messed with the focusers. Image 2 is after a rotation of the camera and FF/FR in the eyepeice holder and shows that the abberation remains the same relative to the target while the FOV rotates. This suggests to me that any issue is scope side of the connection between the camera and the FF/FR. I guess its possible there could be tilt between the nosepiece and the eyepiece holder but I doubt if the abberation would remain as unchanged if it was that. I did try ensuring a good alignment and again, it was not present before I removed and the replaced the meade focuser. This is leading me to consider that the issue could be either a collimatio issue or tilt of the primary mirror, although I have read that that is highly unlikely. I would greatly appreciate any guidance on where I should look to resolve this. Can we stay away from backfocus, questions of which FF/FR etc because the camera, reducer, nosepiece system has not been changed or seperated from when I was getting acceptable results during the winter. Thanks David

That is a wonderful image. Something i've not seen before. And as a Scotsman I just have to love it!!!