MarkAR

2 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Thats a fine specimen you have there.

Thankyou, yet to really get a chance to use it in anger.  Did a little star hopping last night and was really amazed at how many little speckles of light show up. Brighter stars also start showing up my astigmatism.

Nice grouping of galaxies. Pretty good for just 6 frames.

I picked up a sheet of 40% opaque acrylic, looks like it works well pointed at a white laptop screen.

The specs look pretty good on all of them. 

I would probably choose the longest focal length that I could practically afford, if a wider FOV is needed then add a reducer.

Nice report.

Also had a not so good bit last night trying to get my ex-demo SG Pro iPolar to plate solve. I reckon I should have re-set the camera.

I think some sort of star masking is in order, @vlaiv is very helpful with this sort of thing. Also have a look at Peter Zelinkas NebulosityTutorial on You Tube.

42 minutes ago, joe aguiar said:

yes he may also have to do what a lot us condo/apt people do and take it downstairs half the time

joejaguar

How about roof access?

Well done.

Lovely image, no idea how they get all the blue. Maybe they cheat and add Ha to blue channel.

Not the biggest or the best but it's all mine.

Finally it's arrived. A quick unboxing (very well packaged FLO) and a check over.

Had a quick play with the iOptron and WO wedges, WO is hands down the winner.

The USB hub I have is extremely long so i can probably sit in my workshop and control from there. 🙂

Good attempt, stars are a bit overpowering though.

Hi @Ouroboros, yes got a connection through the handset via the USB ports. I suppose I could also do it direct to the mounts USB. Played around a bit with the controls and it seems to be working fine.

Good experiment to do with any non guided mount. It gives a good indicator of what you should limit your exposure times to to save wasting exposures at a later date.

 Well done.

With the size of your balcony and the requirement for mobility, do not go for a big scope and mount combo.

How about something smaller in size like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/slt-series/celestron-nexstar-5-slt.html

This will help you compare the fields of view and magnification of different scopes and setups. https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Been YT'ing like mad trying to find straight forward answers only to get a mixed amount of useful info and a pile of gobbledygook. My eyes hurt and my brain aches.😂

Cheers mate, hopefully I'll be able to hook everything else up without too much trouble. 

All this kit came with a USB hub so I'm presuming the Mount, Main Camera, Guide Camera, Filter Wheel and Focusser all plug into that and then the hub goes to my Mac.

Well a bit more trial and error seems to have it working.

Mac to Handset via USB, Profile set to EQMOD, Port was serial/usb something or other.

Hi all, I loaded up KStars and Ekos and have been trying to figure out how to connect it to my mount and what to set up in the profile.

Mount has USB B port and so does the handset, do I connect my MacBook to the handset or direct to the mount?

Settng up a profile, which do I use under the Skywatcher Tab and what should the port setting be?

Everything I find on the net seems to devolve into windows style geek speak and I can't fathom out if i need other software like Indi Server, EQMAC.....

Please be gentle with me,  some things trust turn my mind to a confusing fog.

Thats come out really well despite shooting over London at a low angle, well done.

Simple and well executed design, a bit like the old Victorian slide shows.  

Will this help

https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/maps/b9/England/

53 minutes ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

What surprises me how often mirror lock up is not mentioned in many online tutorials, 

Probably because they don't realise that some don't know about it. It's presumed you will know when to use mirror lock. 

On 11/03/2020 at 07:44, Bagginsies said:

I didn't say before, but when I say 'press the button then wait 4 seconds' that is still using the button on the intervalometer. If you touch the camera after the 4 seconds you will cause vibrations again.

Just found this on the 80D:

That was it, no mirror lock up in live view.

The HDR function might be useful on the moon, getting everything crisp edge to centre.