Stuart1971

You have to choose Europe from the drop down list for the non VAT price….👍🏻

I have the QHY268c and it’s been flawless, no problems with anything at all, connection perfect, no need to ever use desiccant, and stays within 0.1 of set temp…I also had the version with clear glass so I use my own UV/IR filter… there is also the new Player One offering of this camera now on the market, and seems very good, both mono and OSC, with a superb built in tilt plate…prices similar to QHY for OSC and £300 more for the mono..👍🏻 BTW, the Rising cam, the Touptek, Omegon and Altair Astro are all the same cameras, just re brands….👍🏻

Actually the OSC is not cheaper than QHY, when you add VAT and all the import costs it will be close to 2K, QHY under £1900 for the OSC version https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/cameras/cooled-ccd/qhy-cooled-ccd-cameras/qhy268c-photo/ And the mono version will be approx £2300 with VAT and import cost, and the QHY version is under £2100 at modern astronomy, https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/cameras/cooled-ccd/qhy-cooled-ccd-cameras/qhy268m-mono-cmos-camera/

As well as the EZ denoise, try the EZ soft stretch to as your way of moving to non linear stage, it’s better than the STF personnaly I now use the Noise eXterminator…it’s superb, but not free..

I owned this camera some time ago, the colour version, and to be completely honest, it was dire….I really would not go for a colour version, the mono was very good, but that again will depend on the price you are paying for it, as there are some much better, more modern CMOS one shot colour cameras out there now, for good prices, especially second hand.. sorry to be brutally honest, but my opinion stay well away from the OSC Atik 383L+

Why can’t you go in through the the focus tube at other end, or am I missing something about these scopes that are different….?

A perfectly obvious case of poor workmanship from the manufacturer, as if you have not had enough issues…..🙁 I was going to suggest a small tube and then sucking it out, I have done this through the back of my Meade SCT, due to the same issue, but mine was self inflicted due to cross threading a screw, but it worked a treat….mine was aluminium.. good luck sorting it out….👍🏻

Yes I already have mains to my obsy, my initial question was just to run a 12v, 30w heater for 8-10 hours overnight, not my whole kit….👍🏻

My heater is 30w @ 12v

So any advice on what I need and where to buy from, would be a help…👍🏻

Hi all, I run a small 30w heater in my obsy overnight each night when not imaging, just during the winter, my back garden faces south west and would like to fit a small solar panel to power a battery for this 12v heater, but have no idea where to start, so any advice on what I would need and where to buy from, there are hundreds of different ones on Amazon, and it’s a bit mind blowing….. ‘Thanks in advance… Stuart

A beautiful image, and a great first light… but some real odd star shapes in all 4 corners, especially top 2 corners, looks like COMA on the left top, not sure about the others….🤔🤔

I have the UPB and all my cables come from this with no issues at all, just the one power cable to the UPB, although the power cable to the mount, does have a small loop in it to allow for movement without snagging…👍🏻

I don’t understand why you would have trailing and snagging issues when using the UPB, the only cable you should have going to ground is the power cable, all the other will move with the mount, as they all go from devices on the scope to the UPB which moves with is all….🤔🤔

Yes totally agree, it may be fine at that length over a USB 2 repeater cable, but you need USB3 and that won’t work well over about 5m…. IMHO…

That looks much better to my eyes, also when zoomed, the stars look much better too…. like I said before it’s a superb wide field image…👏🏻👏🏻

My camera alone was tested on my laser jig, and had quite a bit of tilt on the sensor, when rotating the camera 360 degrees, with a laser pointing at the sensor, the reflected dot moved in a 4mm circle, which shows a lot of tilt…all adjusted out now, but yes there still can be tilt from a poor focuser…👍🏻

there is also an aberration inspector in pixinsight, it’s worth trying that too…👍🏻

well, from what I have read, the darkest area should be in the middle, and then the lighter areas usually will be concentric around that. gradually getting lighter towards the outside, but an ideal optical system should show the same uniform colour all across the image…

Hmmmm, now that is showing bad tilt…so not sure what is going on there….

I did try a low wattage bulb to start with, and has been said, I had an issue with it melting a small hole on my cover, it’s difficult to keep the cover from always touching it, but I guess if you did not use a cover then no issues, but I would….to keep the heat more controlled around the area you need it to be…

Hello, I used to do something similar before my obsy build, and found that in your storage box, if possible get a cheap cover for the kit, and fit a long dew strap around it and leave in low all the time, this will keep the temp under the cover higher than ambient, and worked a treat for me, never had any damp or condensation of any sort…. I had my dew strap wrapped around the mount, so the heat would rise up, and just had it on for 12 hours overnight…. HTH

Lovely image, but I agree with @Shibby overdone with the noise reduction, has left the focus a bit too soft, and also made the image look a tad plasticky for my taste….

That’s a very good result….👍🏻

See here, and scroll down to CCD inspector section… https://www.hnsky.org/astap.htm#inspector