Stuart1971

That depends on the software used, with NINA there is an inbuilt guider which allows you to dither, you are not guiding but the software thinks you are and sends the dither commands, so that would work perfectly for your situation….

Yes deffo walking noise, Darks would also help a lot, you really need them with a DSLR as it’s uncooled, especially if you don’t or can’t dither…👍🏼

I can give a little info, I contacted these about 15 months ago, and asked for a price, of a small design I had come up with, with a lift up roof on gas struts, just 5 feet by 6 feet, we spent a few weeks emailing back and fourth and came up with a mutual agreeable design and the agreement was delivery only as I was happy to build myself, the price was discussed at the start and agreed. ‘So after a week or so I mailed and said yes I wanted to go ahead, and asked for a timescale, he said he would get back to me…in a day or so, which he did, and told me 6-8 weeks, and then he said but the price was a bit more than he had already quoted, which was 4k, so I said how much more, he said 6.5k….😮😮😮 So after a few choice words, I asked how come, and he said he had checked and because of lockdown, the prices of timber had shot up, well this was unacceptable and I told them to forget the whole thing, I was disgusted that he had not checked the prices when he first quoted me…so I wasted 6 weeks sorting out the design… I ended up buying a shed from B&Q and converting myself and the total build was £450, and am really happy with it… https://youtu.be/6wH2FlGyobk

VAT and import duty….what are those, never had them and have bought lots of Astro stuff from china recently….😉

Does this look a bit better….?

Dynamic exposure will alter the exposure length to suit the light panel, and ADU you choose Dynamic brightness will alter the panel brightness to suit the exposure and ADU you choose, so this will not work unless it’s a panel that can be controlled via the software..👍🏼

You use dark flats to calibrate the light flats, Dark flats on there own, are just darks, or bias….you need light flats with every camera AFAIK

Hmmm, it seems that you are doing it all correctly, the only thing I can add, is that CMOS cameras seem to work better with slightly longer flats, mine are all 4 seconds, and 25,000 ADU…

This M51, Whirlpool Galaxy was taken the same night as the M81 & M2 image that I posted, this is 100 x 2 min exposures, with no filter used…

I think the RASA’s are very popular and great for the type of target you want to image…👍🏼

Yes, as @barbulosays when using a Narrowband filter you need a higher gain, or in your case ISO, minimum 800 I would have thought….👍🏼

So how does it know the worm period for the attached mount…? And have you tried running this alongside the GSS PPEC, or,is that not possible, I thought I read somewhere this can be done…🤔

I would like to try the PHD pec, but not sure what setting I need to fill in to it…🤔 as I think it requires worm wheel cycle time or something….

Hmmmm, I asked Rob, the same thing, why it would not do a few worm periods, and it’s because he uses the skywatcher code that it already in the handset, which just does 1 worm period…EQMOD has its own code that does a few…and does not use the skywatcher code. Have not tried the PHD PEC yet…must give it a go….👍🏼

Sorry but no idea what this means…🤔 I am sorted now but thanks….I think….🤔🤔

Super image, I much prefer the more neutral background in this image, I find many people seem to want the background, as black as possible…👏🏻👍🏼

Hmmm, yes he also recommended I upgrade my EQ8 mount motor card driver, but it’s not to a skywatcher produced one, but to one produced by Rob, so am a bit hesitant…TBH….🤔

I was told by Rob at GSS, to make sure you have a separate profile in PHD for GSS. And to calibrate on that profile, and make sure that the setting “ swap Dec direction after flip” is enabled…( this has to be un checked for EQMOD) that is very important, and I had done none of this…. Hope you get it sorted, also you have to disable PPEC during calibration of that can cause issues, and the DEC goto option must also be disabled during calibration, although I don’t use that… I have to say up till the other night PPEC was working very well, and made a big difference…

Yes, I think you are correct, it is the FSQ85, I was going to crop it more, but it just looked worse noise wise, but the galaxy did look better, well M81 anyway… Thanks for you comments….👍🏼

Not sure about this one, at f5.3, I don’t think my scope is up to it, 140 x 2 min subs, on M81 & M82, QHY268c, heavily cropped, minimal processing, calibrated in APP, and a bit of tweaking in affinity photo…. Quite surprised how much more noisy it is compared to an image of a nebula with the same integration time…

Not too far from Shropshire….

I did mange this from last night, M81 & M82, but am not super impressed for 4 hours and 40 mins of 2 min subs….🤔🤔

No, this was all before the flip… I think I have, or should I say Rob from GSS has, sorted it, apparently there is a setting in PHS2 that says, “change DEC direction after flip” and for EQMOD this should be left unchecked but GSS requires it to be checked, and I have never had it checked, so I am assuming that it was working fine while imaging on one side of the pier, but last night I was Imaging on the other side right from the off, so I guess this was the issue….or should I say I hope…. so in effect there was a flip from one session to the next…also he says you should have a separate Profile in PHD2 for GSS and make sure you calibrate with GSS and not use a cali ration that was done in EQMOD….again I had….so I learnt a few things….

Well, I had a nightmare last night, and had to switch back to EQMOD, it would guide for a few mins then the guide star just went off the graph in DEC, RA was fine, almost like it was actually pulsing it off the screen with commands, so re started and same again after a few mins…. So I know what you are thinking, this is a PHD issue, me too, so I swapped back to EQMOD and all was good, went back to GSS and same again off the screen in DEC after a few mins…very frustrating TBH, as I was really enjoying using GSS…..☹️

Yes, and was pressing it every few seconds, drove me mad….😂😂