Stuart1971

I live in bortle 6-7 and is where I image from, bit get where you are coming from….👍🏻

Tilt would not make 2 opposite corners point to the middle, IMHO…

Nice image, and yes I totally agree I think I may have clipped the blacks a bit… thanks 👍🏻

It was a typo on my part. but also you say “50 x 3 mins or 1.5 hours, makes 4.5 hours”, but actually 50 x 3 mins is 150 mins which is correct, but 150 mins is actually 2.5 hours, and not 1.5, .so 7.5 in total for 3 filters…. a typo I assume …?? 😉

This is my first image with my new 3nm SHO filters, the PAC-Man Nebula, I took 50 x 3 min subs through all 3 filters, 2.5 hours each filter and 7.5 in total, and after having issue in PI with the stacking and needing to use a pedestal setting in WBPP to get the darks to work properly, I still felt there were issues..🤔 A quick down and dirty process in PI and TBH I am not that impressed for the integration time, would love to see other people’s Pac-Man images with detail to compare…

Yes a dilemma it is….personally, the scope should be good without the need to fix with software, if it was me I would return, no doubt…it’s not as it should be and so not fit for purpose…. What would you do if there was not BlurX, that is your answer….👍🏻

I don’t think its tilt, as all the corner stars elongate towards the middle, it the age old issue with these scopes, poorly fitted flattener element in the scope, but as I said BlurX would sort, no problem….😉

Correct, and a common issue with these scopes, and shows in APS-C size sensors and full frame…you are lucky if you get one that works as it should with these size sensors…☹️

Sorry….

Pretzel…😂😂 you mean Petzval sorry made me laugh….

The redcat is a Petzval design with built in flattener, and so backspace is not an issue, BUT there is a common issue with these scopes where with APS-C size sensors there is some elongation of stars in the corners, I have heard of this a lot, nothing can be done about it, it’s just poor QC from William optics, but you could return the scope and try another, or if you are happy to accept the issue, and use Pixinsight then get BlurXterminator, as that will fix the stars no problem at all in processing..

There was a thread in the NINA discord, from a guy who’s had one and had an issue with this mount. and he opened his up and found the belts had completely disintegrated, he contacted Avalon, who sent a full set of replacements and gave him instructions to take part and fit, they also offered to do the work even though the mount was over 10 years old, as the belts that had been fitted from new were poor ones, I think the guy is on here… @szymon

I had similar issues, and a shorter USB cable solved it, went from a 1m down to a 70cm cable and all the issues went away…👍🏻

I think I may need to put my tube on all the time, with it on its drops to below 30% and at -10 well under 40%, but after three days with the tube off, it’s back to 67% at -10, but I need to turn my camera round 180 degrees on the filter wheel then the desiccant tube will be protected against knocks by the filter wheel, at the moment it points the opposite way to the filter wheel, a job I just don’t want to do ATM…☹️🤔

Hmmm, interesting, I can’t see it on FB as I don’t use that toilet….but very intrigued…👍🏻

So I have 2 sets of SHO narrowband data, one set taken through 6.5nm filters and the other through 3nm filters..and all flats for each set.. What is the best way to stack and combine the lot, and produce 3 master files of SHO, and to make sure that in WBPP the correct lights match up with the correct flats, as there is no indication in the file names about which SHO filters were used 6.5nm or the 3nm..? Thanks

No it does not matter, it can be pointing anywhere it just needs to be guiding and recording PEC for at least 2 revolutions of the worm…👍🏻

Can I ask why you did not just swap it for the version that QHY supply that fits the coarse side of your focuser…? The precision one you purchased was to fit the fine focus knob, they made this for 2 reasons, 1. It has zero backlash as there are no reduction gears inside, so is a coarser focuser, but is compensated for, by the fact it’s fitted to the fine focus side of the focuser.. 2. It has a clutch and a manual adjustment knob for manual focus override.

Well yes for visual all good.. but my point was for imaging, that many of them are not flat-field scopes, even when using the two flatteners…so they should sort out the QC and make sure they are all as advertised…

Just a shout out to Starpal outdoor store on Aliexpress, bought a new set of Optolong 36mm LRGB filters, £80 saving and delivered in under a week for free…. very responsive to questions and helpful when needed shipping info, also kept up to date with shipping. I asked about a few other items too, for my Astro rig which they gave me some good info on, they have a full stock of all top brands of Astro kit and well worth a looking… Cant do better than that….well happy….😃

These scopes are an old optical design, and Tak themselves told me that they were not designed for the modern small pixel cameras, it’s pot luck now if you get a good one or not, and it shouldn’t be, when you are spending a large sum like that, I would never buy another tak for imaging until they change the design and bring them up to date. Now when I used with my old SX CCD camera with giant pixels, it was superb from corner to corner…as that what they were designed for….i should never have sold that…☹️ for visual, I guess it’s not a real issue, I don’t know as never done visual….

You have got a really good example there, I had one and it was awful, this is what I got in the corners. With an APS-C sensor And why o why should you have to use 2 flatteners with such a premium scope, one built into the 4 element Petzval design, and another screwed on the back, no other scope I know of requires 2 flatteners to work properly, it’s a joke…but at least they supply the second flattener in the box now, I had to buy it extra and made barely any difference at all…☹️

I tend to agree with you and am also a bit slow to learn and change with the times, I also like understated images too and not much for heavily processed and over saturated colours, I like to see the more natural look, if there is such a think for images like these. As for your image it’s very nice, and the golds are just about right, the blues IMHO are a tad over saturated for my liking…but I think you have left just the right amount of green in the image, as many seem to remove most of this… Its a stunning image..👏🏻👏🏻

Another good test for checking the binding on these mints I found, was putting a power supply on them with an amps reading, then when slewing when you hit a tight spot on the worm you will see the amps increase, this is a good indication to see how tight it is in places around the worm, I found it was around 1.5amps, and went up to 2.1 amps when hitting the tight spots, it’s very obvious, the trouble with these mounts is that the large worm wheels are not perfectly round, and hence you get tight spots, so you can only set the worm gap or backlash while at the tightest spot, if not it will bind when it hits the tight spot, it took me ages to sort mine, and even then the best I could get was 2000ms of backlash, down from 3600ms In the end I just used to guide in one direction only, then this made the lash issue moot, as the mount never changed direction in DEC

Yes loosening the middle one will allow the outer two to pull in very slightly and hence tighten the worm block, as the centre one is the push screw…👍🏻