Nicola Hannah Butterfield

Got this of Mars and the moon, 25 frames 10's apart, a lot of cloud, sod had his hand at play because when Mars re-appeared the moon had dropped below the shed and clouds had p'd off

I got this between the clouds 25 images 10's apart Unfortunately the clouds clears, but the moon dropped below the shed's roofline before Mars reappeared, I had got the planetary camera set up for that.

I used the kit Barlow on this on my 200P, with a Canon 6D, so I guess a 3x might be better suited for the 130PDS, as to quality I will leave that to others.

@ONIKKINENI know about the mirror clips issue. I have to take the mirror out for a clean, so might do something at the same time. Thanks for the input.

If you look at this, which is a single 120s exposure 400ISO on a Canon 40D of M44, especially the edges you will see the coma, the previous 2 images I shot on the 6D, the centre stars whilst not perfect are not bad, to say I am only a week back into this after nearly 6 or 7 months out. The stars start to stretch and the further you go, the worse they get. This is simply a jpg conversion of the raw, nothing done.

@mrossI have a 200P and I can focus both DSLR and my ASI 120 MC, the DSLR is very close at only about 1CM the ASI is much further back requiring extension tubes, I would image it is very similar with the 130P. What I have done is to focus each on a distant object during the day, (for me a wind turbine some 2-3 miles away) once I have focus I marked the focus tube at each point, you then have a starting point for the fainter night objects. This was focusing the guide scope with the ASI 120MC guide scope is 40mm 127mm fl The front vegetation has gone, just some sunflowers, and you really don't want to see the LP from those warehouses, they are what stops this area being a bortle 5-6 instead of over 6.

@SoftwareDeveloperThanks for your input, however I know what is causing the light bleed at the NE position, it is the focus tube into the main tube. I am not worried about the diffraction spikes bar the image was soft, it was merely meant to point out the problem, I have much sharper images, it was just the first that came to hand, I don't tend to keep test shots on stars. @malc-c I am still on the stock focuser, the link was to ask if it would improve things without modding the tube by an inch or so. It isn't so much the secondary spike, but merely what do I fix first comma or a shorter low profile focuser, to fix the light bleed caused by refraction around the focuser tube. This is from the central stars in M44 yes I know should have shot it 90 degrees. Just a single 2 min exposure from the raw file, it is shot on a Canon 40D and a SW 200P. I think I have answered my own question here. Given this single image coma, I think first.

Coma or draw tube incursion. We all know coma, this should be uniform across the image, tube incursion more subtle as it only affects one side of the star like this, yes I know a little soft, but you will notice the light bleed to the 2 o'clock position, Is it better to fix this first or coma, I use a SW 200P with currently a Canon 40D I know any fix will involve the complete optical train. Will the https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/ovl-dual-speed-2-low-profile-crayford-focuser-for-newtonian-reflectors.html give an image without intrusion and also be closer to the tube for say a coma reducer or a camera rotator without cutting an inch off the bottom of the tube.

@ElpThanks for the input. If you look at the diffraction spikes I think that is showing some of the coma effect as those on the right left to the left and those on the left tend to the right, the actual coma on the stars isn't so bad, but then it is an crop sensor, that of my 6d is full frame and is much more noticeable, and this image is cropped a little. I believe the Baarder MPCC3 also a doesn't change the focal distance and would I believe just replace the 2" nose piece which has an M48 EOS. I say this as on occasions I do shoot larger objects like M43 and M31 I can't quite get them especally M31 in the full frame, but you have to work with what you have. Again, you can see the coma effect of the diffraction spikes. That was shat on the 6D with the 200P as was this You can see the coma on that one.

One day I might get this close, thanks for sharing an amazing image.

@BabyJo84 hopefully many better answer will follow, it seems the scope is more geared toward astro photgraphy, ’tis why the planets are small, deep sky will appear dim visually because of its limiting light gathering. The rest I know little on.

Thanks. I need to invest in a coma corrector first and possibly a manual rotator and possibly a better/low profile focuser, a lot of the standard SW one pokes into the tube, though the stars I seem to be getting of late don't seem to have been affected too much. One thing I have noticed, is there is a lot more gas a dust, I have been until I got the new light panel, been thinking it as imaging flaws, and whilst there may be an element of that still. I also need to work on image processing a little more and even though my stars are better you can still see the coma in the diffraction spikes. I also need to analyse my subs a little better, for example in this case I have 110 subs, would it be better to choose the 55 top SNR ones, is there an SNR number above which you don't use for certain images for certain objects. I do live in a bortle 6 thanks Wakefield council, for bringing it down 1 notch, so LP is always going to be difficult. I would love to get filters etc but being on ESA this hobby was never going to be easy, so step at a time, it takes me time to save, but the core needs to be right first, no point spending on things if your basic image isn't right, I do think after the light panel investment I am moving in the right direction. I also need to look more at images of objects I might image and look to see if there are clouds of dust ect, I might want to get rid of on the pp side. I will never win any awards on this side of imaging things as a whole, but it is interesting sometimes to see I CAN match superior scopes in light gathering, 2nd image specifically, light diffraction on the first much superior to mine, my highlight detail is better. All that said, it is all subjective as we all see things differently, even in what is deemed correct.

I spent a lot of time imagining this on a non modified Canon 40D to end up with just 3hrs 20min of data at 400 ISO, at first i was a little disappointed but knowing it is really suited to the 40D and the moon being present, I did a search on the net, and whilst yes it isn't great, it does I think compared with some images of similar quality from much better scopes and imaging techniques if I am reading the information correctly. Hopefully this is aloud https://www.utopia-photography.ch/universe/i/01/p23.html https://www.flickr.com/photos/97939735@N04/37903269415

I was on Skye Nov 99, the flashes behind the clouds were amazing, following day clear as a bell.

@Ags thanks. @Paul M I like seeing stars in images, it puts a context to the enormity of the cosmos. I like to see how far a photon of light has travelled as well, furthest so far about 3.2 billion LY. Though, I seem to have lost the website that had a database of all the distent ones.

I have read that the eqmod interface has a gamepad option for control. Well recently I have just set things back up after a computer repair, and the software seemed to be putting Jupiter out by about one hour, so I though get a game pad as it makes remote moving the scope easier turns out my old wingman joystick works, pov working like a litter joystick on a gamelan. Mind it wasn't entirely necessary as it turns out the software was on European time, it occurs to me Saturday with the clocks going back. All sorted now.

Thanks, I am using my Canon 40D instead if the 6D, whilst the 7 has a wider field of view, until I get a coma corrector it suffers terrible coma, the 40 does but much less so. The rest is practise, I have struggled a little changing from BYE to APT, but in the long run it will be easier if I change to a dedicated astro camera. Being able to take consistent flats with the LED light panel I think is paying dividends as well, shooting consistently at iso 400 enables me to reuse bias and darks, providing the same temp range, it is a thing you don't have a great deal of control on a dslr, things you can do to cool it, but it is likely to always fluctuate a little. So I can now spend more time on the lights, knowing bar a sudden down poor, I will always get flats to correspond to the lights. I can't off the top of my head remember the previous light's duration, but I know the flats would have been awkward. I have also been working on processing, I am attempt to image as many Messier objects as I can, not spending too much time, but if I can get an hr subs on most, should be able to get some form of an image on most, planetary ones are going to be troublesome, with what kit I currently have M57 so far has been disappointing due to its size.

I did M33 back in Jan from the records, however since then as you may have seen, I have had a few problems, and having lost my BYE keys, I thought I would try APT, and with a bit of help from those on here, I seem to have things working. 30x2min subs, with 30, bias, darks and flat, dew become a problem to guiding and to the mine mirror a little, so a little work to do yet with settings, but it seems to guide pretty well to two mins, though the meridian flips either through the focus out, I need to get a new M48/EOS mount this one has a little movement in it, as stars in the couple of frames I did get had some distortion, not sure yet if it was focus or guiding. Anyway, for what it's worth. This was Jan's effort.

@bottletopburly Hi, sorted, both issues, though still get the odd solve error, since I am shooting on DSLR my settings are slightly different for plate solving, GOTO attempts different as is pause after GOTO as well. I find I need about 8s at f5 and 3200iso, though this I think will vary depending on where in the sky, low SE to SW heavy LP, but as we have had new LED street lights fitted the overall bortle has drop from 7 to 6, it's the likes of the next warehouse with indiscriminate lightning that's causing it. I will attach a 📸 when I am on the 🖥 later. This is virtual 360 degrees, The search light is virtually due south as viewed. The bright lights centre are Next and the industrial park around it, SW Barnsley, SE Doncaster. I am also plagued with a security lighthouse centre right of the semi, shines in the house, fortunately the garden fence just screens the scope.