AstroNebulee

Thank you. Like I say it's just a quick dirty process and will do it properly with more data. Gimp is a wonderful piece of software and hardly any different to photoshop at all. I only use photoshop Cs4 so not a new one. Mainly levels, curves and selective colours and highlights. Then use make stars smaller with astronomy tools plug in. Then starnett 2 to stretch with curves and levels on the nebula alone. Then merge back in with original. I did notice the slight different tinge in colour in the bottom left on mine and just brought the curves down slightly on the background. So it's not something you've processed in 👍 Cheers Lee

That's good you didn't have the issue with the evoguide, that can rule the osc out completely. Screwing the imaging train together will eliminate any flexiture there (can you post the pic of your imaging train). If it was me and you still have the issue with a screwed together imaging train then the horizon is the issue. Strange though as reading the blurb on RVO about it, that it's all tested and collimate to within an inch of its life at RVO headquarters in Rotherham. Hopefully you'll hear back from them soon and sort your issue. https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-horizon-60-ed-doublet-refractor-ota.html Keep plugging away at it Steve, it'll be worth it in the end. With my tilt issue in the 294mc pro I was pulling my hair out and very annoyed but now it's just about sorted it's really a big achievement, so keep at it 😊 Cheers Lee

Amazing, I'd love to image this but too low down for me, really great image 👍 Cheers Lee

Thank you, it was a quick dirty process but I've got more data to add to it from previous nights so will hopefully get round to it this weekend. 👍

Just a very quick first attempt process on last night's data from NGC 7000, 1 hour 24mins of data. Hoping to add the previous few nights data to this and do a full proper process. The az gti, 72ed, AAP, 294mc pro and L3 filter doing the business.

It's definitely not a backfocus issue as they are all going in the same direction, it could be a collimation issue or coma. Hopefully the vendor can help you with it Steve. I can't remember what exposure time this was now but is it still the same regardless of what exposure time you use. Also is your imaging train all screwed together now or are you using any connections with thumbscrews on them as in your image on the first setup. Maybe there's a bit of flexiture of slight off centredness. This was my image of M57 taken last week though I've improved the backfocus since then. It's a horrible process as I was just testing so not the finished article. (can't seem to get it to stay rotated like yours for some reason) Edit.... just thinking did you have this issue with your current osc and evoguide 50ed, that would rule out the osc for any tilt. Cheers Lee

If all your stars are pointing outwards from the center your camera is to close to the FF if the stars are going around the centre of your image then it's to close, see attached image. I still have a very slight tilt issue but I think if I add 0.2mm more shim to the imaging train bringing it to 64mm it'll be better, but like I say I'm being really picky now. For my set up I use a 2 inch zwo filter drawer as I have a 2 inch astronomik L3 filter 👍. Good luck in the loft finding the FF guide, let us know how you get on. Cheers Lee

My session tonight ended up better than it started. Was testing out my new filter drawer with astronomik L3 in and checking no light leaks (added the black tape incase) or the back focus altered. All ok though decided to put a 0.1mm shim on to bring it up to 63.9mm now and stars nice and round, just a tiny smidge of tilt in the bottom right there but bearable. The new additional homemade counterweight worked well with balancing but when checking the subs on ngc 7000 coming in I had to throw at least 8 away with a bit of drift. So I stopped and recalibrated and only did one guide star instead of multistar guiding and everything worked really well. Guiding was consistently 1.1-1.5 sometimes lower and the settle time after a dither was very minimal. So got 1.5 hours worth of subs on ngc 7000 in the end. The milky-way was looking great and could make it out, Cassiopea making its way above the rooftops to the north east and scorpius rising just past south looked amazing. Also a really bright object going south to North around 1.22am. When it passed the zenith it went very dim and then disappeared. (very reminiscent like the ISS does when going west to east) strange indeed. A good night in the end and no work moro so a bonus very late imaging session.

Beautiful unprocessed image for 30 mins and all your guiding issues. It's a lovely FOV too. All the best astro imaging areas that need driving to seem to be carnal hot spots, hopefully you didn't accidentally flick your lights on and off getting in your vehicle 😬🚘

Haha good luck, make sure you give us your what 3 words address, keep everything well buttoned up and unaccessible 😬

Hi You could try the awesome astronomy podcasts and videos. I like listening to them, informative, light hearted and help. http://awesomeastronomy.com/ https://youtube.com/c/Awesomeastronomy Cheers Lee

This super zwo 2 inch filter drawer and spare drawer arrived today courtesy of @Grierson. A real pleasure to do business and fast delivery too. Now I can bring my astronomik L3 filter much closer to the sensor than it was and the last thing the photons hit before the sensor now.

Thank you for your reply. The options tab I mean is I think on the left hand side down the bottom as shown in the image. It's no big for me to delete them manually, it's just I don't look at them and didn't know if there was an option to not have them created. Cheers Lee

Sounds great Steve. My counterweight bar is a 30cm m12 bolt with about 2 inches of thread to go into the az gti mount. The bike head is fixed so I can't add anymore length to mine. I have just found a 40cm m12 part threaded bar on ebay so ordered it and should gain the extra length now. I'm hoping my latest tweak here will work until the bar comes. This is the link to the bars, lots of lengths on offer if anyone is looking for one for their az gti. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383682199393?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=g4gbkfnlsh6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Fo3Iht4XRKy&var=652081108589&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY 👍

A little bit of tinkering and whatnotting on my set up after work today. I set about giving it a damm good balancing session. I didn't use the Italian Belgium chaps tutorial as I didn't like the thought of all my kit on there and trying to hold and balance it, then knowing my ability to be a clumsy butterfingers I'd only cause issues 😬.So I did it on the tripod itself. The Dec balancing was ok. The the RA was a little scope heavy, I couldn't move my weights any further down the bar so I've added a homemade counterweight out of an old disc of steel and added to the bottom clamped by the original counterweights. I also checked the bolts and screws on the tripod and extension pier, just a note to others with this star adventurer tripod that's sold with the az gti check the Allen bolts at the top of the tripod legs for play as mine have needed to be tightened a couple times now. I will eventually get the skywatcher 3/8th steel tripod for more rigidity and sturdyness. Cheers Lee

I expect its set to not restore the calibration form last time like mine. You've definitely got a perfect set up 👍 I know when a guidestar is chosen by the AAP or chosen by the user that the peak of the graph on the star hfd needs to be a nice peak and not flat or missing at the top.

Thank you Steve. Its a great article and gives a good insight into guiding with the asiair. 👍

Thank you, that's a brilliant explanation and readout of your process and workflow setting up 👍. You have some excellent guiding there. Quite similar to my set up process. Do you clear your calibration before you set your guiding going, I have auto restore calibration switched off, so it shouldn't keep the previous calibration set, though I do clear it just incase, then press the looping icon then the target icon, let it pick my guide star (as long as its around 3-3.6 hfd) and multistar guide too. let it calibrate then off it goes guiding when calibrated. I have mine dec mode set to auto though I do dither, which is a revelation to me and have the settle time to 3s and under 4" as it would take to long to settle anything under that after a dither. Some other settings are different but in the end it what works for each person and no 2 mounts ever seem the same to me, with different scopes and such. but gives everyone a nice guideline to work from, thank you 😊 Cheers Lee

Looks great there George 👍, pleased you have a good one now 😊

What is your tracking rate set to Steve? Mine is set to 0.9x too same as Elp. Could be worth changing your tracking rate. Also how close is your PA? I've seen drift like this before but not sure if it's doing it in RA or Dec, someone will know which. Cheers Lee

That's a lovely image indeed 😊. With you focuser slop, I had the same issue on my 72ed (though I don't use a eaf) and tightened up mine using these instructions and now no slop or tube slipping. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/22870696/adjusting-the-skywatcher-110-refractor-crayford-focuser-teleskop And this is my thread where I fixed it. Cheers Lee

Looking excellent and some blooming digging there, well done and enjoy a cool drink 😊

Great review, it does look a beautiful piece of kit 😊 and a super image and nice colours.

Hi I don't use asi studio for anything but viewing my astrophotography fits files to check them. So I dont know a lot about it. But I came across this video on YouTube if it helps at all. Another option could be sharpcap software maybe. I'm sure others who have used software for outreach purposes will be along shortly. Cheers Lee

Hi A little bit of a bug bear for me. When I stack my subs in Deep Sky Stacker you always get the text type documents with each sub that's registered and stacked. Is there a way of not having these in the options tab in DSS? I don't look at them and always delete them after. Not sure if there is a way of avoiding this little bug bear. Cheers Lee