AstroNebulee

Absolutely stunning 👌

I think my whole issue with the blotches is I'm overcooking it in Startools. I've had a go with my usual stacker DSS then had a try with Siril and then photoshop, the background is much better now, even though the 'tail' of the nebulousity not showing as much but that would be solved with more integration time so I'm happy with this for now. I may try to use gimp as an experiment to my older copy of photoshop. Also go back into star tools and process it again with less of the auto dev. Anyway here it is. Cheers Lee

You maybe able to get a new vane and fit it, if they are replaceable on the 130 PDS, I think they are. Email flo or any other astronomy retailer and ask there advice where you can get a replacement. I'd still be chasing the collimator and delivery service. I remember collimation was tricky to start with but once you got it, you know it's easier next time. With the clouds around atm will give plenty of practice. You can do it Laurence 👍

Hopefully you get it sorted soon and the collimation company or delivery service pay you compensation for it and fix it for you Laurence. Cheers Lee

Thank you, handy to know, I may give it a go next time 👍

Yep as scotty said do your plate solve when you've goto'd a target I use my asiair pro and my routine is, PA, then send mount to home position, then goto focus on bright star I plate plate solve this too, then goto imaging target then plate solve it, take a quick exposure to check its centred, then calibration in guiding then guide and set autorun going. Funnily enough I havent set my mount setting to auto centre (see screenshot) has no issues maybe it's the pro version thing I don't know 🤔 Rightly or wrong it's my workflow.

Thank you, that's a great image, I've got a lot to learn on processing, I did have a quick go at processing in siril and then photoshop and was looking much better for the back ground looking much more solid (similar to your process) but more practice needed in pulling more nebulosity out but with that comes the noise in the background. I'm going to preserve with the siril ps route. I expect I could do a stretch with film dev in Startools but it doesn't quite pull out the nebulousity enough, I feel its all about getting the balance with the data I've got.

Then this is what im left with after after a play in photoshop, still not happy, so away i walk for a bit been seeing this all day haha.

This is what i was left with after processing with star tools, just not happy with it, be it the data or my bafoonary. Time to walk away from it for a bit i think get some air haha

I think its because its such a starry target making it more challenging to process, well that's my excuse haha. What bin value do you use, i generally use 50%. I found that the correlation filter if i upped it in Wipe helps a bit with noise.

Thank you again, I shall give this a go. Its such an amazingly star encrusted target this one.

Thank you. Yep when I'm in sv decon I use a few selected green stars too. After doing the SV decon and colour module where does the 0air disc radius, isolate pass and dim small pass come in? Sorry for sounding thick

Ooops sorry I used DSS with the suggested settings in the star tools manual.

Hi I am struggling to get rid of the blotches in the background in my images. I use startools 1.8 to process them but cannot get past the blotches. I realise may data isn't the best anyway and there are so many stars in the image too which doesn't help. I have tried everything startools has to offer, I know I'm doing it all wrong and very new at processing. If i could afford gradient xterminator I would. I do have topaz denoise but leaves the image looking to crunchy and I have an old version on photoshop cs4. Any pointers in my images would be gratefully received and I'm embarrased by them. This is just over 2 hours 21 mins on IC 405 which I realise isn't enough data. I use a sw 72ed az gti in eq mode, with a asiair pro and zwo 294 mc pro, 180 sec subs and dithered. I've probably just stretched the bejeesus out of it! Edit- stacked in DSS calibrated with flats, darks and flat darks, 30 of each. Cheers Lee Ic405 Combined1.tiff Ic405 Combined.fit

Hi Ray There are a few videos out there and tutorials but this is the one I've always followed and did so when adjusting the meshing on the Dec motor. Cheers Lee

Whilst on a day off waiting for a new fridge freezer to be delivered (as mine went bang at the weekend) I decided to sort the backlash and meshing of my RA(az) motor. See video clips. I had previously done this with my Dec (alt) motor. I also re-engaged the spring mechanism for the RA motor to see if this can tweak the performance for the better, as I did have the worm and gear permanently fixed before. The backlash wasn't as bad as the Dec motor was though. If the re-engaging of the spring has made it worse I shall fix the worm and gear back again. Gave it all a good regrease with some white lithium grease. Cheers Lee RA mechanical backlash before.mp4 RA mechanical backlash after.mp4

No problem, looks much better for the curvature. I always shoot 3 min subs, never dared to go longer yet. Definitely get the batinov mask, makes it a breeze for focusing 👍 Cheers Lee

Late to the party here Paul. Great video and really informative. Your build is impressive. Something I can only dream about as not having my own back garden. What an achievement in having your own observatory now. Wishing you all the best and clear skies with it 👍 Cheers Lee

Take care of yourself, just do what makes you happy. Pleased you got out and got some observing in 👍

Hi Laurence I had to buy another star adventurer counterweight kit as I couldn't just buy the weight separately. So I've 2 shafts doing nothing haha as I use an m12 threaded bolt for my shaft as a bit longer Cheers Lee

Your best scope will be the one you use the most and enjoy taking it out, if it gets to being a chore you won't do it. Good luck with your 70az and clear skies, enjoy any clear night's 😊

Looks great Laurence, I'd be interested to see your cable management technique with regard to power supply to the mount, AAP and eq dir cable 👍 😊

Hi and welcome to sgl Very nice images indeed, you should see my first ones and they are truly awful indeed, yours are great. You already know the issue with your elongated stars so will bypass that. I'm not sure either on the banding in your images I use an asiair pro too and when taking my flats I use a led light panel with several sheets of blank a4 paper in a homemade sleeve to pop over my scope opening. I try to get the histogram hump near to halfway along the graph and use 2 second manual exposures and mine look not good but work fine (the jpeg version always looks bad) . There nothing wrong with your flats to my eyes. Good luck your doing great.

I had the same issue/conundrum when I mounted my AAP originally in a similar way on the underside of my dovetail bar (shown in orange) So moved it 90 degree's via an angled camera bracket to the position it's in now and no issues with meridian flips, nice and evenly balanced, just the dither settling issues after it haha (only southern meridian flip). I wish I had a better way of routing the cables (ocd issue) near the counterweight bar but the loops and configuration are enough to give slack in any direction.

This 'EQ Mod Mount' being incorrect for an alt az mount setting on the AAP crossed my mind too.