Mangifigeek

And so it begins. As with all things astronomy related, the weather stopped further activity. Hope to get the "ground works" done next weekend.

🙂 I already appear to have achieved that level of cloudiness. I plough on nevertheless! I am not sure the UK is the best climate for this hobby.

Hi, How is this working for you? I am considering building one too. Have you covered the blocks with cement after building the tower? Thanks

MureDenoise looks useful, thanks

PI and GIMP. Noise reduction is something else to get around too...

Hi Rich, It was my first time guiding in a few months and I was simply using a cheap t7C in my finderscope, so likely to be my guiding issue (and the USB lead got caught on the counterweight too!) - generally I had a few guiding issues as I am getting upto speed with it again after the summer. I have not yet bought a coma corrector which will hopefully address the corner issues when I get around to it. I have recently bought an OAG but have not yet used it in anger. I achieved everything I wanted to that evening so I was happy (including having downloaded more detail for my plate solving app, which now works using my main imaging camera). You are a more patient person than I waiting for the scope to be delivered! Good luck.

Just in case anyone else looks into this thread... Also working well with its first test using an ASI 294 MC PRO. I am enjoying the longer nights 🙂

It would be great to see some of your results 🙂

I guess DSS has never been so heavily used before for such a great comet!

Sunday was my first attempt at using DSS for comets! I had some success if trailing stars or the comet is moving ("standard mode") - but standard mode looks quite silly. I did manage one stack in the combined mode - but it always hung after that at the final stage and I had to kill the process. It was interesting stacking the first and final image over a 90 minute period and seeing how much the comet had moved relative to the background stars. The attached photo was based on just a handful of the lights I had taken (they were very short ones). Anything more caused DSS to hang. I am following the thread with interest, and I may consider doing the stacking in PixInsight when I have time.

Some sma Some cracking photos there - I aspire to doing some like that! Thanks for the tip about refocussing with temperature changes, that had never crossed my mind.

I will take a look! Thanks

Looks like it was all down to me not collimating correctly - the stars are looking much sharper (I used my DSLR - which I left attached for a few hours before using it). I set the telescope up last night as the night promised to be clear, however, the clouds proved rather stubborn. I managed to get less than 10 minutes imaging of M31 in (and have only done a very quick process of it) to test the telescope, but seems like it is all OK. I then nipped off to look at the wonderful Comet Neowise (which was hidden by a tree from the VX10). I will do a more thorough process of the images another time. Thanks everyone for your help Paul

I am relatively new to astronomy, but that is the approach I take! Other apps I use on Android include "Good to Stargaze" and "Weather and Radar". I find the "Weather and Radar" quite good - useful showing the radar images. I only found out about "Clear Outside" this week, so early days for me.

*** removed pending further tests! *** 🙂

I have been experimenting with a Cheshire Collimator and a Cap this week. The Laser Collimator is useful, but I believe that it had led to an incorrect collimation when used on it's own (my secondary was angled incorrectly). This guide was especially helpful to me: http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/collimation-guide-newtonian-reflector/ I am hopeful that the issue was purely down to me not collimating correctly, but I need to test again when the nights get longer. Thanks for your assistance.

Thanks for your input

Fan working 🙂

@Nigella BryantI have a lot to learn. Thanks for your positive response. About to order a Chesihre collimator and must find the power lead for the fan!

Also I have only used a laser collimator - I think I will get a Cheshire one too, just to be sure

Hi @Nigella BryantI was just looking at the photos of your set up above - it looks very impressive! Assuming that the 12 and 10inch tubes have similar flex levels it would be good to know the limited imaging results that you have obtained. I need to think about whether to keep bumbling along with the VX10 (which is always going to be at the upper end of my mounts abilities - especially when I start using a "proper" guidescope rather than just my finderscope with an adaptor), or get another (bigger) refractor, or one of the many other options open to me (e.g. a massive upgrade to a top of the range mount and newtonian such as Rich has done). Nice decisions to have to make. Also Nigella - do you ever use the cooling fan on the Primary mirror, I have never actually used it? Many thanks, Paul

Thanks Rich and Richochet. One of the reasons I asked about coma was to decide whether it was worth going down that path with this scope. So I have much food for thought and I really appreciate the frank opinions. I mainly bought the scope because it came with the mount for sale, so not too attached to it (yet, although it has been growing on me!). I had been wondering about seeing how the scope performed with my cheap guide cam, so I will give that a go too. Anyone want to buy a hardly used VX10? I am definitely more interested in imaging than visual. Thanks again, Paul

Thanks Nigella

Hi Brown Dwarf, Thanks for taking the time to take a look. Yes they were both cropped- basically using the windows snip tool on the CR2 file. The full frames images are attached (again using the snip tool) - possibly different ones but from the same series of photos. I have also attached a stacked & processed version of M51, based on just a few minutes (I think about 5 minutes of stacked 45 sec images). It was probably too light to be taking them at that time (although it was midnight when the images started), but then the clouds arrived and I had to stop! I have also had a look at some other ones I have taken - where it does not seem to be quite so bad (sample also attached - Ring Nebula), but is still present. Please let me know if a higher definition method may help. We have had a lot of clouds in Yorkshire recently, but next time I am able to image I will also double check my focussing - I have been using a Bahtinov Mask (visually) on a bright star. Thanks.

Hi I was wondering whether I could jump onto this thread (I am a new member & bought my first telescope this year)! I purchased a VX10 (second hand, previously unused - but eight years old). It sits on a HEQ5 PRO mount. I have also been using a small refractor to get used to imaging. My questions relates to coma. I do not currently have a corrector, but I was wondering whether anyone could advise on a good one for imaging on the VX10? I currently use a DSLR, although I may eventually go the dedicated camera route. I think this is what is causing the issues in these photos (but I am not 100% sure). Also, is there some sort of user group/forum for Orion Optics UK users about - or is this the best forum? Thanks in advance, Paul