Clarkey

I saw the title and could only laugh! If it takes 15 days to process each nights data I would agree. Given I get about 2 imaging days per month (none in May, June and July because it's too light), it's about 18 sessions per year. I think I can manage.😂

I would much have the 'too much data' problem.....

Just to give my opinion. (Trying not to offend anyone😀)

APP can do the complete processing - and in some cases I do use it for this. It seems to work very well for certain images. However, generally I use it for stacking and calibration plus gradient removal. I also use Star Tools sometimes - I find it good for getting detail out of images with very good data, but not so good if there is too much noise. My main processing tool is Affinity which is now even better as it has some new astrophotography tools for stacking (which I have not tried yet). Also there are some macro's that James Ritson has produced which can help with some workflow.

As a rule I nearly always use a combination. I would say that I think the stacking in APP very good - albeit slow.

I don't think the colour is too important. Providing it is even.

With regards to the histogram, you can always stop down the exposure to -2 or -3 which will reduce the exposure. To be honest I doubt the peak being nearer to the middle will have too bad an effect, but you can reduce it as above. If you use one of the standard software packages, most have a flats aid which will do the work for you.

FWIW I have largely built my own kit. It's simple, cheaper and can be custom made. For the battery I have a small power pack for mount only use and a large 100 amp hour leisure battery for the full kit. This will run everything - heaters, mount, usb hub and laptop for a weekend. If it is really cold I use one of the outputs for a small reptile heat mat which stops the battery dying due to the cold.

For the 'on scope' power I have made my own power 'boxes' from junction boxes which have 12v plugs, usb power points and PWM's for the standard dew heaters.

With a powered usb hub it means I only have two leads from the scope, one for power and one for data. If I am at home I can just plug it into the 12v mains supply.

Really nice image. Far better than my attempt!

I think if your guide scope is focused and is locked in position there should not really be any noticeable movement. If there is, it's worth doing whatever you can to prevent it - even if it means taping it in place.

I did have to adjust the worm gears on my HEQ5 when it was virtually brand new as there was some play. It certainly helped. I think the main thing is not to over tighten or it will lead to premature wear.

Mine is set to 0.2 in PHD and 0.5 in EQMod. Not sure if this is 'right's, but it works for me.

I'm not sure about the ST120 but I use an ST80 for guiding and that needs about an extra 10cm on top of the focuser being nearly fully extended. Try adding some extra extensions and check it during the day. Hopefully you will not end up wasting imaging time trying to sort it out.

As Dave has said the guiding does not look that bad once settled and I am not sure it would be bad enough to cause obvious egg shaped stars. Looking at the trend there is clearly some oscillation in the guiding, which does suggest a mechanical issue with the mount. Is there any obvious play in the RA axis? My AZ EQ6 regularly needs tweaking to stop too much backlash.

The other point to consider is whether it is definitely the guiding giving poorly shaped stars? Is the camera completely perpendicular to the scope? A little movement could give wonky stars.

There is a guide here

https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/tutorials/best-back-focus-length-solutions-55mm.html

At least sodium and mercury lamps have specific wavelengths that are easily removed. LED are broad spectrum which is more difficult to filter out.

Some good advice here, specifically regarding a good mount.

I would agree that if you can stretch to it, a cooled camera is a good option. I did do some DSLR imaging but the processing was a pain due to banding issues and the need to take darks at the right temperature. Having a darks library gives better images and gives more imaging time on the night. AP is hard enough without making it harder....

Rob a bank then sit indoors for weeks at a time looking at the vast fortune you spent to watch clouds!

I control all of my equipment remotely using a powered USB hub and an active USB 3 cable (USB 2 would work but downloads would be slower). I have made a 12v distribution box from a small junction box so the only cables I have are one for power and one for data. If carefully managed it is fine. I leave my rig running overnight, including flips and I have not had a problem. I would be concerned with a long refractor which might hit the mount. With regards to dew, I use USB powered dew heaters as it can be powered from the scope power supply through the hub.

I probably should go down the wireless route as my wifi seems to reach quite well. I have seriously considered the ASIair but my focuser is not compatible and I don't want to replace it

-15 is pushing any battery system. You could put everything in a insulated box with 12v heat mat. There are also chemical / electric hand warmers that might be useable. Alternatively you might need a generator!

It's a shame you seem to be struggling so much. I have no idea why NINA is not behaving. I have just moved over from APT to NINA and it is better when it works. As well as the framing benefits, I also like the auto focus option during imaging sessions. APT does work fine and has some good functionality but it cannot compete with NINA.

Have you contacted the forum / developers to see if they can help?

I will watch this with interest. I have a ASI 1600mm pro that is my 'normal' imaging camera. However, so I could potentially run two rigs simultaneously I recently got my 600D modified. Unfortunately, I am getting horizontal banding too. Not as bad as this, but certainly noticeable. I checked my previous non-modified camera results from some time ago and it is not as bad - but still there. I have looked at the calibration frames and it does appear on the darks and bias frames, as well as the lights. Nothing on the flats. Even with the calibration it is on the final images. I have tried darks only, without bias and bias only but neither seem to solve the problem. Obviously using a DSLR the temperature cannot be controlled for the calibration frames which does not help. However, APP which I use for stacking is supposed to compensate for variations in temperature from the calibration frames to the lights. Despite this I still have two clear horizontal strips about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down the frame. 

I have partly managed to remove them in processing, but to me at least, they are still clearly visible.

Strangely I had exactly the same issue a couple of days ago with my 600D. Normally I stack and start my processing in APP but as I was having some banding and noise issues I decided to try DSS for a change. As is only normally use DSS my settings were probably wrong and the hot pixels were not removed properly. When I used a denoise algorithm is did exactly this. I went back and stacked correctly and all was good again. FWIW I used to use DSS but I have found APP much better (but slower). However, it's not free!

Yes, I think NINA calculates from pixel size, resolution and focal length. I got a similar warning when I changed camera but forgot to change the pixel size. It still solved, but the error went when I changed from 3.8 to 4.3um for the pixels.

I had the same problem with Phd2 taking an age to calibrate. My issue was the guide speed in Eqmod was set up at 0.1 rather than 0.5 and it was having to carry out far too many calibration steps. Worth checking as it reduced the calibration time from about 20 minutes to under 5.

The Reference object error sounds like it was trying to go to a location which would depend on the settings. Try selecting an object in the framing assistant first, then plate solve. It should slew to the object then keep plate solving until it is with the tolerance you have given it. (I think the default is 0.5 arc minutes).

Have you tried solving from a saved image? Here is a link explaining how. At least you would be able to get it working in advance.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/676773-nina-plate-solving-and-re-alignment/

Also, I'm sure you have, but some settings in NINA don't seem to update fully without restarting the program.

I use NINA and ASTAP without issue. Have you put the location of the exe file in the plate solving options? That would be the only reason I can think of why it could not find it. Even auto download / install does not fill in the file location. As I had ASTAP installed already I had it in another directory. 

I have one of these:

AGPTEK Magnetic Tracing A4 LED Light Box Drawing Pad Dimmable Brightness, Physical Buttons Control, USB Power Cable for Animation, Designing, Stencilling X-ray Viewing/Sketching Diamond Painting: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

It is A4 but I use it with an RC8 and it works ok. It is back-lit and even. I did get another one initially but it was lit from the side and the light was pretty poor so that went back. I have not used it for narrowband on this scope, but it is reasonably bright.

I can't remember the exact one - it was a universal one (Bresser maybe?) with a full length cut out. The guider fitted nicely in the groove providing you could avoid the bolt heads.

I have recently converted my ED80 to guide using the 9x50 finder. To avoid using the existing bracket I added a new dovetail to the top of the rings and used cable ties to hold it in place. If you get it focused in advance it works well and does not appear to have much flex.