trailer

Taken this morning about 20 minutes after the maximum overlap due to the cloud cover.

Tell me about it! I'm looking at getting a lightweight GOTO to take a Redcat set up so probably wouldn't be too much of an issue I'm thinking. But still not ideal.

There's an interesting thread here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/759169-cem26-first-cloudy-night/

Is it possible to mount a QHY Polemaster onto an iOptron GEM28. If so, which adapter would I need? I know the iPolar version isn't a great deal more expensive it's just about availabilty and I have a Polemaster already. TIA

If you have the DEC turned off then I really don’t think that you have anything to worry about. I also have the SA2i guiding with PHD2 and sometimes the red line shows, sometimes it doesn’t. Doesn’t seem to affect the images for me either, as you have mentioned.

And thanks for your time too Steve. Much obliged and is all very useful to confirm everything is OK. Cheers.

Firstly, many thanks Stuart for your assistance. Well, this is a bit embarrassing. I had the SSID for the network typed incorrectly............ apologies for wasting your time!!!! All up and running with the dongle now and the in built disconnected. As an aside iw dev lists that the txpower on the in-built is 31dbm but on the dongle it is 12dbm?

Looking for a bit of help with this dongle if I may. I have installed the drivers and it is coming up as wlan1 - typing 'iw dev' gives this correctly. I have created the network option similar to the one with the in built wifi device apart from choosing the wi-fi device as wlan1 as opposed to wlan0. However, it will not connect to any wi-fi, with 100 priority and even if I disable the in built wi-fi. I'm obviously doing something wrong but I can't figure out what it is. Grateful for any assistance please!! (RPi4 - Astroberry)

This is with the SA2 guiding through PHD2 / EKOS / KStars. First time with dithering and the PHD2 multi star option ticked. Able to get 300s shots with no trailing through a WO Redcat51, WO wedge and a Manfrotto 190GO tripod. Polar Alignment was done with a Polemaster. I think a better quality tripod might help smooth things out a bit.

@TheLazyAstronomer@The Admiral Many thanks for the information. I think I had read that somewhere in the not so distant past about the MM and the MC but it didn't click with me. I think I understand why you would have the options now to give you the best choice for the set up that you have. I'm still not entirely sure if I'm ready for the step up to the Mono/filtering route quite yet but definitely more food for thought though 👍

@Adreneline Thanks for your input and a great point with regard to future proofing. Something I hadn't thought of. I had a look at your images with the 294 and it looks perfectly good to me! @CraigT82 I don't have anything to compare the Sony to at present but what I am getting seems to be OK I think. Anything better would be certainly fine as you said. This is one I took a couple of weeks ago whilst getting the guiding set up. No filters or calibration frames and around 20ish x4 minute lights. My first nebula attempt so I don't think that it is too bad(!) - apart from the processing - work in progress.

A recent recruit to the astro world I am now looking at getting a dedicated camera for my Redcat. At present I have it set up with a Star Adventurer which is aligned with a QHY Polemaster and guided with a ZWO 120mm Mini camera/scope via an RPi4/Astroberry. The camera I am currently imaging with is a Sony A7iii. (I'm pretty happy with the Sony although for the life of me I cannot get EKOS to control the Sony imaging and am using an wired intervalometer but that's another issue!). I've had my eyes on a ZWO 294MC Pro for a while now but before hitting the buy button I am still not sure if the resolution / pixel size etc would be a good match for my set up. The more I read the more it becomes less clear when comparing the 294 to the 183 or the 533 for instance. I'd be grateful for any advice from any of you wise owls and thanks in advance. Jim

I have the SA and have just started guiding with PHD2 via Astroberry. For the life of me I can't get the Sony A7iii to work in EKOS to control the imaging but I am finally making progress with PHD2. To get to the point, if I can't get the imaging control for the Sony to work then is there any point in dithering? I'm guessing not as this needs to be done between shots?

Stellarmate has a dedicated app as well. I haven't used any of the options mentioned but maybe the app gives you a bit more flexibility than going in via VNC for instance?

Captured last Thursday at dusk. Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Sony A7III with a Sigma 100-400mm

After a wee bit more research (largely on here - what a wealth of information) I've been looking at going down the Skywatcher Skymax 102/127 route - and thanks Kyle for the Maksotuv recommendation. I did have a look at the WO Z61 and the Z73 but by the time I bought the flattener and camera adaptors the price soon jumped up(!). I'm not entirely sure if I should go for or need a GoTo mount or not so I'll need to do a bit more research on that one. In the meantime if anyone else has any further suggestions to an alternative way I could go then I would certainly be grateful to hear from them.

Thank you both for the replies. Ruud: I do remember watching those videos a while back and thanks for the reminder. Certainly very useful to watch again. Kyle: The Maksotuv isn't an option that I had considered but on a quick look it seems to fit the bill too. I'll certainly do more research there too. I think the problem might be that there are too many options!?!

Hello all. I'm a newcomer to the forum and looking for a bit of advice please. I've been taking shots of the night sky - star trails, milky way etc - for a year or two now and am looking to move on to trying to get some lunar and planetary pictures. I don't think I'm quite ready for deep space as yet. I currently have a Sony A7III full frame with some fast wide angles and an Olympus OM-D E-M1MkII MFT with a Lumix 100-400mm. I also have an MSM rotator. I've been trying to get some lunar shots with the 100-400mm with differing amounts of success and was wondering if getting the Williams Optics RedCat would give me a noticeable improvement or would I need to get a dedicated telescope? Portability is important plus ease of setting up. Grateful for any feedback. Jim