blameTECHIE

both look great @tomato and giving me something to aspire to (and now I'm going to have to start looking at startools, the extra work on the 2nd image definitely pays off)

oh I'm going to have to look at how you add custom landscapes to Stellarium ....

this seems appropriate (or maybe it's just late on a school night for me, I've work in 6hrs)

Gotcha @wookie1965 and have repeated that here, yep the DEC motor hits the RA motor. But the DEC axis rotates, so spin it 180° put the DEC motor at the front and it clears everything.

Have my EQ5 Pro with me at the desk now as I really want to help - checked and it rotates freely without hitting the body, the only issue is the DEC IN cable which is easily disconnected from either end. clutch lever gets a bit close but does pass cleanly

just realised that could come across as a dodgy link, so here's the youtube link directly

I've an EQ5 (Pro) in the garage and had to go and check in case there was something strange with the motors (hadn't had need to take the PS out) yep, just unscrews, feels a bit tight for initial release but a firm grip and rotate CCW Hope the vid I've just taken helps

well I did a quick search - and hit this result from @Stu back in 2014 relating to firmware updates on the Starbook, guessing comms are still the same for other uses?

got to hand it to SpaceX - when they provide video coverage they do it very well. loved the launch-to-land stage one camera, tend not to be too bothered with stage two/payload these days

110Ah leisure battery is on my list of things for when I start going out and need a supply, with that in mind I've switched from a laptop to a miniPC that runs off 12V so removes the complexity of needing an invertor or drain of powering a screen. Scope/plan setup is done with a direct connection to the miniPC from a laptop, make sure everything looks okay (PA, focus etc) and let it go, then switch the laptop off, just reconnecting periodically to make sure everything looks okay (maybe 2-3mins every hour) so the laptop battery is perfectly good for that. The lightbulb moment for me was seeing a comment saying that "you're only capturing the data, not manipulating/post-processing it on the capture device" so it can be low-power just with good storage.

@Padraic M thank you - guilty there as well (and the histograms from yourself and @geeklee are really helpful) - I was aiming for a black background. I knew there'd be a lot to learn after finally understanding the mount and guiding, but it is quite a step up when you finally have images to process. As for NINA, well I knew I needed Darks and Flats to register in DSS, SharpCap seemed to take them (I know now what I did wrong) and produce just a master file for each which DSS didn't like (I should have just taken captures, and did last night). NINA is brand new to me and I found the wizard in there for them, so tried to use that. So many toolsets to do the same job - I really need to work on one and stick with it. I like the interface for NINA, so maybe that's my task for the coming days/weeks (months/years ), sticking with the same target (where I know I get some results) and I'll have something to measure against for NINA and GiMP. Hopefully results will improve and I can then take that experience onto new targets and challenges. So thanks to everyone who has commented, I'll keep coming back to these comments to keep me on the right path. Kev

A lot to take in there Lee but it is making sense - an enormous amount of help you've given me here, thank you and appreciate you taking the time to look in more detail at one of the screengrabs - I'm busted, I completely forgot to try and align the channels. No excuses, just too keen to get an image - a lack of patience and I don't see any of that for sale on FLO. And @iapa, thank you, I'd only thought about taking the darks for the exposure I was using, not building up the library with a view to referring back (DOH!). ..... hmm, PixInsight ...... I've got a book on that ....... 😉 NO! use what I've got, learn and then progress to the next thing! (though that might be setting up the pier that has recently turned into a bird table because I've done nothing with it yet)

only a thousand other things?! 🤣 I checked my imaging settings and had changed the black level (I think this is offset) from 3 to 30 somehow, that's been put back, for now, set to 0. I was hoping to not have dew issues, but then my heater band is a cheap amazon one with very little control, but thank you, something I can look for an upgrade to over the summer - I'd been staring at the image for so long I was doubting myself as to whether I was seeing it or not. And when I've got all this lot working I've still got all the other things hidden in the garage to play with (ZWO OAG, AutoFocuser, Filter Drawer and of course the C9.25 OTA) - should keep me busy for years, much to the other half's relief no doubt 🤭

Thanks again @geeklee for the support. Managed 88x 3min frames last night with a really close alignment. DSS using 80% of frames produced this: which, with a little bit of GiMP (no idea what I was doing, but know I need to do something to bring out C12 from the starfield), produced this: and, for my first DSO with a proper rig (i.e. not my one attempt at Andromeda with a DSWR/Star Adventurer) quite chuffed with how the 100% image compares with Stellarium's DSO image. Got loads to learn still I know but already looking forward to another clear night and a new target. (please excuse the screengrabs, but produced nice small filesizes for sharing)

to be honest, I'd been messing about with profiles in SharpCap and not realised until I was a couple of images in and just thought I'd leave it as an experiment and reduce next time if necessary. Also thought it might be a good test to see how well I'd finally got PHD2 guiding and, at least for last night, I think I managed a reasonable alignment. Thanks yet again for the pointers - I thought I'd watched all the yt vids and read bits and pieces over the last six months but it all went to pot when I actually had something that was working .... will drop down to 5mins tonight and get those darks taken before I start for a change and think about actually planning things for a change rather than dealing with poor focus or lack of PA etc. And thanks for the link - added a new bookmark for that vid and will pay close attention. Kev

thanks again - and fully understood. I'll get these 10min darks done and will revisit the same framing if I can. Was thinking of dropping down to 5min exposures so I wouldn't lose so many frames tonight to satellite trails, but probably best I just stick with what has worked for now.

Thanks @geeklee - just setting up now to run the darks, think I've a good couple of hours before any imaging tonight - one advantage of a cooled camera I guess

After what feels like an age, I've now finally managed to figure out my steps to getting consistent polar alignment and guiding. Not the best time of year to be trying with the short UK nights, but here's the result of my first imaging session. C12 Fireworks Galaxy 30th May 2021 2345BST (ish) start EQ6R with SW ED80DS Pro; PHD2 guided, SharpCapAltair HyperCam 183C via SharpCap 12bit FITS 1x1 binning for 16x 600s, 400 gain Stacked in DSS with Darks (not 180s though) & Flats taken via NINA. Noticed there's some AMP glow from the HyperCam which is known about for these, better (longer) darks should hopefully take care of that. Will probably stick with the same target on my next session but try to remember to use the 2x Barlow I have It's all a bit of overload for me right now with having finally captured something that a)guided correctly b)stacked correctly and c)actually has a DSO in it. But I'm stuck with GiMP, so am keen for any comments on post-processing or changes to initial capture, for now I've just applied 'Auto Input Levels' --- The problems; well Stellarium/EQ6R sync is off, but that's another issue temporarily solved by platesolving and then adjusting the stellarium target accordingly guess where the object will be.

If it had been Chuck Norris instead of George Clooney then I'd have believed it, but then Chuck would have been fine without a suit and most likely just performed his own re-entry and landed on the White House lawn

Chance of just being able to do that would be nice @Stu <cough> clouds in every delivery <cough> 🙃

I'd completely forgotten about Microsoft ICE, thank goodness for archive sites as it's no longer available from MS Nice image, I was fitting a focus motor to my 80ED last night and took a few moments of visual on the moon before the clouds rolled in - they really are a good quick 'throw it on and have a look' scope

You've all got me thinking now. I've a year old 6x6 aluminium & acrylic panel greenhouse that I've recently broken down - yet to list it on fb marketplace but now I might have a look to see if I can adapt the frame. Possibly make something 5x5 with a hinged roof panel (I only need to look North/East/South and horizon to vertical)

Hopefully an 'upgrade' to using the skywatcher handset (or as I have been, laptop & mouse clicks on the NSEW onscreen buttons) with a cheap 'not-tendo' controller for EQmod And some 2" stuff (filter from @Lee_P and looks in great condition) I'll have to get around to putting all these recent deliveries together at some point and hope I can still get focus

I love my google pixel 5 - may not have the best lens/sensor on the market but the software makes up for it (as pixel phones usually do). Saving in RAW+JPG makes things a bit more useful as well. Not sure if it's a feature on other android phones, but placing it into camera night mode, on a tripod and then angling up to the sky automatically engages astrophotography mode - autostacks about four minutes of night mode shots. Have attached a some random images that I took of one evening when setting up, they're not great (wasn't really going for anything) and unfortunately there's a bit of light pollution but the stars are nice and sharp and the on-phone stacking seems to do really well (this was taken just outside Kidderminster looking East(ish) so roughly over your neck of the woods @bish) And it's water/dust proof, so I've been happy to leave it outdoors overnight with a USB powerpack when I started playing with timelapse mode.