Priesters

Hi,

Anyone using this filter that can share their views/experience?  This is the 6nm version btw not the newer 4nm.

Thanks

Andrew

1 hour ago, Stefan73 said:

I've always found a strap wrench invaluable astronomy kit for this sort of thing

Plus 1 for this.  It sorted a stuck 2mm extension tube so not a dissimilar problem to yours. Also, my wife found them incredibly useful for opening jars so for the first time ever I got brownie points for buying Astro related gear.

21 hours ago, LDW1 said:

It was a bit of a miss print and it has a built in dew heater !

Oh ok, that’s good then.  May reconsider once the wallet has recovered and we’ve a few more user reviews.

Beautiful image btw 🙂

My opinion is that it looks more like the JellyFish nebula than the JellyFish nebula 😂.  Some of these names are very tenuous e.g. M1 - most crabs have legs 😉

I’m quite interested in this product and actually put a pre-order in but withdrew due to other finance pressures plus began to have some doubts about how it would cope here in damp Lancashire given the <60% humidity spec.  Anyone thought about any workarounds for dew?  Asked ZWO but no reply.

I just dug a roughly cylindrical hole and then used one if these lawn edges as a mould. 

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

atheistically

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

agnostic

It’s a hot day here in Lancashire and maybe I’ve had a couple of beers 🍺. Anyhow, hope I haven’t breached any SGL rules 😂

Certainly not the cheapest I’ve seen on SGL and definitely not the most sturdy but nevertheless quite pleased with this and most importantly it’s atheistically acceptable to my other half.  The shed/summerhouse in the background is command centre 🚀 so I can stay cosy in winter.  Also in the highly unlikely event of me giving up on Astronomy I’m sure it could be put to good use for other things.  🙂

I need to learn your negotiation skills.  Was the argument not put forward that you could simply remove a scope from storage instead of purchasing another, or were your scopes in storage in a different country? Sorry, I’m beginning to sound like my own CFO now.  Just to be clear, there is no judgement here and SGL remains a safe place to share scope collections. 😂

I’ll be using this thread as ‘evidence’ with my CFO next time I get the urge to expand my humble 2 scope collection 😂

3 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Do you take them right after imaging each night?

Thanks.  Because I’m using SharpCap and watching the image develop in LiveStack I take them before the imaging session. I suspect the problem is because the flat panel is on full power and maybe something to do with the reducer and reflections- but I’m just guessing. Hoping to experiment again tomorrow night 🤞

Yep, only seem to have the problem when the Optolong filters are in.  Hoping to have another session tomorrow night so I’ll try the longer flats and use other calibration frames and see what I get.  

Managed to get this without the Ha from the filter tho.   A long way to go compared to some of the quality images I see on SGL but it was a very breezy couple of nights and I’m happy with it 🙂.

12 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Have you tried stacking and calibrating these files in a different software?

Not yet.  I'll give that a try though when I get chance.

Darks attached.  Didn't take and Dark Flats or Bias.  Next time out I may turn the brightness of the Flat Panel down as if I remember rightly I had it on full power - just in case its some sort of reflection problem.

MasterDark_30_frames_-9.9C_2023-04-17T18_35_56.fits

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me with this.

I've just tried out my new Altair 26C (IMX571 sensor) and an Optolong Ultimate Filter with my Meade 8" LX200 and Optec 0.63 reducer and have some weird concentric circular banding on my stacked images.   The flat panel I've used has always been ok in the past and I can see the same issue but to a lesser degree when using an Optolong Enhance filter.  I can't see the issue when I'm not using either filter.  This makes me think its a problem with how I'm taking the flats as opposed to being equipment related.  I've attached the stack, the master flat and a single raw frame so you can see what I mean.  These were captured using SharpCap.  I've also attached the camera settings used when taking the flats.

Any help much appreciated/

Andrew 

Stack_32bits_7frames_2100s.fits MasterFlat_21_51_29.fits frame_00001.fits MasterFlat_21_51_29.fits.CameraSettings.txt

17 minutes ago, Themightylard said:

what the very bright star low down in the north east

Welcome.  Probably Vega.

33 minutes ago, PennyRiver said:

+  Determine the difference 

I could definitely do this bit. If someone else could do the first two we are on to a winner. 

Nothing in East Lancashire yet sadly.

On 04/03/2023 at 10:14, Laurin Dave said:

plus Bad Pixel map (from a long Dark

Thanks for the advice.  It seems I can put Darks behind me 👍.  As others have said I will dither to remove hot pixels but I'm also interested in your mention of using a bad pixel map.  When you created this, did you use a high gain setting and what about offset?  Also was it a single dark frame or did you stack several?  

Thanks for replying.  Yes I’m aware of the purpose of Darks 🙂.   It was just a case of trying to steal other people’s homework so I can start to build my dark frame library at a sensible point e.g. 5 min exposures work well with gain of ??, offset of ??.  Totally appreciate this will vary with conditions / targets and may well be a daft question but thought it worth asking anyway.

Hi,

Hopefully postie will be delivering a 26C on Monday so I was wondering if any other owners could let me know about their dark frame library for this camera.  I know it’s a very broad question but just a few ideas of settings (black level, gain, exposure etc) that other people typically use would hopefully give me a good starting point to build my library from. I use SharCap as my capture software and have a couple of dual band filters - Optolong L’Extreme and L’Ultimate.  

Cheers

Andrew

17 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

hotech sca 1x flattener on my GT81IV

Hi,  that prompted me to look it up on Flo and I noticed a review that suggested it needed to be disassembled and reconfigured to make it fit in the focusser.  Did you experience the same or is there an alternative way of adding the flattener into the optical train?

7 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

We have a very dark site.

Clearly so.  I must try and make a visit one day 🙂