Dave kay

Thanks for your input Olly, I'll have a read though the thread / watch the video and have a look at testing the tilt on my camera. I bought an adapter to shorten the imaging train behind the scope, hopefully this will help to. Dave.

Having done some more reading I'm going to buy a simple m48 to t2 adapter so I can screw the filterwheel straight onto the scope from now on. There's no need to mess about with the 55mm. I'm not sure that this will have any effect on the issues in my images, but it's worth a try. Dave.

Thanks for the input Michael. I'll take some short exposures when I get some more clear skies and I'll post the jpegs here. Should 10 secs be enough or would you go shorter? The two Petzval scopes I own have built in FF's in the rear of the scope. This is why I used the back spacing, suggested by ZWO, of 55mm from the back of the scope to the sensor on the 294mm. I then focussed both using a bahtinov mask, so both were bang on sharp focus. I've heard that some people don't bother with the 100% accurate back spacing whilst using scopes of this design, hence why I asked the question. I hope that made sense, Dave.

Hi Folks, I'm looking for some advice on my images below. I took two images of the Sadr Region with my new Askar FRA400 and two with my Redcat 51. I took an initial image with each scope and then rotated the camera to get a second image. All four images show oval stars, but in different corners. I'm not sure what to make of the issue? My first thoughts are tilt on the camera? my second thought is poor back focus? --> I'm less certain of this because I was under the impression that both scopes didn't require an accurate back spacing as they are both Petzval designs. Both scopes were on my EQ6-R mount and I used a ZWO asi294mm camera (bin1, gain 120, -10 degrees, with suggested 55mm back spacing) and an astronomik 6nm Ha filter. I have also attached an image of my guiding on the night. Any help / advice will be much appreciated as I'm a bit vexed about the whole issue. Thanks in advance. Sadr Region 300s Ha (Redcat 51) rotated with spacers.tif Sadr Region 300s Ha (Redcat 51).tif Sadr Region 300s Ha (FRA400) rotated.tif Sadr Region 300s Ha (FRA400).tif

Thanks for this Adam. I'll rotate the camera on a single target when the next clear night appears. Fi gers crossed its just a bit of tilt or guiding errors, collimation issues would be a pain. Dave.

Thanks for the input Michael. I was guiding on an EQ6-R and the subs were 300s each. I'll have a look around my guiding when the next clear night arrives, hopefully it is just a guiding issue.

Hi Folks, I am looking for some advice. I have recently purchased an Askar FRA400 and took it out for the first time last night. I took images of two targets, the Sadr region and the Eastern Veil, and both show some odd shape stars in the corners of the image. Strangely though, the odd shaped stars are in different corners of the two images. I was imaging with a ZWO294MM and guiding with an ASIAIR plus at 0.4 RMS total. The SADR region FWHM eccentricity report from Pixinsight looks like this. The Eastern Veil FWHM eccentricity report from Pixinsight looks like this. Any help / advice / guidance would be much appreciated, Thanks in advance Dave.

I’m pretty sure it’s the RA blue line which just gradually wanders away from my target star. Sounds like I should take more care when setting my polar alignment. I’m going to try a few of the above ideas tomorrow and will feedback with a hopefully some success.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I’ll try and guide straight from my computer instead. Let’s hope I have more success that way 🤞

My image always seems to drift right, with or without my guidecam. Im going to give my mount a good service tonight and follow the advice above and try to guide from my computer instead.

Hi folks, So I’m looking for advice on guiding, as my guide system is not working properly. I have an eq3-2 mount with synscan goto. I have a guide scope attached to my zwo camera which I attach straight to the synscan auto guide port. The zwo is also attached to my computer and running with phd2. This set up has worked fine in the past but isn’t playing ball at the moment. My mount doesn’t seem to step east when either guiding using phd2 or when I’m tracking without my guide scope. However, I can easily move the mount in all four directions manually using the synscan controller. I thought I might have a dodgy auto guide port connection, but buying a new cable has not solved this situation. If anyone could shed some light on this problem it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Dave.

Hello again folks, So I went out again on Monday night and took the following images of Vega. One with bahtinov mask and then three guided images at 30, 20 and 10 secs. What do you think about star / halo shape and possible chromatic aberrations? Thanks for any input you can offer me. Dave K. IMG_6070.CR2 IMG_6069.CR2 IMG_6067.CR2 IMG_6065.CR2

Thanks for the advice Adam. Looks like the my scope has the same issue as the one in the thread. I'll be getting in touch with FLO about it to see what they recommend. Dave.

Yes, thought it would be a perfect halo all round.