Andy56

Good point! Something opaque then. I have some thin black styrene or just use paper as suggested. Cheers Andy

So last night had a few hours clear of clouds but with a nearly full moon. I took out the 3mm thick metal ring that comes with the TS 1.0x GPU Superflat and replaced it with 2x1.0mm Astrodymium rings. After some trials and tribulations fighting the software (PHD2/scope/EQMOD connection issues) I managed to get some images of M44 before I got to cold and tired. I didn't use Markarian's Chain again because the moon was very close. The improvement was substantial but still shows "tilt" as in distance between the sensor and the CC not necessarily between the camera and the mirror. I'll remove the rubber washers and replace them with thin plastic (4 pint milk bottle plastic makes good shims ) and see how it goes. As I see it this relies on the machining of the focuser and the straightness of the tube so may not work on a given 'scope. I may wait till the summer(?) before attempting this as I can get good results at the moment by using (cheating) BxT. Images below: Single sub, Background neutralised, Gradient Correction Manually stretched, no calibration frames. Single sub, Background neutralised, Gradient Correction Manually stretched, no calibration frames but with the magical BxT Cheers Andy

Got my spacers this morning. Another great delivery by FLO. Clouds included as usual. Supposed to have an hour or so clear tomorrow evening to give it a try Fingers crossed.

Many thanks for all your comments and feedback. I have found that I can remove the ring from the flattener (TS 1.0x GPU Superflat 4-element 2" Coma Corrector) and this allows me 3mm less back focus. Kidney beans means to much back focus. I will get a set of "Astrodymium Colour Coded Fine Tuning Spacer Rings for M48 Threads" spacers so I should be able to get the back focus correct and you get more for £1 more than the Astro Essentials. Alacant: I have serviced the focuser and made a huge improvement by cleaning grease off the tube and retensioning the drive part. It stopped the focuser slipping with the weight of the camera etc. I can't remember where all the rubber rings were. I have the "Tommy Nawratil – www.teleskop-austria.com" manual but is doesn't show all the rubber rings. Do you include the rubber rings under the fixing screws in the 7 you mention? I ask this before I take it apart. Cheers Andy

Hi Elp, Just measured the back focus distance using the spacers supplied with the ASI2600MC and it's 55mm as required. ie 16.5mm T2-M48 + 21mm Filter drawer + 17.5mm for camera Looking at the link you sent it appears the sensor is too far away so I need some -ve spacers. I'll have to replace the T2-M48 16.5mm spacer with a shorter one and buy some spacers. May be a question to FLO may help for bits. The tilt may be the focuser. Cheers Andy

Elp: Many thanks. Never heard of Kidney Beaning before. According to the documentation I have it should have been correct but possibly not. I'll look at the link later or tomorrow. Cheers Andy

Hi, Last night, just before the clouds rolled in, I managed to get my 130PDS, flattener, and ASI260MC working together. The images I took have strange shaped stars. In my experience this isn't coma, there may be some tilt. There is a possibility that the camera moved, ie rotated but I don't think so because the trails ar not centered. I've attached an image. It's a single sub of 300secs, background neutralised and stretched; and a 3x3 mosaic from Pixinsight aberration inspector. I did collimate the scope but I'm not good at it yet. Could someone take a look and point me it the right direction for investigation. Cheers Andy

"I tried stopping down to f5.6“ I used a 600d with a pentax 135mm f3.5. I stop mine down to F8 and get some good star shapes. I use an equatorial mount, recently the Star Adventurer Mini. The image is poor because of light polution and an issuee with the camera. Andy

It may not help much but I have a 600D and it had the mirror lockup set when I got it. Confused me until some on here mentioned it. Don't remember where the setting was though. This is a wireless intervalometer. I don't know if you used the wireless mode but if you did it's probably worth trying it with direct connection. I've never had an issue using mine with direct connection intervalometer. It's a different intervalometer though. I always use it with an interval between shots, about 20 secs for 1 min exposure. It's lets the sensor cool down a bit. If it was used with a direct connection I would suspect a faulty cable or connector not pushed in fully, causing extra shots to be taken if the cable moved. Also the intervalometer appears to have a manual button. It's worth trying that for a few times, it may give some clues. Andy

Symmetal: ah maybe. I'll have a read in the morning Thanks Andy

I'm currently using it straight to the sd card so I don't have to use a laptop or similar so no transfer cables. But having said that reminds me that I don't think I've used it like this before. So I will try a different SD card because many people have suggested it although I could never see the logic of it. Andy

Many thanks for your responses Elp: Yes, I can flip it afterwards, and have done so in Pixinsight. I was more wondering why, it's something I don't understand. Alacant, symmetal, Gfamily: This make sense that the origin is bottom left and not top left. This would cause the flip. Alacant: I haven't used Siril for processing because I have not learnt how to do so yet. I'm retired but still can't find enough time for it all. I have gained good familiarity with PixInsight and use it most of the time. I'm trying to resolve the balance between the use of software to correct lines from the Canon camera vs get a new(newish) one. Siril was a quick way to allow me to debayer images for examination in PixInsight. You have replied to my query Am I looking at a faulty sensor? with the good suggestions to overcome this issue, ie the Banding Algorithm in Siril. I hadn't realised that these existed until you suggested them, many thanks. I found the equivalent in PixInsight, CanonBandingReduction. Up to now my camera did not exhibit this issue so this is all new to me. Thanks for the link about Siril's banding. As and aside a member of our local astronomy group has offered to give some training on the use of Siril, I've signed up for this. Many thanks Andy

Hi, I've just started using Siril to batch remove Canon banding but I've noticed some strange behaviour in DSS when stacking the files. I'm basically evaluating my 600D I have just started to re-use. It has gained some lines across the image and I'm experimenting with different processes to find the best way to remove them (or buy another camera). I have converted 10 *.CR2 files to FITs and de-bayered them. I then run the Siril batch Banding Reduction on these files to get a new set of FITs. I have then run DSS to stack the fits files without calibration files. The DSS stacked FITs are both inverted vertically but the CR2 files are not. This does not happen if I stack them in Pixinsight. Can anyone shed light on this. I guess it's something I'm doing but it's seem to be a Siril/DSS thing. TIA Andy

Hi, Thanks for your ideas and thoughts. I'm slightly concerned that using resistors may give a problem of the copper wire becoming work hardened over time and breaking whereas I understand that Nichrome/KANTHAL is much more resilient. If I use Nichrome/KANTHAL I would crimp the ends to connect the power wires. Something like a JST connector crimp and then solder the power wire to that. Cost: KANTHAL wire seems to be very popular for foam cutting and Vaping coils and is very cheap £6.95/50m I think this is the way to go. Blackwaterskies (thanks for the link) suggest 0.3w/cm for a telescope but to lower this for camera lenses. So I my plan it to design for a max on 0.3w/cm and use the COOWOO controllers. Fun ahead! Cheers Andy

Clarkey: Good plan. I'll look for these. Stuart: Many thanks but a bit big I think compared to the lens Cheers Andy Edit: I had a look for DIY heaters, looks like some Nichrome wire will be coming my way