powerlord

no, the idea is you let it autofocus as normal, but at the end, you pop in the mask and you will be able to verify if the routine worked properly or if it's out of focus and you need to try it again. later when manual focus is added you can keep it on while manually focusing. it won't autofocus with the mask on - it'll just confuse it. stu

thanks, yeh that dimple is just an artifact of 3d printing where the cylinder lines start each time - pretty normal. stu

maybe worth using a Bahtinov ? bit of card and a knife is all you need to make one right for the lens: https://skeye.rocks/tools/mask/ usually printing and cutting one out is an option, but with a 135 it'd be pretty fiddly I reckon. Prob needs 3d printing. do you have access to a 3d printer ? You did well to get a takumur135 for 15 quid. I got one a few years ago which had sticky blades cheap.. took it apart to clean the blades, and it's never properly worked since - nearly went mad putting it back together..but still not right. stu

lots of fits do - thumbnails, etc. it's part of the format. you shouldn't need to unbundle them to stack them. fits is a very broad 'standard' though. does siril open them natively ? if it doesn't sirilic is the easiest automatic conversion and stacking app (google it). If it does, just watch a youtube video on stacking and do one with no flats/darks/etc to start - no need for scripts - can be done straight in siril.

fancy uploading a zip of fits for us to play with here ? It does sound like they are just regular fits files if they work in Siril, etc. Never used sharpcap. Siril isn't very user friendly for sure. When did you order if you don't mind me asking ? I ordered the 2nd day it was announced and mine is still 'processing' 😞

First test print. Dimensions of threads need tweaking. Tricky to find accurate sizing for the inner and outer diameters of an m48 0.75 thread.

nowt wrong with that - very nice. I've never had any issues with the L-series dual band with the the SY135. Looks like ZWO duo does a good job too. One tip, try to keep your darkest blacks at around 30/30/30 RGB. Maybe 15/15/15 lowest. There should be a clear gap on the left side of the histogram. Chances are there's some Ha you've clipped out there in the dark bits. Other than that though, very nice and sharp. Nice contrast and colours.

Here's the first draft of the 2 parts - bahtinov, and 2" filter adapter

this is getting a lot of attention, considering, if I've followed it correctly, LDW1 is complaining that on the first goto after a ONE star alignment, it's off. I mean yeh.. of course it is. I don't think I ever did one star alignments, but if I did i wouldn't expect it to be accurate until a number of gotos and corrections. You are far far better doing a 3 star alignment, and making sure the stars you use are in the area of the sky you want to then be 'going to'. It's not magic - it needs to create a model of where it is - 3 points is about the minimum that's gotta be. Even then it will be accurate for that area of the sky - if you do a goto to the other side it will need correcting and syncing again. that is the nature if any goto system. It's the same with my EQ6-Rs - only there, in combination with asiair and plate solving they do it automatically. IF the op confirms that he has done a 3 star alignment in the are of the sky he is going to observe/image. And then a goto is massively out, THEN it's worth trying to debug what's going wrong. 1. align it with true north (think: you are aligning it with the earth for EQ. For AZ mode it doesn't really matter just close is enough - magnetic, true.. doesn't matter) 2. you do a 3 star alignment, adjusting and syncing so each is centred for the 3. 3. you do a goto in the same area of the sky (ideally within the triangle of the stars, which should all be in the same E or W sky. 4. this goto should be 'close' - again, you adjust and sync. it will now track it well.

sls is pretty accurate. I work with 0.1 tight/solid fit, 0.3 loose fit. So 0.2 is just right. And that's over the diameter. 0.5mm per side (i.e. 1mm for diameter) would be no use to man nor beast. There's really no point in doing test prints for FDM when you are going to print SLS. And there's little point in doing SLS test print orders, because minimum order sizes means it costs the same to print 30 as it does to print 1. stu p.s. been doing 3d printing for 12 years now, so I know what I'm doing 🙂

Just be aware that's a 3s pack. So 4.2 x 3 = 12.6 full, 3.3 x 3 = 9.9v empty. Your azgti should be OK with that - specs say 7.5v to 14v. But if u have other 12v stuff like an old eaf, or a zwo camera, etc it's unlikely it'll be happy with much less than 12v. For those you'd be better with a pack with a built in buck booster that always outputs 12v. Or add one to the output of the pack. This sort of thing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204453322384?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Br9H2YwyR02&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=k_pahIebQ6a&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Just an example, size u need depends on max amps u need. Stu

Thanks , that makes sense and is consistent with a mildly tight push fit. Time to get designing ! %

good man, thanks for that - can you also give me the measurement of the diameter of the actual hole please ? As if the solar filter is 50mm then the hole must be bigger. stu

48mm filters are .75mm thread pitch, same as 48mm tubes, etc. It'll be interesting to see how things like the L-extreme/ultimate work out vs the far wider band internal ones. I know limited exp lengths, etc - but it will still be a nice experiment. And IR pass could be good with moon. Whether a telephoto or wide angle could be designed on there depends on the optics I suppose - and they will only be push fit, so hanging some massive lens off the front ain't gonna work. Another interesting one might be an Hb filter for sun ? I'd champin' at the bit to design them to be honest, but will just have to wait. I ordered on day 2 (14th April), so according to latest pop up on zwo site mine will be shipped in next 2 weeks. So that's something at least. I would love to see it hacked, but afaik the only person to have ever hacked any zwo stuff... is me (EAF), but it would be awesome with EQ and longer exposure times. 🙂 stu

i know what I want and need thanks (other than dimensions), but by all means wait, it's a free country.

haha. doubt it! I've been on there before looking for a 15 quid lens adapter and ended up buying 2000 quid worth of telescope!

So rough costs - If I do a run of 30 of them, I can do em for 4 quid each + postage. So say another 4 for the adapter, and just sell as a set - bahtinov and 48mm adapter for a tenner posted. the only issue is that I really need accurate size for the diameter for the aperture on the S50 to design them, as I don't have mine yet. It has to be accurate to the .1mm (i.e. with digital calipers). IF someone can give me that, AND ideally the depth of the hole before the lens, then I can design the parts and get them printed professionally in the next few weeks. If not, it will need to wait till I actually get my S50. SLS printing in nylon will have the following benefits: 1. tougher part (nylon vs pla or abs of extrusion printing) 2. much higher accurancy of part (super sharp lines, etc) 3. almost professional injection molded finish (will be more matte, but in this application that's a positive) 4. very fine parts like the 48mm thread will be much more accurate than extrusion printing I doubt I'd have difficulty shifting them all, and I'd just look to recover costs - that is my outlay for the printing, jiffy bags and posting.

sorry, I usually do. forgot. added now

I think I'll design one and get a batch sls printed to sell at cost on here like I did for eos clip in 1 1/4in filters. Give me a few weeks. They'll be much higher quality. I'll do a 2" filter adapter too. Watch this space. Stu

I'd read that no flat leads are actually usb3 certified. However I love the flat leads, they are really handy

So, a bit of an experiment this one - I think it will be anathema to some, but it seems to me we get stuck in a 2 palette world - HSO and HSO, when there is a wealth of options out there for NB. And with dual band filters, we seem bound to trying to recreate them with 'fake Sii' layers, etc when we could be celebrating the incredible definition and detail we can get from there new narrow dual band filters and colour cameras. In particular - having Ha as red loses a lot of fine detail since our eyes are not as sensitive to it, and it's quite dim compared to a white luminosity range. Especially once stars are added. So here I present my experiment in a new palette - I call it Silver and Gold. Ha is shown in white (or mono if you like) until the top 25% or so of luminosity, then blue to blended in. For Oiii, it's the same white/mono with the top 25%-50% in yellows and oranges. 8 1/2 hours of 10 min subs. Shot with Stellamira 90ED and 0.8x reducer, asi2600 and L-ultimate filter. It's making Dual NB "its own thing" really, rather than it trying to ape SHO. In-keeping with the silver & gold look, stars are shown only in 'mono', and reduced in luminosity considerably so that the intricate structures in the nebulosity can be seen. I'm moving towards hardly any stars here, but present 2 options. I imagine this ain't going to be appreciated by everyone.. well maybe of anyone! - But I think it's a nice solution which allows the incredible fine details of very dim nebulosity to be front and centre, separates main/bright nebulosity by colour, and 'solves' the issue of what to do with stars without having to shoot RGB ones. I'll be trying this on a number of other targets to see how it turns out. I hope others might give it a go ? stu With only the very brightest stars shown, the swirling detail of the nebulosity even in the dim sections draws your attention: As more stars are added, the fine dim detail is hidden. Here is about as much stars as I'd want to put in, though if I was printing this, I think I'd go with the first one.

I've been intrigued by this thing as it's shown in DSS data when you look at it - say in Stellarium (bottom in blue): is it real or an artifact ? why is it a bubble in the middle of nothing ? And @ollypenrice's recent post about sort of random or seldom imaged bit got me thinking about it again - so I thought I'd give it a go. I don't know why it's a bubble in nothing in DSS data, but what it is, is LDN1165. Apparently, Hubble imaged it: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-images-dark-nebula-cloaking-stars-within-dusty-depths Interestingly is you zoom into mine, you can see the same orange star forming region. I shot this thursday night - 8 hours of 10 min subs with my 200pds and asi2600.

Posted in compo thread, but anyhoo - azgti still delivers the goods: canon 6d, 70-200 L usm f2.8. Uhs filter only.

This is my first attempt with an old Canon L USM 70-200mm F2.8 I picked up off ebay cheap. It was knocked about a bit - but they were built for that. And with no moon last night, I figured I'd give it a go, while the two mounts in the Obsy were doing other targets. So I set up my az-gti and mounted my trusty old astro modified Canon 6d and lens on there, with an optolong clip in UHS filter. I shot wide open at 70mm F2.8 so 30 seconds at ISO 3200 was as long as I could get, but that was ideal as I wasn't guiding and didn't know how well the azgti would do without it (though I did spend time PAing down to <1"). I havn't used that optolong for a while and thought I needed to lock the mirror, so did. But subs were taking 3-4x as long to take with the asiair than 30 seconds, and it was dark and I'd been out for ages already by this time, so I left it. In the end that meant instead of shooting 900 subs, I only got about 260. I tested with the mirror not locked in the morning and found that worked as it should - 30 sec pics continuously - so I know for next time! Integrated up in APP, processed in Siril and Affinity Photo with noiseX and noiseX. It's the widest single shot I've ever got to turn out decent, and this lens is definitely a keeper! Minimum editing really - the only thing I did do is dim the stars a bit around the main nebula (veil, etc) - otherwise in a wide view like this they do tend to just overwhelm all the detail - there must be more discrete stars in this pic than in any other I've taken too.

Forecast for clear and good seeing all night, so both mounts in the obsy imagining (200pds, 90ed), and an azgti, 6d and 70-200 l F2.8 in the garden !