powerlord

Yeh last year around now I didn't have the kit, but even if I did I thought it being so low, and such limited view it was a waste of time. Even last night I was in two minds whether it was worth the hassle. Forecast clear for Friday night, so left things set up and can maybe double my integration time to 4 subs! 😂

thanks, I'll be honest, with a nearly full moon and being so low in the sky (21 degrees or so I think it was) I didn't have high hopes. I shot the first few frames and got nothing at all, and was going to give up when I realised I'd stuck NGC6605 instead of NGC6611. I thought I might get an hour in what with sunrise being at 5am, but not a chance. It's just not in a great position to image from my garden. Hopefully I'll get away to a dark site soon and have another chance at it. As you can see- my garden is pretty useless for it.

Man, I've been wanting to image this since I started. Wasn't in a position to last year - managed a whole TWO 10 minute subs last night with my C925 and 6.3FF and my asi533 with L-extreme. Unfortunately that's all I get from when it appears from behind a tree, till it gets too bright in the morning. Clearly there is a limit to what I'm gonna be able to do with 20 mins... but I'm still chuffed - it's the eagle Nebula! - Pillars of Creation!! 🙂

I've been meaning to try this for ages. With a 3/4 moon in the sky - not an ideal time - but clear skies don't grow on trees so took what I could get. First time I've been able to use the Canon 300mm properly now that I've designed and 3d printed a cage for it and the EAF. Being an auto lens, no choice but to shoot wide open at F4. Frankly very very impressed with the sharpness - edge to edge round sharp stars. luvely jubbly. I will be using this again - ultra compact, portable and quick. As you can imagine, Oiii was terrible with the moon lighting up the whole sky - however I got something out of it - and it was mainly an experiment really for the lens.

Yeh - the originally manual was utter pants. I saw FLO were getting lots of returns (based on the number of discounted ones they advertised here as returned), so figured I could do a bit better. 🙂 The offsets are offsets of the camera lens centre from the body of the camera centre in tiny fractions of mms. the offset you set in the app is the offset of your focus tube. glad you like it. hope my manual helped. that bit (spreadsheets) and the app install are still prerry awkward, but nowt i could do about that stu

I liked mine so much, I wrote the new manual. stu

Photographic, if not astrophotography.. A nearly 100 year old colour slide photo in 3d. Made from potatoes. I kid you not. Learned about on this great channel.. So bought one off ebay for 3 quid!!

that's what I do. And of course, you can maybe search for posts from them about the bit of kit, etc. Anyway.. back to the topic at hand... My thoughts are that the optics were pinched, and are not not pinched. which is good. But that doesn't help the curvature. My finds are the same as Georges = 30%. kinda rubbish. I found same thing. about 30% on subs, but stacked it was down to 18% (?). Compared to my canon 300mm which is nearly totally flat. So, I think next thing to do is tweak that rear corrector. I assume that is the lens that was removed in later models as I thought it was a 2 sets of 2 lenses (2 at front, 2 in middle). whereas if that's true, this has one at the back too. So I'll try making small adjustments to the distance of it from the middle lens and see what effect it has. stu

I think the forum community helps. A seller knows that if he is dishonest on here, folk will hear about it. And on ebay, you get hit with bad ratings, etc. On ABS, you get banned. so what, you use another email address. I'll certainly be much much more careful in the future buying from ABS. stu

Some folk are just nastly Adam. I bought and EQ6 from someone (not here)... the had an observatory, fancy expensive kit. etc. Nothing to not trust... but on getting home I found the screws all stripped, the ALT actually bolted solid, the '5 year old EQ6' turned out to be one of the first made (version of circuit board), and I'm still struggling to get it guiding nice... seller wanted nothing to do with it. Just makes me sad. Unfortunately ABS doesn't have a rating system.

Hi chaps, I bought this lens for astro, but in the early DSLR days. When I moved to astro cameras, as I couldn't fit the EAF, it got side lined though indications were that it would be good. I finally got around to 3d printing a cage for it to fit my EAF at the weekend, and shot first light last night with my asi533. I'll process that later, but for now, I had a quick look at a frame, and was truly impressed - tiny round stars edge to edge. I put it through CCD Inspector and got the below. I bought mine 2nd hand of ebay for £350. You are getting an F4 300mm lens for that price. I remember, this is shooting wide open aperture as that's your only choice if not using with a DSLR. I know I'm not the first to recommend this lens, but point me at a 300mm FL F4 APO OTA you can get for £350 second hand !

yeh, I've just ran it through Siril PSF, which is showing me loads of stars are below 2 pixels FWHM, so I think that means - square stars ? It also means its focused well, and performing pretty well too I think ?

I'm using a canon 6d. And this is a FF DSLR I used for the test, to get the 'worst case'.. usually I'd be using with an asi533 or asi1600 so only using the middle bit of the lens. I've read of others seeing square stars when the sampling is wrong for the lens. maybe this is cause here ? I was testing through an L-extreme also - since again, that would be what I'd normally use. So that's why the bright star is oii bloated.

Hi all, I purchased George's Redcat from him to have a go at fixing it. So far, I stripped the back down, took off the rear corrector, went into the middle lense and found 6 screws, 3 lock tighted, and 3 not, so I just took the tension off those 3 so just finger tight in case pinched optics. I fitted the rear corrector (the one with springs) fully tight for now. I couldn't get front off so far, but have removed all 6 screws in case pinched optics - being careful how I move it now of course - nylon replacement screws ordered. I took some subs last night - about 10 at 12800, 1/5th second and stacked, and 3 at 3200/30 seconds and stacked. Here are the mosaics. It doesn't look too bad to me now ? one corner is off, but this seems to not be unusual with red cats ? I've posted full res fits too. what do you think ? ignore the blobs - didn't do flats so just dust bunnies. George - I hope you won't mind me posting - you wanted it to be fixed too, you just had had enough of faffing with it. redcat.test2.eq6.3200-RGB-session_1-lpc-cbg.stretched.fits redcat.test2.eq6.12800-RGB-session_1-crop-lpc-cbg.stretched.fits

Setting up for a wide field blitz!!

yer man here did some comparisons a while back - he found them all to be much of a muchness

Torque (5 star) type ones are a good start. Also a wee bit of penetrating oil. E. G. Wd40. Jamming a slightly larger imperial one is also an idea. Or metric if its other way around. I colour code imperial ones I find so that I remember not to use a nearly fitting metric one with them. And a set of 'sharp' carbon tipped screwdriver type Allen drivers are worth investing a tenner in instead of the usually rubbish mild steel L shaped ones most folk have hanging around.

+1. I have a 6d, and astro cameras (asi533, asi1600). I still use the 6d - full frame sensor, lovely no noise at 3200, great FOV with lenses. You just need first filter removed. I particularily like using it for wide view Ha mono shots like this (using L-extreme):

Hi George, just a note - I use a 2nd hand (arg you say - maybe never again?) Canon 300mm F4 L lens with my asi533 and asi1600 (and canon 6d). Just needs the ZWO adapter. Mine at least is pin sharp edge to edge even with the full frame 6d. I'm not the only one using this lens: https://astrobackyard.com/canon-300mm-f4-astrophotography/ I got a great deal on ebay from a Japan dealer - the only benefit I've found from Brexit is no import duty from japan now. If you want to gamble again.. - it came in about 3 days for about 350 quid. though there is a UK one auction finishing it a day or so at 181 quid just now: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185412590268?epid=100017066&hash=item2b2b739abc:g:OxgAAOSwQGJiciEb Its a solid all metal lens that photographers swear by. Obviously as it's electronic you are shooting wide open at F4 with the asi camera, but at least with mine, that works lovely. But you may have had enough of 2nd hand. stu

hi chaps, can someone PM me ES Reid's email please ? Stu

Well, here's my Leo group. 3 biguns, and a few very small, but hopefully visibly wee ones.

would still be great if someone could move to imaging ? @Stu ?

Yeh I think like any hobby, there are those who the hobby IS the printer (modifying, getting better, faster, more materials, etc) and those to whom it is just a tool that helps them manifest their ideas (via CAD) in solid reality. Im in the second camp. I couldn't even tell you what hot end was in either of my printers. Heres the latest wee thing - 4 spring clips that fit into myy Motorhome ceiling light. A large fly net cage board pushes over these to keep it suspended, but removable. Each have broken over the years and no luck getting replacements. It needed a springy plastic, so pla and abs no use. I used the pa6 glass fibre sample again, making a simplified design. I printed it flat, then heated where I wanted the bend, pulled it out, then quenched in water. The result is a very strong springy clip

Haha. Either would work I suppose, though it's behaving just now after a 4mile walk.

Thanks, good advice, I'll try next time. I try to setup as early as I can, which prob means I set exposure shorter than I could get away with for rgbl. I'm in bortle 6. Ill wack that L time up next time and see what I can get.