jacko61

That looks a much better set up. Think it'll be on my xmas list. Graeme

Thanks Andy. That's perfect. Graeme

A word of warning on the £20 a4 led tablets on amazon. I've been using mine about a year and I'm finding the usb socket is getting very loose and sometimes needs the plug bending in one direction or another to get the power to the tablet which can be very frustrating at 3am when I'm wanting to close the roof and get to bed. I'm thinking of getting it working then putting a decent blob of hot glue around it to hold it in the right place. Graeme

Can you post the instructions FLO sent you Andy? I have a dec backlash issue with my EQ8R pro (although nowhere near as severe as yours) so it would be good to know how to adjust it. Graeme

Doesn't look anything like the Plaeides to me. In fact I'd say it looks more like the Hyades in the head of taurus. Graeme

M31 from Thursday night. PHD2 guiding was all over the place as Andromeda was pretty close to the zenith so I'm pretty chuffed with the results. 60 x 120 second subs plus darks, flats and dark flats. ZS73 plus reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC pr and EQ8R pro. APT, DSS, Startools, Starnet++ and GIMP. Graeme

Captured on Friday night in perfectly clear skies (despite clearoutside telling me it was 100% covered). WO ZS73 with 0.8 reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC pro, Skywatcher EQ8r pro. 40 x 4 minute lights with Darks, Flats and Dark flats. Processed in DSS and Startools with star reduction using STARNET++ and GIMP. ( I find color calibration a bit tricky as my laptop shows a different red to my TV or my wife's phone) Graeme

Fantastic images Nigella. What scope did you use? (I'm assuming something specialised). Graeme

A fair bit of high thin cloud to start the event which became thicker as the morning went on until around 11am the sun was no longer visible. I only managed a dozen or so 1 minute videos between clouds using my ZS73 with a reducer and ASI224MC. This is probably the best until I can spend a good few hours faffing. 50% of the best 1000 frames, captured in Sharpcap, stacked in Autostakkert and given a final tweak in GIMP. Graeme

I've found I have to have something running in the background e.g. Stellarium and APT otherwise the polemaster application freezes. Graeme Edit: Another handy hint - I've tied the USB2 cable to the lifting handle with an elastic band. I found one night, because the cable goes into the top of the pier the action of the mount rotating on it's R.A. axis had pulled the cable to tight and the USB plug had pulled loose. I can't understand why Skywatcher didn't put all the mount connections into the base.

Hi Nigella. Just catching up so sorry for the delayed response. I have mine the same as your top photo and it seems to work fine. Graeme

Wish I could have been there; I'm very interested in the EQ8 upgrade kit. Perhaps Tony Owens could produce a youtube vid to show how it's installed and what benefits are to be gained. Graeme

Passed up the chance to look at Jupiter's opposition so I could point my rig at M33. Perfect clear skies all night despite the Astronomy tools cloud forecast saying it would be at least 30% covered. I managed about 2 1/2 hours at 4 minute exposure; Altair 150EDF with 0.8x reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC pro on a skywatcher EQ8R pro. 35 x 240 second lights with calibration captured in APT, stacked in DSS and processed in Startools with some final tweaking in GIMP. I'm not sure how the colours will look - on my laptop they're superb but if I connect to my telly it starts to get a bit purpley. Graeme (got a 40 second video of Jupiter at 02:30 just before I shut down for the night - wrong camera and no Barlow but I did get the GRS. I'll have a proper go next clear night. The picture is 1000 frames out of 2000, Sharpcap, Autostakkert and Registax/GIMP)

I have both the 533 and 2600 and have had great results with both on my ZS73. I stopped using my C8 when I bought the Altair 150edf but I've had some very good results on that scope too. I don't use the 533 as much nowadays - I find the square format a bit limiting when I want to frame up some of the bigger nebulae or even andromeda. One thing I will say - using the 2600 with the ZS73 and the reducer (not flattener) I've had to move the sensor a bit further away than the recommended 56.8mm to avoid eggy stars at the corners (the non-reducing flattener has been fine). Graeme

I'm happily using Stellarium, PHD2 and DSS. I also use APT but it's up to version 4 now. You will find that there is now loads more functionality in APT than you could possibly have dreamed of 8 years ago and it's still free (although I have promised to pay the 19 euros for a bona fide copy at some point). Graeme Edit. EQMOD is the software that controls your mount. You will need to have the ASCOM platform downloaded too. This post from 2020 gives a very good explanation on how to set your mount up to talk to stellarium. Might refresh your memory...

I've not imaged Jupiter much but one thing I have been told is that because Jupityer moves a quarter of a degree every minute, longer than one minute videos will start to show rotational artifacts and will lose contrast as a result. Graeme

It's possible to get 2 piece rotating tube rings that lock and unlock to allow you to rotate the tube to a more convenient position. Another fix I've seen would be to buy 2 extra tube rings to fasten above and below the mount rings so that when you loosen those rings to rotate the tube it doesn't slip up or down. Graeme

A couple of images taken this week on the 2 clear nights we had up here. Wednesday night was a close up of the Elephant's trunk taken on a ZWO ASI2600MC pro, Altair 150 EDF. 30 x 5 minute exposures plus calibration. Processed in Startools with a bit of star reduction in starnet++ and Gimp. Second image is of the Pelican Nebula from Thursday night, taken with the same camera but with a William Optics ZS73. Only managed 20 x 3 minute subs before the clouds rolled over. Similar processing. Graeme

Except it's the JWST so not ironic at all Graeme

Here's something to consider - I bought the 533 a year ago after doing loads of research. It didn't take long to decide the square sensor was more of a limitation than I'd though but I put up with it, cutting off important bits of my images e.g. the fish head nebula. I've since bought a 2600 and I'm much happier with the field of view. Graeme

This boils down to how you do your planetary imaging. I guess the most common method is to take a video and stack the individual frames. I've just ordered an ASI224MC for planetary imaging, the reason being my ASI2600MC puts out file sizes in excess of 50Mb per sub (or each frame in the case of lucky imaging). The new camera will also manage 150 fps compared to 3.5 on the 2600. (or around 17 with your 294. Graeme

Imaged last Thursday night. with my Altair 150 EDF, ASI2600MC pro and Skywatcher EQ8R pro. 36 x 5 minute subs with l-Enhance filter. Darks, flats and dark flats. Graeme

It's a shame they don't include a USB hub in these cameras like in the Pro models. I'd still like to be able to control my focuser from my warm room Graeme

Imaged on Tuesday night - I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fit the whole lot into the frame but it worked out just about perfectly. Captured on a ZWO ASI2600MC pro with L-enhance filter. William optics ZS73 reduced to 0.8x on a skywatcher EQ8R-pro mount. APT, PHD2, DSS, STartools, STARNET, Gimp. 40 x 180 second subs plus Dark, Flat and Dark Flat frames. Works out at around 90 exposures at 50Mb each!!. Just as well I've started moving my captures off to a hard drive after each session - this would very quickly fill my computer, especially later in the season when I'm hoping to capture 4 or 5 hours each night. I've recently started playing with STARNET to remove all the stars then try to merge them back in with GIMP - still near the bottom of the learning curve but I've posted the clear version and my merged attempt. Graeme

I have a Sky at Night subscription but it expires next month and I think I'm going to let it lapse in favour of an Astronomy Now subscription. Because it's a BBC magazine I think the S&N content is aimed at a wider audience so sometimes the articles feel 'dumbed down' slightly. There usually seems to be more depth to the AN content. Purely a personal opinion of course. Graeme