scotty38

Lovely!

I guess it would work but I bought my Advance to keep clutter down not add to it but I really do get the price comment 🙂 🙂 🙂 Once I had it though I realised I could have done with the ability to turn off USB ports as my QHY gets warm as soon as the USB is connected. If I'd known beforehand I may have splurged the extra. As it happens a rework means I don't need it as I now have a remote controlled power switch anyway that turns on my Advance so pretty much does the same thing 🙂

Very nice.... Re the balance question, can't you turn the OTA so the focuser is toward the top and it doesn't hit the saddle plate when slid forwards?

Oh, I have brackets on mine, not the same as the ones above single bolt, but for the same purpose.

Regarding the "coloured" background whether blue, green etc try running PCC and then try a linked STF, should be fine then.....

Assume they're the roller brackets like the older style

You could do it both ways. I guess the most obvious thing might be a short exposure for stars and a longer exposure for the nebulosity, stack them separately and then combine however needed in processing. Having said that there are a number of ways to skin this cat..... As for flats it depends, if your optical train, or more importantly i guess the dust etc, has changed/moved NOTICEABLY then you would need new flats. I can rotate my camera and filterwheel but don't need new flats. The dust, in my case, would seem to be on something that's not moving, I'm assuming my flattener so doesn't cause me any issues.

If you want the simplest option then a velcro pad(s) and stick it on the side.

I've just installed a Pulsar dome too. I'd highly recommend a pc in the dome running NINA and a PC in your warm room running whichever remote client you fancy. I use windows RDP and have never had an issue. I also installed ethernet too so the dome sits on my network too so no issues with tyhe remote connectivity. There is a wireless AP in there for the camera though.

I think he's used Astrometry mainly, not sure he's had ASTAP do anything. The reason he'll be asked to use ASTAP is that it's way faster given the local database install, it may even fix the solving discrepancies too which is why I want to try it.

I think this is telling, do you see no astap errors at all, do you have astap set up ok, databases installed etc? To be honest the preference from the devs will be to use astap I fear anyway....

Nice and mosaics is something I'm determined to get my head round in PI too

I might have missed it but if not can you try using ASTAP for plate solving and see what happens?

Just trying to understand what's happening here. Are you saying what you see in framing and plate solving are different? If so then that's not unusual. When in framing if you click on "determine rotation from camera" then you'll get a true view. If I've misunderstood then just ignore me.......

I never had any issues until, as I said above, I moved my mini pc off my scope and connected up with a 5m USB3. It may all be coincidental but .....

That's way too long I believe, way too long

Ah I see, in that case I'd say probably not then. Made me think though as our current one will power straight up as soon as power is applied but was thinking about buying a new one for the obs but after you saying this it's clear I need to be careful I don't run into the same issue.

There are plenty of 24hour timers with three pin sockets if that's all you need

What initially stood out for me is that he criticised APP for its poor workflow yet if he knew APP at all he'd know that's not correct ergo how can he compare them if he doesn't know the basics. Obviously I could not do any better but if you put your head above the parapet.....

How long is your USB 3 cable from PC to powerbox? The reason I ask is that I just moved my mini pc OFF my scope as part of my Obs build. Why you ask? Well because I added a cloudwatcher plus the dome USB made it easier to have one USB running from the PC to the scope..... Therefore I added a 3m Lindy USB 3 cable (no issues with any of my other Lindy cables) but since I've done this I've had a few issues, mainly guide related but still from pc to mount. I've stripped everything back down as I'm sorting my permanent power this week so will revisit my issues later but wondered if you're seeing something similar?

There are a million and one ways to stretch an image in PI so was just showing the simplest way to get one done

okey doke let me see if I can give you some bullet points but there are quite a few videos out there even PIs own channel if you want to have a look at some other stuff.... 1. Open up the Screen Transfer Function process 2. Select the image you want to stretch and click the "radioactive" button in STF 3. All being well it looks ok but if it's too green for example uncheck the "link" icon top left corner and hit the radiaoctive button again 4. Open up the Histogram Transformation process 5. Pick the image to work on in the HT target drop down field just to make sure we're working on the right image 6. Drag the New Instance "Green Triangle" from the Screen Transfer Function on to the bottom bar of the Histogram Transformation process 7. You should see the histogram change accordingly. 8. Now drag the Green Triangle of the HT on to the image 9. If all is well the image should go white but don't worry that's because you've stretched it PLUS it has a screen transfer applied at the same time 10. Click the little computer icon on the right hand side of the STF process to cancel the STF and the image should go back to how it was. 11. You should notice the image now does NOT have a green bar at the side of its identifier 12. It is now a non linear image and can be saved/shared as such. Hopefully I didn't miss anything and that is far easier to do than type 🙂 🙂 🙂 I posted a link here to the PI channel.....

Sounds like you know your way round PI so the easiest/quickest way imo is to apply an STF and then pass that to HT and then apply to the image as a permanent stretch.

Yes from what I've read I'd agree too. I was checking you were taking that route versus replacing the stock device. Interested how this pans out.....

Is your plan to lock the mirror and put a "proper" focuser on it then?