Smithynova

16 hours ago, neil phillips said:

The moon is so bright you should be getting something. in the daytime align your finder scope so you know its roughly working in tandem. Then i would suggest point the scope at the moon using the finder. if you can see it through the eyepiece put just the camera in, see if you can get it on screen. if so. try and focus it. If so carefully put the barlow in and focus

Scope = 2x barlow = camera 

Hi Neil,

Thank you very much, I'll give this a go! 🤞

Hi everyone,

I am tearing my hair out trying to find focus my Esprit 120 when using a 2x Barlow. I'd like to frame up Jupiter but can't get anything at all - even pointed at the moon. 

If anyone can explain to me where it should sit in my imaging train and if need to keep the same amount of spacers as when using the flattener for DSO?

I've got my asi183MC pro and the 2x televue Barlow clamped in the Baader clicklock on the back of the drawtube but I can't seem to find anything even using different spacers etc. If anyone has a similar set up and can show m their spacing and placement of the Barlow that would be amazing 🙏

Many thanks in advance,

Clear skies,

Tom

Hi all,

Hopefully someone may be able to help me.

I bought an Esprit 120 second hand a few months back and am having trouble attaching the 120 specific field flattener that I purchased recently. 

The scope came to me with a Baader Clicklock but not the original drawtube adapter.

The Baader adaptor that the clicklock screws into won't take the field flattener or any of the adapters that came with the flattener.

The drawtube on the Esprit won't take the flattener or the flattener adapters either.

The manual suggests I need a drawtube adapter which I don't have but these don't seem available to purchase and skywatcher have said it will take many weeks to get hold of. 

The Baader clicklock adapter has M74i to M68i written on it. Is the 'i' significant? If I purchased an M74 to M68 adapter, would this do the trick?

I've included a few photos which will hopefully help. 

Baader clicklock adapter which dots the drawtube of the scope:

Adapter that came with the flattener - too small for the drawtube:

Flattener adapter - won't attach to the Baader clicklock adapter (too small):

Thanks in advance,

Tom

Hi all, 

I've been imaging the Elephant's Trunk Nebula over the last few nights. I have stacked 9 hours of different exposure times - 180s, 300s and 600s

I included darks at each exposure time, flats and bias frames in the stack - however when I started to stretch the data in photoshop, it is horribly noisy with coloured streaks through it - I'm guessing these are hot pixels? 

Can anyone give me some advice when stacking fames of different exposure times on Deep Sky Stacker? Do I need to assign the correct dark frame to each exposure, or does DSS do this automatically (which is what I assumed)

My other images have not had these issues (some have had a few of the coloured streaks but nothing like in this stack!)

I have stretched the data very basically and I've included a crude screenshot - zoomed in on an example of the noise - but it is over most of the image. 

Other information: I'm using a ZWO ASI183MC Pro cooled to -10C with 160Gain, no binning. Scope: Redcat51, HEQ5 guided exposures with dithering using the ASIAIR Pro

Thanks in advance!

Hi guys, 

I have been imaging the Rosette nebula for the last 4 nights (clear nights coming like London Busses!) using my Redcat 51 with ZWO ASI 183mc Pro, however, I got hold of a Optalong LeNhance filter yesterday which I used for the 4th night of imaging. I live under Bortle 4 skies here in Dorset so the data from the first 3 nights is ok. I've got nearly 5 hours of 300second subs unfiltered and about 2 hours of 600second subs using the filter.

My question is - can I combine data from all 4 nights - even though 3 of them were unfiltered and if so when is the best stage to do this - when stacking or in photoshop? Or would it be better to only use the data from the filtered session?

Thanks in advance

Tom

8 hours ago, Jonny_H said:

Here you go:

First pic is of the ASIAir fixed to the standard SW finderscope shoe of my 150PDS.

The second pic shows the UNC bolt I referred to previously (the middle one with the philips head). Note that in the photo you can see I have bolted a vixen dovetail to the tube rings but that middle bolt is by standard threadside up through the rear tube ring.  

In the past (before I fitted the vixen dovetail) screwed the asiair to the thread  this using the bolt hole on the side of the asiair Which can be seen in the third pic.

 

Thanks Jonny. That's really useful! I'll have a think and see what option works best for my setup!

22 hours ago, Jonny_H said:

 

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I don't suppose you have any photos, struggling to visualise this!

Fantastic, thank you very much. That's perfect!

Hi everyone,

I'm switching from a loaned WO Zenithstar 73 to a Redcat51 which I managed to get second hand.

I have a HEQ5 Pro mount with the Redcat and ZWO mini scope mounted on top. 

The Zenithstar has bolts on the back of the scope where I can mount the ASIair but the Redcat does not. I was wondering where people mount their ASIairs if they have a similar setup?

It will need to plug into the power, 2 dew heaters, and the main imaging camera and guide camera

Thanks in advance

Clear skies,

Tom