StuartT

Thanks for keeping up with this. It’s extremely frustrating that all the weather apps I’ve tried so far are so utterly useless. I really don’t know how they can all manage to get it so wrong night after night after night. I notice quite a few people here have the Clear Outside widget in their sig, but I don’t know why. It’s no more accurate than any of them (maybe it just seems better because it makes it’s rubbishness more granular and presents it in a fancy interface).

yep. that's how it works. I would be happy to see the damn thing at all! I set the alarm for 4:30am today just in case, but it was totally cloudy. I'm going to do the same over the weekend 🤞

sure. But I wanted it in the Windows version so I can point my scope with it

Here you go. V easy https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/discussions/2020

Thanks so much vlaiv! This is really helpful. In fact, it looks like it will be in a perfect spot for my telescope viewing position (as it is clear to the east and south) in the morning at 4am to sunrise and at a good elevation (about 43°) I gather the coma is about 8' wide. My scope has a FOV radius of about 1° so I hope it will be big enough to get a decent image. All I need now is a clear night! ("all" he says! 🤣)

Is there a way of getting my mount to track comet Leonard for some astrophotography? How much would its motion relative to the stars cause problems for exposures of 10-20 sec at 800mm FL? Are data on cometary motion published somewhere?

this is the one I based my workflow on. I use the script OSC_Preprocessing_withoutDBF

Just a tip on getting this to work, make sure you click the "Get metadata from image" button. I find this works every time. It basically has to do a platesolve to identify the stars and adjust for their actual colours. So accurate metadata (particularly the focal length allowing for any cropping) is crucial.

Hey, great that you got to grips with Siril. I must say, I totally love it and can’t imagine using anything else from now on. Prob slightly simpler for me as a) my camera generates FITS files, b) I don’t shoot any calibration frames. So I just use one of the available scripts. It’s a question of pressing a button and bingo! A few mins later I have the stacked image. note: Siril generates a huge folder called “process” which you should remember to delete when it’s finished stacking. So you do need quite a bit of spare disk space for it to work in (especially in my case as I’m not guiding so I’m stacking several hundred, short exposures). I then have a standard workflow post stacking; 1. crop 2. Background extraction 3. color balance (photometric) - this really is like magic in Siril!! 4. Simple stretching 5. remove green noise (not always necessary) 6. Color saturation 7. save as TIFF

This may be helpful https://astrobackyard.com/m45-the-pleiades/

Definitely an improvement. You're starting to get some more nebulosity in there Have you tried using Siril for stacking and processing? I used to use DSS, then moved to Astro Pixel Processor. But now I use Siril and love it. It's got some nice tools and it's super fast on stacking

yes, it's a really great camera. I cool it to -15° C

Ok, a Bhatinov mask should be giving you good focus if you're really zoomed in on the live view. Get more data and post what you get . Not sure where you are, but it's looking like another crystal clear night in southern England...

Thanks. I guess the noise is mostly down to the fact that you're not using a cooled camera (but I am no expert on that!) As for your star sizes, not sure. I used Siril too and I tend to only use the autostretch (not the Asinh). I don't take any calibration frames - my image is lights only. I'm sure adding more data will improve matters - it will bring the nebula out more anyway. How were you focusing with the 600D? Could that be it?

Good work. Actually, I proved myself wrong last night! I took the filter off and shot 2.5 hours of M31 against a 96% moon. Looks fine I reckon. https://www.astrobin.com/ol8xo6/

you haven't mentioned if you have any filters. I often image DSOs on full moon nights as I generally use an Optolong L Extreme filter (which basically makes the moon and streetlights irrelevant). It's only really useful for emission nebulae tho. I guess I tend to leave any broadband targets for moonless nights.

Thanks both. I agree.

I've collected 5.3 hours on the Fish Head Nebula. I've done two slightly different processes post stacking and I can't quite decide which one is 'best' I'd be interested in what more expert eyes think.

Yes, I totally agree Malcolm. I didn't mean to imply that percentages of recommended payload were the whole story. I think I was just saying that I think I am a little undermounted and then providing the 75% figure for reference (if that makes sense). As @John says, the length of the OTA is also a factor and my OTA is long (once the flattener and camera are attached). Having said all that, I think my images are not too bad. If I come into some money, I'll get a bigger mount, but for now I am managing.

ok, so now I'm confused. Pompey Monkey said the chips are in the cables, but you seem to be saying the Prolific chip is actually inside the mount. So how will using a particular cable make any difference? (sorry to be dumb, but I don't really understand any of this kind of thing). Perhaps you should pm me about this, as I have now taken this thread way off topic! Sorry everyone

Hmm.. I haven't bought any dedicated astro cables for my rig. I didn't know I needed to. I just get USB cables from Amazon generally.

Which cables though? I have a lot! One long one from the house out to the Ultimate Powerbox, then a bunch of them out from there to my equipment. And how would I know what type of chip a given cable has? (I didn't even know cables had chips!)

Many thanks for this. I'd never seen that holding guidance before - v useful. I'm sure you're right about 10x50 showing more, but a good pair of those is a little beyond what I was planning on spending on the young fella (much as I love him), so I have ordered the Opticron 10x42

I'd say with about 75% of payload (with your new scope on the HEQ5) you should be just fine for visual. If you do decide to get into AP though, you'd definitely be undermounted. Cooled cameras, flatteners add weight too, of course. I have an Esprit 150ED on a EQ6R Pro (75% recommended payload) and I am seeing definite signs of being undermounted for AP

Hmm.. thanks for this. But it sounds like I'd need to actually open up the laptop and change some hardware to do this, right? If so, I think that's a little above my pay grade.