Chimer4

That's great, thank you for that!

Ah right, I see where I've gone wrong now I think. I think I fat fingered m66 and ended up entering m96 which put me in that region, and I didn't get a perfect alignment. Thanks for helping me figure out out

Hi guys, I went out last night with the goal of trying to capture the Leo triplet. I don't have a go-to mount and the setting circles on my EQ3 are about as useful as a chocolate teapot, in my experience. I ended up star hopping when I found Leo and pointed my scope in what I thought was the right area and when I saw 3 bright spots on my screen I thought I was in the right area so I started imaging. I've just done a preliminary stacking and quick stretch to see the data a bit clearer, and I don't think I've captured what I was expecting to when I look at reference images of the triplet. There are 3 larger galaxies and a few smaller smudges which I assume are smaller/more distant galaxies. For reference this was taken on my A7Rii attached to my Evostar 80ED w/ .85x flattener/corrector and Baader neodymium. Also whilst I'm here, can I ask what might be causing the gradient in the corner? The banding is from my flats, they never seem to come out flat.

Yeah I couldn't find anything either. I'll have a look into some of the other programs though. That was something that I had some across when I had been having a look at some Ha filters that I would only have ¼ of the sensitivity due to the Bayer matrix and the wavelength of Ha, and am I right in understanding that the IR cut filter in the camera reduces it further? So if I were to go that route I'd extract that colour data before stacking? I think that I can do that in the affinity photo developer, I might even be able to make a macro to do a batch all in 1 go, although I may have to export into a 16bit TIF. I think affinity now has star alignment which may help. I've looked at things like UHC filters and considered them. Namely I've been looking at the Baader UHC, Astronomik UHC and the Optolong L-Enhance which all have varying passthrough. I currently have the Baader neodymium moon and sky glow filter, as it was something i had experience with when I was shooting with my lenses. A mount upgrade is definitely on the cards and I've considered guiding, I'll have to get saving. Thanks for all your help and advice, and taking the time to reply. Is there any recommended reading so I can go away and research things a bit further?

Ah right, I understand. Thank you for the detailed explanation. I'll have a look into some programs for binning and see where it takes me, I'll see if maybe there's a way I can do it in affinity photo as that is what I have been using so far for stacking and processing. I know narrowband filters on a standard DSLR are pretty much a no go, but could I use binning with something like an Ha filter or dual/tri/quad band filter to increase the sensitivity and then combine that with the RGB image? I've heard about HaRGB composites and wondering if binning could offset the loss of photons when using narrowband? I've included a screen shot of one of my subs at 100%, looking at it that zoomed it doesn't actually look all that great. Typically though I don't push that mount much past 60" exposures, 120" was pushing it a bit too far. Also I did polar alignment before attaching my scope because I was rushing because of the impending clouds so that probably didn't help things. The second image is a more typical 60" exposure. These are all aligned by eye and tracked using the single Skywatcher RA motor Hopefully with your insight I may be able to get some better results next time I'm imaging.

Thank you so much for the really detailed reply, you've definitely been a great help. Yeah I've definitely noticed the lack of coverage on full frame, although since getting an m48 adapter it's not actually too bad with the flattener, I get a little vignetting I'm the corners which the flats and a bit of cropping fixes. I'm thinking more general, rather than wide field in terms of what I'm looking at imaging. The 80ED is a bit of a compromise on price, and the space I have available to store it. I'm a bit tired so I'm having a bit of trouble understanding about binning, sorry. Am I understanding it right that if I bin the pixels I'm trading resolution (say 2" to 3") for better light gathering? I didn't know that I could do binning with something like my A7Rii, I'm guessing I would need a program for that? I've had a look and it looks as though it's got a 4.5µm pixel size, how would I calculate the effective working range for that? Yeah the EQ3 isn't a fantastic, but it's done me OK so far, I've managed to get 2' exposures with no real noticeable drift and captured a few frames of the crab the other night before clouds came over. It was a bit sticky and stiff, bit since taking it apart and tuning it it feels much better and I'm hoping to try it out tomorrow and Thursday, fingers crossed. A better mount is definitely on the cards at some point though. I think I'll take your advice and keeping going with my Sony for now and have a look into binning. Thank you again for your detailed reply Will

Hi guys I'm after some advice on what I should be looking for when I decided to get something a bit more dedicated to astrophotography please. I currently shoot with an A7Rii which seems to have given me some decent results so far, not amazing, but pleasing to my eyes. Typically I'll be taking pictures of DSOs, I have plans for things like the whirlpool galaxy, the crab nebula, rosette nebula, etc. I'm using the Skywatcher Evostar 80ED on the EQ3 mount with a flattener/reducer. How important is pixel count or sensor size? Currently I'm shooting at 42mp full frame which lets me crop in a fair bit, but the pixels aren't the biggest. I've seen on eBay a used QHY8L which is 9mp (I think) and APS-C so much bigger pixels but much lower resolution. I understand that I'd gain better Ha sensitivity and sensitivity in general with it being actively cooled. Would this be a decent next step? Thank you for any answers Will

Thank you for the welcome and kind words 😀

Hello everyone! I've recently got myself into some astrophotography after hesitating for many years and trying bits an pieces with the cameras and lenses I had at the time. I'm more interested in DSOs as opposed to wide angle views, but I enjoy both. I've made the dive and bought a scope, flattener, mount and I've been using my A7Rii for capturing pictures, and I've been loving the challenges that have come with starting out with this. Not so much the associated clouds though. I've attached a couple of pictures that show my first attempt at Orion from about 7 years ago, and my most recent picture I wish everyone clear skies Will

Just a follow up to this, in case anyone comes across this. After taking apart the housing block on the RA axis, it seemed as though the worm gear was tightened too much onto the ring gear causing stiction and slight binding. The grease wasn't too bad, but I spread it around a little better (there were 2 huge globs at the ends of the worm gear rod, not actually in the teeth) and spread a little of it into the bearing in the housing block for the rod. I might re-grease it at some point with some better stuff, but it seems ok for now. When I reassembled I tightened the 2 long bolts down nice and tight and played around with the 2 shorter bolts and set screw until I got a nice smooth action an without any noticeable backlash (not that it matters a great deal for me, I'm not doing auto guiding) I can now smoothly spin the fine control knob and it feels greatly improved. I also filed down the screw holding the motor sleeve onto the worm rod to make sure it got a nice positive grab to reduce any play there. I'll update this post once we have a clear night and I'm able to see if this has made any real difference to the issues I was having, but by the feel of things compared to how they were, I have a good feeling that they will Will

Hi! I've got staked down into the grass and I've been sitting down about 4m away from the mount whilst it's been running. I went up to it every now and then to check it was still running (Sony F batteries) but not enough to ruin as many frames as I had. All clutches and screws are tightened down as much as they can be. I hope it isn't damaged gear teeth, I haven't even had the mount a month yet. I've heard things about the grease they use not being great, could that contribute to it?

Hi guys, first time posting here so I hope that I am presenting a valid question. I've tried looking online before posting but I can't find anything that matches my problem exactly do apologies if it has been answered I'm currently using the EQ3-2 mount with the single axis RA motor for tracking. I can get pretty accurate with polar alignment as I can get frames with perfectly sharp and pinpoint stars on at least 1 minute exposures, however some come out terribly. In some the stars look like little dumbbells (2 dots with a thin line connecting them) or tadpoles. I know that I didn't touch the mount to cause this and my camera is running remotely with an intervalometer. It ruined my session the other night giving me only 5 viable frames out of 30. Does anyone know what might be causing this and if so how to fix or minimize it? My guess is that something is slipping or sticking in either the motor or the mount. Thanks for any replies Will