Pitch Black Skies

Another really useful reply. I was considering upgrading my 130pds to maybe a 200pds but now realise that the difficulties you mentioned might even be more noticeable at the longer focal length and added weight. I have noticed that the RA corrections are much greater than the DEC ones. I might have to adjust aggressiveness. I use an ASIair and not sure if there is PEC training capability with it. I might invest in a longer dovetail to reduce flexure down the line. I ensured not to use the finderscope shoe for the guidescope, it didn't seem sturdy enough. Instead I attached a second dovetail on top of the rings and bolts the guidescope to that. It makes sense to use the OAG. I don't really understand them, they seem a bit more complicated.

Thank you, lots of useful info there. You did a great job of simplifying it for me. Sometimes my RMS is above 1.2". Does that mean my image is potentially blurring, provided the seeing is below 1.2"?

Cheers Adam, do you mean the TS or going to f4 in general?

Nice, have you still got the pictures?

Nice, I was looking at the 8" Quattro too but probably too much to ask for the HEQ5. Knew I should've got the EQ6R 😂

I never had an F4 so not sure how much hassle it would be, but I'll take your word for it. I can only imagine what something like f2.8 is like then.

Cool, thanks Nik. I'm using a 533MC with Aplanatic CC. 64% faster, so does that mean less than half the total integration time? Edit - 25/16 = 1.56 times faster. Is that correct? So a 300s sub with F5 would be 200s with F4. Do you recommend sticking with the F5 then?

Okay so that's yourself and Alacant warning against it. Will probably give it a miss so. There's a true saying, you get what you pay for. Maybe a Quattro 8s? I have the HEQ5, not sure if it could handle it? I have the Aplanatic CC. The 150 and 200 will only bring me a bit closer to the target though won't they. What I'm really after is shorter imaging times.

I'm considering upgrading my F5 130PDS to a 6" TS F4. I know F4 will reduce the exposure time, but by how much? How is it calculated? Also, does it reduce my total integration time too, or do I still need the same integration time but now I have more subs to stack so better SNR?

Hi guys, What RMS should I be hoping to achieve and what is unacceptable? How are my guiding requirements calculated? I'm probably not explaining this right. I am referring to part 3:15-3:50 in this video. I don't understand how that's calculated. Any help is greatly appreciated. I use 533MC, 130PDS & HEQ5.

Are you familiar with this Laurence? The AAP powers it too, really handy.

Hi, hope you are keeping well. Is there any chance you inputted the date incorrectly at the initial setup? The format is mm/dd/yyyy. That caught me a couple of times. If that's not the problem it might be best to bring it to the astronomy shop again. They will know the mount like the back of their hand.

But wouldn't your read noise be much higher at 0 Gain? I would have thought unity gain is always best and then adjust exposure length until you are near the first third of the histogram. I'm a beginner so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Hopefully some of the more experienced members will chime in. #@vlaiv

Here's another; Yup, looks like a giant spider alright. So these are actually real pictures of the night sky then? It looks really animated.

Touched up my M101 and M51. The colour balance was a bit off on the recent uploads. Galaxy season, here we come 🙂

Another clear night last night. NGC4565 (Needle Galaxy) 4hr 45min

I stumbled across this on Stellarium. Anybody know what it is?

Another in the bag from the 130P-DS M101 Pinwheel Galaxy Clear skies to all ✨

A few from last night.. IC443 M51 IC3998 Clear Skies 🙏

I think they should be called 'Darks4Flats', zero confusion 😆.

Why not? 🤔 How can a dark be described as 'flat'?

M81 and M82 4 hr 21 min integration 20 flats, 20 darks, 20 dark flats

M42 I hr 6 min integration 20 flats, 20 darks, 20 dark flats

Hi Shell, welcome to SGL 👋

Cool post 😊 Welcome to SGL 👋