Rallemikken

No. It sure does complain, but it's nothing to worry about. Once you hit the upper button it starts to record. Many ways to record movies on Canon cameras for AP. Depends on if you use a computer, and which software. In KStars/Ekos I can grab film straight from the 10X / 5X liveview over USB. Makes it easy to frame up. The signal strenght is adjusted by setting the ISO manually. To get a decent movie of a bright moon, the ISO must way down. Same with bright planets. To high ISO, and you get only white.

Nice picture, and very well defined stars! How long did you expose each sub? Did you keep the f all open? Planning on piggybacking my trusted Canon cameras on my HEQ5 and try something similar. The lens I'll be using is a 40mm f/2.8

Not sure if it's mentioned above, but I use PIPP for one thing, and one thing only: To merge several .ser-files into one long. When I capture planetary in Ekos I do several 30-second takes. I have not found any stacking software that will treat a bunch of single .ser-files as one dataset. Maybe it's there, somewhere in an application deep in the options.... One of those annoying aspects of planetary, you use A for this, B for that and C for something else. I suspect it boils down to the default options in some cases. When one application, lets take Autostakkert, gets a reputation of being better in stacking than Registax then every howto on the issue tells you to use Autostakkert for this, and it cements it's position as the default choice. Youtube has become the place to bee these days. Can anyone point to a video with a complete workflow on stitching videofiles, registrering, stacking and finally wavelets inside one of the wellknown free applications?

Check out the wavelet function in Siril if you already have that installed. Used it some. I do everything in Linux, and usually it's no problem running windows programmes under Wine, but Registax is the exception. Impossible, tried it with many distros.

I didn't belive square stars existed, but obviously they do!

Clean air. Live in Norway. Season does not start until mid-september, and there's neither bugs or pollen in the air. And it's cold. And I try to balance my scope in a way that keep the camera on top, or at least with some downhill from the sensor. Let gravity help as much as possible. If I can, I avoid any glass between the secondary mirror and the sensor. Gives the sharpest images, without faults of unknown origin. But at f/4 it's hard to do without any correction, and the SW 0.9 CC does a decent job. Have had to take it out only a couple of times, with megabright stars in the frame.

Pictures not necessary. The focuser has markings. With my Canon 5D MkII and the SW 0.9 CC I get focus at 34mm. If I swap my 5D for my 600D I still have focus, only minor finetuning requiered. Without the comacorrector I have focus slightly over 40mm (42-45?), don't remember 100%. At 34mm the drawtube is well up in the focuser. I recon it will be flush at 28-30mm. Fully down it will stick out the same amount. Without any additional optics you can get focus with these Canon cameras and still have appr. 10mm inward travel left until it is flush.

Sorry for late reply. Brutally compressed, but the real thing. Single flat shot at 1/640 sec @ ISO 100. This library contains 50 flats. As you can see, even and nice. They tend to be a little darker on the side that correspond with the bottom of the camera. You can see it in this one too. I always take my flats against clear skies. With newt's, dust bunnies is never a problem, and as long as I keep the coma corrector clean I can use my library of flats for months.

Sorry for late reply. No. I image with two newt's, this StellaLyra and a SkyWatcher 200PDS. I only use Canon DSLR's, and they are very simple to focuscheck agains Vega on session startup. And I very seldom have to fiddle with the focus wheel once it's set. Both these scopes keeps focus very vell.

As pointed out by others; guide cameras is used to take REAL LONG exposures with long scopes. BUT: With this upgrade together with a good polar alignment you can take exposures up to one minute with a DSLR, maybe more without a guiding system. The focal lenght of the scope must not be to long, and you will need an adapter between the camera/phone and scope. For pure visual it isn't many advantages with tracking as long as you find what you seek in the first place. But if more than one use the scope, or you bring it around at parties and birtdays, it's VERY handy! If this kit supports select-and-point and it can be controlled by a laptop or phone, that will also be a big upgrade. Problem with most beginners is where to look!

Little trick if you use a DSLR and can't platesolve (no computer): After the test exposure (10-15 sec, high ISO) look for a brigth star that sticks out. Put the ISO on the camera at max, and put it in live view. If the star is visible (or better; a pattern of stars), use the handcontroller to move it around in the frame. Take a new tast exposure, and adjust again if nesecarry. This works on my Canon cameras. The live view will be mostly noise, but if you can pick out one or more stars, this does the trick.

I did run my HEQ5 with a printer cable from my computer to the handcontroller for a while, but it was not without fiddling. Before I got it to work, I had ordered a EQMod-cable, and thats how I run the mount today. If I remember right, it was something with choosing right driver. In Ekos you have EQMod, Synscan and Synscan Legacy to choose from. The choice of driver depends on if you run in pass-through mode (or whatever it's called). I did NOT. I simply hung the handcontroller on the wall, and plugged in the USB-cable. I started the mount with the switch on the mount, never touched the handcontroller. When I connected with Ekos, it picked it up OK. Trial and error.

Pictures looks overexposed, with star-trailing. What camera? Is that a phone trough a 10mm eyepiece? To start with, keep exposure time under 1 sec to avoid trailing, and do some tests with different settings. Do you see the rings on Jupiter when you look trough the eyepiece? If so, don't expect them to show up on a single image. The usual way to image the moon and planets is by recording short movies, and compose a final image by sorting and stacking each individual movie frame. I have a 8" dobsonian, and I see the rings on Jupiter quit clearly with a 20mm eyepiece, but when I attach my DSLR and try to image it, it always ends up as a yellow disc.

I see. Think I have one of those, I belive it came with a SW ST80, the little brother of yours. If I'm not mistaking, this tube is slighly less than the standard 2", don't ask my why. But I think the threads on the part that connects to the camera is standard, so a full-width tube should be a drop-in replacement. Maybe simpler to order the two things together. Cheap as chips. Not sure about the f-ratio on your dob, and if you are in for serious AP, but if it is 5 or lower you will benefit greatly from a coma corrector. Both Baader and SkyWatcher have such, looks just like an ordinairy DSLR-adapter, backfocus taken care of. At the moment the Baader is sold out, but I recently got a SW 0.9 CC. I can confirm, it works great, so my straight-through adapters are put aside. Something to consider. I've already spent far to much money on things I later put aside or upgraded....

http://www.agle.no/astro/ For those imaging: Homemade solution if you code. Maybe a little overkill for most. MySQL+PHP. Everything that ends in a picture is put here. They are only deleted if I succed better inn a new session with the same equipment. Anyway, I keep a handwritten logbook in my observatory. 90% for own use, but a little polish is added for friends and family. Nowadays, nobody visits oldfashion websites.... If you click on a picture in the grid, a new window appears with details on scopes, capture times etc. I also drop a line with things I may do different on this target later, that be choice of scope, camera, exposure time etc. If you click on the leftmost picture, a fullsize in moderately compressed jpg appears. Under the Admin tab (password protected) there is links for uploading and registrating new pictures and edit or add info on pictures already present. I can also take a copy of the DB and download it, or restore from a newly uploaded backup. Lastly there is a section on future targets (still in development) ordered by month, and with details and thaughts on size, gear and time on night. This page is simple, just a table with a small image on the left (300 px wide) and additional info on the right. My add a screenshot if any is interested.

Not sure if I understand. The tube (or barrel) connected to the camera should always be pulled as far down the focuser tube as possible, this is to avoid that the focuser tube sticks out in the inside of the telescope tube (avoid reflections and such). The optimal setup is when the camera is in focus, and the focuser tube is flush with the inside of the scope wall. As long as the focuser tube goes all the way in, so it touches the body of the focuser itself, nothing is gained in replacing it. If you lack inward travel, you could opt for a low-profile focuser, but that is risky as long as you don't know how much less distance you need. I'd raise the bottom mirror (maybe clean it as it is out) and add a 2" extension under my eyepiece when I use it for visual.

Trial and error. Not sure how the 102 is pieced together, but I guess the dob has a 2" focus tube, so you will need a 2" barrel with threads that interact with the Canon adapter. A stock 2" T-ring adapter, with other words. If what you have fits the dob, then take it out on a cloudy day, and start fiddling. Or the moon at night. If you cant get a clear image, you most likely lack inward travel on the focuser. If so, try anything that gets the camera closer to the telescope tube. Is there a rim on the focus tube that can be removed? Can you raise the primary mirror by changing to longer screws (not unusual, pretty common if you want to image with a reflector that is mainly constructed for visual)?

Don't look yourself blind on FWHM. Especially if your subs arn't consistent. I use Siril for stacking, and make a pause after preprocessing, and set the stacking parametres manually. Siril present a basic plot with curves for FWHM and star roundness. What it does not say anything about is how exposed, or how light each sub is. This is by far the most important thing to consider. If a haze or thin cloud drifts over the rig, this sub will likely be a little lighter than the one before and after. The histogram will shift right. But the stars will be smaller and sharper, while the details you strive for gets washed out. I use Linux, and it has a very lightweight and snappy image viewer (Geeqie) I use on the raw Canon subs BEFORE I start the stacking software. I first view them as icons in a grid, and delete those that are obviossly lighter. Then I set the imagesize to 100% and roll trough the dataset with my mousewheel, while I keep an eye on the same star and the histogram. Those not found worthy is deleted on the spot. Those left goes into Siril, and after preprosessing you can catch any you missed manually. With many subs and dithering, it's easier to avoid banding, and hot pixels if you are a little lazy. Must admit that my darks and biases is reused for an extensive amount of time..... I ditrher for each 5 subs when I expose 1-2 min, with fever but longer subs you must dither for more often to get the same effect and the variation will be less.

As an afterthaught, 300 seconds is 5 minutes. The only time I expose so long is when I shoot with my longest scope (1000mm) and a barlow. In my experience, the advantage of added data (or SNR if you will) must be weighted against swollen (or bloated) stars. Keep an eye on FMWH (or whatever it's called), if it gets above 5 you have reached a critical point. Good guiding helps, but a crop-sensor DSLR don't tolerate much. I also image with a Canon 5D MkII, fullframe, and its a HUGE difference. See if you can get your hands on one, but then, the handicap you have regarding short focal lenght get's even worse....

No, you need more focal lenght. With a DSLR this is as good as it gets. Very nice image btw. Looking forward to image this myself. If I get 120 good subs, it seldom pays off to use more time on a target. My simple (and humble) thumb of rule. The rain is drumming on my tin roof as I speak. I'll do an attempt with my SW 200 PDS when it dries up, afraid even that will be to short.

Make a drawstring-bag in some dark cloth, and put a medium-size dew heater band inside. Make a circle of the band, and orient it like the scope inside the bag. Tie it over the bottom of the scope. This will heat the mirror and tube from beneath. It will also stop light leaks both ways. Have imaged in -15 celsius without rime, dew or frost. The secondary is trickier. Most often the gentle heat keeps it clean, but to be safe you can install the specially made heater element from 4Tronix. Works like a charm. Be aware, this does NOT fit on secondarys on StellaLyra, they have a different design on the holder. Lastly, you can flock the tube. This was a bonus I discovered after flocking my first, the problems with due and moist almost vanished.

I have this combo. It's exactly 246mm from the front of the scope to the rear of the camera. Don't think you can alter the distance from the front to the lens, so if you can get this total lenght with bits and pieces you have laying around, your good to go! And, of course, any optics in the rear must out. Only tube, front lens and camera.

I run Kstars on a linux desktop in my observatory, very pleased dispite some niggles. Been many discussions on this topic. As a linux user this would be my approach if I had the rig out on the lawn within reach of a couple of extension cables: Get a Pi3 B+ and install Linux Mint 20 or Debian Bookworm, and set it up as a headless INDI server (and nothing more) with an ethernet cable from the Pi trough the window to you laptop/desktop. Run the Kstars/Ekos suite on the laptop, and watch the subs roll indoors onto the laptop as the session progresses. Why? * Both Mint 20 and Debian Bookworm has the complete INDI drivers in their repos. Mint uses Jasem's PPA, and Debian has it all in it's own. For older Debian, you can add Astroberry's repo. * You can run the rig with different laptops, as long as you have the same settings and index-files (for platesolving) installed. The Pi can fail (although I have never heard of such) but it can be replaced and booted with the SD-card from the first (or from a duplicate - once installed, the SD-card is mostly static). * With an ethernetcable the subs come in fast, and they are safe and can be inspected from the comfort of your living room. With real fast wireless you can achieve the same, but I think you need a Pi4. And my router will be the bottleneck for me. Kstars is much more than rig control. While capturing I spend time setting up new schedules and sequences, picking up new targets, and reviewing the subs as they roll in. Sometimes I abort, do a few adjustments, and restart the capture. Much of this is done inside Kstars itself. Done in this way, you can do all these things without risking to disturb your ongoing session.

As the topic says, this is a single sub under bortle 4 skies at 60 seconds at ISO 800. Conditions average, some haze, but this post is meant to show how this CC works with this scope and a fullframe. I ordered my SL 150mm from FLO with the Baader CC, but due to delivery problems had to settle with the slightly cheaper 0.9 reducer/coma corrector from SkyWatcher. As Astrobiscuit says, the proof is in the pudding: I'm not disappointed. Slightly distorted stars at the far out corners, but this sub is shoot with a Canon 5D MkII fullframe. And to be clear: Don't stack subs with this combo without good flats. And with "good flats" I mean flats shoot against a blue sky, but with the rig safely placed within the shadows. A good estimate of what this combo can do. Scope is right out of the box, no mods except a black stringbag around the bottom to keep my dew heater.