Iem1

Sorry, I should add, I do have the CAT handle that I can attach to one of the tube rings

Hey Guys, I have just ordered my autoguiding setup, very excited to finally get started with it. I have purchased the; - ASIair Plus - ZWO mini guide scope 30 mm f4 - ZWO ASI 120MM Mini USB 2.0 To go with my current setup; - WO Z73 (430mm) - EQ6 - R Pro - Powapacs Atom Pro 26Ah (Link to the Powapacs for full specs - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/powapacs-atom-pro-26ah.html) I have a few questions about getting all the new equipment into my current set up. 1. How should I go about attaching the guide scope to my telescope? I do not have accessories capable of attaching it at the moment, and I also have a slight issue with one of the 'Knobs' on the scope (see image) where one of the springs has collapsed on it self, preventing me from moving one of the rings (Its really stuck!) 2. Powering the ASIair Plus. My current 23Ah powerbank only has one 12v cigarette outlet which I use for the mount. How should I go about powering the ASIair too? Sorry for the basic questions, want to be sure I am ordering the right bits and bobs before going ahead

Thank you for the responses guys, and the detailed reply, vlaiv! Il try find a single sub soon and have a look! Il go for the ASI 294. Those two cameras seem to be the stand out OSC in my £1,000 price range. Mono will be a later investment I think, what with British weather and all the rest of the new equipment, I think OSC will serve me better for a good while! Hopefully be a bit of an upgrade from my old battered Canon 600D if nothing else!

Afternoon guys, just doing some research on which camera would be best for my scope. I am using a WO Z73 (430mm) with a 600D at the moment. I have decided to get an ASIair Plus, so ZWO cameras will accompany it. For my 430mm focal length, am I correct in thinking that this; https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-533mc-pro-usb-30-cooled-colour-camera.html Would be a good match? If I'm not mistaken, the combination achieves 1.8 "/pixel, with between 1 & 2 being the goal to avoid under/over sampling? I was looking at this originally; https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-294mc-pro-usb-30-cooled-colour-camera.html But this achieves 2.22 "/pixel as it has a CCD Pixel size of 4.63 um So I am currently thinking about the 533mc Pro given the above? I have a budget of about £1,000 for the camera, open to any other suggestions of cameras or other factors I should be thinking about. Thanks for the help.

That looks great! Not the easiest of data to work with for sure

Following this with interest, just started using my EQ6 R. I haven't actually used the Polar Scope yet, not calibrated etc. I have exclusively used the hand controller to do a PA after 3 - Star alignment. Had mixed results, had good 2 minute subs (with a 430mm refractor + DSLR, unguided) to not being able to get 1 minute subs trail free, no doubt down to something I am doing wrong. But perhaps it's another alternative for you? When I can get it to work, it works fantastic in all fairness.

Afternoon guys, I imaged M51 last night and managed ~x75 60 second subs, unfortunately I took a risk and tried to see just how stringent I needed to be with dithering to minimise the amount of time spent out in the cold/dark. I set a timer to manually dither every 25 minutes whilst shooting 1 minute subs, and if nothing else, I have learnt that is not enough to fend off walking noise So, after trying to save the image from both walking noise and what seems like a familiar light leak in the exact same position it always randomly appears in; Heavy Crop (trying to run away from worst of light leak); full size image Really kicking myself for dithering less! But I am going to try and add more data, see if I can dilute the first 1 hour of data with properly dithered imaging sequences to phase out all that noise. The light leak is much more manageable in comparison. I did take flats, but perhaps not well enough on this occasion. But all issues aside, what a beautiful galaxy and DS target to image! I was also amazed at all the other galaxies I picked up in the image (barely indistinguishable from stars!) Equipment used: WO Z73 430mm, Canon 600D, EQ6-R Pro, 60 second subs ISO 800 (unguided, looking at adding guiding very soon!) The untouched tif if anyone wants to have a look, fairly tough to get an image from it given all the issues! result.tif

Finally gave this a try! I used the Astrozap Baader Solar Filter over my WO Z73 and my Astro Modded 600D. 1/4000 ISO 100 if I remember correctly. This is only 4 images stacked. Whenever I go stack a larger pool of data in Registax it just ends up blurring everything. I was not expecting to see much given my Focal length, but it was actually pretty cool! Any advice/comments welcome. Edit: I used PIPP to sort and crop over 100 images, then aligned and stacked what PIPP thought was the best 4 images

Thank you for the reply ONIKKINEN. Now I think about it, I probably made pretty much the same mistake as I did on my first outing by the sounds of it. Got set up, took a 60 second exposure, saw trails, immediately tried a 30 second exposure (both done within a 2 minute window), saw slight trails still, panicked and tried to fix the 'problem' thinking it was my PA this time when it was actually probably periodic error/a period of instability as you, Vlaiv and others pointed out first time around. What I should have done is waited, took several more images of the course of 5-10 minutes to see if it had passed! Kicking myself for not thinking of this out in the field. I think it's because I'm racing against the clock, using a DSLR, I have two batteries. An old Canon battery that lasts around 45-60 minutes out in the cold and a newer Duracell that will last ~2.5 hours. So I'm always conscious of wasting time in set up can not wait to invest in guiding/ASIair/dedicated camera soon! I do not think I have any of the 60 second exposures saved from that night and I did remove imperfections while going through my 30 second images, but I will see if I can find one and post it. Thank you ONI!

Hey folks, another question. Had another outing a few days ago, long story short it did not go as smoothly as the previous session, I had trouble doing the PA. First attempt was leaving me with a small amount of trails in 60 seconds and the 30 seconds were a little inconsistent. I read online the PA with the hand controller should be iterative, the more times you do it the more accurate it will be. However, when I try to do a second PA to improve accuracy, I select the star, the mount does its 'GoTo' and normally you are asked to center the star with the hand controller first berfore anything else, sometimes the GoTo is very accurate and it is already dead center, sometimes I need to shimmy across a little, but eitherway, upon advancing to the stage where the mount is supposed to then 'drift' away and then ask you to adjust using Alt/Az bolts in turn, it does not move? There is no drift at all, it simply says adjust the bolts, but of course, it is already dead center having just done the first step. The only way I can do my PA again at the moment is by switching the mount on and off, doing a fresh 3 star alignment and hoping the new PA is better. When attempting a second PA (without starting from scratch) should I be using the same star as the first PA or selecting a star further away or something? I can not see a way to improve upon my first PA. I will be investing in ASIair and guide cam next month, looking forward to another step up, but wanting to have the basics of GoTo nailed down first Thanks, as always.

Thank you for all the replies guys. Had another go tonight; After 3 star alignment and PA, it was showing; Mel - 000 00 ' 05 '' Maz + 000 00 ' 00 '' I was feeling brave and took this is 2 minute exposure Looks much healthier! Only took x2 2 minute subs in a row, but both were pretty decent all things considered! Took x75 1 minute subs of the NGC 869 region; I am not very good at processing star clusters, need look into it. But given the near full moon and more light polluted sky I was under I thought it was a better target to try. The untouched tif if anyone wants to look; result.tif

Thank you Vlaiv, your input is invaluable, as ever that actually makes more sense, when I first saw the trail I thought it looked more akin to the trail on my Sky Guider pro when it had been knocked during imaging or when I left the manual dither too late and the system was still ever so slightly wobbling as the imaging started. But I dismissed that as it hadn't been knocked/dithered, but I did not think of periodic error! heading back out in a few hours, going to see how accurate I can get the PA on the hand controller. Haven't actually calibrated my Polar scope yet as I wanted to use drift alignment, really liking it so far! Hopefully il manage more than 6 minutes of test data tonight now I kind of know what I am doing

Oh maybe it was minutes! Still learning the how to read/use the Synscan At one point one of them was just 0, which I thought HAD to be wrong because the chances of me getting a perfect alt/az alignment is surely pretty slim...might have actually messed up one of the star alignments (wide field of view!) And perhaps that was throwing it off or something. couple more clear nights ahead so looking forward to testing it out again!

Hey Guys, Absouletly delighted to have spent a few hours outside with my EQ6 - R Pro for the first time. Been sat waiting over 2 months for a battery pack to be able to use it. Thoroughly enjoyed learning how to use GoTo and Synscan controller functions, first time ever using GoTo of any kind (Prior 6+ months with a Sky Guider Pro). I THINK I left last night having got the hang of everything, after spending around 1.5 - 2 hours learning/tweaking stuff, but I just wanted some feedback regarding my first attempt at setting up. There were star trails in 60/30 and even a bit in 15 second subs. I came to the conclusion that the setup was not balanced properly, but If anyone can identify that would be amazing so I know what I am looking at; 60 second sub 30 second sub After starting from scratch again and being very careful with balancing, a 30 second looked like this; For PA, I pointed the setup north, balanced the gear, then set home position, turned it on and did 3 star alignment (Pretty accurate, I could GoTo Whirlpool galaxy and Rosette nebula without issue) and then I used the hand controller to do PA, where you center a star and then it moves and you recenter with the Altitude bolts and Azimuth bolts (Drift Alignment?), and both were below 10 arcseconds after PA I believe it said. - When setting N Coords, I needed to input something like 51.93 but it would not let me progress with this number, I had to use N 52.00 for some reason? Do not think it made too much of a difference though. But does the trail look like it was caused because the setup was not balanced fully? (Not guiding btw)

Thanks for the replies guys. It's odd, this has only started happening to me recently (maybe 2 months or so). Prior to that, if I tried uploading one of my astro images as is, fresh from PS, it would get stuck on 'Posting' as the images are obviously waaay bigger than FB accepts. After resizing, it would post and there was never any issue. When viewed on PC or mobile, it looked fine. Now though, even after resizing, as you can see, it ruins the image quality when viewed on mobile while still being OK on PC. Which is a shame, as most people view FB through a mobile nowadays. Instagram still manages fine at least! Ah well, I was going to take my EQ6 R Pro out for first light last night now that my battery has arrived, but I would have to carry it from my flat, down the road and then up a winding 100m Elevation hill to escape the worst of bortle 5 LP. I got suited and booted, had around 30 KG - 35 KG of equipment in my rucksack on my back, the 7.5 KG tripod in one hand and my telescope case in the other, I made it down one flight of stairs and thought "This isn't going to work..." I consider myself somewhat fit, 27 year old guy (but only 65KG myself) but I think I'd have been calling the coast guard for assistance if I had tried it

Hey guys, Does anyone know how to preserve image quality when posting to facebook? I can post the image to instagram, no issues. If I post the exact same image to facebook, it appears fine on PC but gets ruined when viewed on mobile? I have resized the image to 2084 x 1389 and it is 3.06 MB PNG. This is what I upload to Facebook. After I post this to facebook, this is what is actually posted (I downloaded this on my mobile from facebook and emailed it to myself): Its a 42 Kb JPG 2048 x 1365, not sure if me downloading it affected anything, but it looks as it does here. Any ideas? Thanks

A star tracker, small refractor and a DSLR is a great way to begin astrophotography and I would highly recommend it. If you have no experience with photography/astronomy/Image processing it can be a massive and frustrating learning curve, starting with simpler and easier to manage and more forgiving equipment helps as you get a feel for the basics like PA, focusing, sky navigation, data handling etc that will carry through when using more expensive and complex set ups. I used a Sky guider pro, WO Z73 (430mm) and a Astro Modded 600D for the first 6 - 7 months and I had an absolute blast learning the ropes. The scope + DSLR was pushing the star tracker to pretty much its limits though, 30 second exposures are pretty consistent, 60 second is possible but very unreliable and not worth the hassle as there is no margin for error. A 'Starless' image of M31 using the above equipment, Sky guider Pro + WO Z73 + 600D, I think it was around 2.5 Hours of 30 second exposures.

Yeah, perhaps it's just the Celestron Lithium 13.2 Ah LiFePO4 Powertank Pro I ordered. And sods law, soon as I order one they are nowhere to be found! Billy, for safe, ease of use, plug in and go reliability for the technically challenged among us. Not everyone has the tools or knowledge required, or indeed the time to learn how. last thing I want to worry about out in the sticks in the middle of the night is a finicky DIY adapted battery. Rather just plug something purpose built in, and away t'go. in the grand scheme of how much most of us spend, im not losing sleep over £200 if it does the same (or better) more reliably and safely

Hey guys, bit of a random question Is anyone aware of a shortage/delay in availability of power tanks? Specifically stuff like the Celestron Lithium 13.2 Ah LiFePO4 Powertank Pro? It seems that a lot of things are starting to pick up again, my EQ6 R Pro was delivered in 2 days over a month ago, but its been over a month since I have order the power tank (same order). It had a 2-4 working day delay at the time of ordering. Checked other suppliers out of interest and they also had none. Saw two on Amazon, but they were £50+ more anyway. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same or has heard anything?

Both look fantastic! I imaged Orion at pretty much the same time, with the same scope and same integration time also with 30 second subs (but with a 600D) and got similar results. Even with flats there was gradient present with a harsh stretch, so the image couldn't quite reach full potential.

I am quite lucky in that I have a very dark sky about 25 minutes drive from me. Being that close, I don't see the need to settle for the light pollution dark, quiet, open views. Not much to complain about really!

Thank you Richard, did not realise how much and how quickly the temp could affect focus. Will definitely look into getting one of those And it looks great APB! Nice job! New Process, doesn't look much different from the original 25 minutes of data! But I think I handled the stars and the gradient a bit better. Removed stars earlier and did a background extraction on the starless layer. Siril auto stretch does produce some of the faint surrounding dust, but at the expense of the rest of the image. Becomes far too noisy and the gradient is too much, this is as good as I can get it.

Bit more data added, ~1.5 hours There is more in the image to be had, but the flats on the second night are not very good, quite the gradient to contend with and it becomes really obvious with a stronger stretch! I tried to DIY some new flats, but they were the same. Setup has been moved around now so it is as good as it gets I think. Not sure why, but uploading it here blurs the image a bit. Looks a lot sharper when it is just opened on my laptop or in PS etc Stacked Tif if anybody wants a play result.tif

Morning guys, I went out under a full moon on a bit of a test drive this evening to trouble shoot and test some theories. Thought I would shoot the brightest thing I could. Long story short, I found my focus to be shifting through the imaging session. About 30-40 minutes worth of data into my imaging session I did a check (Stopped imaging and zoomed in on my Canon screen to check PA and focus etc) and noticed it had shifted (even after I 'locked' focus on the scope), so I refocused and went again. It was quite a bit out too, think now I know why images appear soft. After refocusing, I shot for another 30-40 minutes and checked again and the focus had not shifted, so I am assuming it is temperature related. It was freezing out (Ice on gear) so I think I will trying setting up my rig and leaving it for a good 30-40 minutes. Does this sound like it might be the culprit, the scope adjusting to temperature? Its is a William Optics Z73 III 430mm APO refractor. Anyway, I managed a grand total of 25 minutes of data on Orion, but at least this time I had a semi decent focus (I think) x50 30 second subs OSC Canon 600D Also, do the stars looked trailed on the right hand side of the image? Seem ok to the left, but a bit off to the right? There is no doubt a bit of trail anyway as I am still using the SGP and it is horribly balanced, but never noticed that before.

I also imaged Bode's galaxy last night Though, I did not capture nearly as much detail as you two! Think it was about 90% moon, managed about 1 hr 30 of 30 second subs with a modded canon 600D. still waiting for my power bank to be delivered to be able to use my EQ6-R Pro, so hopefully this was my last deep sky outing using a Sky Guider Pro!