Ags

I agree with you - half the time!

Mr Spock, the Zenithstar 66 has an SCT thread, so it is "only logical" that I use an SCT reducer.🤣

Yes the reflection is annoying. I will try without the reducer, but only if there is a run of clear nights. At the moment clear skies are such a precious resource I don't want to spend time on exploratory activities! 😀 I am very happy with the ASI485MC - I doubt the reflection is from the camera. It's sensitive and I love the big(ish) sensor. The Horsehead was shot with the reducer too. My prime suspect for the reflection is the reducer, especially as the reducer was designed for f10 scopes with a tight baffle, and I am using it in a widefield f6 refractor.

I would be more worried about a passing Ferengi shutle claiming salvage rights on the gold mirror!

@Elp I am powering the mount with a fully charged TalentCell battery. The wifi has actually been very reliable until recently.

Can anyone suggest a power bank capable of powering a laptop. My laptop by the way is a Dell G5 (nice graphics card and hexacore processor), so a bit overspecced and power-hungry for running Sharpcap and Synscan. The power bank I can think of is the Bresser one... https://www.amazon.nl/Bresser-telescoops-elektronische-apparaten-aansluiting/dp/B07VCFQLYG/ref=asc_df_B07VCFQLYG/?tag=nlshogostdde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=454959119936&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13476350488924222093&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9065148&hvtargid=pla-878287635256&psc=1 Just trying to extend my imaging window by an hour or two.

Did a reprocess while waiting for Orion to get a bit higher. Old: New:

My first HH. About 400 nine-second frames, processed in APP and Gimp.

@Adam J sounds like a great idea. Do you know if that will work with Astroberry too, or only PC?

Here is last night's effort. Less than 40 minutes of data after discarding bad frames, but happy i bagged the HH.

Back to having troubles last night. "No Device Found" errors both with SynScan Android app and Windows app - so it is is the mount not the synscan software. After multiple attempts, brought the mount back in to debug it while watching something soothing on TV. Once inside the infernal thing worked perfectly (only Android App tried). I carried it back outside with synscan still connected and it worked fine for nearly an hour, at which point the app lost connection to the mount. Not a problem as I was packing up then. But hey, no dec runaway, so there's that.

Here is the latest state, 2h 10 min of 6 second subs (f4.3), gain 100. Stars are all superbloaty because I still have no IR cut. Hoping to get another three hours, although this will mean incredibile load on APP when it comes to processing. I think the image has gone backwards (but less noisy), but probably related to errors in background extraction.

JWST is four times further away than the Apollo landing sites, and hubble can't image those (in any detail).

Yes, the Android SynScan app worked flawlessly last night (after upgrading to the latest version).

My mercurial mount decided to play nice tonight, perfect tracking of the Pleiades. Tracking didn't work with the PC, but the updated phone app worked well.

I managed to gather another 40 minutes tonight - a clear patch blew over just after midnight, but then it was a race between me and my rapidly advancing roofline.

Rigel is an odd one, it was quite easy in my 102mm Mak, but very hard with my Zenithstar 66. Easier than Sirius though!

I can see two cameras that would be useful: one showing the primary mirror to inspect for damage, and another showing the sunshield, again for damage inspection.

I downloaded the latest android synscan and it connects OK. I have no confidence the issue (or any of the innumerable other issues I've had) is fixed, I can just say that no issue is currently occurring.

Good spot @AstroNebulee! My phone did recently do an update and I see this: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/371426-update-to-android-11-killed-my-synscan/

I am going to try sticking with the Windows app for now. Will try controlling it from Astroberry in the future. But I keep thinking I would be better served with an analog EQ mount with a simple RA clock drive. Bad software is the seventh circle of Hell.

On reflection, I think equipment didn't get me into astronomy. In fact I will be controversial and say that it didn't get anyone into astronomy, ever. If equipment gets you into stuff, I would also be into fishing, golf, and HiFis. I remember my first book from my first trip to the children's library: it had a name like "How to draw Space", with step by step guides to draw lunar landers, spacewalking astronauts and so on. But I was wired from birth for science and astronomy, other kids may have borrowed the same book, but they didn't borrow it for week after week until their parents ordered them to get something else. I remember complaining with six year old logic that there weren't other books in the library identical to the one I was obsessed with! Then I discovered my father's dusty pocket book of Stars, untouched since the 1960s, and at the age of 8 or 9 I was trying to make sense of Herzsprung-Russell diagrams. It was like I had found a book of genuine magic, complete with working spells. I only looked through a telescope years later.

OK, this time I can't blame the AZ-GTi. I installed the windows app and this connects fine. So it's the phone. Bad phone! Lovely clear night but I have early appointments tomorrow so this precious clear night will now go to waste.

Maybe. But I lose a clear night. I made progress, and connected to the synscan network, but then got this error:

The glith is new, but no software has been updated 😀