peonic

Weather here has been awful for months, and with little usable darkness I decided to shelve things for the summer. Now that we're slowly slipping into autumn and a couple of clear nights were forecast, I got the itch again. Spent an afternoon patching, cleaning and giving the kit some TLC before hauling it out into the garden. M27 is 5 hours of data, Askar 130PHQ, 533MC Pro and an Optolong L-Extreme. IC1396 is 10 hours of data, 533MM Pro and ZWO 7nm narrowband filters. Pushing the colour and contrast, which may not be to everyones taste, but they make for pretty pictures on my office wall! Clear Skies! Chris

I'm still trying to get to grips with my new scope - shooting at over double my normal focal length has been challenging, especially on the guiding but I'm feel like I'm starting to get somewhere now. This is 50x 300s Ha and 50x 300s Oiii subs from last night. Askar130PHQ, 533mm Pro, EQ6R Pro

It's well worth it. I struggled a bit at first, because I'd been using Sharpcap, and Nina seemed a lot more involved, but once you bite the bullet and invest time in learning it pays you back many fold! Depending on your kit, I'd highly recommend the Three Point Polar Alignment and Darks Customs Filter Offset plugins - both were game changers for me. Chris

"Heart of the Rose" A deep dive into the centre of the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237) 6½ hours of 5 minute subs, using a 533MM Pro and ZWO 7nm narrowband filters. Askar 130PHQ @ 1000mm focal length, EQ6R Pro. Processed in PixInsight. Played with completely automating this image run - had everything built in NINA's advanced sequencer then pressed "play" way before it got dark - then went out for the evening. Seems to have gone off without a hitch!

The first time I went to Tesco here, I thought I'd stumbled in to Hobbiton by mistake!

Sorry - don't know the first thing about racing - other than that the first string are usually off to the gallops around the same time I come down to haul my frozen scopes in of a morning!

Figured it's only right that living here in Newmarket (where we even have pedestrian crossings with special buttons mounted high for jockeys to push) that I spend some time on The Horsehead. This is about 5½ hours of exposure in Ha and Sii, using an Askar 130PHQ, ZWO 533MM Pro and ZWO 7nm narrowband filters. I think it could use some more Ha, and maybe another stab at the processing, but I'm really happy with the composition here. If I ever release an album of eclectic dance music, I'll use this as the cover! Chris

Thanks chaps! Looks like East Anglia is back to clouds for the foreseeable now!

That's smashing! Any plans to grab some other channels to add in?

Thanks Ian! It's a target I'll go back to for sure, if only to grab some RGB stars!

FIVE CLEAR NIGHTS IN A ROW??! WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT! I wasted at least one night chasing down some power problems, and another totally failing to add a focal reducer into one of my setups. Problems aside I was able grab 15½ hours on The Rosette Nebula in narrowband. Pretty happy with this one (and it's rare I say that after a first attempt at processing) but I'm still happy if anyone can offer tips, advice or constructive critcism. 70*300s Ha (ZWO 7nm) 63*300s Oiii (ZWO 7nm( 51*300s Sii (ZWO 7nm) ZWO 533mm Pro, WIlliam Optics FLT 91, EQ6R Pro Processed in PixInsight

Steve you legend! I was just removing the click lock adapter from the end of the extension tube, not the whole tube itself! I didn't even realise it WAS removable to be honest. Pretty much sure that this will fix it - thanks so much! Chris

Not at home right now so a picture will have wait a couple of hours but.... Scope - M68 adapter - flattener - 16.5 extension - 11mm extension - 8 position 1.25mm filter wheel - 533mm pro. The 11mm ring was removed from the nose of the camera as per the ZWO docs, at the flattener set for 5.4mm Chris

Hey Gary, Yes and no - there's a version with an optional adapter for the FLT-91 - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/william-optics-adjustable-flat6a-iii-08x-reducer-flattener-for-flt91.html - but other than the adapter it's the same reducer. Chris

HELP! I have a William Optics FLT91 which I've been using with both a 533 mono and 533 OSC for a few months now with no issue. Last night I tried to add the adjustable Flat6A III flattener/reducer into the mix, and I just can't get focus. With the focuser racked FULLY in, I can see out of focus stars, but there's no more inward travel to acheive focus. On my ED80 with the matched SkyWatcher flattener, the focus position is pretty close to the non-reduced focal point. With the WO scope, "normal" focus position is with the focuser racked out half way. I only start to see out of focus stars with it very close to fully racked in (using a ZWO EAF, un-reduced I achieve focus around 17500 steps, to see out of focus stars start to appear at all I have to wind the focuser right in to 3000 steps). This feels terminal to me? Mismatch between the 533's tiny sensor, maybe? Chris

I somehow managed to miss your reply Martin. You're right, it does look much better without the green! Thanks for taking the time to edit. I'll have another play with the raw data and see if I can improve on your result! Chris

My guess is that you've pointed NINA at the platesolve 3 installer file that you downloaded, not the fully installed application?

I was in two minds, but as the forecast here for the next 7 days looks to be awful I figured I'd give it a stab. My guiding was rotten, but I managed to keep it mostly below my imaging scale for most of the evening, bar a couple of really strong gusts that ruined some subs, and a couple of others that got trashed by fast moving clouds.

Almost didn't setup last night with the winds gusting to 25mph in my corner of East Anglia. I'm glad I did though, because even with the guiding struggling (had to drop to 1s guide exposures to try and counteract as best as possible) and the clouds blasting through on occasion, I was able to get some decent data, and push my processing skills a little more.... Struggled to deal with the big star top right, and ended up having to clone stamp out the halo - which I'm sure isn't for the purist! Just under 10 hours of data all told; 45x 300sec HA 18x 300sec Sii 18x 300sec Oiii 23x300s Luminance Captured with my 533MM Pro, ZWO 7nm filters, William Optics FLT91, EQ6R Pro - Bortle 5 Skies Comments and critique appreciated! Chris

My first ever attempt at this target - and I REALLY needed some shorter subs to not have a completely blown out core. I also had no end of problems with PI's PhotometricMosaic script (which has never failed me in the past) leading to about 2 days of work trying to get this simple 2 panel mosaic stitched correctly. 2 Panels of: 10x 30s L/S/H/O 20x 60s L/S/H/O 10x 180s L/S/H/O WO FLT91, 533MM Pro, ZWO 7nm Filters EQ6R Pro Bortle 5, Newmarket UK I'll try and add some 5 and 10 second subs at some point to try and rescue the core! Comments and critique always welcomed.

Hah. No need for apologies at all! Interesting thought re BlurXTerminator. I'll have to give it a try and compare. Chris

Cheers Lee! I got into the habit of drizzling everything for printing, and a good point on the mask - I'll have another crack at the processing - thanks for the tips! Chris

Here are my first two attempts using my newly acquired 533MM Pro. Taken this week using my William Optics FLT91 on my EQ6, using the ZWO 7nm narrowband filter set. Bubble nebula is a shade under 10 hours of integration time. Monkey Head is around 7½. I'm still struggling to get the colour palette where I'd like it to be, but I'm enjoying the new camera very much so far!

Isn't Alpaca a seperate thing? For my EQ6 I just downloaded the Ascom Platform from here: https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm and then EQMod. Good to see you back, btw Chris

I started using it seriously in July. Took a while to get my head around the way it does things, but now I wouldn't be without it. I do everything exclusively in PI now. It's well worth taking a look at Russ Croman's Star Exterminator plug in (trial version available) and Dark Archon's EZ processing suite (free tools).