Ouroboros

I also wear thermal long johns under lined walking trousers bought in Mountain Warehouse. They're pretty cheap. I've got a couple of pairs. Walking trousers have lots of pockets for mobile phone, chewing gum, tissues, and somewhere to put lens caps. Thick socks are essential. Top half I wear T shirt, long sleeved thermal vest, long sleeve poloneck, thick woollen jumper and fleece or lined coat if it's really cold. Oh, and woolly hat. Something I've found is not to get cold before I put all the clobber on. It's difficult to get warm once you're cold. So I tend to start off wearing more than I need. It's easier to take outer clothing off if necessary.

I decided to get one, fit it and take the plunge on cutting the box. As you suggest, a Stanley knife sliced through the foam very nicely. The only thing is that the focuser would stick out the wrong side. But by rotating the telescope 180° in the rings it points out the other side and it's at the top which is more convenient for the surgery on the box. It's also necessary to cut a slice out of the foam in lid because the bracket sticks up. I can still get all the components like the final reducer in their pockets, and there's also plenty of space in the box for the focuser controller and cable.

I thought of doing it the second way you suggest. But I'd have thought I would have to disconnect the camera from EKOS to do that .... and then reconnect*. Do I not? As for your first suggestion, wouldn't it actually be easier to set to aperture priority in the INDI panel? I'd try it now but I'm not near my MacBook and camera.

What is the best way to take flats when using a DSLR in KStars? I expected I'd be able to set camera to aperture priority and to bang off some flats as I normally do when using Backyard EOS. That doesn't seem to be possible in EKOS. Or is it? Any suggestions? PS in the end last night I disconnected the DSLR from the MacBook and took the flats manually at the camera.

Assuiming all things being equal then statistically the signal to noise ratio will double when you take 4 times as many subs. In reality contributions to noise and image quality can change over an image session - thermal noise, light pollution, seeing, focus and so on. One of the advantages of long imaging sessions is that you can afford (possibly) to throw away the poorer subs. More is not necessarily better. But more better is definitely better, if that makes sense. 🙂

Yes, I agree. As you suggest, daytime alignment of the polar scope is much easier. The problem I had was finding an object high enough to see through the polar scope. The declination axis only goes down so far. I had to tip the mount forward by shortening and lengthening different tripod legs. I did find that the polar scope on my newly bought AZ-EQ6 mount was misaligned. Frankly I think that's unacceptable for something so expensive.

Wow!

Magnificent. It's worth zooming in on the central bit. It looks like both cloud and rolling surf.

I bought some flexible twin-core cable in B&Q. I can't now recall exactly what the current rating is but it is sufficient for the OP's requirements which are the same as mine. When I clear away I just loop it like lawn mower cable and hang it on a hook in the shed.

Well, it certainly works. I don't do much lunar photography, as the next question will no doubt illustrate. How does stacking help? Registering and stacking helps in deep sky photography because it improves the signal to noise. But the Moon is so bright I would have thought you don't need to improve the S to N. Also couldn't stacking work against you because atmospheric turbulence can cause different amounts of distortion in different parts of different images. So when you stack them they become "fuzzier"?

That's a nice contrasty image, Charl. Have you done any processing or is this 'as is'?

Lots of info there. Thanks. And for where it is. I just wondered.

How did you manage that?

Interesting. I think I'll be more excited when they discover oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere. Does anyone know where this exoplanet is. I know it's 124LY away and that it orbits a red dwarf. The star is I

Lanyards. They work for me. Bought mine in Boots I think. The glasses hang around the neck when you want to take them off, and they're to hand when you want them.

By the title I was expecting a motorway (M76) photographed at dawn. 🙂 You've got a really lovely photograph there. So good to have the astronomical info too.

Damn! When I'm not there this happens. 😞.

Yes. As you said earlier, looking through the polar scope set to about the right hour angle will get you closer than the 30-50 arc minutes measured by PHD2.

OK OK! I'm not going to argue with you. You are obviously a far more sophisticated and knowledgeable user than I am. I am not trying to "sell" KStars. I'm merely reporting my experience on this journey, and so far within the modest limits of what I do it's been a relatively good experience. I have considered buying a dedicated Windows laptop, or simply moving up to the latest Windows OS on my Mac. Now please don't take this as a Windows bashing exercise, I'm not an Apple bore, but I really didn't want to have to climb another learning curve with a new Windows OS. I went off Windows some years ago. And my MacBook suits me for what I need a computer for. Anyway, you don't have to use KStars for everything, or indeed at all to use a Mac. As I understand it I could use it to control the mount, for example, whilst using PHD2 (which works on a Mac) for guiding and a supplier's or an alternative imaging application for use with a CCD or CMOS camera. There appear to be lots of options. But I'm willing to accept that a Mac may not be the best option for the most sophisticated astro imager, if that is the received view.

Some links: KStars: https://edu.kde.org/kstars/ KStars forum: https://edu.kde.org/kstars/ Astronomy software for Mac: https://www.macobservatory.com/mac-astronomy-software INDI Forum: https://indilib.org/forum.html What I found confusing at first is that there seemed to be lots of different bits of software required like INDI and EKOS to enable a Mac to operate Astro devices like mounts and such. But it turns out that all that comes bundled with KStars, which is a great help to the IT challenged like myself.

🙂 Ask 5 astro imagers for their view and you'll get 6 opinions. I'm a Mac user and I'm in the process of moving over to using it for my mount control/imaging etc. It certainly is possible. Four years ago I decided to move to a MacBook because I was fed up with Windows. However I decided that there wasn't sufficient astro software available at that time. So I ran Windows 7 (A nice Windows OS) as a virtual machine on my Mac using Parallels. This worked well, in fact running Windows on my Mac is more stable than running it on a Windows machine IME. So why change? MS have decided to stop supporting Windows 7 next year. So this year I explored ways to run my kit on the Mac OS. I discovered things have moved on from 4 years ago. I am currently in the process of testing (when time and opportunity allow) the KStars/EKOS/INDI software. This is available free. It is a complete package. It can be used to run most mounts, guiders, cameras, focusers and I believe domes and other astro kit. There's a good KStars and INDI community too. I'll find some links in a minute. I'm using KStars to control an AZ-EQ6 mount, Lodestar2 guider and a Canon 450D SLR. My impression is that it's more stable than my Windows platform. It's been a steepish learning curve. Arguably a bit steeper than learning how to use EQMOD and all the separate bits of software I needed in Windows. But then KSTars is all included - mount interface, planetarium, guider, image software etc - so you have to come to grips with lots of features simultaneously rather than piecemeal as you do with separate apps. I hope that helps. You can download KStars for free and it includes a simulated mount and cameras and other devices for you to play with. PS I'm realy impressed with the plate solving in KStars for polar alignment and mount alignment.

Sorry I can't be more help because I am not familiar with either PoleMaster or SharpCap. I just wonder whether it's worth trying a completely different type of polar alignment method (preferably an optical one) and then looking at your 5 minute subs. (Are they 5 mins?) Two obvious alternatives for PA come to my mind. Is there an inbuilt polar alignment routine using the handset and three-star alignment? The second is the EQMOD alignment routine. Both of these methods I have found will provide more-or-less round stars (on a windless night) for 5 minute guided subs. Sufficient anyway for a telescope of 510mm focal length anyway. Maybe your telescope has a longer focal length for which 0.8" RMS isn't good enough. Good luck. PS I must say looking at the "jump" you see in Polemaster (and I think you said SharpCap) I'd be inclined to susoect there's something wrong with the mount's tracking.

@Tomatobro that looks the same as my cover. I'd certainly buy and use one again if something happened to mine. I have left the telescope and mount under this cover in torrential rain on and off over several days with no problems at all. I think as long as the cover is intact then there's little chance of it leaking. The thing that concerns me is condensation. But even then I've not noticed much of that happening under the cover. And anyway, most of us regularly see our mounts and telescopes drenched in dew on many nights with apparently few problems.

Chuckle. Yeah, that's the one. Half the price too. 🙂 You have to admire the entrepreneurialism. Nuff said. Thanks.

I bought this from Greenwich a few years ago. Unfortunately they've ceased trading. However someone may know where a similar one can by purchased. I suspect these were originally designed to cover garden furniture or something but had been re-marketed as a scope cover. It's got a canvas outer layer and a polypropylene or similar inner lining. I have used it many times, and have found it good for covering the scope for several nights in a row, although I wouldn't want to use it permenantly. When heavy rain is forcast I remove the guide and imaging cameras. I have never noticed it being damp underneath, but if it's fine I tend to remove the cover during the day to let the telescope 'air'. I'd like to know where I can get the same or similar for when this one needs replacing.