Anne S

I have an Atik428 mono. It's fine with Baader narrowband filters but you do need longer exposures. I normally use 15 minute subs. You do need to guide unless you've a very upmarket mount. I also have a colour ASI533 which only needs 5 minute exposures using 4nm dual narrowband filter. I can post an example if wanted.

And you.

My husband, Jim sketches too. We're on yellow 149 with a 6 inch refractor. Where are you? Anne

My husband has used the Altairastro 152mm f5.9 for several years. He does EAA with it and had it mounted on an Ioptron original IEQ45 mount. That worked well particularly as it was on the earlier Ioptron pier type tripod. He also has a minitower pro mount in a tripod, the current AZ pro mount is the replacement for the minitower pro. If you are going to use a long scope on the AZ it will need to be carefully balanced. Also you may need the mini pier extension if you use a tripod as the scope my collide with the legs in the starting position. The objective is very heavy so the eyepiece end will be low down, hence the risk of hitting the tripod. The 152 is excellent for EAA. He does use a mono camera and then sketches what's on the screen so he doesn't really have to worry about chromatic aberration. Anne

We'll be there. My husband sketches too. He's bringing his 152 refractor. I do astrophotography. We're on yellow 149. I just wish the weather forecast would stop changing! Though it may give us time to enjoy the restaurant deals.... As to your tripod elastic tie downs could help steady your tripod. Kelling is known for its wind, it can make it tricky for large telescopes.

The last two W11 pro updates for September have corrupted my mini pc. I had to reinstall everything. The 2nd time I made a disk image once everything was installed. I've never had it happen to a laptop or desktop. I keep the MINIPC inside except when I'm at star parties or other astro events. I'd love to know why an update can muck everything up, Anne

They're also in fits and tif format.

There are videos on line showing how to process duoband images. Generally you need to separate the colour channels so you have separate red, green and blue images. Ha =red, Oiii= green and blue. You can then adjust stretch for individual channels and recombine in different colour ways. You can even create a Hubble palate version, there's a video on Sgl, I think it's in image procession section, that describes how to do it. I did the attached image from an Atik428 OSC using the method some years ago. The filter was an L enhance, which isn't as good as your filter. Anne

I have owned a Ritchey Chretien 6 inch for several years. I use 75mm of extension tubes. My imaging equipment takes up 17.5+37= 54.5mm. I don't have a reducer on. The focuser drawtube is just over 2 cm out. I would suggest you have too many extensions on. You've got very long drawtube so make use of that to find the focuser position. Once you've found that, adjust the number of extensions to reduce the drawtube distance. The focuser can droop slightly with heavier loads. Make sure you use a long enough exposure as an out of focus star is almost invisible. The moon is your friend! I have an instruction manual which contains some suggestions for using the extension tubes with different setup. Just do a search for Orion Telescopes. I notice the Ioptron site also has one but doesn't have the diagrams. You don't want Orion Optics! When I bought my RC, I tried it out visually first. You'll need fewer extension tubes when you use a diagonal. Make sure you're looking at a distant object if doing in daytime. i hope that helps. Incidentally, there are various versions of this scope with different suppliers but they are all made by GSO. Mine is an Altairastro version. Anne

The first thought that comes to me is that you would need to run several other items as well. Given that you probably won't want to have separate power supplies for mount, dewheater etc you would run everything through something like a Pegasusastro powerbox or similar. This manages power demands. Having several items drawing power would mean sharing it out. I've been using powerboxes for years. As a side issue, it tidies up the cables. They also manage power needs of the various devices, eg pausing the dewheaters if the mount is slewing or the camera cooling down which both need to draw more power for a while. As a general rule I wouldn't use Uk mains power supplies outside. I run an outside extension lead which has a circuit breaker and either a bench power supply or proper 12 volt adapter such as one used to power a 12 volt camping fridge enabling it to use 240/220 volt mains power.

My ASI533 only has an ar filter. I prefer to have a separate uv/ir cut filter which is parfocal with the ultranarrowband filters. All are 1.8mm thick. I can then focus with the uv/ir cut filter which is quicker. I'm imaging with a f7 scope with a 0.8 focal reducer so the focus range is reasonably wide.

I have a ASI533MC which I use with a uv/ir cut filter to stop the stars bloating and duo narrowband filters Ha/O3 and S2/O3. I started with a L'Enhance which also worked well, though I bought that to use with a colour ccd camera which was less sensitive. I started with a filter slide but quickly switched to a filterwheel I already had and bought it a 5*2 carousel. I felt the issue with the filter slide was doing flats as they would need redoing every time you switch filter. It's also easier with the filterwheel as I can run all filters when needed. The Uk tends to cloud over mid session! All the duoband filters I've seen are in 2 inch format, possibly because there are many large format cmos cameras. As to balancing with a filterwheel, I just orientate it so it's opposite to the focuser as the motor also affects balance. I have seen a filterwheel balance kit which fits to ASI cameras which would solve that. Recent result below using my 2 nb filters with the uv/ir cut one for RGB stars as the nb ones are very magenta.I'm really pleased with the nb filter performance, just 50 minutes for each filter with 30 minutes rgb stars.

The 30pro doesn't have a find zero position like the more modern mounts. I normally start with it in zero position and it works fine. There's also an option to park it after which it powers off. You need to turn off then on, it is supposed to remember any alignment stars if you don't move it. It's not the same as Skywatcher park position. Commander works the same but has multiple park positions. if you turn it on when it isn't in zero position, just release the clutches and move the axes to the correct position. Have you got the instruction manuals, you can download them from Ioptron. It's a lovely little mount but does has belts so doesn't like being unbalanced as the belts can slip causing elongated stars.

I've also got a IEQ30PRO. I only have an issue with pointing is when the zero position isn't accurate enough. I run it using Commander and SGPro. Does it work with the hand control? Is the serial lead faulty, the plastic plugs aren't the strongest. Have you a spare cable? I normally keep several spares. One of the boards going bad? Altairastro may have some ideas, he had 2 IEQ30s being fixed last week, one pro and one not. He can get replacements if necessary. They were the original distributor for Ioptron in the uk. You say you've been using it for a year, my mount must be around 8-10 years old. How old is yours? It may need servicing. We've just had my husband's IEQ45, not pro, cleaned up and grease replaced. The original grease was filthy with bits in! His mount is older than mine by several years. Anne

I have an ASI533 colour camera which I use for starparties etc. I use mono ccd cameras and broadband and narrowband filters at home. Below is an image from Kelling star party last week when I used my 4nm ultranarrowband filters for the first time. 130minutes exposure with mostly 5 minute subs. Cmos is very close to ccd cameras now. Only calibrated with bias and flats. I'm really pleased I bought this camera! I love the square chip. Anne

The only problem is that Kelling weather is fickle! This week's been pretty good for clear skies but just not long enough. I'm not good at staying up on the off chance! i made a rookie error and set up my scope so it wouldn't point up without colliding with the mount. At least I manages to image remotely. I've been trying to do that for over a year!

I had a couple of hours clear Monday evening. Nothing since.

Sensor dimensions are 3008*3.76 square. 11.31 mm square. Just under 16mm diagonal.

They are rather obvious. It's a pity ones in the nebula, otherwise you could have done star removal and cloned them out. I had some issues with Baader nb filters, they're around 2012 vintage. Excuse my processing, I need to do some Pixinsight on it!

Nice image, I've taken to reprocessing due to the horrid weather. If I get a 2nd travel mount at Kelling, I'm planning on running 2 widefield scopes in Portugal after Christmas. I need to take two lots of equipment in case of failures . We're going for 7 weeks. Anne

I did prefer it in September, it's warmer. It was also clear most of the week in Norfolk, I see. We even had a few clear nights in Wales! The issue seems to be the vintage day on the railway which has become very popular. Because we move weeks every 4 years we need their weekend! The Spring starparty has the same problem with Easter and the School Holidays. The last time we came to Winterfest we got blown away a couple of days before it started and broke my new Astrotent poles! Though the best astrophotograpy has been at Winterfest. Occasionally...

I've just invested in the t2 extension tube set. At the moment I'm trying the 7mm extension on the ASI533 instead of the 11mm one supplied. Mind it helps that my SX fw as a T thread female adapter. I could just attach the camera with no extensions but there's a screw that gets in the way! I need 55mm backfocus so it's really tight if I use a OAG.

Dew. It was coating anything not under cover.

Dew can be a real problem if there's no wind. One year a lot of people had electrical problems as well as dewing ones. Everything was dripping! Kelling also tends to be windy as it's on the top of a hill. A large scope can be badly affected with it so bringing a smaller scope can be a good idea. Anne

That's true. When we started going in the early days at Kelling there was a lot going on. Now there are still some groups observing but you need to look for them and catch them at it. There are quite a lot of dobsonians of varlous sizes around the fields. I've not seen visitors but often there are first time attendees who are interested in seeing things. You can see what some of the imagers are doing but tread carefully and don't shine a red light at them. I often go walkabout once I've set my imaging run to go. Incidentally, my husband sketches using a stacked view of various objects so is outside all the time. He's quite happy to show what he's doing. We've got a motorhome in the yellow field. Anne