M51 with a SkyMax150

[JonHigh]

Hi all. Skies became awful, PHD playing up, laptop playing up. Issues with my guide camera and only 20 usable subs before I almost kicked the tripod over and threw the laptop down the garden!! 🤪😂Just another reason why I love this hobby!!! 
Anyway this is all I got for my battling efforts with my Aa26c attached to the SW SkyMax 150. 3mins subs, gain-100(HCG), offset-150. Not sure about the horizontal banding  that I’ve not seen before?

Edited May 13 by JonHigh

[Roy Foreman]

I know that feeling of everything ganging up on you only too well. I'm having camera condensation problems at the moment. However, not a bad result considering what you were battling against !

[JonHigh]

Thanks Roy. The hazy skies don’t help but when it’s hardware or software that just doesn’t play ball it's incredibly frustrating. Everything is work perfectly and I sometimes wonder what the benefits are in dong updates. What camera are you having issues with? 

[ONIKKINEN]

17 hours ago, JonHigh said:

Not sure about the horizontal banding  that I’ve not seen before?

I think you are quite a bit underexposed, and thats where the banding came from (its visible in bias frames normally). Or you dont have enough offset and blacks are being clipped (or both, for the latter check that there are no 0 value pixels in short darks or biases).

I think you will need to expose for significantly longer, like 10 minutes or more, at f/12. Depends on your light pollution and read noise at the gain you used but i think 3 minutes is a bit on the low side still.

[JonHigh]

Cool. Thank you for your advice. Offsets are okay and not clipping the blacks however I do definitely agree that I needed a much longer exposure times. The last ones I took with the SkyMax were 4mins but due to the issues I was having with the laptop and PHD I didn’t want to push it. Plus the weather a was turning which didn’t help matters and living under Bortle 6 skies. I’m seriously thinking about selling the Mak, a used C8 is looking on the cards! 
 

 

Edited May 13 by JonHigh

[Roy Foreman]

9 hours ago, JonHigh said:

Thanks Roy. The hazy skies don’t help but when it’s hardware or software that just doesn’t play ball it's incredibly frustrating. Everything is work perfectly and I sometimes wonder what the benefits are in dong updates. What camera are you having issues with? 

Camera is a ZWO 6200. Every summer when the weather turns hot and humid, condensation forms on the sensor even with the heater on. No amount of drying out the dessicant tablets will solve it. A real pain, but at least it doesn't seem to happen in winter !

[JonHigh]

Wow! Lovely camera!
Never liked the long winter nights so much! 
I had issues when I got my 26c. I was running it a bit too cold and the heater too low. Since then I have balanced it out and seems to be behaving itself now. Cooler at -10, dew heater on high. 

Edited May 13 by JonHigh