AstronomyUkraine

I don't have the EQ6 R, but I have the EQ6 Pro, which has the same useless alt bolt. I replaced the bolt with an Allen head bolt, which takes an 8mm allen wrench, it's not ideal, but beats the standard bolt hands down, and you only use it once a session.

I think with any really bright stars, the OIII will leave some kind of halo The top image is the Sadr region taken with my Antlia OIII filter. The second image is taken with the Optolong OIII filter. Sadr is just peeking through in the bottom left, you can make out the faint halo between the circled star, and Sadr. The halo from the Optolong filter extends past the circled star. The circled star had a small halo with the Optolong filter, but disappeared completely with the Antlia filter. A vast improvement, but the Antlia still leaves a halo on Sadr.

I notice you have no default filter for GoTo++. I would set that to lum, APT will use whichever filter you last used otherwise. Looking at the APT user guide, it doesn't seem that it supports Pinpoint, maybe that is the problem. Also, according to APT you are still using PHD1, and not PHD2.

I used to use APT and never had much trouble with platesolving. Which platesolve programme are you using? I used platesolve2, but since then APT can platesolve with ASTAP, which is superior in my opinion. ASTAP Installation: Download and install/unzip ASTAP from http://www.hnsky.org/astap.htm Download and install one of the available star databases G17 or G18 In PointCraft Settings select the folder where ASTAP is installed

Nice image Carole. The star colour is amazing.

Welcome to Backyard Astro.

Thanks. I was surprised it came out so well, wasn't expecting the ring to be defined so clearly.

Just happened to go outside tonight, and came across this beautiful sight. This phenomenon is called a 22° halo, or moon ring. A 22° halo is an optical phenomenon that belongs to the family of ice-crystal halos. Its form is a ring with an apparent radius of approximately 22° around the Sun or Moon. When visible around the Moon, it is called a moon ring or winter halo. It forms as direct sunlight or moonlight is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Sorry the image is not the best quality, it was taken with a mobile phone.

Here we also have the full range of unmounted filters, the 31mm, 36mm and 2'', ranging from 350 to 600 euro for the 3nm Ha. The 2' also comes in the mounted variety at 500 Euro for the 3nm Ha.

I believe the Hockeystick NGC 4656 is a different galaxy Terry, usually associated with the Whale galaxy NGC 4631 in Canes Venatici. You captured a lot of detail in the galaxy, the bar across the Owl is clearly visible also, reminds me of a button.

The Antlia filters in Europe are 300 euro for the Ha and SII, 350 Euro for the OIII. Not sure why the OIII would be so much more expensive.

Nice! Any reason for getting the 5 position EFW rather than the 7?

Gain is equivalent to iso on a DSLR, the higher the number, the more signal the camera can receive. Offset is just as important, if this number is too low, the black can be clipped. Basically the offset, moves the histogram to the right, the more you increase the number. Have you checked your back focus to make sure it is correct. According to the website, your setup needs 56.5mm of backfocus, any slight discrepancy can result in sub standard images.

Looks like the EU and the delivery companies are screwing the customers left, right and centre. These are things nobody mentioned when campaigning for Brexit.

Strange the Ioptron is not available in the UK Terry, it's been available in Europe for some time. It might be worth checking the shipping costs, it shouldn't be too much from Germany. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p12585_iOptron-CEM70G-Equatorial-GoTo-Mount-with-iGuider-built-in-Autoguider---31-kg-payload.html https://www.astroshop.eu/equatorial-with-goto/ioptron-mount-cem70g-goto/p,66887