M1 gremlins

[paul]

Out of two hours manage 90 minutes due to clouds (3min subs @ISO800) with my 550d on M1 but I seem to have my optics out of skew  the stars have an aura and coma. ? 

 Certainly not worth spending more time on processing. I suspect the newt is off square or the clip-in filter has an issue. Its a scope I fiddled with a lot over the summer so its probably something I've done. Time to tear it down and build it up from scratch double checking its all square- as I know it has done much better. (My modded Orion Optics 250mm with Skywatcher 2-element coma corrector.)

 

[KevS]

The abberation appears to be all going the same way Paul, (The refraction spikes are suppressed at 2-o-clock)  may be as simple as just a serious re-collimate. Try rotating the camera 180 degrees and see if the problems remain on the same plane before you go too mad tearing the scope down. 

[Jkulin]

Yep what Kev said, I also think you have clipped the sky try and dial it back a bit

[MarkAR]

A good attempt but as Kev says, collimation looks off.

[Gina]

Yes,definitely a good attempt.  It's a difficult one.  It's small.

[Stub Mandrel]

Still got some nice detail.

[Gina]

Yes indeed!

[paul]

I checked the scope out, it definitely was out of collimation - laser spot was on the ring. I skipped my normal checks in my haste (clear skies calling !!) - lesson learned!

 

I'm surprised at the magnitude of error though.

 

@KevSThat was a good call on the spike offset - I shall use that test.

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Easy quick check is well out of focus stars - if the shadow of the secondary is not central, a quick tweak might save your session until you have time to do a proper collimation.

[KevS]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Easy quick check is well out of focus stars - if the shadow of the secondary is not central, a quick tweak might save your session until you have time to do a proper collimation.

+1 for the above.