Trifid

[oska]

Average seeing beats clouds. Sometimes it's good to have a weird body clock.
Second attempt, the first had all the novice errors.

2hrs culled to 160x30s
ASI1600mc, EON85 & flattener
PixInsight

Criticism most welcomed.

[xelasnave]

John a truely pleasing image but there is just not enough green.I
Alex

[oska]

Thanks Alex, perhaps I could tease it out?

[Crater101]

I'm still scratching the surface where astrophotography is concerned, but I'm impressed with the sharpness and roundness of so many of the stars in this. Quite envious actually. :thumbsup:

[Dave882]

Great job- very detailed indeed. I think the cull was well worth the effort!!
Picked up good colour in the reflection neb- I reckon you could reduce contrast a couple of notches tho which may help with the star saturation as well as reveal some of the fainter nebulously. Nice one!! :thumbsup:

[oska]

Thanks Warren. I tortured myself with the aberration inspector in nina for days. I've still got something out of whack/tilt in the top right particularly but I've suffered enough for now :)

[oska]

Cheers David, much appreciated. I'm vaguely starting to get the "not too black" thing, slowly :) I started out trying to improve a previous attempt which committed all the novice sins, and as the livestack was rolling in the dust and all just popped out at me over basically a couple of frames. Caught me by surprise and literally took my breath away.

[Doogs38]

No criticism from me, John; it’s a lovely image. It’s kinda hard to know how much noise and greyness to leave in the background. I’m starting to think that some noise and a slightly lighter background ultimately results in a better looking image, at least for the images from my ASI294MC. Alex

[oska]

Thanks Alex. I'm coming around too.

[ChrisV]

That's really nice. Colour in the first one is great!!! think somewhere between the two images as far as stretching and dark cut would be ideal.

I take it that it is a live stacked capture without guiding - job well done. Might be worthwhile starting to get guiding going. Would help round out the stars.

[oska]

Cheers Chris. I appreciate it, thank you.
Do you mean the stars are a little fuzzy as they seem at least roundish to my poorly eyes :)
The 2nd is a screen cap of the DSS live stack showing the dust/detail I had missed noticing previously, being laser focused on the "bright colours" aspect of the target.
I was guiding :) getting about 0.7 arcsec total (EQ6R) I naively expect that's OK-ish, am I mistaken? When I cull I'm quite strict now with eccentricity usually grading (WBPP) to about 1/2 to 2/3 (statistically) on that alone. FWHM and star count are the other criteria. I'm trying to keep the criteria simple enough to make obvious changes and see obvious results. I intend to progress to more sophisticated grading once I get my head around "things".
I think I may have a little bit of tilt still and have messed with it a bit. I got it to "better than it was" and will give it another go when I can find the energy to - so fiddly.
I definitely have major backlash in DEC and manage it with imbalance. One of the adjustment grub screws is seized and I don't want to snap it or the allen key (already bent an allen key). I've tried every penetrant I can find/concoct but I fear I'll have to disassemble the dec axis and give it a little kiss with a blow torch to get it loose. Not looking forward to that.

[Sunfish]

Great colour.

[oska]

Thanks Ray.

[Doogs38]

John, how do you do this? Slightly camera heavy? Are you using PHD2 or something else for guiding/calibration? I’ve been playing with DEC balance too and have yet to get it right (for my setup, that is); my guiding calibration always shows DEC as being a bit weird compared to RA. So I e been playing with ‘camera heavy’. But that said, Ekos is pretty good at understanding how much backlash there is and giving a solid effort to correct for it. Alex

[Startrek]

The Dec and Ra worm carrier adjustment grub screws on the RQ6-R shouldn’t be that tight ?
Sounds like the grub screws are opposing or tensioning the worm carrier with each other ?
I have two of the these mounts at different sites and have adjusted my RA and Dec in both so Dec backlash is around 900ms to 1100ms. The grub screws on both mounts are easy to screw in or out as required
Here’s my procedure attached

Hope this info helps

Cheers
Martin

[oska]

Alex, yeah mate camera heavy. Kinda works. I use phd2 for guiding and when it's behaving (<10" total error in PA) I get 0.7" total error.

Thanks Martin! I've got full on wiggle in dec, nothing to speak of in ra. I can loosen all the screws except the front adjustment grub screw. It just wont budge and I dont want to snap the skinny allen key :o I might give it a little tap with an (hand) impact driver next. But with a < 10" PA and a little camera heavy action I can at least manage it, mostly. I haven't measured the backlash but I will as soon as the clouds clear. Aluminium & stainless are notorious for seizing in the right circumstances.

[Startrek]

John,
Are you aware of how the worm and gear assembly works ?

Because your Dec is sloppy ,it means that the worm carrier needs to move closer to the Dec ring gear but the outside grub screw won’t budge due to having so much pressure applied to it from the carriers opposing force. This force may have bent or distorted the grub screw too, however Synta make the grub screw end post out of brass to prevent this.

Below is a link to Astrobaby EQ6 worm adjusting procedures which shows you the logic behind the opposing forces
Most folk have a misunderstanding of how the set up works , it’s sort of reverse logic
Once you get the logic behind it in your mind , maybe try again.Back off the 4 main Dec housing bolts,back off or loosen the inner grub screw and try to screw in the stubborn outer grub screw.

Another thought, get your hand controller and rotate the Dec axis in different positions , loosen housing bolts , try grub’s screw again , tighten housing bolts , move Dec axis again and so on ……

https://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6%20rebuild%20guide/EQ6%20worm%20alignment.htm

Hope you don’t have to pull the mount to bits due to a damaged end block or bent grub screw

Cheers
Martin

[oska]

Thanks Martin for your generous response. I'm pretty mechanically minded eg: I have built a camera tracker from scratch - worm assembly, code and all. (see below). About (144x3x4) 1730:1 gear ratio - a touch overkill, arguably better resolution than a eq5 in a single axis tracker :screwy:

I have read and re-read all I can trying to rectify the issue. I hadn't thought of loosening everything and then moving it around with the hand controller, top idea - cheers :thumbsup:

I hope I don't have to disassemble it, not because it phases me but it will interfere with star time :)

[oska]

Martin you are a champion, a gentleman and a scholar, a thing of beauty and a joy forever! You must get sick of all this hero worship, tough, suck it up.
I tried your suggestion but unfortunately no luck. But you and the prospect of clouds for days had me motivated to fix it so I gave up being polite and spoke to it in American (hit it with a hammer) :lol:

I had to clamp all sorts of steel to the main body so I could mount a mag base and dial gauge. Ignoring the seized screw because it just "push tightens" the "assembly" I cracked the main screws and gave it angel taps from the back with a small nylon mallet, keeping an eye on the clock gauge. Several rounds of tappy-tap and now have no discernible wiggle in dec and no binding.

I think there was 0.12mm on the dial, I really only had it there if I had to back off and wanted a reference for that.

And the offending grub screw is still seized with zero tension on it. I'll "fix" it later, in 5-10 years when it gets a grease and oil change.

Thanks man! :thumbsup:

[Startrek]

John
Good news
Now for some clear nights and testing
You may have to fiddle with the Dec again and some micro binding may still be present
I used my ears ( yes my ears ) to listen to the Dec axis whilst I drove it around both sides using the handcontroller.
It worth spending time on these mounts to get them running and guiding well
Both my mounts guide at 0.50 to 0.60 on nights of good seeing. One carry’s 15kg ( 8” f5 Newt ) and the other 11kg ( 6” f6 Newt )

Good luck with it

Clear Skies
Martin

[ChrisV]

Apologies John
I don't know what I was looking at but those stars are perfectly OK ....

Chris

[oska]

Bugger, I was hoping I was going to learn something but either way it set me off on a tangent that, for now, bore fruit.

Cheers!

[oska]

Thanks Martin. Something you said, dunno what, changed my thinking about the problem from "delicate scientific instrument" to "precision machine" it became "obvious" and "easy", well to my scattered brain. I'll be sure to give it the needed refining first chance.