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Good tip! Thanks!

I mostly make videos about the tools and methods I personally use, and since I don't use some of the suggested tools, it is unlikely that I will get to that. Thank you for the suggestion. I may add an OSC to the mix at some point, so you may see that come along.

Thank you

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Much!

You are welcome! Glad you found it helpful!

You are most welcome! Glad you found it helpful!

Thanks! Me too!

Thanks so much!

Thanks - I didn't want to go with the traditional Black or white...

Thank you 👍

Wow - 100 hours - for me - would be a 3-year project with our weather!

Thanks! I am pretty pumped as well!

Thanks! I am actually setting up my smaller scope on the pad tonight to image!

@@cosgrovescosmos Awesome. I think I'm near the same part of the world as you - I'm just east of Toronto. Can't believe we are getting 4, maybe 5 clear nights in a row. Scope is working overtime!

It is, indeed, LONG over due!

If you take a look at my previous posts, you can see the skyline better. In fact I just had tree work done that removed 7 large trees, 14 smaller trees, and bobbed some other. So it is now much better than it looks here, as my SE, S, SW, and NW horizons are pretty open. I am blocked to the North, but that is OK as the light dome of Rochester is there, and I will get those objects when they are higher in the sky. My East view is blocked by trees, but I can pick up targets as they get 40 degrees of elevation there. Compared to the narrow driveway view from my old place, this is heaven!

You must (have been) rich!

@@mikehardy8247 Well, they say the best way to become a millionaire when doing astrophotography is to start out as a billionaire! That sounds about right! So people retire and buya fishing boat. You know what I am spending my retirement on! 😃😃

Thanks, Pete! Yes, it sure will beat the driveway!!!

Just reading your account is causing the arthritis in my knees, back, and shoulders to flare up! Having done all of that - the rewards must be all the sweeter!

Thank you! Hopefully, everything will move quickly now with little or no surprises!

Thanks much! BTW - Most of my imaging projects on my website have full, detailed, and annotated process walkthroughs if you think that might be helpful to you.

Thanks - I hope all goes smoothly!

Bruce, Thank you so much! I am a bit envious of your 10 acres of clear Texas skies, but I don't think I am as envious of your heat this time of year! Best of luck with your project, and I will keep my fingers crossed on mine. The excavator is due to break ground on Thursday of this week, weather permitting! Clear skies, pat

Thanks so much! I'm pretty excited to get this thing built... finally! :-)

So glad to hear that you found this useful!

Glad I could help!

Thanks for your comment! If you can afford to leave the tilt plate on, this can be a great solution. I was concerned about whether my unmounted 36mm filters would vignette the field, so I wanted to absolutely minimize the distance between the sensor and the filter. I sacrificed the tilt plate and bolted the camera right onto the EFW, as you saw. This has turned out well for me. The mounting is solid, and I have no significant vignetting. I also did not need to use the tilt plate. I also tend not to shift my gear configuration around or change cameras. I treat the camera and EFW as a unit, and bolting them together works well for me. With your approach, you have a much greater ability to change cameras around. And you can use the tilt plate should you need it. The only downside I can see is that the camera can loosen its connection with the EFW and rotate a bit. I have run into this before myself. In the past, I set my scopes up in the driveway each night for imaging, so the rig's movement may have caused this. Clear Skies, Pat

Thanks for your comment. I don't expect it will bind as I am not using two V-groove tracks-just one-to avoid being over-constrained. This was recommended by Jim Collins, who builds the motor system I am using. He has done this for tons of observatories and seemed confident that this was fine. I also had this looked at by a mechanical engineering friend, who recommended placing the drive near the V-groove track.

@@cosgrovescosmos thank you for the explanation. I, of course,am talking to you from Florida . Everything has to be built up to code and I had to contract an engineer to draw my plans so that it is hurricane resistant( up to code); we’re talking 10 x 16 Obsy. I had to use Simpson ties in every corner, floor anchors as well as garage roller tracks in order to keep everything in place and code compliant. Now, if a hurricane comes, I know where to take my family. I hope you’re having half as much fun as I did 😊

I can imagine building such an observatory in an area with hurricanes is a real challenge! Sounds like yours is bomb-proof!

Thanks - yes - getting very close now!

Thank you for your kind words! I really appreciate the feedback!

The dynamic paintbrush, alas, is no longer available or supported. I made another video showing how to use the Clonestamp tool. This can be seen here: th-cam.com/video/t2duU4MOMGU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=2xDudelPSZvfQ7Oz

Definitely not wide enough for what I wanted. But the 500 was not availible at the time anyways while the 400 was - which sealed the deal.

Thank you!

I don't think the 500 was available when I got my 400, but I did want something wider. Right now, the 400 covers about 2X the area of sky my AP130 covers, and my WO132 with a reducer sits smack dap in the middle of those two, so I like my coverage options that way.

Thank you 😁

Thank you for your kind words!

@@cosgrovescosmos oh, more over thank You for yours and for your deeds even more :) :)

Thank you so much! Glad you found it useful!

The Amazon link is shown in short form at the end of each section. If you would prefer clickable links, you can find those in my companion blog for this topic on my website. I added this to the header, but I will include it here as well: cosgrovescosmos.com/observatory/design-track-system-final

Kevan - I am so glad to hear that your observatory is becoming a real thing you can work with! Outstanding! I think I am now done overthinking (I am really obsessing about this) and ready to move on to overthinking my electrical layout! Send me some photos of your project - would love to see it now that it is becoming real!

@@cosgrovescosmos Hi Patrick, I produced a lengthy reply to your last reply, but don’t know where that has gone? Can’t remember what I said now 😂. I will send some photos to you. The observatory build will be finished today. Next jobs for me are roof automation, alarm and CCTV, cabling up everything thing. I’m having cable tray fixed to two walls to keep everything neat.

Sounds great! Can't wait to see it!

Living in an area of too many clouds, it is great to have projects and things related to Astrophotography to work on to keep the juices flowing. There are a lot of things I can do on my own - and have - but mechanical things and metal work are NOT in my tool box. That is where friends come and are willing to help. Having that help and doing a project in more of a team mode make it so much more enjoyable and rewarding! Having a good Man Cave is a must for projects! I'm glad to hear that you've created yours and finished your first project! Congrats! Now that you've started, I'm sure your mind is swirling with possibilities for what to do next! Enjoy!

Thanks so much! Over so much time in planning, it is good to see things happening!

DId not even know they used lasers for creating abrasives - but as I think about it - it makes perfect sense! Thanks Much!

@@cosgrovescosmos not for creating, but for cutting the smaller discs and such like that fit into your home sanders and grinders, from larger sheets..👍🏻

Ahh - I get it now. I suppose using a traditional cutter for that kind of work would be self-defeating - the abrasives on the sheets would always be wearing down the blades. Kind of tough to wear down a light saber!

Oh, and I filled my steel tube with expanding foam to cut down on vibration and ringing.

Great tips! Thanks for sharing it!

I have not head of this option - again - thanks for sharing!

Thanks! You can contact me at Contact@CosgrovesCosmos.com.

Thanks so much! I know that polar alignment and the alt-az adjustments on the mount can compensate for level and such - I was just a little paranoid that the foundation and bolts would go in wrong, and then I was in trouble. And I would be if the error was greater than the alt-az adjustment ability of the mount. So this way, I can tame my paranoia! :-)

An excellent and valid point. It amazes me how many people are convinced that a perfectly level pier is absolutely essential for accurate polar alignment. As you say, it doesn't matter one iota!

Hmmm - not sure what is happening there. ChannelCombination really does not know what you are feeding it when you select the files for the so-called r, g, and b fields. Are you sure you ae grabbing the right tool? You mention "Color Combination" and "CC" - CC usually refers to a color calibration tool, and that one does care about it being an RGB file. ChannelCombination takes 3 mono images and combines them to form a 3-layer color rgb image. If the files you hand it are really S2, Ha, and O3 ( aks SHO), then it will form a color file with those. But the input files must be single-channel mono files.

@@cosgrovescosmos Thank you so much for your answer. Yes I meant Channel combination, CC was just for short. Yes, the files are single channel mono ones in S, H and O respectively.

Very strange - I am not sure why you are running into this problem. I do this all of the time, and in fact, as a sanity check, I just went over and tried it again. Worked without problems. Sorry - I seem to be no help to you for this one!

Great Question! Linearfit sounds like it is used just for linear data. However, the name is really just referencing the numerical methodology used to put the best straight line through the data being modeled. It can do its job as long as there IS a linear relationship between the two data sets (in this case, the reference image pixels compared to the target image pixels). Now - it is more likely to work best in the linear domain as the mere act of stretching introduces nonlinearities. However, that does not mean it is not useful in the nonlinear domain. Some of the areas of nonlinearity are concentrated towards the toe and shoulder of the curve, so by clipping those, we concentrate on the middle portions of the curve, which can be fairly linear. The example workflow shown here is one I had used extensively for NB images. I should point out that BlurXtermintor has caused me to change my workflow. It does its best job when dealing with three color layers at the same time. So, I now create my SHO images in the linear domain, run BXT, and then go nonlinear. When I want to work on individual color channels, I extract them from the color image, enhance that layer, and then recombine them. So, these days, I tend to do this in the linear domain, and linearFIt is used there. But the key takeaway here is that LinearFit can be useful any time you are attempting to combine unlike images. Thanks, Pat