Planetary Imaging

[dusky holly]

[steep apex]

I did wavelets first and then all of the other processing and it did fix it

This is the red channel

[kindred imp]

I did some reading, here is the answer:

[white prawn]

Looks like you and I had similar seeing. Except you have a moon in your shot.

When was this image done?

[steep apex]

Yesterday

[white prawn]

Shortly after me probably by the looks of it.

[steep apex]

Crappy seeing ruined my shot of getting detail on Ganymede

Clouds came as soon as I was done setting up

[white prawn]

Clouds are such a-holes

[thin aspen]

quick snap shot of tonight with much better seeing

[steep apex]

Holy crap did the GRS shrink that much

[thin aspen]

idk did it? i have to check old data

[thin aspen]

Imagine if it disappears

[steep apex]

It will soon

By maybe 2030

[thin aspen]

really that will be sad

wonder if there will be another one

[livid sierra]

Yeah when the GRS disappears it will be replaced by a new and improved GRS 2

It will always face Earth so you can always image it

[kindred imp]

It got leaked in the solar system patch notes from nasa

[dusky holly]

Thoughts?

Seeing was horrible btw

[thin aspen]

nice band detail

[brisk yacht]

I don't see the problem I mean for me it's like good-excellent

[steep apex]

Looks poor in my opinion

[hasty hull]

3-4/10 imo

[cloud copper]

Guys, if I image a planet in all of the color channels separately instead of doing rgb will I get better results

I have a ceres-c camera

Imx224

[coarse aspen]

No

[thick heron]

No

[dark cargo]

not much point in putting RGB filters in front of the camera when it's a colour camera that already has built in RGB filters over the sensor.

Only reason I could think of is using more narrowband colour filters to try and preserve more detail that is ruined by atmospheric disruption. but the price of the filters would probably be higher than an ADC which is what you should actually use to fix that

[steep apex]

Got my IR685nm

[thin aspen]

Nice

[cloud copper]

What does it help with?

[steep apex]

It helps with bad seeing

[cloud copper]

Realy?

Is it expensive?

[steep apex]

Nah cost me like 25 bucks

[cloud copper]

Nice

[steep apex]

the wobbly atmosphere has a less impact on longer wavelengths

[cloud copper]

Is it better than an uv ir cut filter?

[dark cargo]

issue with that is that you get a black and white image, since it blocks everything but the deep reds of the visible colours. It's more of a something you use in combination with a UV-IR cut, where you overlay the colours on the 685 IR image like this. note this is from the product page of the filter and the increase in quality should be taken as fact.

[thin aspen]

Which is superior avi files or ser files

[whole osprey]

Idk

[steep apex]

I’ve never seen anyone use AVI files I think

[brisk yacht]

oh wow dad astra, ethan chappel and tom are all online at the same time

[high hull]

the horsemen

[steep apex]

Now I wanna see Damian online

[brisk yacht]

not even in your dreams ;)

[steep apex]

Time to ping

Nah

UVenus filter arrived

[brisk yacht]

nice

[hasty hull]

Eh I use avi

Are sers smaller or something

[steep apex]

I don't think they matter

[hasty hull]

Fair enough

[livid sierra]

I prefer sers because you can easily view them using ser player

And see the histogram and do some preprocessing like colour balance and stuff like that

[thick heron]

ethan chappen 💀

I’ll embrace it for a little bit.

[brisk yacht]

lol you actually changed your username to "chappen"

[white prawn]

Let us know how it works

[thin aspen]

Sers for me are like 8gb for 90 seconds on Jupiter and was wondering if avi is smaller size but same quality

[unkempt igloo]

Think AVI is slightly bigger, but there is not much in it tbh

[unkempt igloo]

Its worth a purchase Ken

[thick heron]

Chappel? Never heard of him.

Sounds like an imposter to me.

[brisk yacht]

Yeah what do you mean by chappel he was always "ethan chappen"

[jagged fractal]

can anyone suggest what eyepiece i should use for jupiter imaging for my telescope, i have 20mm,12.5mm,4mm and 3x barlow. My telescope specs are as follows:
focal length: 700mm
aperture: 60 ( ik its bad its my first telescope)

[brisk yacht]

12.5 or 20 mm with the barlow because your apeture is so small your jupiter will show no detail if you try anything like 4 mm with 3x

[jagged fractal]

yeah even 4mm with no barlow literally shows no detail at all, it's very blurry and cloudy

[brisk yacht]

you should really get an astro cam

if you wanna image it

[jagged fractal]

im broke, i only have my phone with 50mp camera 😑

thanks for the suggestion tho, bye

my first attempt with 20mm lol

[steep apex]

Yo Damien K joined astrobiscuit

[main flume]

WAIT HE DID

omg he did

I love his stuff bro 😭😭

[steep apex]

Same

[main flume]

Nice

Defo one of my fav planetary imagers

[cloud copper]

Nice, I love his work

[brisk yacht]

I don't really know but he showed up on my youtube main page a few times and he has a 24" scope and a 16" one

And takes very good planetary images

[unkempt igloo]

Thanks guys for the warm welcome 😊

[tawny cave]

oh lol i recognize your name because youtube always sends me notifications recommending me your videos lol

[steep apex]

[unkempt igloo]

Well i hope you enjoy the videos 🤔

[steep apex]

Very nice Orion Nebula you showed earlier

[unkempt igloo]

I have just restacked it and the image is much better, used almost 50% in the video and i think 25% (500 frames) looks best all the surounding stars now sharp.

Also doing a 47 Tucannae right now as well, but my DSO processing is rubbish. Stretch........curves.......sharpen and a little noise if it needs it👍

[steep apex]

Out with my scope and got a couple good vids with good seeing

[somber stratus]

Welcome mate

[unkempt igloo]

Lots of good vibes here that is for sure, thanks Tom it only took me 3 months from you mentioning it🤔

Yes i think i am he haha

Hope you are well

[unkempt igloo]

Clouds for a week? What will you be using it for? Target/ scope combo?

👍 Sounds good but you probably shouldn't have said that last bit out loud🤔

-30 is no joke, have only bee in it a few times

That would be enough though, you are dedicated

😬

Yeah id say like me at +40c

Dont worry its too much for a lot of Aussies as well +>

Not sure cant say i have seen much of a change over the years tbh, I feel like it was hotter when i was younger but that was a while ago now..........unfortunately haha

New blood

They are a pain in the back side

I'm off to bed mate nice to have chatted and i will talk to you again soon.

[white prawn]

Don't know about "there" but "here" in the NE there's usually snow in Nov and if not snow it's consistently freezing temps. 40s and 50s are unheard of for this time of year. Yet this year we've been in the 40's through Christmas; there was a little bit of snow earlier but we're having our first snowstorm now.

[thin aspen]

Does anyone have any idea why this halo has appear in my image. Could it be collimation?

[white prawn]

Might be brightness when acquiring the image. I use SharpCap and set my brightness to 0

[steep apex]

Maybe fogged up lens

[thin aspen]

could be but i hope not as then ill have to buy a dew heater....... another thing

[thin aspen]

also if it was fogged up then wont the whole image be blurry not just a corner?

[white prawn]

Not necessarily. Tilt of the view might emphasize one side more than the other.

[somber stratus]

Either barlow/ADC internal reflection, or collimation. I think it's not less likely to be collimation as the planet itself seems fine and symmetrical. Edge rind on the right is normal with the current phase.

Also the fact the ghost image looks larger than Jupiter itself, so again points towards a kind of internal reflection with what is essentially a different focal length when it reaches the sensor

[thin aspen]

I think it would be the Barlow as I don’t have an adc. How could I fix the internal reflections in the Barlow?

[somber stratus]

Could also be the filter. Try placing the UV/IR cut on the front of the barlow instead. Or if you already do this, maybe try attaching it to the camera nosepiece, after the barlow.

And check for dew build up as someone previously mentioned

[thin aspen]

Ahhh, that’s the issue, I have the uv ir cut on the camera not the Barlow

Thanks for your help

[steep apex]

First IR test, can't wait for some good seeing for a really sharp image

[proper oyster]

My first attemp with my zwo camera and 8inch newt

Thru a small snow storm

[unkempt igloo]

Nice work 👍 , Do you have a filter on the camera (UV/IR Cut)?

[proper oyster]

I dont even own 1 filter

[unkempt igloo]

That is why you have a funny colour balance, save up for a ZWO UV/IIR cut fiter. Its very cheap and very good and will also improve your focussing due to IR and Visible light not focusing at the same point 👍

[proper oyster]

Tho i have nothing to hold the filter but imma chdck if there somme on stock somme where

[unkempt igloo]

it will screw into the nosepiece of the camera

[steep apex]

Did you use a Barlow?

[proper oyster]

Nope

[steep apex]

You should also consider getting one on top of the UV/IR Cut

[proper oyster]

Imma try next time with a barlow if i can

[unkempt igloo]

That is 2" by the way, you only need 1.25" so it will be cheaper again

Opps sorry misread on the picture

[proper oyster]

Tho that wont be in a few month since dumb weather

[steep apex]

Hopefully I’ll have good seeing conditions today

[proper oyster]

I could bzck out rn and retry with the barlow but i almost got froozen in the -17c

[unkempt igloo]

Not worth it now, that was a good start and its time to regroup. We learned something and now next time you will put it into action. If you do that everytime you will be ripping out beautiful images in no time. Not to say that image is not beautiful🤔

[proper oyster]

This was also a 400 photo stack

So there wasnt alots

I normaly use the moon to get my focal point right

Ans then after that i point my stuff to other thing

But this time the moon wasnt there

[unkempt igloo]

It will be easier to focus when you use the barlow. At native FL of the 8" dob you will not get much detail, but that will change when you use the Filter and 2x barlow

[proper oyster]

My scope is a 200/1000mm

[steep apex]

Went out and took my 4.5” to see if the seeing conditions were good and it was good, shortly after the clouds noticed

[thin aspen]

Is that with 685 nm filter?

Looks pretty crispy

[sharp ridge]

I may need to try this tks

[somber stratus]

You don’t have this issue though?

[sharp ridge]

Well sometimes for saturn

It pops up occasionally, even with perfect collimation

[unkempt igloo]

Thats strange Ken, i noticed it on the 24" and Tom and i were talking about it 3 or 4 months ago. I was thinking maybe thermals/ cooldown on the big mirror in winter (but i believe you said you don't have this issue due to small temp swings at night). Then i bought a new UV/IR cut filter because i thought i bay have rubbed off the coatings ? Haven't had a clear night since i got the filter Hahaha. Damo

[thin aspen]

I’m going to try put the filter on the Barlow instead tonight as it should be clear but can’t confirm in England

[unkempt igloo]

Let use know how you went?

[nova delta]

My brother sent me this video and I’m just wondering… how?!

[lunar hamlet]

Does your friend believe in it? If so, I don’t think he’s doing alright

[steep apex]

Advertisement for crazy fast?

[obsidian jolt]

First pictures i made of anything at all its all but good didnt really prepare anything no stand for the camera and forgot to focus but jupiter (in the picture) is just a bright dot why is that?

[oak shale]

Focus first, then try to lower the gain and maybe exposure time.

[thin aspen]

whats your guys opinion on RGB align in autostakkert yes or no

[nova delta]

He doesn’t know much about Astro

[nova delta]

You see the “paid partnership” in the bottom left?

[craggy wasp]

I stacked my first jupiter image! (I took it with my cellphone)

[obsidian jolt]

How do i lower the gain (this picture i showed is unedited btw)

[oak shale]

Is it on a DSLR or planetary cam? And what software are you using?

[lunar hamlet]

NOOOOOOOOO, ur friend disappoints me

[dusky holly]

rgb align doesnt work for me, so i would rather try rggb

[dark cargo]

yes keep it ticked, since the atmosphere splits the colours up a bit it will align each rgb colour channel so they all overlap properly. You do lose some resolution as it doesn't fully fix it, but its the best option unless you use something like the zwo adc to fix it in hardware.

eg raw capture vs rgb align raw stack. the blue and reddish sides disappear.

[dark cargo]

Looks like you are using a dslr and pushing the button to take the picture vibrates the entire scope. To fix it you can add a 2s delay(not sure about your camera but have a look in the manual. usually left arrow on canon cams) or use a shutter wire.

[dark cargo]

also if you are using a canon cam try using a laptop with eos camera movie record to record the liveview at 5x zoom for proper sampling. Usually DSLR video doesn't capture 1 pixel from the sensor into 1 pixel on the video which messes up the details a bit, always try to capture the video with a resolution where the planet stays the same or closest size as in a picture.

[white prawn]

Wireless intervalometer FTW.

[obsidian jolt]

Yea true was already planning on doing a delay this was just a bit to see how it works and Everything

[obsidian jolt]

Thanks

[thin aspen]

Thanks

[normal forge]

Anyone here doing lunar imaging with a Dobson and can share some of his/her best results? ❤️

[thin aspen]

Heres one I did in the morning with a 10inch

[cloud copper]

Haleluia

It’s going to be -10c

[dark cargo]

This is my favorite one, literally just 6 raw pictures stacked together using the 600D + 8" dob.

[livid sierra]

Did you just dox yourself

[slate juniper]

Would be weird if someone would rlly visit him xdddd

[livid sierra]

Still not a good idea to just dox yourself like that

[sharp ridge]

eh its not accurate enough to do anything

we just know hes some random town in romania

[tiny topaz]

I mean people put their general location into the #🤖-ask-a-bot when looking for their weather

[cloud copper]

Eh, if someone from this server wanted to get my location they would by now

[brisk yacht]

Really unless you know the exact house they live in you can't really do much

[livid sierra]

It’s at its highest at the meridian so less atmosphere to look through so yeah

[lament turtle]

Hi guys
i was just checking if the red spot for jupiter was visible for tonight on stellarium but when i looked on the computer app it showed it was but on the phone app it does not show it yet. Anyone know which one i should follow so i would be able to image the great red spot.

[livid sierra]

The phone app should always be accurate

As far as I'm aware

[kindred imp]

Check your computer is actually set to your right location, sometimes it's not for various reasons. I always trust my phone though

[white prawn]

@livid sierra @kindred imp beh, you guys with your "either-or" ... I check 3 different apps on about 5 devices. Get with the program. Sheesh. 😁 😆

FWIW if the program or app is locating you correctly, it shouldn't matter what's used. I use Stellarium web as well as the program and app, it spots me so I know when I'll see the red spot.

[livid sierra]

If you have the app set to your correct location, which is really simple, it should display the GRS correctly

In the PC version there’s a setting for GRS timing to set it correctly yourself, so on PC it can be inaccurate if it’s not set accurately

So not necessary to check 3 different apps on 5 devices to know when the GRS is up imo

[white prawn]

Agreed, I was trying to be funny.

[lament turtle]

Ah okay thanks guys

[livid sierra]

Oh I was not aware

[white prawn]

Though I won't necessarily deny that I have multiple apps on multiple devices solely for the sake of convenience

[thin aspen]

Hi guys I’ve seeming people like Jerry use fl of 5400mm with his 10inch dob, Uranus C and 3x Barlow. I was wondering if that means I’m undersampled as I’m only using roughly 3600mm. Should I extend the Barlow to get to 5400mm or only do this when it’s good seeing

[cursive inlet]

@livid sierra congrats on meganerd!

[hasty hull]

What scope do u use?

[thin aspen]

10inch dob 1200mm

204mm aperture

I mean 254 srry

[livid sierra]

Ayy thanks man

[cursive inlet]

How’s the weather been like in the Netherlands for you? I’ve gotten a total of 2 clear nights here in Lithuania during the past 3 months and both of them were 1/5 seeing.

I’m loosing my mind

I know it’s cliché for astrophotographers to complain about the weather but this is seriously driving me insane

[livid sierra]

Not great either but not as bad as you from what it seems

I’ve had a few sessions in November and December, though none were outstanding at all

And I just had four clear nights in a row during three of which I was able to go out and do some imaging

But again seeing was average, nothing to write home about

Also it was very cold, -7°C

My last session before those was December 17th

[cursive inlet]

It was -22c two nights ago for me 😂

[heavy mirage]

Instead of an extender I use an ADC to get up to 5400mm. A simple extender doesn't solve the problem of atmospheric dispersion. The higher the FL the greater the effects of atmosphere

[livid sierra]

Damn that's painful. Maybe better that it's cloudy lol because I can't imagine sitting outside in that temperature can be any fun

[cursive inlet]

Perhaps. I remember last year during Mars’s opposition I was capturing during similar conditions and was running inside every 10 minutes and putting my hands on the radiator to not get frostbite lmao

Shit was like a sport

[livid sierra]

Lol

Yeah that's what I'm doing with -7C

Although last two sessions I was sitting in my neighbour's backyard, much better horizon, but it's a little far to walk to my house during imaging so I just walked around the backyard for like 2,5 hours to get warm lmao

[thin aspen]

Ah ok I see thanks Jerry. Maybe I’ll try get that next… more money 💵

[high hull]

result for 2 days ago

[steep apex]

Can someone get me a not horrific skies

Right now the wind is blowing 20+ mph gusts

It’s been doing this for a couple of days

[somber stratus]

Where you based?

I’ve had the same

[steep apex]

Hawaii

We’re getting some nasty Low pressure stuff right now

[white prawn]

I'm really sorry guys, I expected local weather not national weather. And all I did was get a minipc and update my laptop (larger system drive, switched storage from 1TB HDD to 2TB HDD). I didn't even get the onstep yet.

[steep apex]

Were getting tons of crap clouds and low pressure systems sent towards us

This is the 2nd one, much smaller but much closer

Man I need to work on processing

[steep apex]

Yes mostly that

But El Niño

[thin aspen]

This doesnt make sense to me, im looking at the planetary book i got and googling online and it says im significantly oversampling using a 3x barlow with a 10inch 1200mm dob with 2.9um pixel size.

It says using no barlow would be better

[somber stratus]

This calculator assumes that optimal sampling is such that 1 pixel covers the Rayleigh diffraction limit I think. In reality, you should aim for 3-4 pixels to cover the diffraction limit, as only 1 pixel can't "resolve" any detail that is the size of the diffraction limit if that makes sense.

For example if your diffraction limit is the size of a coin, you'll need more than just 1 pixel to resolve the coin.

Here's 1800mm (Native f/4.4) vs 8770mm (3x+ADC f/21.5) with my scope.

Same night, similar conditions

[thick heron]

The CCD Suitability calculator is not suitable for planetary imaging. It assumes long exposures which will be blurred by seeing.

[somber stratus]

that too

[thick heron]

Whereas we are trying to catch moments where seeing is not blurring the image.

[thin aspen]

cool thanks, im just going to have dinner then ill try understand it. Cant think when hungry xD

[steep apex]

Yesterday was 50+

But I now finally have clear skies

[thin aspen]

Is diffraction limit like when a star is perfectly in focus (being the smallest point off light possible)?

[somber stratus]

Yeah it's essentially the smallest thing that a scope can resolve. Linear with aperture.

[thin aspen]

ah ok

in the book it looks like it takes that into account and it says that 0.24"/photosite is optimal but i dont know if that data is using a 2.9um sensor as reference

Has a good picture in the book

[thin aspen]

would i be be worth then extending my FL even more even though it says im oversampled

[high hull]

no

[fading plume]

The ccd suitability calculator? Yes.

You want to run 7x your pixel size as your ideal F/ratio

That ends up matching the 4 pixel rule thing

[unkempt igloo]

Yes, the 7x your pixel size is the optimal F ratio to image at but 5x and 4x will still be ok as well. Look at it like 2.9um pixels x 7 = F20.3

5x 2.9um is F14.5 , even a little less is ok but just not ideal.

Most people will be able to get close to the mark with a 3x Barlow then ADC and then camera because usually with most barlows the further away from the top surface of the barlow you move the camera the more magnification you will get.

[somber stratus]

Yup. 5x for red light, 7x for blue. But oversampling is better than undersampling, so it's best to sample the blue correctly at 7x pixel size. That's how I reason it.

[unkempt igloo]

As always mate we are on the same page

[somber stratus]

I used to run 8770mm f/21.5 with my old ADC, but the newer ZWO one i picked up is a little stubbier, and works out at 8070mm f/19.9

[unkempt igloo]

I think my favorite ever Saturn was shot at F16, i always wonder what would have been at f20

Ok thats very very close to my 16 now and the Siebert optics barlow, winjupos said 8200mm

Your scope F4.4 and mine is F4.55

[steep apex]

My new processing way (left) with same data set

[unkempt igloo]

Nice improvement, i have always said your processing skills is the easiest way to find improvement in planetary imaging👌

[unkempt igloo]

About 2.5 years ago Tom rightly asked about the size discrepancy between the Jupiter and Saturn in this image ? (because i had said same image train). After 20 minutes i worked out it was due to how close to opposition they were each image imaged. So i looked for Saturn closer to Opposition to compare

The only one i could find was this, i didn't like it very much🤔

Then after 15 different trial and error sessions it turned into this, practice friends practice..........thanks Tom 👍

and Yes it was a much closer match for size 👌

[steep apex]

[sharp ridge]

To be honest I like the original more, although some tweaking is required

[thick heron]

Agreed. Looks like the dark areas were clipped to black on the new version.

[white prawn]

How's this?

[thin aspen]

Just found an 18inch stargate not goto for £1250. Good or bad

[unkempt igloo]

Thanks for the honesty Ken. This isn't what it would look like if i had another go at it now, i am still learning even now. That "attempt" at processing was 2.5 years ago about half a year into my first ownership of a planetary camera and it hasn't been touched since. And the tweaking required was the point of the whole process, if you put these 2 images down in front of 100 people as they are now they would all pick the second image without doubt (clipped blacks and all). The point of the post was to continue to try and find improved ways to process your images and all your images will be better for it. Damo

[unkempt igloo]

Hi Ethan, the blacks were 100% clipped because even 2.5 years ago i still didn't know that much about processing. There is plenty wrong with that image to be honest i am the first to admit it. I am not someone who thinks his work is above any form of criticism and i gladly welcome new points of view. That image was put together with Registax, Winjupos and Gimp. Two of those programs i don't use anymore, i am sure you could easily work out which ones. Anyway mate thanks for the feedback and i look forward to many more conversations here, all the best. Damo 👍

[tawny cave]

makes me think of that time a couple of months ago i got a 16inch dob for like 375$

1250 is still a good deal tbh

bc the quality is way better than mine and it sells for like 5999usd new

[hasty hull]

actual robbery

[tawny cave]

and it came with a moonlite cr2 focuser

only problem is the mirror has a small missing part and isn’t clean, and also the telescope is pretty cheaply made, but still a steal

i got this with my phone through it so it still works well lol

[white prawn]

For the missing mirror part I would have asked the guy to kick the decimal a couple spots left.

[tawny cave]

would be 37.5$

[white prawn]

I might be generous and round up to $40

[tiny topaz]

Wait not to sound weird but did you get this off Facebook marketplace? As I swear I saw a scope exactly like that and I was debating getting it

[tawny cave]

yup i did

close to montreal

maybe its the same lol

[tiny topaz]

No way that’s so funny that’s the same one I was looking at but I couldn’t get it because my car was too small and it was tough to communicate to the guy selling it as I’m not fluent with French anymore

[tawny cave]

no way lol, i dont even have a car but my friend was able to drive me there

it actually fit

i mean i dmd the guy 15min after he posted the ad, i really got lucky

[tiny topaz]

Damn that’s so lucky lol, I mean you really couldn’t have passed up on that deal though. And true I think anyone who saw that would’ve been all over it including myself

[tawny cave]

i rarely look on marketplace too, it was just a coincidence that i looked when the ad was posted and im glad i did

[tiny topaz]

Fair enough, and I’m curious how much of a difference does such a big scope make? In both visual and or while capturing

[tawny cave]

i live close to montreal so i couldnt tell you due to light pollution, but i own a 8inch f5 newt and i feel like the view through the 16inch is a bit better but 2x more zoomed

[white prawn]

Big

[tawny cave]

i havent tried it that much tho as its a pain to mount everytime and now it snows

[tiny topaz]

Yeah have you been getting hit heavily recently with snow, I know in kingston the last few days have been crazy for bad weather

[tawny cave]

i did take those with my phone real quick last time

[tawny cave]

lol 5mins ago:

[tiny topaz]

Damn the Jupiter and moon videos are crazy especially for just a phone recording and what nebula is that?

[tawny cave]

the orion nebula

ive seen it from a bortle 5 through a 14inch celestron telescope and that was like 10x better

[tiny topaz]

Literally last night, the light pollution is so bad

[tawny cave]

it looked like that video (a bit better), but in black and white

[tawny cave]

bortle 8 sucks lol

[tawny cave]

(its sending)

[tiny topaz]

Yeah probably due to the darker skies which i hope to get out to as soon as school lets up a little

[tawny cave]

i will too when it gets less cold out there

but im hoping to image planets with the 16inch and my deepsky camera soon

[tiny topaz]

Damn I really need to upgrade my equipment especially after seeing those pictures, and is the first one with a phone? Because that’s crazy good

[tawny cave]

yup it is

i mean the view was insane too

[tiny topaz]

And let me know when you do the images will come out so nice, I’m trying to manage with my 8” but I just got the 585mc but haven’t got to use it yet

[tiny topaz]

Damn now I might have to invest in a 16” lol, and what’s the f ratio for the scope?

[tawny cave]

yessir i will, ive imaged with my 8inch newt once and it came out like that, im not too happy with the result but ill take it

[tawny cave]

f5

and theyre pretty expensive lol

[tiny topaz]

I mean that’s better than mine, I’ve been rocking with my iPhone 11 and orion XT8 dob but hopefully the astrocam will help

[tawny cave]

it will for sure

[tiny topaz]

Oh okay so good for both DSO and planetary and I know, they retail for roughly $2000+ I think right? Maybe closer to 2500

[tawny cave]

it depends, i do know the goto versions go for like 5k

theyre good for dso only if you have tracking

[tiny topaz]

Let’s hope so lol🤞

[tawny cave]

for planetary you can manage without

[tawny cave]

usually big scopes like those are used for visual purposes

but that really depends

[tiny topaz]

True but have a try using the AstroShader app on your phone it will do long exposures and also stack the image for you, it’s not perfect but it helped me with my image of Orion

[tawny cave]

i got a deepsky setup so its fine

i got that not long ago

we're getting a bit out of this channel's subject

[tiny topaz]

Oh damn I guess all you need is a dedicated solar scope and then you’ll have the whole sky covered

[tawny cave]

im working on that lol, hopefully one day

[tiny topaz]

I’m sure it’s alright for one image lol but I wish I could get to that level of imaging, hopefully in the not so distant future

[tiny topaz]

Right on lol that’s sick, would be really nice too to have that before the solar eclipse

[tawny cave]

you will for sure i started a couple of months ago, and lets not forget that there are people here like ken or tom go crazy in planetary, and many other people get super good dso images so theres always potential

[tawny cave]

dont know if this is appropriate for this channel since the sun isnt a planet, but i got this with my phone https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1094785164829278238/1162814235206754344/IMG_6340.png?ex=65b546a5&is=65a2d1a5&hm=9a1709ef89d444b84f58b3a31013f095b2f085f51da5ac82e2bca5b0f0c721e1&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=460&height=674

[tiny topaz]

True but the only issue is I’d have to invest in a DSO setup as my dob isn’t on a tracking mount or eq mount.

[tiny topaz]

How did you get so much solar detail? Mine just come out as white dots likely due to my filter

[tawny cave]

its pretty expensive

[tawny cave]

it was through someones solar telescope which has a hydrogen alpha filter at my local observatory

and thats pretty expensive

[tiny topaz]

Just check now and they’re around ($250-350) depending on where you buy which is nuts and I wish my school would use their observatory more. They have I think a c11 edge or something like that and they basically don’t use it from what I know

[tawny cave]

you can also pay 115k for a 12inch solar telescope

jokes aside, theyre like around 1k depending on the size

[tiny topaz]

I couldn’t imaging just making that purchase, like that’s way too much for what advantages lol. Like if you know Astrofalls I think he was selling a calendar and was making the joke that if 40,000 people bought it he could get a $1mil telescope which I think was 40”

[tawny cave]

if i was a millionaire id buy it tbh

[tiny topaz]

I think most people on here would lol

[steep apex]

Who replaced my weather with the UK weather

I got 50+ wind gusts + heavy rain

[fossil schooner]

i got that same thing but snow instead of rain and literally -30 degree F windchill (im from america i use fahrenheit thats how i was taught dont make fun of me for it)

[steep apex]

I will steal back my weather tomorrow

Hopefully with good seeing too

[white prawn]

We'll forgive you.

[steep apex]

What about meeeeeeeeeeeeeee

What about meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[white prawn]

Same.

Just ... no promises about weather. The couple of clear skies I've had recently were with clouds hovering at the side and seeing was awful.

[signal holly]

at least its not your summer

[brisk yacht]

Can somebody help me

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1197244365194678412

[white prawn]

I feel slightly better about the way Io is colored in my images of Jupiter; it's always yellowish-red. Turns out that's Io's color.

[zealous smelt]

Hello people, I have a question regarding file management. Is there any risk in copying planetary AVIs to a USB flash drive? I just stuffed my laptop with 177 gigabytes of new data, so I’d like to copy them over and then delete from my laptop, but I’m wondering if that’ll compress or otherwise harm the files? I’m using a high quality Samsung USB flash drive.

It’s a temporary solution. I got way more data than I was expecting, now there’s only 19 gigabytes left on my laptop

[high hull]

assuming the flash drive doesn't die (yeouch that would suck) no

[main flume]

and the muen

[alpine willow]

?

Oh

[coarse aspen]

Itll work as long as the drive is formatted to take big files

FAT32 is limited to 4gb files max

Format it to NTFS

[zealous smelt]

The default was exFAT. My two options are exFAT and NTFS. Is NTFS still preferable? (Sorry, I’m not familiar with any of this)

[coarse aspen]

yes

[zealous smelt]

Ok thanks

[thin aspen]

anyone got a moon full disk image from last night. Im doing a big mosaic and missing this part

nvm i think i found it luckily

[thin aspen]

Just to see what the missing part looked like so I could find it in my data cause it could have been a black spot being so close to the middle.

[livid sierra]

Stellarium is your friend ;)

Nice mosaic btw

[thin aspen]

Has anyone had any experience with the skywatcher satellite tracking? Do you have to be extra careful with alignment

[livid sierra]

You align it to North, it takes some figuring out how to get it closest to 0° as possible since Polaris is not always exactly at 0° of course

It helps to be as accurate as possible but you can make adjustments with the HC while the telescope is tracking the ISS

[kind orchid]

1800mm and 4x barlow will work for jupiter?

that would be f/48

[livid sierra]

F/48 is really high, unless you have a camera with 7um pixels

I take it you have a 150mm aperture, if you have one a 2x Barlow would be more suitable

[oak shale]

Finally getting somewhere with the mak

Doing a mosaic now

[thick heron]

Latest beta for Green Swamp Server, an ASCOM driver for Sky-Watcher mounts, supports alt-az mounts.

[heavy mirage]

Can't decide which one I like more. The color is really nice on top but details are better on bottom. Might try somewhere in between.

[fading plume]

Try a luminance blend

[heavy mirage]

Like IR + RGB

?

Ah you mean bottom as luminance, top as color

[fading plume]

lum blend should apply the detail contrast to the one with better colours

[thin aspen]

is this with the 10inch?

[heavy mirage]

Yes

[livid sierra]

Bottom one looks better overall imo

[thin aspen]

niceee, I wish I could get a shot that good

saturn is too low here :((

[heavy mirage]

Thanks!

[heavy mirage]

Your shots are great, just spend some money on an adc and stay patient for good seeing. This was shot at around 30 degrees altitude, and the seeing wast exceptional but fairly good for that altitude

[oak shale]

What a work.. getting somewhere though

[thin aspen]

Are you doing a big mosaic too

[wispy pagoda]

I've resolved ganymede

For the first time

Callisto actually

[steep apex]

[oak shale]

Yes wanted to try. Just eyeballed the panels so I hope it's complete

How do you edit it? And how far Are you

[oak shale]

As in progress

[thin aspen]

Download Microsoft ICE to align them for you, it’s a great tool for mosaics

[oak shale]

Hey yes I know about it. Thanks

Autostitch works as well

Almost finished

Just missing a tiny bit right bottom. Hope I can find it

[fading plume]

I’d just fill that in

[thin aspen]

Nice looks good

[oak shale]

thanks, almost finished now.

[thin aspen]

How many panels?

[oak shale]

way too much

about 40, but overlapped a lot so wouldnt need them all. just shot them in case of

are you working with gimp or photoshop for finishing touches?

not sure how to make these edges nice and pretty

[thin aspen]

I used photoshop but I think gimp should work. My edges turned out ok luckily so I didn’t have to fix anything there.

[oak shale]

ah i see, i suck at gimp. but i fixed it with help from some tutorials

want to share your image?

here is mine so far, still some artifacts here and there but im pretty happy with it overall

especially on the top side it looks a bit off

[oak shale]

how though?

[wispy pagoda]

Content aware fill in photoshop maybe?

[oak shale]

Would feel like cheating for me

[wispy pagoda]

Yeah I understand, I wouldn't mind too much as it's such a small area

You can also try to fill it with some of your old images or even retake the panel but I guess you'll need to fiddle a bit so that it doesn't look off

[oak shale]

Nah that's right. But still feels wrong haha

[oak shale]

Luckily I wasn't polar aligned and with every recording the fov drifted a bit. Found a recording where it covered the missing piece

[thin aspen]

Mines already in solar system pics here #older_system_pics message

[wispy pagoda]

Yep I definitely understand haha

I had a similar issue a while ago, one panel had weird noise patterns

On the middle of the terminator

[oak shale]

Oh sorry didn't know. But wow! Great job

[thin aspen]

Same I had that too slightly, I think it might be frame quality

[thin aspen]

Thx, yours looks great too. What equipment did u use?

[oak shale]

Oh yes I see, did you fix it? This is quite similar. Very dim though. No idea why that happens

[oak shale]

Bresser 127/1900 mak with a svbony 305 pro

I also have the explore scientific 2x focal extender but didn't use it for this. I think I will try it with my 130pds / D5300 sometime

[oak shale]

Can't beat a 10 inch dob though 😉

[wispy pagoda]

No unfortunately

I took it when I just started ap so I didn't had enough knowledge at the time to fix it

Haven't done a new mosaic since, now that I think about it I should try again with my 10" dob

[oak shale]

With @thin aspen mosaic in mind I would definitely do that 🙂

Have goto on the 10 inch as well?

[wispy pagoda]

Nope but I atleast have an eq platform

[cloud copper]

Guys, what is the best way to get the most amount of precision out of a laser colimator with this tipe of focuser? The one with 2 adaptors

[thin aspen]

I would say move the focuser to the home position and tighten the screws how you would tighten them when using an eyepiece. Also make sure the laser collimator is collimated

[coarse aspen]

don't use lasers

[cloud copper]

To late

[wispy pagoda]

Anyone knows a good tutorial on how to align the focuser?

[main flume]

and to collimate the laser collimator you need a laser collimator

[near quiver]

laser collimators are excellent in theory only

[main flume]

yes

[whole osprey]

Wait you need to collimate a the laser collimator?

[steep apex]

Yeah

[whole osprey]

Do you need to collimate the laser collimator, to collimate the laser collimator?

[white prawn]

Collimation-ception ... a reason to not do laser collimation

[steep apex]

No

Astrobiscuit had a good example on how to collimate a laser collimator https://youtu.be/KkX_MHpqozE?si=I3qO-5lysTii_K1C

[cloud copper]

What is the best and the most accurate way to collimate a telescope without a laser

[steep apex]

Chester Collimating Eyepiece I would say

[whole osprey]

Ok thanks, I’ll watch that.

[cloud copper]

Guys isn’t the zwo715mc better that zwo585mc at planetary because it has a much smaller pixel size?

[main flume]

iodunew

[dark cargo]

The pixel size is nice but not the most important part, larger pixel size means you just need a bigger barlow to get to the same sampling. The 585 does have a better readnoise and a lot more dynamic range due to the larger fullwell.

But the 715 is nice since it gets you to the maximum sampling with F10 scopes without using any barlows.

[fading plume]

Go for a Uranus C, nice to have larger sensor vs the 715

[somber stratus]

Like LMC said, Uranus-C is probably better. Slap a 2x barlow on, and you've got what is effectively a 715 anyway.

Extra FOV is nice to have at native FL, for ISS imaging among other things.

[wispy pagoda]

Nice seeing rn

[cloud copper]

Wow, very good seeing

[thin aspen]

looking forward to see the results, looks amazing

[whole osprey]

Still cloudier than a smoker lungs where I am.

[wispy pagoda]

Sadly I think it won't be that good as I didn't had the time to do a proper collimation as I did a lot of work on my scopes structure

[thin aspen]

scopes structure? like the trusses?

[somber stratus]

Where you based? France?

[wispy pagoda]

My secondary's support doesn't have back and forth movement and it's not well centered with the focuser so I had to drill new holes for the focuser

[wispy pagoda]

Yep, not super far away from the Pic du Midi

Watching in the eyepiece at 400x mag gave a basically perfectly still view

[somber stratus]

Nice, I'm guessing near sea-level though.

[wispy pagoda]

Unfortunately yes :/

[somber stratus]

haha

looks good though

nice azores high

[wispy pagoda]

Had a chance to image at a high altitude in the Alpes but it was with my heritage so not that good...

[somber stratus]

Should push north for us in the UK hopefully. Bit 50/50 whether we get high or low pressure next week.

[somber stratus]

You should definitely go again once you eventually succumb to aperture fever

Looks like you should have similar seeing for the whole of this coming week. Make the most of it.

[wispy pagoda]

Haha yes

Unfortunately it will be quite cloudy at night...

[somber stratus]

rip

[wispy pagoda]

Just noticed my secondary's collimation is really bad 😬

[somber stratus]

Time to fix :)

[wispy pagoda]

It's quite hard to go from two totally different collimation systems though

[somber stratus]

What are you using now?

[wispy pagoda]

Explore scientific's 10" ultralight

I don't know what to think of the secondary holder, it has some benefits but it's also hard to control

There is no central screw, you have to do everything adjusting the spider

[somber stratus]

Looks silly on this image

yeah

That's a stupid system

Similar to Lyaphine's 20" Dob actually

No centre screw

[wispy pagoda]

Ig it's more beginner friendly but it's a shame to have this issue on big scopes

[somber stratus]

I would argue it's not even beginner friendly either

Just a pain

My Dob has this layout. Definitely among the best.

[wispy pagoda]

Btw I ordered some collimation equipment! An autocollimator and a tri bahtinov mask

[wispy pagoda]

Yeah What I like is you don't need Allen keys but that's it

[somber stratus]

Suppose.

[wispy pagoda]

Looks good indeed

The heritage's is actually quite good too

[thin aspen]

Poivre do you use lucky imaging for your deep sky images cause I was thinking of trying but don’t know how well it will work on dim targets like some galaxies.

[somber stratus]

Truth be known I haven't touched my secondary in almost a year. It's kept collimation very well. Primary I've had to adjust though.

[wispy pagoda]

The problem is the focuser a studry as wet spaghetti

Also the primary holder of the ultralight is horrful

There's just a small scratch holding the primary and it almost fell twice

Collimation changes quite dramatically with the altitude

[cloud copper]

What do you guys use for primary mirror collimation

Because I can’t get it collimated

And I broke my laser colimator(I wasn’t even that good tho so 🤷🏻‍♂️)

@wispy pagoda

[wispy pagoda]

Ouch
If you manage to repair it, have you tried collimating the laser itself?

They actually need that

The collimation cap works well if you have a central spot, it's not necessarily good enough to get the most of your scope but it's simple, cheap and it works

[cloud copper]

No, I don’t think that I will manage to fix it, I will try tho

Will it be precise enough?

[wispy pagoda]

You can also startest (SLIGHTLY defocus a star and check if the diffraction circles are well concentric)

[wispy pagoda]

The laser or the collimation cap?

Barlowed laser is also quite good I believe

[cloud copper]

Laser

[wispy pagoda]

I don't have much experience with them, as far as I can tell they work but they are not extremely precise

What do you want the collimation for? Visual or photography?

[cloud copper]

Planetary photography

[white prawn]

I disagree. Bottom one is better for color and details, hands down. Might be a bit dark but it's less smudgy

[cloud copper]

I had my telescope well colimated a few weeks after I bought it, but somehow a chunk of wet dirt got on to my primary mirror and I had to take it out

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5504632

Will this be precise enough?

For planetary

[wispy pagoda]

Cheshire are more designed for the secondary

Have you tried with a simple collimation cap first?

[livid sierra]

I use a simple collimation cap for both secondary and primary

Like 5 pounds on FLO

Tom does too as far as I'm aware

[wispy pagoda]

Yeah it's usually enough

For deep sky at really high focal ratios you need more but otherwise you don't really need fancy tools

[cloud copper]

And you can get perfect collimation with it?

[cloud copper]

I need it for planetary at about f 20 something

[livid sierra]

Although I will sometimes check my collimation on a star with the reticle in FC

[wispy pagoda]

As you don't need to buy anything to make a collimation cap, I suggest you try and then make a star test to see wether you need a better tool

[cloud copper]

I do that sometimes too, but it’s hard to keep it in the field of view at fl1500 and 1300x900

[livid sierra]

True handtracked it's a pain

[wispy pagoda]

*when I said high fl ratio I meant low number

[cloud copper]

Yea I got that XD

[wispy pagoda]

Oh hell yeah, untracked is a pain

[cloud copper]

I will eventually build an eq platform, but it’s hard and I’m lazy

[wispy pagoda]

Another simple elegant solution is the tribathinov mask

[cloud copper]

What’s that

[wispy pagoda]

You can easily check the collimation and it's possible to use it to change it also I think it's quite a pain

[cloud copper]

This is with a 12”

[cloud copper]

I was a bit out of collimation

[cloud copper]

And I think that I is quite expensive for a 12”

[wispy pagoda]

It's a variant of the bahtinov mask designed for primary collimation

You can make it yourself though

[cloud copper]

I have a 3d printer but I would have to print it in separate pieces

Does the collimation cap need a reflective surface?

I could print it

And is a 2” one better?

[wispy pagoda]

It's better but not necessary

[wispy pagoda]

If you're gonna use a 1.25" camera, then you better use a 1.25" one I think

But there's probably almost no difference

First quick process

I didn't do justice to the seeing...

[livid sierra]

I have this too btw, with my scope

I can’t move the secondary up or down relative to the primary, and it’s not perfectly centred under the focuser

[wispy pagoda]

Oh ok

Have you found a solution?

[livid sierra]

Or at least I can’t figure out a way, I’ve loosened all 4 screws that hold the secondary and have done all sorts of gymnastics with it and it will do everything except go up or down

It’s not terribly off centre so I don’t think it’s much of a problem. Although I would still love to be able to fix it somehow

Don’t know how badly yours is off centre?

[wispy pagoda]

about 5mm

It's really bad at f5

I first tilted the focuser so it can be centered (which created some other issues but at least it was well centered) and I've just drilled the tube to move the focuser enough

Ig it works but it's not a pretty solution...

[livid sierra]

But apart from that your secondary/primary collimation looks good? As in, your secondary looks like a nice circle through the focuser and the primary is centred under the secondary?

[livid sierra]

Well not right now, as is apparent from your image, but can it be done with how the secondary sits atm

[wispy pagoda]

I have no problem with the primary collimation, I startested it twice and all the rings looked really concentric and I even saw hints of an airy disk but the secondary alignement is not the same story...

It's not too bad but it could definitively be better

[wispy pagoda]

Yeah what's weird is that in the collimation cap it looks pretty good (at least better than what I ever had with the heritage) but the image don't agree

[livid sierra]

Can you share an image through the collimation cap?

[wispy pagoda]

Sorry I've tidied it up

[livid sierra]

Np, feel free to share one when you have the chance

[wispy pagoda]

Thanks, I'll do that later this week as I won't have access to the scope till then

[wispy pagoda]

Actually it doesn't look that bad don't you think?

Sure it could be a lot better but it's a start

[hasty hull]

Looks real nice

Bit green perhaps

[wispy pagoda]

Indeed, I'll correct that tomorrow

[whole osprey]

I only ever notice my colors are off once I’ve finished processing and have exported the image.

[steep apex]

Give please

[coarse aspen]

cheshires can do both very well

[cloud copper]

Will a Cheshire be better than a collimation cap?

[steep apex]

Yeah, a Cheshire is basically a collimation cap but with crosshairs, allowing you to align more accurately

[wispy pagoda]

How does it works for the primary? I havtn used one tbh

[coarse aspen]

fine

its just a collimation cap with crosshairs, it doesn't obstruct what you need to see

[wispy pagoda]

Ah ok

[steep apex]

First you get the secondary aligned in the center with the crosshairs and then you put the reflection of the secondary mirror that’s on the primary mirror in the center of the donut or crosshairs as well

This one’s from me

[wispy pagoda]

So it's not different from a simple collimation cap (for the primary)

(that's what I mean when I said cheshires are more designed for secondary)

[coarse aspen]

cheshire is best for multi purpose

[livid sierra]

I don’t like the cheshire because the one I ordered had bent crosshairs so the whole purpose was defeated from the start

[coarse aspen]

Manufacturing defect. Can't say all Cheshires are bad :wholesome:

[thin aspen]

I don’t know what to trust collimating with a Cheshire or laser cause when I use a Cheshire the laser is out…

[livid sierra]

Very true

In the end it doesn’t matter too much which one you use, they’re both good (although collimation cap is cheaper) and it’s always good to test on a star with the actual image train inserted

[wispy pagoda]

Cheshire is more reliable as it doesn't need to be collimated

[livid sierra]

Nice one

[frozen hound]

damn is this the closest u can get? I think that if U could zoom in a bit more it would look absolutely amazing!

[remote dragon]

hey uranus-c nerds, i just got mine!! question tho, do i need to install the drivers on mac?? because the website doesn't show any for mac-os

(i also have a pc, it's not useless but i don't have it with me rn and i want to test the camera)

[high hull]

on the vague topic of collimation how is mine

[cloud copper]

Bad

[high hull]

yeah I figured

[steep apex]

You don’t need to install the drivers, just plug it in your computer with whatever capturing software on you’re good to go

[white prawn]

I believe that the drivers are needed for the camera to be able to talk to the computer, but you don't need the specific branded capture software.

[steep apex]

When I got my Neptune-C II, I didn’t need to install any drivers because it was only for windows

[white prawn]

Huh. I needed to install the drivers for my ASI585

[steep apex]

You using Mac?

[white prawn]

Nope. Windows and Sharpcap. Sharpcap is supposed to support the ZWO cams, and when I plugged mine in the software was all "yo, gotta talk the language man."

So I installed the camera drivers, computer said thank you, and SharpCap was happy to image.

[steep apex]

We’re both using Mac, I didn’t have to install drivers so I’m assuming that he also doesn’t have to install drivers

Just checked, player one website states that “only window users must install the native driver to use the camera”

[white prawn]

Aren't I special. 😆

[remote dragon]

yeah but the manual says you "must" install them before plugging it in

[steep apex]

Where's the manual?

Never mind found it

[white prawn]

What's a manual?

[remote dragon]

i was worried that plugging it in as is might break something, i know it's a dumb fear but not risking it

[steep apex]

What capturing software are you gonna use?

I only see ASCOM driver installation

[remote dragon]

well i was thinking on using kstars but it's broken on my mac so i don't really know with what to test it

but the plan is to use my pc once i get home

with nina

[main flume]

Autostakkert won't accept my 2.4gb avi

Pipp closes upon putting the file in

I give up, I should've just used a barlow so I wouldn't have to shoot 1ms frames

There's gotta be at least 100,000 frames in that avi

[indigo oak]

Try using pipp to split the frames into tiff files and then load them

Works for me

What’re you capturing 100000 frames of though

[main flume]

The moon with my guidescope

I should've cut out a small circle or sum to reduce aperture

[livid sierra]

Full disk moon?

[main flume]

The one last night yea

[livid sierra]

100,000 frames is overkill for full disk

100,000 frames is overkill even for closeup lunar imaging

[main flume]

It's still overexposed even at 1ms frames

gain 0 ofc

[white prawn]

What's overkill?

[hasty hull]

too much

[white prawn]

https://tenor.com/view/i-dont-think-there-is-such-a-thing-bevils-la-guerrillas-no-such-thing-its-nonsense-gif-17577997

[slate juniper]

:D

[frozen hound]

damn nice pc

[whole osprey]

Do you carry the whole pc outside every night??

[steep apex]

I would start and set the exposure to about 10MS and just set the gain till Jupiter is fairly lit, if the seeing is good/excellent I would increase the exposure length so maybe like 15MS

Don’t forget the ROI and goodluck

[slate juniper]

First time doin that but ye xddd

For more fps

[fading plume]

They are roughly 1 minute long

90-120s is ok

Roi I just crop to like 800x800 so I’m not bandwidth limited. Then use cutout.

[livid sierra]

Just crop enough that you get max fps again

Idk

[fading plume]

depends on exposure length

[livid sierra]

But I'm sure your max fps at 10fps for example should be 100fps, so just crop until you're at 100fps again

Yeah depends on exposure length

[fading plume]

and you almost never use full res

[livid sierra]

I don't have that camera so I don't know what its max fps is

200fps with 10ms exposures is impossible

[fading plume]

200fps is too much except for moon and venus

[livid sierra]

I'm just saying you won't get 200fps tonight

[fading plume]

i think i got to 8000 fps with my uranus

[livid sierra]

8000fps??

[fading plume]

dont use registax for timelapses. its too buggy.

[fading plume]

smallest ROI, fastest shutter speed

[livid sierra]

Insanity

[fading plume]

astrosurface

i do back to back, i have the storage for it.

but 90s is ok

60-90

maybe 120 as a max

how sir, a 2tb ssd is like $50

[livid sierra]

Where

In what world

[fading plume]

$100, go fo cheaper used.

$80

$30 ish, def quite slow, but likely has advertised capacity.

with adc its ok

get one, then you also get a barlow upgrade

still ok results

just try to buy your barlow so its ideal with ADC, that way you have less if you need it

it will help, unless doing IR pass filter. which is very useful for lunar.

built in? rip.

shoulda bought a uranus

i would not use ROI for your first time perhaps.

unless your tracking is ok

then you can drag a box in FC to set it.

firecap

[livid sierra]

I’m going to need a new storage device soon

But hdd is better for storage, price wise too, ssd is better for recording

Imo

[fading plume]

what f ratio

[fading plume]

with barlow?

so F8.8, you can get a 3x and extend it.

actually wait

f10 is ideal, extent your 2x if you want

because your camera has tiny pixels

3x will oversample

[somber stratus]

Those calculations on that website are generally wrong for planetary. It's for long exposures. I run at 4.5x on the same scope and that samples the blue channel sufficiently in excellent seeing. ~6.5x the pixel size as f/ratio is generally the "rule" that most of us planetary guys use.

It's ~5x for green, but when running OSC it's best to just oversample R & G and ensure B is well sampled for when good seeing comes along.

1 min for the 16" is short enough

Wouldn't bother with 30s

[somber stratus]

Correction: that's with a Uranus-C. My bad, didn't see the QHY715

ignore me, f/10 is about right as you said before

[stray chasm]

You don’t have an actual scope or a camera lens?

[indigo oak]

I mean it is entirely possibly to capture the moon with a guide scope

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/940588039837720626/1074037445382897774/465699E9-4E91-4381-A278-DD8FF479F1CE.jpg?ex=65c7c351&is=65b54e51&hm=0649d38f30f515f0a1e8e7357a5d7a3e0f3ddfaa157ae9597fc14b1e4a935a40&

This used a guide scope as the main optic

Plenty of detail too if you open in browser

[main flume]

I do, I'm just lazy

[whole osprey]

how can I make my images of Jupiter good?, most of them have strange artifacts and chromatic abberation, I used registax, pipp, and autostackert.

oh yeah and this image has barely any color despite being shot in rgb

[slate juniper]

What format ur imaging with and what do u use?

[whole osprey]

I took that photo with my phone, so I just used the basic video format.

[slate juniper]

O

[cloud copper]

Which screw is the collimation one

[livid sierra]

Did your dob come with a manual

It’s hard to tell which ones will be locking screws and which will be collimation screws without at least knowing what they feel like when turning

Otherwise try to search online for a manual to your specific dob model

[cloud copper]

I found it online

Why can’t I see the inner circles when using my collimation cap

[livid sierra]

The inner most black dot with the red dot in it will be the hole you look through

The thick and thinner black circles around it will be reflection of the inside of the collimation cap

Most have a reflective inner side

[cloud copper]

So I need to align the black small dot with the center dot?

[livid sierra]

Yeah

[cloud copper]

Did it

But the hole big black circle isn’t concentric to the mirror, is that normal?

[livid sierra]

How do you mean?

[livid sierra]

How bad is it off?

[cloud copper]

not bad, just a bit

[livid sierra]

Can you send a picture through the collimation cap?

[cloud copper]

yea, in a sec

here is my new image of the oiron core that was taken after colimating the scope, do my stars look alright?

[livid sierra]

Not quite but hard to tell if that's collimation or being untracked

[cloud copper]

I couldn’t get a better pic

ill try tomorrow to get a better picture because now its cold as f outside

[thin aspen]

I’m looking to get an ir pass filter. Probably 685nm. Is the Antlia brand good for them? Also are there any other filters that would be beneficial to buy.

[leaden nacelle]

Do you have the IMX178 color? I have a 203/800 f4 8" newton and want to buy a guiding cam and use it with the ZWO OAG. Do you think a IMX290 MONO or a IMX178 COLOR would be better? I ask because i could use the IMX178 color for planetary photography as well. But dont know if its as good or better compared to the IMX290 MONO

[thin aspen]

are these the uranian moons?

[uncut glade]

Depends on time, date, orientation, and if this is a stack or not 🫡

Check Stellarium to see if positions match at the time of the photo

[thin aspen]

It’s not stacked just a single frame. Also moons seem closer and in a slightly different pattern so I’m unsure

[somber stratus]

Depends on the focal length but my guess would be stars

[steep apex]

Using a Barlow or no?

[hasty hull]

Fresh

[sharp ridge]

clean

[high hull]

epic guide to the planets in the next month or so
mercury, ass (as per normal)
venus, ass
mars, ass
moon, not a planet, doing moon things
jupiter, peaks right around sunset, get out early
saturn, ass
uranus, same boat as jupiter, but nobody cares about uranus,
neptune, technically not ass but 90% of the way there, so ass
pluto, ass

[whole osprey]

wheres the rest of the dwarf planets??, just gonna leave em out?

[high hull]

vesta, coming of opposition, at around 7th mag, will stay relatively close to the crap nebula the entire month
ceres, ass, also a needle in a haystack, mag 9 in central milky way in the early dawn, ends the month with a somewhat close approach the great saggatarius cluster in the early dawn sky, still boring
all others are either faint or not in my stellarium

[thin aspen]

Ye 3x Barlow at 3600mm

[white prawn]

https://tenor.com/view/kronk-point-debate-argument-angel-gif-17274775

[sharp ridge]

Approved

• usually bad winter weather and jetstream

[steep apex]

I’m in the middle of all of it so we get low pressure tails that keep swinging by

[somber stratus]

Can't wait for spring, when there is truly nothing to shoot

Minus Mercury

[steep apex]

We got the moon for a few months

[white prawn]

I'm already in that position. I had maybe one truly good night so far. I imaged on another night and haven't sorted the data yet. busy re-sorting the data from the one night I had. Closest I've come to textbook images. But aside from the one night it's either been clouds or absolute schite seeing.

[white prawn]

We always have the moon.

Well, not "always" but definitely doesn't require as much patience/waiting for a good night to image the moon as other planets. Moon shows up full moon once a month regardless of what planets are out.

[thin aspen]

Time for deepsky….

[coarse aspen]

I'm getting into planetary again my fellow planetary imagers

I may not do planetary but I hang around the planetary imagers so I learned a lot

[thick heron]

We’re expecting an APY from you. Submissions close next month.

[white prawn]

For someone who doesn't do a lot of planetary you've been of decent help.

[coarse aspen]

I have hung around the planetary community for a while, I've always been interested but never had the proper gear to do it

Planetary was the first thing I did actually, but it wasn't really serious. just with my phone

When I do finally have the gear to do it ,I have all the knowledge to do it

[white prawn]

Heh, that's pretty much all it took for me

[coarse aspen]

I got a barlow so I can do some planetary work now with my 130pds

Tonight

[coarse aspen]

Here we go!

[hasty hull]

Sweeettt

[coarse aspen]

The 130pds will do great things

I actually somewhat look forward to the moon now... words I never thought I'd say

[coarse aspen]

This one was taken when it was darker

[coarse aspen]

Daylight here almost

[coarse aspen]

130PDS still

[main flume]

ur 130 is crakcked

[coarse aspen]

If I extend my barlow a bit I might be able to squeeze just a bit more out of my aperture

for the 7x pixel size rule I need to get to f/20, currently at f/15

[thin aspen]

Is 7x for excellent seeing only?

[somber stratus]

Yup. 7x is for sufficiently sampling the blue channel as it theoretically has higher resolving power, but most of the time it's nuked by seeing.

But not much harm in oversampling, even if the seeing is average to poor

Of course you're oversampling the red/green channels pretty much all the time with this setup, but it seems to work for most.

[coarse aspen]

I had some pretty wicked seeing last night

Seeing is normally good in Michigan, when its not cloudy of course

[brazen moth]

Hi all! What do people think of Planetary System Stacker? Why are you not using it? Why are you using it?

[white prawn]

Never heard of it. I use PIPP and AutoStakkert

[uncut glade]

Yeah, I’ve used it before but everyone uses PIPP for a reason imo. AS4 is just better in every capacity as well lol

Things are popular for a reason is probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned from astro stuff 😅

[onyx garnet]

pipp --> autostakkert --> registax for me

i usually then follow up with GIMP and lr mobile

[white prawn]

Similar. PIPP --> AutoStakkert --> Astrosurface --> Gimp

[somber stratus]

I don't usually need PIPP, curious what you guys are doing in it? I just go straight to AS!4.

[heavy mirage]

I only use PIPP if I want to keep raw footage to conserve space, other wise just straight to as4

Pipp is great for iss though

[fading plume]

Very rarely as4 alignment will have a stroke, so i have to use pipp. Also, pipp debayer is nicer i find.

[somber stratus]

Cutout mode in FC is usually good enough to keep the files cropped down, unless you do some quality estimation in PIPP of course.

[somber stratus]

Yeah, about the only time i'll use it.

• small Mars when the debayering in AS!4 dies.

[heavy mirage]

That's true, I did move to fc recently that feature is very good

[heavy mirage]

Interesting

[somber stratus]

Technically AS4 doesn't actually debayer, it drizzles in some way. Only works well for objects that are a certain number of pixels across. PIPP is actual debayering.

[heavy mirage]

So then would you do pipp debayer prior to stacking Jupiter moons/ Uranus and Neptune?

[somber stratus]

Yeah, and distant Mars

Green channel is always fine. It's the red/blue that suffer

[heavy mirage]

I'll have to try that out sometime

[brazen moth]

Yeah stuff is popular for a reason of course. Do you remember why you didn't consider PSS after you used it?

[cloud copper]

Does the big circle have to be concentric to the mirror, or should the center dot and the black dot from my collimation cap be aligned

[livid sierra]

What you need is: the primary needs to have as close to a perfect black circle around it in the secondary mirror as possible, and when that’s been done the peephole of the collimation cap needs to be perfectly centred in the black centre circle on the primary

https://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/collimation-guide-newtonian-reflector/ have you looked at this guide?

[cloud copper]

Ok, I looked at the article, my secondary is aligned, the center dot and the black circle from my collimation cap are aligned but the reflection of the secondary mirror isn’t concentric to the primary

Why @livid sierra

[livid sierra]

Can you try sending a clearer pic?

If I'm understanding you correctly the secondary isn't centred above the primary when looking through the collimation cap

[cloud copper]

Yea, it isn’t in the middle

And when I defocus a star the black circle is off center

[livid sierra]

Ah I see what you mean, the secondary is centred correctly above the primary, but it's not aimed at the focuser/primary correctly

That is what I meant with wanting to have as perfect of a black circle around the primary in the reflection of the secondary

This image demonstrates it well

This is what I mean

[cloud copper]

Oh, so what screws do I play with to change that?

[livid sierra]

The three screws on the secondary, might need an allen wrench to adjust those

This is step 3 in Astrobaby's guide

[cloud copper]

@livid sierra

This is the best pic that I could get

[livid sierra]

Yeah so that red area has to be a nice circle around the primary (yellow circle)

And yeah it does look like the secondary may not be perfectly centred above the primary either but right now this is more important

[cloud copper]

Wdym

[livid sierra]

What do you not understand

[cloud copper]

Do you mean in the reflection is not centered

[cloud copper]

Oh

[livid sierra]

And that too, so right now you need to do this #1019937457095065731 message

[cloud copper]

What is that?

[livid sierra]

You can try this to see if the distance from the edge of the tube to the centre of the secondary is equal for each spider vane

[cloud copper]

Ok

[cloud copper]

Just checked, it’s centered correctly

[livid sierra]

Great, then move on to centring the reflection

[cloud copper]

Now that the secondary is centered correctly, I just have to align the center dot with the hole that I see trough, right?

[livid sierra]

No that's when you are collimating the primary

You first have to collimate the secondary, the reflection of the primary is still not centred in the secondary

#1019937457095065731 message

[cloud copper]

And by collimating the secondary you mean the part where I get all the clips to be visible, right?

[livid sierra]

I mean they already are visible, I would focus on getting that black circle around the primary

[cloud copper]

It is, got it just now

[livid sierra]

It might help to do this like the guide suggests

[livid sierra]

Can I see?

[cloud copper]

Yes, just a sec

Is it ok?

[cloud copper]

.

[livid sierra]

Not quite centred yet

But getting there

[cloud copper]

A bit more up?

[livid sierra]

There's too much black space on the right and almost none on the left

[cloud copper]

Ohh, now I see

Ok

Now? @livid sierra

[livid sierra]

Yeah that looks more like it

[cloud copper]

Ok, good

Now I collimate the primary

[cloud copper]

Like this

[livid sierra]

Yeah

[cloud copper]

This looks good

[livid sierra]

I think so yeah

The photo is a bit low resolution and it's hard to see

[cloud copper]

Yea, I don’t know how you guys take such clear photos

[uncut glade]

PIPP had a nicer UI, had easier to access options, and was easier to batch process stuff

[steep apex]

Is that your phones flashlight?

[cloud copper]

No, I took the images at night when I was out and it was dark so I had to point a light at the front of the scope to make the mirror visible

[wispy pagoda]

@livid sierra I understand what was wrong with my collimation now: the secondary was well aligned with the primary but not with the focuser

Looks better now that it's fixed

[livid sierra]

Glad to hear

[unkempt igloo]

Would be good to see a clearer photo but i am going to suggest your secondary is not centered. Does it look like that when looking through the pinhole with your eye? Try not to look at the image in the secondary when centering it in relation to the focuser.

Damo

[steep apex]

Someone please give me some good seeing

Yesterday I checked and the seeing was so bad I have never seen anything like it

[white prawn]

Incon-see-vable.

[white prawn]

But if the seeing was bad, how could you see that it was bad?

[steep apex]

I usually get my old 4.5” just to do a quick check on the seeing

[white prawn]

bad seeing ... can't see ...

....

I'll ... ahem. See myself out.

[slate juniper]

Once i had it so bad that saturn was acting like a wave and for moments there were cuts in saturn xd

[wispy pagoda]

How important is an adc for a 10" scope at 0.16"/pixel?

In osc and under good seeing

I'll definitely buy one someday but idk how urgent it is compared to other things I have to purchase

[main flume]

bro saw sa t ur n

[slate juniper]

Lol

Sadly i didnt record that

[sharp ridge]

Important important

Just get it cuz you'll need it sooner or later

[thin aspen]

I was thinking the same thing.

I also saw on eBay they basically sell at the new price. So therefore you’re not actually loosing much money. (Me trying to justify the purchase for myself ….)

[tawny cave]

average @somber stratus ISS picture

[wispy pagoda]

Ok thanks, I'll do that once I have the money

[thin aspen]

Is this adc good as it’s the lowest price but I’m concerned as it doesn’t have a level

[livid sierra]

You don’t really need a level, especially with a dob

You set the null point where the two levers are parallel

With a Dob you always want the null point to be at the same angle: the same angle as the horizon when looking through the eyepiece

So you don’t need to rotate the adc every few minutes like when using an eq mount

Other than that the adc looks identical to the Omegon adc I think, that one is pretty good but I don’t know much about the Stellalyra one, although I reckon it probably doesn’t matter all that much

[somber stratus]

Yeah it's the same model as Omegon. I've used both ZWO and Omegon and they are fine

[thin aspen]

How big of difference does an adc do to the quality as your also in the uk.

[somber stratus]

big difference

[thin aspen]

Cool thanks

[white prawn]

Of course the difference can be detrimental if you don't have it set properly. I definitely read it and just had to do something to reinforce the read lesson

[stark abyss]

5 inch newt

[tiny topaz]

8 inch dob with 585mc

[tiny topaz]

Back at it again with my shenanigans (same set-up as before)

[white prawn]

How is your seeing?

[tiny topaz]

It was surprising really good tonight but usually it’s pretty mid, because I’m in southern Ontario near Ottawa

[slate juniper]

Looks like ther is sum motionblur too, were ur recordings longer than 2-3min?:D

[tiny topaz]

Yeah unfortunately I was worried about not getting good frames as seeing is usually bad so I went on for a while. Do you know anyways to help fight this? I mean the motion blurring

[slate juniper]

If u got the video, shorten it to 2-3mins

Maybe u can do it in pipp

But idk

U can do dat:D

[tiny topaz]

Do you want me to make a google doc with all of my videos? Just for you to take a stab at it or I can just try and use less videos to make a processed image? I’m willing to do either or, and or both

Just wanted to make sure I replied so then you got pinged in case you had them silenced

[slate juniper]

Xd

So u got multible vids?

Would be gud for derotation

If u got the time and date on the vid

[tiny topaz]

And sounds good I’ll make a google doc and add it here or should I add it to the #1021002743080558642 and yeah I have 13 videos roughly 10-20 seconds each I would say but it’s tough to tell

I’m not sure if I have time and date on the videos unfortunately

[slate juniper]

Lol but why xs

10-20w

S

[tiny topaz]

Because I don’t have tracking

[slate juniper]

Do a straight 2-3min recording