The AZ GTI Forum

[low mural]

I've just been messing around with framing and trying to use less noise reduction and stretch less

Just to see if I could pull out a better quality image haha

[modest nebula]

I think you did better there. Amazing how long you can spend fiddling with these pics though isn't it? 😄

[scarlet stump]

Should i buy the eqm35 or the eq5 for astrophotography with a 500mm refractor?
My az gti has passed its limits...

[azure solar]

In theory they're mostly identical but the eqm is more recent, the design of the eq5 il like 25-30 years old but it got improved over time

Rory said that the eqm holds better the rated weight but I have no experience with it to confirm or deny

[scarlet stump]

Can i control them with nina?

The az gti has some problems with nina

[azure solar]

Yep

[modest nebula]

Really? like what?

[scarlet stump]

It disconnects or it says ascom time out or something like that
Also sometimes it slews before plate solving and basically it is a mess@modest nebula

Do you use nina?

[modest nebula]

yes. My Az-Gti is connected with a cable & I use GSS. Works reliably for me every time

[scarlet stump]

Do you need the synscan app to connect it with the cable?

[modest nebula]

no. I use Green Swamp Server, others use EQMod

https://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/ or https://greenswamp.org/

[random night]

I had that then bought the eqmod cable and all was fine

[scarlet stump]

How do i make my own?@random night

[random night]

You can try, there are instructions online somewhere but tbh Its likely to be more reliable to fork out the 20 9dd quid from flo and just buy one unless you have the correct termination tools for usb

[modest nebula]

I made my own but only because I had the bits laying around. If you want to do it, you need a USB to serial board and an RJ12 cable https://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/eqdirect2.htm

[scarlet stump]

I made it
I just have to see if it works

[modest nebula]

good on you!

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZmQ6jIdOMSdO8X7a3xG_hq3evGOmhTr1/view?usp=sharing

Cannot see the trunk!

[azure solar]

I can barely see it

overstretched to show it

needs more data

[rugged jackal]

260 subs at 35 seconds dithering every 3, bortle 8 skies, I would have thought that would be enough to get some details - my A6000 is being used extensively - taking 150 - 300 subs per session but is not very good with nebulae. is it worth getting more data?

[azure solar]

with only 35s subs it's probably not worth consuming the shutter that much

[rugged jackal]

I have asked my local optical store ENS to recommend a second hand guiding setup so I can improve my exposure times - waiting on him to make some recommendations.

[azure solar]

guiding and a dualband filter would be gamechangers

[low mural]

@rugged jackal You will have a tough time with nebula due to your camera being unmodded. But a Dualband filter or the Optolong L-pro would help reduce some of the Light pollution.

I think you may have stacked some dodgy frames with trailed stars. Maybe go through your stack and delete any dodgy subs before stacking. I would also suggest using Siril or DSS for stacking rather than astap too.
IC1396 is a tough target. I had trouble with it in the past and have been too scared to try it again. (However it is next on my list...)

Here is my attempt. I had to really push the data though...

[rugged jackal]

Thanks for the processing - I know my camera and light pollution are not doing me any favours and this target is very hard. so perhaps biting more than I can chew.

[scarlet stump]

I have a refractor skywatcher 102/500mm, a dslr and a 30/100mm guide scope
Which mount should i buy?

My az gti can't hold my set up any more

[mental grotto]

whats the budget

also that telescope isnt very good for imaging

you will need a field falttener

[scarlet stump]

Something around 1300€

I might buy one@mental grotto

Also do you know an ideal field flattener for my scope?

[azure solar]

is it an achromat?

[mental grotto]

yuh

[azure solar]

I don't think there's a flattener for that then

[scarlet stump]

Aaa too bad@azure solar

What about the mount?

[azure solar]

depends on your plans for future upgrades, for what you have an eq5 or eqm 35 are enough, to take all the budget get an heq5 which can hold heavier stuff and can track long focal lengths better. If you're brave you can get the mount me and cable butter have which is pretty good (essentialy a cheaper am5)

[mental grotto]

that scope really isnt great for imaging

i wouldnt reccomend yuo use it

[azure solar]

better than nothing, spending money on a good mount first isn't a bad idea

[scarlet stump]

I think i will stick with my scope for the moment

For mount,
I am probably going for the eqm 35 but i have yet to decide

[low mural]

There's no harm in using an achromat. I used one for the first 2 years of my Astro journey. It just has limitations. An achromat works better with a mono camera and RGB filters though as you can focus individually colour channels

I'm happy with my eqm35 @scarlet stump and I got mine secondhand

[azure solar]

true to an extent, an achromat still won't focus each wavelength as good

[scarlet stump]

Do you think the skywatcher star adventurer gti with the evolux 62ed , my dslr and a guide scope is a good setup?

What scope do you have?@low mural

[low mural]

I would say no to the evolux 62ed. Some say the CA is worse than an achromat.. The glass is not fpl53 or even fpl51. Although it does advertise as Ed glass

[low mural]

I have this small but might scope. The 50ed. It has one element of fpl53 which reduces a lot of CA. I would say it's better than the evolux 62ed. If you want better, got for the Evoguide 72ed

Or the StellaMira 66mm ED

[azure solar]

flp51 is ed but for some reasome the evolux seems to be worse than the evostar that has the same glass

[low mural]

I doubt the 62ed even has fpl51 tbh. Looking at some example. Images

[scarlet stump]

What setup do you guys recommend?

[low mural]

Budget?

[scarlet stump]

1200 - 1300€

[low mural]

As a mount and scope combo, I would personally go for this.

[scarlet stump]

I saw some pictures of the evolux 62ed and they look good
Why do you think its not ideal?

I will definitely check this setup?@low mural

[modest nebula]

you know, if I lived in a dark sky area, I'd be broke by now 😮

[mental grotto]

Because it has bad glass and bad abberation control

[scarlet stump]

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/395320-first-light-with-evolux-62ed-short-review/

I found this thread

[low mural]

I've just seem some people complain about the CA on it. I think he evolux82ed is worse.
Perhaps it is hit and miss but I know the glass quality is known to not be as good as other apos and the 50ed is better

[scarlet stump]

The evostar 72ed?

[low mural]

72ed is a good scope for the price!

[scarlet stump]

Is it good for the star adventurer gti?

[low mural]

Yeah @rugged jackal uses it!

If your keeping the az-gti though, I would say the 50ed is a great combo

Purely because of how light the scope is

[scarlet stump]

@rugged jackal
Any advice for the setup?

[azure solar]

I don't see the star adventurer gti as a good upgrade considering that in essence it's the exact same thing as your azgti

Eqm, 72ED and guiding would be great

[scarlet stump]

Do you think that i should buy the eqm35?
@azure solar

[azure solar]

if you don't want to spend more than that yeah

the sa gti isn't really an upgrade Imo and leaves no room at all for upgrades

[scarlet stump]

From which website should i buy?

[rugged jackal]

I have been pretty happy with my 72ED - I got it relatively cheap from amazon and was supposed to be a 'cheap' way to try astro photography, I found that it was much better than all my camera lenses I had used previously - stars are tight and colour fairly well controlled.

It comes highly recommended and even is recommended by astrobiscuit on his website.

My setup is the 7ED with AZ-GTI, unmodded Sony A6000 mirrorless camera, Stellamira 0.8 reducer/flattener, Mini PC running NINA, GSS. My next upgrade is a guiding setup and then a dedicated astro camera. I would recommend the 72ED.

[rugged jackal]

Try ENS optical - they deal in second hand astro equipment and they have loads of stuff not listed on the website - send an email outlining what you want and your budget and hopefully they will be able help and save ypu money.

https://ensoptical.co.uk/

[scarlet stump]

Ok, thanks a lot @rugged jackal

[scarlet stump]

If i use a baadar fringe killer with the evolux?
Will that make a difference?@mental grotto

[mental grotto]

No idea how those worth

Personally I would just sell the scope but you can make do if you find a Flattener

[rugged jackal]

What is the best (affordable) overall lp filter for Bortle 8 Birmingham skies for future consideration?

[random night]

You will want a dual narrowband filter (something like the l-extreme etc) but only for narrowband targets for Galaxies and reflection nebula your best not using a lp filter and just go with a uv/ir

I have the l-extreme and svbony uv/ir filter as a result (im B7)

"Affordable" is a relative term but expect to pay over £150-£250 (second hand) or £230-400 new for a dual nb filter, they arent cheap really

uv/ir filters on the other hand can be picked up fairly cheaply (£30-100)

[mental grotto]

id actually avoid the l extreme and go with l enhance $140 or ultimate $354 or alpt (best no cap)

[rugged jackal]

@low mural uses a l'enhance and he has been impressed by the results.

[azure solar]

Yeah the l-enhance is pretty good, easy to find used for cheap too

[mental grotto]

yuh

if ur high bortle the other filters will deliver much higher snr

[low mural]

L-enhance has been fab. Only been able to use it on 1 target so far but huge improvement on SNR. However you would need longer exposure times @rugged jackal so I would look into guiding first!
Bortle 8 I would personally use a CLS for galaxies but that is a conflicted opinion 😂

[azure solar]

For broadband in b8 I just take shorter subs and try to get as many as I can

120s broadband, 180 narrow

[mental grotto]

you can take much longer narrow

im taking 60 second broad

[azure solar]

Dslr, longer than that means more thermal noise

Already tried 300s subs but it's not great

[random night]

the l-enhance has a wider bandpass than the l-extreme so the extrerme is proibably better for a B7 area. Having said that its probably easier to get a better deal for the l-enhance and maybe less likely to be plauguesd with star halos like my l-extreme?

[azure solar]

You get less contrast with the enhance but it's still leagues ahead of no filters

And no halos

[modest nebula]

I have some cheap crap duo-band and am not impressed with it so far. It seems to let too much IR through. I might combine it with the IR-cut to trim the top end. Failing that, I'll ebay it 😄

[scarlet stump]

Will the eqm35 be able to take 5kg?
I am also looking for reflectors
The one i found is 150/650@low mural

[low mural]

Yeah 5kg should be easy for it. You will have to carefully balance the reflector though!
My rig is about 4.2kg

[low mural]

I almost went for the zwo one and apparently it's hurrendous. Is yours branded?

[scarlet stump]

How much is the limit?@low mural

[modest nebula]

It cost me £25 on ebay 2nd hand. It's branded "Opticstar". Probably made of 110% Chineseium

[low mural]

7kg is the limit and 10kg if you are using it for visual. I would limit 5 for a reflector purely because it will be a windbreaker

[low mural]

Opticstar is Meade no?

I suppose it was worth a gamble at 25 quid

[azure solar]

a 130pds would be easier to use

[scarlet stump]

Yeah, my mistake i meant to write 130

[rugged jackal]

I have 2 filters already - both 1.25inch, a SVbony CLS and the other is a unbarnded UHC, unfortunately I cannot use them because my flattaner is 2 inch! but what is CLS and UHC respectively good for?

[azure solar]

Cls is supposed to be a light pollution filter (broadband) and the uhc is like the l-enhance (narroband)

Might not work very well due to their quality

[modest nebula]

Seems mine is a UHC. It's like a broadband duo-band, if that makes sense. It is dual band, but the bands are quite fat. An l-enhance is a narrow band dual band.

my particular UHC lets through a lot of 700nm+ light which affects my camera which is sensitive in IR. Apparently it's a thing to stack filter so next time I try it, I'll stack it with my IR cut filter to eliminate that

[azure solar]

I think that uhc filters are more intended for visual use than imaging

As you saud the bandpass is very wide

[modest nebula]

gosh, I'll get the terminology right in a min

I think even the ZWO duo band would be better than that

[random night]

I did my first ever guided session last night! Bought a gudescope and cam for £100 and got ot going.. It really made a difference. 5 min subs and none binned (except the one where I had to walk on the deck to let the dog out)

I mean my mount has been doing well unguided but guiding makes things soooo much easier

[rugged jackal]

That is brilliant, what is your setup esp the guiding?

[random night]

I got a small 32mm Altair guidescope and cam, just mounted on top of my Tak and then ran phd2 through ny mini pc (which runs the whole rig with NINA)

I spent about 2hrs buggering about foxusing the scope and cl;ibrating and setting up PHD2 but once it got going it was flawless

Was getting sub arcsec RMS for most subs so the mount is good

[rugged jackal]

Sounds good. Is your mount the az-gti?

[random night]

Yeah Its seems like a good version, I used to be able to run 2min subs unguided but i often had to chuck a load if the breese picked up

So I thought for the cost of a hundred quicd it was worth branching out into guiding

[rugged jackal]

You can get 2 mins unguided and 5 mins guided using the az-gti? Wow, I use the direct guiding but the best I got was about 50 secs, 2 mins is great!

[random night]

I reckon I could get well over 5 mins guided I just didn't need to expose my h longer than 5 in a b7 sky

I did open the az gti up to get rid ofsomeof the ra backlash once

[rugged jackal]

wow, that is impressive. Are you using a filter to stop your images being swamped by B7 light pollution?

[random night]

Yeah I was using a dual NB filter

Here is my quick edit 3hrs 15mins of 5min subs l-extreme filter

[azure solar]

nice, dslr or astro cam?

[random night]

Uranus-c (imx585)

I was going to add data to my previous unguided exposures but decided not to "pollute" the new ones in the end

[rugged jackal]

really nice, so the narrowband filters do help!- where do you live ?- I am in deep Birmingham and suffer from B7/8 light pollution.

[random night]

Oh yeah, for sure the first sub I got of the horesehead nebula with the l-extreme was a wow moment. I live in Southampton, so not quite as bad a Birmingham but the docks kick out loads of light

[low mural]

Did you order from Starfield optics? Im tempted to get the Uranus C pro.. I am shooting a wedding next month should help fund it haha

[random night]

I got mine from AliExpress, was only £325 so a good deal. I would get the cooled version now though if buying

[low mural]

Yeah does seem cheaper on aliexpress, I don't trust it though haha. Assuming you pay taxies and duty on arrival?

[random night]

Taxes were included in the price if you set your country.. I was sceptical, obv took a few weeks to ship but it was fine

I got it from here in case you want a vouched for store https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004330074646.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_allProduct.8148356.3.c7dd72fagtqQUU&spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.slider_6001945922688.0

but they dont have the pro one which i would recommend now

[modest nebula]

looks like we might get some sky on Sat night

[random night]

Maybe.. looks a bit ropey where I am... I wouldn't have thought July would be such a rubbish month for clear skies.. its been terrible

[low mural]

Yeah I've seen one on the site for £420 which is £180 cheaper than starfield optics... Hmmmmm

[random night]

I mean £420 for a cooled cam of that caliber is an absolute steal!

[modest nebula]

what kind of support do Ali Express give you if it breaks?

[rugged jackal]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005884507934.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_newArrival.8148356.7.19f43a3e0AoDrh&pdp_npi=3%40dis!GBP!￡436.24!￡436.24!!!!!%4021038edc16904493563767324e0a39!12000034698706323!sh!UK!1841095672

seem to have added the pro to the inventory now

[low mural]

That's what I am thinking haha..

[azure solar]

The guys I bought my mount from are selling the 585 pro version from touptek for 550$ if anyone is interested

[modest nebula]

I just wish I could buy some clear sky 😦

[random night]

Buy a villa in Tenerife?

[modest nebula]

hmm that's not a bad plan

This is do-able https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137876573#/?channel=OVERSEAS

[modest nebula]

Oh well that's the end of that. The wife said no 😦

[low mural]

Wanna go halves

[low mural]

Do you have to contact Meow directly? Im in their discord but could not see any links to purchase

[low mural]

Actually is 6 bed, let's get 6 of us involved and spilt it 12k each 😂

[azure solar]

You have to dm meow or nokk directly

[rugged jackal]

If only we could! at least we'd get some clear skies.

[low mural]

I think the uranus C pro will work out cheaper after taxes. I think I have settled now haha. Hopefully can buy this at the end of next Month. Just in time for andromeda!

[modest nebula]

will fov be big enough for Andromeda? I suppose it's a larger sensor isn't it?

[low mural]

Yeah if you frame it right. It is snug though!

I was gonna do a mosaic with my setup but I don't think I can handle the stress of it 😂

Plus NINA is great for framing mosaics and I cannot use NINA with my setup.

[modest nebula]

That's slightly better than mine

[low mural]

Yeah this is mine currently

[modest nebula]

going to try this on veil nebula next chance I get https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WXSzwG38U8

[low mural]

Did I inspire you? 😂

[modest nebula]

lol yeh. I didn't realize how simple it would be

mind you, it still needs some clear sky

probably across multiple nights if I'm going to be imaging 4x the amount of sky

[low mural]

Umm oddly clear outside...

Worth a gamble?

[scarlet stump]

What is the wobble of the eqm35?@low mural

Will i have problems connecting it t with nina?

[low mural]

You will have no problems connecting it to NINA

[low mural]

I can't notice much wobble. Backlash is not bad either

I have just done a rough 15 min set up. Guiding at 0.90

[low mural]

20 mins of data before the clouds rolled in. Still got a long way to go haha

[scarlet stump]

How much is your exposure time?@low mural

Very @low mural Nice!!

[low mural]

180 seconds. Total of 21 mins, 7 subs. Need to get a he'll of a lot more to increase SNR haha

[scarlet stump]

For just 20 minutes it's good 👍@low mural

[random night]

What filters were you using? Is that full RGB?

[low mural]

L-enhance and OSC IMX178

[rugged jackal]

Might be useful for someone @scarlet stump https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004872724418.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.1aea4981ZWMZas&algo_pvid=86c3cf96-d12a-4007-a341-2ed2babd2145&algo_exp_id=86c3cf96-d12a-4007-a341-2ed2babd2145-1&pdp_npi=3%40dis!GBP!8.24!7.25!!!10.24!!%4021038edf16905407171238391e8db0!12000030838534323!sea!UK!1841095672&curPageLogUid=b5CGfL4nlTn0

I paid £25 for this from Amazon

[rugged jackal]

Looks excellent for a few mins of data. the l'enhance etc is doing a good job, can see the trunk fairly clearly, compared to my poor image.🧐

[random night]

cheaper than the flo one, however be warned its easy to get duff cables that are a massive pita when they flake out mid session (I think for the sake of a few quid more its worth gettiong the flo one)

[azure solar]

I think I bought the exact same he linked and it worked fine even tho it felt very flimsy

[modest nebula]

that's just about the cost of a DIY one!

[scarlet stump]

Should i use a 350 focal length scope as a guide scope for 650mm main?

@rugged jackal
I made my own but i have yet to test it

[random night]

350 is quite overkill, If using the az gti you would be adding a lot of excess weight to your rig that will probably make its guiding worse than a smaller guider?

[scarlet stump]

I will probably use an eqm35@random night

[random night]

350 should be fine then, overkill as I said but that's only a bad thing if the mount can't take it

[low mural]

I still have a long way to go! Need to also redo M42, M81/82 & M31 as it is old data haha

[random night]

You're further ahead than me! Was hoping to get M16 this season but fast ruining out of clear sky time

[low mural]

Hahaha, my problem is that M16 is the lowest I can go. All those other beautiful Messier targets don't get above the roofs and trees in my way. Hopefully should be driving by next year though!

[rugged jackal]

might have clear skies tonight please suggest some easy and large objects to target.

[modest nebula]

I thought I'd have clear sky tonight but it's going to come over cloudy later 😦

[rugged jackal]

I am set up but it is not looking too good re clouds

Unbelievable

So many clouds

Annoying

Looking to the west is just a big blanket of stupid clouds

Met app was indicating all clear

[low mural]

Still looks clear outside for me. The weather apps are saying cloud, you guys are saying cloud and somehow, I still want to risk it and carry all my gear out.. Why am I like this 😂

[random night]

Looks like no clear skies for the next 2 weeks for me. It's been a pretty rubbish July really

[low mural]

Yeah I am holding myself back, clouds off to the distance.
UK has been stuck in this weather pattern for a while now. Forecasters are predicting a shift around mid to end of August and the south of England should star seeing warmer and clearer weather. But for now, I'm going to do some blogging 😂

[random night]

Oh great only another month to wait then 😂

[rugged jackal]

I did have a go on Saturday, had intermittent clear sky, pointed to m31, I took about 180 subs and I think only 30-40 are useable. So frustrating.

[random night]

Yup,, flashback to March/April where I think I had 2 or 3 nights of intermittent clear sky

The worst is when you set up, focus and are about to polar align only for the clouds to roll in so you cant even PA

[rugged jackal]

even worse when you are almost done TPPA and the clouds roll in.

[random night]

Yup I've had that too, been within 2 arc mins of alignment then had to stop as the coulds have hit 🌧️

At least if you're aligned you can start the sequence and go to bed in the hope you'll get some subs

[scarlet stump]

Do you have to tune your eqm35?@low mural

[low mural]

Nah I do not trust myself. Seems to run OK though!

Bought this for no reason on eBay haha. Saw it on eBay for £11 plus £3 postage and thought it was a steal. Not sure what to do with it though 😂 I have a stock DSLR so could use it for that..

[scarlet stump]

I am gonna buy the 130 pds reflector
But i am not really sure if the eqm35 is good for it
@low mural

Should i buy this mount or something better?

[azure solar]

130pds and eqm is a really good combo Imo

[azure solar]

not sure how well it could work since most light pollution is led now but I'm curious to see results

[low mural]

Yeah 130pds would be a good combo. My only worry would be that you said you love in the mountains. Reflectors and wind are not a good combo haha

From what I've heard anyway

[low mural]

Yeah I may sell on. I don't have any reason to use a DSLR. Maybe to take andromeda with it as my current camera is too small haha. But I should hopefully be ordering the uranus C pro at the end of August. But I guessing it will take a few weeks to get to me

[scarlet stump]

Is the eq5 better than the eqm or the other way around?

[low mural]

I'm not sure. There isn't much on the eq5 goto as it was never made for the US. (I believe)

[scarlet stump]

Ok, will stick then with the eqm35

[low mural]

These skies man. Decided I'm not going to look outside at night for 2 weeks and hope its better by then

[rugged jackal]

Saw this on Ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295851225799?hash=item44e21b72c7:g:xzUAAOSwH4tkyCvO&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4O2Jb0wSbaG8GtvbB0A4%2FYph%2FKFobDrP2Pp1gXCv5TQ2NFZAg9rLV9N1XqU7gSCBF6mmEjLENQ7UEQUUb7uWou5deLDoHh0CxfqDYTuimQH6kc8wTLM6FsA6OrBOo7nfCAxH7AMrI5B9Qj1sHV1Xw%2F9pm9VljdXoN8xdl6RWm2yq8NcQeLjo1LOjqsck4SQzulsm5t1F7uS2%2B4ZBM272pqMXAVfiSMJURjOYsBK0rvnx0Bvi4gn%2BcIqzb7lwBpTheMPJ0yo9YhcLQEezka4tgYfks6Zwm5IkkZ%2BxjhnBt0QN|tkp%3ABk9SR6SpqJy2Yg&autorefresh=true made an offer of £60, seller has come back with counter offer of £90, what do you think?

[rugged jackal]

should be clear Friday night!

[random night]

I just got that recently... well mine is colour and i got it with a guide scope

It does the job it seems, i used phd2 and NINA

[rugged jackal]

What do you think of the price? How much did you pay for your guiding setup (if you don't mind me asking).

[random night]

I dont know if its overpriced but i got mine and the scope for £110. So possible a little overpriced bit its not bad for a a guidecam I suppose?

[rugged jackal]

wow you got the cam and scope for £110 - that is a great price, where did you purchase your kit - Ebay?

[random night]

https://www.astrobuysell.com/

This was the kit I got https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/altair-mg32-gp130m.html

[modest nebula]

I got that one too, but I got it with a guide scope for less than £100

[random night]

Nice, so I guess £100 for just the cam is probably a bit overpriced, I had been looking for a couple of weeks for a combo before it came up so maybe just wait a bit if you can and keep looking?

[modest nebula]

I would keep looking tbh

[rugged jackal]

OK thanks. If you guys see a bargain please let me know.

[modest nebula]

although you could counter offer £75 and see what happens

those cams are £150 brand new

[low mural]

@rugged jackal you could put an offer in for this?

[rugged jackal]

what is a good price for this camera?

[low mural]

Put an offer of £75 and see if they counter £80?

Again it was about £140 new

[modest nebula]

pretty sure this svbony would be fine for a guide cam https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314651765893

[scarlet stump]

Is it worth buying a new heq5?

[random night]

I know this thread long departed from talking about polar aligning the gti but this is really left field 😂

[scarlet stump]

We were previously talking about mounts
That's why I asked 😂

[low mural]

@scarlet stump I think you need to pick ya mount haha. HEQ5 is better than eqm35 and az-gti. Eqm35 is better than the az-gti 😂

[scarlet stump]

Yeah i have😂,
I just want to be sure that i won't be upgrading again in the near future after i buy my equipment

[azure solar]

on the same price range of the heq5 there's the umi 👀

Idk if it's still worth getting one of those new tbh, shouldn't be too hard to find one used or to just get something like mine

[rugged jackal]

Sorry, I have put in a counter offer of £70 - but he has not come back. Though I notice that ENS optical have these 2 options: https://ensoptical.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=14096 ??

and https://ensoptical.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=15032

Rather expensive for second hand?

[rugged jackal]

We do occasionally go back to polar aligning, this thread has been invaluable in teaching me and hopefully others about TPPA, polar aligning and processing, mini-pc, flatteners, guiding and have been instrumental in draining money every month on equipment purchases.

[rugged jackal]

The seller has turned down my offer for £70 without a counter offer.

[modest nebula]

did you see that svbony for £75 that I posted above?

[rugged jackal]

I did see the post but I thought I'd try the more reputable brands first, @low mural has had poor experiences with svbony cameras.

[modest nebula]

sure, but it's just a guide cam. That 305 has proper exposure length, a decent sensor and PHD2 would recognise it natively (without using ASCOM). I doubt it would do a poor job at guiding

[rugged jackal]

Thanks, I'll consider what you are saying - how does it compare with the Altair for £90? also what would you pair it with?

[modest nebula]

sky looks clear tonight

I'm going to try a mosaic for the first time

just a simple 2 frame on NA nebula

[low mural]

The svbony 305 I had issues with NINA and the overall ascom driver. But I think it was an isolated issue tbh

I'm in Cornwall at the moment with no telescope. Hoping to find some imaging time next week though!

[rugged jackal]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Svbony-Illuminated-Adjustment-Finderscope-Telescope/dp/B09P2RW7MW/ref=pd_ci_mcx_mh_mcx_views_2?pd_rd_w=yWcuA&content-id=amzn1.sym.6aea875e-359f-49f3-864f-cff62d586b6a%3Aamzn1.symc.ca948091-a64d-450e-86d7-c161ca33337b&pf_rd_p=6aea875e-359f-49f3-864f-cff62d586b6a&pf_rd_r=37S72D57YJ5FZQZYYH2D&pd_rd_wg=GkvXJ&pd_rd_r=a34e00c3-d51d-4385-926f-ca86fc3dbbfa&pd_rd_i=B09P2RW7MW

is this suitable to be used as a guidescope?

[rugged jackal]

Fingers crossed we get a clear night. Good luck with the NA.

[modest nebula]

That one is a finderscope rather than a guidescope. It's designed for visual use. It may not get focus with a camera instead of the optic.

this one looks ok though. no idea of the brand https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235118155670

[rugged jackal]

I saw that but no description of brand or actual condition of the items and no returns policy of the seller so I did not bid.

[azure solar]

most of these are probably made in the same factory, my tecnosky guidescope looks exactly like that one, just like an svbony, omegon, etc

[rugged jackal]

What about this one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374857757344?epid=10058409198&hash=item57474372a0:g:TfwAAOSwl5NkzNWH&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4Dejn2Ji342nI7MUS34JNMi%2FIBjoKBzzfh9JoKuqyHuDqkZm65sE%2B8SjPf%2BInmQoU2OBx2sLCbYTCS7HjGAvjx4nK3xyUa%2FkfAMCkC0izq1OknUimM0mWcXq6ngcbyq9dE55utqQnstLglhJjQ5ajgCbYvLGIfx0r%2FJAXRfYFdRzO%2BVy4ovcCMogAcmvoefXU4Df%2FDgCJKQliA3yxjjesO0k33EdhLgUk7HE8vk6WYRrmBet7f%2BjBw0qKfLFPqiMJf%2BTVoNeYo5J2xf%2FfAmT4pKm0up5PqbrksrjD85hgGBb|tkp%3ABk9SR7TZyL25Yg

[azure solar]

identical to mine

[rugged jackal]

Looks to be a good price, so should I pull the trigger?

[azure solar]

Idk why it's rotated like that

I don't see why not, new it goes for 100€ or more

[rugged jackal]

Thanks

[azure solar]

to mount it do like I did, on the tiny holder it will be too unbalanced

[rugged jackal]

Thanks for the help, pulled the trigger finally. Also good to have the pay in 3 Paypal facility.

[rugged jackal]

Yeah I really like the way you have done it, when I get it on Thursday I might need your help to get it setup. Now to find the camera, still double minded about the svbony sv305.

[azure solar]

I don't trust svbony for anything other than simple plates and guidescopes but a lot of people seem to use the 305 to guide

mmh I'm watching a video about it and with a 30mm guide scope it's detecting a single star, not great

if you can try to find a used zwo cam like a 120 or 224, mono is better but osc works too

[modest nebula]

ok we're live https://astro.wheep.co.uk/livestack/

trying my UHC filter tonight in combination with my IR cut. seems to be working ok so far

wow guiding at 0.6" right now 😮

[azure solar]

that's a pretty cool feature

[modest nebula]

it uses Astro Live Stacker

I made some mods to it to overlay some stats on the image but that's not live yet

[rugged jackal]

That is cool, watching your live stack, live on air !

[modest nebula]

yeh, paused now because cloud rolled in. It'll clear soon

so far, that stack has 19mins on it

[rugged jackal]

Not bad image, what is your main camera?

[random night]

Nice! Love the live stack. Is there a plugin for NINA to use that? I'm imaging ic1396 as part of a project I started a couple of months ago

Been waiting to get RGB data to add to by dual NB data for so long now

[scarlet stump]

I use siril for live stacking and nina for acquisition
I haven't found how to make them work on their own yet
So i just copy paste a bunch of images from nina to siril
I do not know if there is a plug in in nina@random night

[random night]

Yeah I use PI for my live stacking in a similar way..8 have a robocopy script to automatically copy the files.

[modest nebula]

I run Astro Live Stacker and just point it at Nina output directory. It just stacks teh files as they come in. Just for preview. I use DSS & Siril to postprocess

[scarlet stump]

Would that be a problem for a dslr with astro live stacker?@modest nebula

[modest nebula]

I don't think so

[scarlet stump]

Ok, i ll try it then

[modest nebula]

Here's initial cut of last nights data. This is a crop from a 2 frame mosaic (my first ever). Only managed to get ~45mins on each frame once I'd dumped the duff subs so it's hella noisy. Not done any star processing yet either although I might save that until I get a few more hours of data

I also used my UHC filter. I'm not convinced it's giving any benefit tbh. I don't think I'll use it again

[random night]

Is this the first mosaic you have done? How did you find the NINA mosaic porcess?

[modest nebula]

the NINA part was simple but working out what to do with them afterwards was a little trickier

I ended up stacking each panel seperately, loading into Siril and converting the unstretched data from FIT to TIF and putting them into Image Composite Editor to combine into one mosaic

then I could load back into Siril, crop & process

[random night]

Cant you just stack together in DSS and use MOSAIC mode?

No messing about then

[modest nebula]

perhaps, I've never tried it

I'll give it a go

[random night]

Also how did you get on with the NINA sequencer for each panel? I wondered how that works?

[modest nebula]

ok mosaic mode is stacking

it jsut creates a sequencer tab for each panel, then you go set up your sequence for each panel

ok, DSS sucks for mosaic

here's a screenshot to show what I mean

it doesn't trim off the dithering artifacts and doesn't balance the brightness between panels

[random night]

Welll I wouldnt expect it to tim off dithering artifacts but I would think it would sort the brightness

[modest nebula]

I think you'd have to prep each panel yourself, then use DSS a 2nd time to put the mosaic together

I was using Microsoft Image Composite Editor for that

[low mural]

I guess you best bet is some pre pre processing? Edit individual stackef images (back ground extraction, colour correction etc) then stitch them together? Either with dss or manual stitching in Ps (perhaps gimp too?)

[modest nebula]

I split ha from oiii and then combine before stretch. Seemed to work fine

[modest nebula]

ok I had a beer, stretched the shit out of it, then saturated it to death, and now it looks a little more interesting. Still needs many more hours though

[rugged jackal]

Siril stopped midway due to low disk space, I have cleared out some unwanted/old data, how can I get Siril to process from where it stopped rather than do the whole thing again?

[modest nebula]

I don't use Siril to stack only to postprocess so I can't really comment

[rugged jackal]

Siril is good but disk hog, I like ASTAP but squeals too much, DSS just crashes for me!

so I have to start all over again after 2 hours of preprocessing

[rugged jackal]

Still looks pretty good!!

How was the auto focuser?

[modest nebula]

It works perfectly. It's definitely one of my better improvements

[rugged jackal]

Brilliant, i wish I had your skills

[modest nebula]

I didn't do anything clever. just built what others had already designed. Did you ever have Lego as a kid? It's same deal 😄

[rugged jackal]

Looool, I am certain it is nothing like lego, plus my lego builds were rubbish too.

I heard you might build one for a 72ED located in Mid England, hint hint, 😆

[modest nebula]

lol, I have 4 spare boards and enough components to mostly build them. I could do one for you but it would still need a lot of effort on your part. How are your soldering and fabrication skills?

[rugged jackal]

The last time I soldered something was about 15 years ago, so I guess pretty good right!

[modest nebula]

I doubt soldering has changed in 15yrs 😄

[rugged jackal]

I suppose I could re-learn (and re-buy a soldering iron etc)

[modest nebula]

it's all through-hole soldering, no surface mount

https://astro.wheep.co.uk/assets/images/resized/PXL_20230720_104927648.jpg

you'd have to supply and solder the voltage regulator (the one with the black heatsink on the right) and the two plug in boards. They're a couple of quid each on ebay. I think I have everything else

oh, and you'd need to get a stepper motor from China (less £15 including postage), and work out a drive cog for your 72ed

here's one on my 50ed https://astro.wheep.co.uk/assets/images/resized/PXL_20230624_103916062.PORTRAIT.jpg

[rugged jackal]

Sounds fairly simple like keyhole surgery...

@modest nebula that is genius, looks good too. How much for a ZWO autofocuser? about £250 plus!

[modest nebula]

I know, right! This cost me probably £50-ish, perhaps less

[modest nebula]

@rugged jackal I've updated my starmask tutorial to properly use the starmask as a mask exposing the real stars. Makes them look better than my previous effort. https://astro.wheep.co.uk/tutorials/image-processing/postprocess/

[rugged jackal]

Brilliant, Thanks for that buddy, has been really useful to go through your website esp the preprocessing.

[modest nebula]

I might have a reorg at the weekend. i won't delete any stuff but it may move

[rugged jackal]

ok, thanks for the headsup

[rugged jackal]

I was wondering if I can make use of my 1.25" CLS/UHC filters but my image train is a 2" on 1 side and M42 on camera side attached to a M42 to NEX adapter which is attached to the camera, So I need to step down but cannot understand how this can be done if at all without disturbing the focusing distance.

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kuT3MoKbAAvRNqd9RUNMOyrU3detUCQ4/view?usp=drive_link

seem to have a oblong stars

[low mural]

A bit of star trailing, maybe go through your subs and find the trailed ones? Might need to reduce your exposure times. That being said, the post processing is on point!! Nice one!

Somehow it is clear tonight, currently got an hours worth of imaging data!

[random night]

Yeah me too, taking the opportunity to add some more ha data to my elephant trunk nebula project. Forecast had cloud set but it seems to be clear so far

[low mural]

Nice! I'm shooting elephant trunk to. But having a tough time with it. 2 hours of data so far but need more!

[rugged jackal]

Thanks @low mural took almost 2 hours in Siril! I have been your and Beezer's instructions on processing and I think I am slowly getting there. As for the star trailing I think I know why - the mount was loose on the wedge with a bit of a wobble.

[rugged jackal]

Looks really good!

I've messed up the flats by the look of it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FJr5fOyzDtoqEUbtuZTn8dH53TsBbFVz/view?usp=sharing

not sure how?

[scarlet stump]

Should i try the elephants trunk with my dslr?

Also, yesterday i was dealing with clouds 😂

[rugged jackal]

Welcome to our world, I got very poor results using my Sony unmodded camera. Your camera may be more sensitive.

[scarlet stump]

Which nebula should i try?

I want a bright one

[rugged jackal]

Best is the great Orion

[scarlet stump]

Well i can't capture it this time of the year

I might try a galaxy

Like the m33

[rugged jackal]

Yeah sorry You could try the veil nebula and M31 is in the sky now for me.

[scarlet stump]

I ve tried them,
Do you think m33 or m106 will be good

[rugged jackal]

M33 would be a great traget esp in your dark site in the mountains.

[random night]

Yeah its tricky with only a bit of data, I managed to combine with some old data for 6hrs but struggling processing the stars

trying to add some rgb data 9only an hours worth to help with the stars but keep overcooking it 🫣

[random night]

Do you have a dual narrrowband filter at all? if so a nebula is easier unless you have bad light poillution and they are WAY bigget than galaxies (andromeda excluded)

try the heart nebula or something?

[scarlet stump]

No , i do not have a filter yet@random night

It looks good!@random night

[random night]

What is your bortle level?

[scarlet stump]

Probably 4-5

[random night]

Nice! Galaxies would be ok for you then but probably a bit small for your fov with a dslr?

[scarlet stump]

I have an achro 102/500@random night

[random night]

Oh fine then.. on a az gti?

[scarlet stump]

Yeah

[random night]

poor mount 😂

[scarlet stump]

Yes, i know

[scarlet stump]

@random night
How do write one for siril?

[rugged jackal]

cloudy as usual!!!!

[scarlet stump]

Clear as usual!!!@rugged jackal

[low mural]

During all these cloudy nights, I decided to build a website to publish my work. Adding some other things like processing tutorials and reviews too 😂

www.astrobenn.com

https://www.astrobenn.com/

[rugged jackal]

Nice website, look forward to using the processing tutorials.

[modest nebula]

nice!

[rugged jackal]

What are these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005686820642.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.46931wqg1wqgwO&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.281175.0&scm_id=1007.40050.281175.0&scm-url=1007.40050.281175.0&pvid=ad0f2a6a-0f19-47d4-bc4f-100481c724af&_t=gps-id:pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40050.281175.0,pvid:ad0f2a6a-0f19-47d4-bc4f-100481c724af,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238110%231995&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!114.22!69.67!!!1018.00!!%40211b600b16918860939332941e88a6!12000034012155138!rec!UK!1841095672!A

any good?

[azure solar]

in theory yes, in practice they have issues with reaching focus in certain situations

[rugged jackal]

Thanks, I'll keep looking lol

[modest nebula]

recently added a USB3 hub to my setup. now I only have 1 USB cable and 1 power cable going to the cameras, mount, dew heaters & focuser. makes for much easier cable management

[rugged jackal]

that looks good, i think i might copy this too, what type of hub is it?

[modest nebula]

RSHTECH USB3.1 hub. It's powered by 12v same as my focuser and the azgti

[rugged jackal]

what is your setup?

[modest nebula]

Evoguide 50ED similar to Astrobenn

with temporary case for the home-made focuser 😄

[rugged jackal]

what is the guidescope / cam?

[modest nebula]

It's this https://landseaskyco.com/products/altair-starwave-50mm-guide-scope-gpcam-mono-guide-camera-combo

Actually the cam is slightly more modern that the one in that advert

[low mural]

Nice! How much was the hub? I'm OK for USB at the moment because my mini pc does the job, however cable management is still poor for me haha.

Twinning on the few heater though!

[modest nebula]

Was £20 on eBay. Double that price new

[rugged jackal]

Nice and what is your main cam setup?

[modest nebula]

one of these https://www.svbony.com/svbony-sv505c-color-planetary-camera-for-astronomy/

[modest nebula]

btw, don't take that as a recommendation though. It works perfectly but it's not really suited for deep space. I bought it because I was gifted a ton of Amazon voucher and my choice was very limited. I'd choose a different one next time.

[modest nebula]

Here's an interesting video on how to work out your exposure levels. Basically, put a number of camera stats into a formula to get your lower and upper media exposure levels, then you can check against your subs to see if it matches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrM8X4J5EFs

[rugged jackal]

I have revisited your sv305 recommendation and price drop to £60 at the moment, so I have taken the plunge because I could not find anything as good for the same price and need it just for guiding, though some people have gotten some amazing images with it!!

[modest nebula]

I think you'll be happy with it especially for a guide cam

the sv305 is a proper astro cam and is actually cheaper than then sv205 at the moment which is just a glorified webcam

I think they're selling them off cheap because it's effectively discontinued

[rugged jackal]

Thanks for the advice. much appreciated, should get it by wed/thursday this week, now for some clear skies.

[modest nebula]

do you have a guide scope yet?

[modest nebula]

I'm going to try the exposure calculator plugin in NINA next time

[rugged jackal]

fair enough, I do not mind at all, suppose to be a decent sensor and native support in PHD2 & saved at least £30 and the time/effort of finding a decent second hand altair etc

[rugged jackal]

I got that last week £55 for second hand 60mm svBony

[modest nebula]

nice

did you mount it yet?

[rugged jackal]

yes I have a temp mounting using a piece of wood 🫢 across the telescope so I get a better balance.

I need to get a proper dovetail but budget is blown this month.

[modest nebula]

do you know someone with a 3d printer? https://www.printables.com/en/model/503445-skywatcher-tube-ring-evostar-ed72-top-bracket-plat

[rugged jackal]

I wish I did but alas no, and these kind of things on Ebay etc are very expensive, a simple 250mm dove tail is around £25+.

[modest nebula]

I used the Horizon Creator plugin in NINA the other day too to create a custom horizon

if you use GS Server and turn on "encoders" you can just release the clutches on your az-gti, manually point at somewhere on the horizon, click the "add" button in the plugin. Do that for many points in a 360deg and you've got a custom horizon that you can use in NINA and Stellarium. By far the simplest way to do it imo

[low mural]

Might be in luck tonight guys!

[modest nebula]

not here

5am is looking clear though. I might have a bright star to contend with though

[rugged jackal]

Mostly cloudy here!! plus start of the week.

[random night]

Not here either I can see starts now and again but not worth setting the rig up for

[rugged jackal]

totally clear now and i am not up for it!

[low mural]

Just cleared up here. Got am hour until my target goes over my roof 😂 ita better than nothing I suppose

[low mural]

3 hours total. Going to reprocess tomorrow when I'm less tired 😂

[rugged jackal]

Wow looks good.

[modest nebula]

sky is clear all day long until this evening 😡

[low mural]

Getting somewhere!

[low mural]

I know right 😑

[random night]

Looking good, very similar to my project, whats your scope?

[low mural]

50ED

[modest nebula]

you should try a mosaic

[low mural]

Last time I did it, it flopped 😂

I've just out my stock DSLR on. Want to shoot andromeda because I have not done it in a a long time. I am not going to get my 585 pro until end of September now..

16 year old dslr 😂

[rugged jackal]

Loving it, very nice indeed.

Did you get this image using your stock DSLR?? how, my effort were so poor!

[random night]

Thats not an az gti! Get outta here 😂

[low mural]

😂😂😂 I had the az-gti for 2 years and got the eqm 2 months ago 😂

[random night]

Imposter!

[low mural]

Here 😂

[low mural]

NOooo haha. I have just put the stock DSLR on. Plan on shorting andromeda with it

[rugged jackal]

looool, ok, sorry got the wrong end of the stick.

[modest nebula]

Be interested in seeing the pics. Technically, your DSLR is massively undersampling your 50ED but it will be interesting to see what results you get. If they look decent, I might make a cam86 🙂

[low mural]

Yeah bug time! 5.7 pixel size! I plan on doing some aggressive dithering so I can drizzle effectively. I still would be over sampled, but less so!

[modest nebula]

the Nikon sensor used in cam86 is 7.78!

I have a Nikon d90 to try here though. That's a 12mpix camera with 5.5um pixel size

[rugged jackal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLEvPFvEnmA cuiv reviews a touptek based on the imx585 which I believe is the same as the uranus c pro.

[modest nebula]

I saw that. It looks intriguing. The uncooled SvBony IMX585 is ~£300 so hopefully the cooling won't add too much to the price. This could be a decent budget cooled cam if Touptek want it to be

[rugged jackal]

the Player One Uranus-C pro is the cooled version and it is about 440-460 from Ali Express or can purchase directly from Player One. Not sure if Touptec will want to compete with that price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bozLTpEhpgU

[low mural]

Yeah I intend to purchase direcr from Player One and then pay the duties on arrival. That way, I'm agreeing to their T&Cs which confirms a 2 year warranty

[rugged jackal]

Got my guide cam, set it up but how do I focus, cannot seem to see any stars to use my bahtinov mask

[modest nebula]

pull the guide cam in/out & clamp it when you see stars, then use focus ring

once you see stars, go to PHD2, connect it, set it looping, select a star and watch the HFR/HFD or whatever it's called

get the number as small as possible

[rugged jackal]

Thanks 🙏 but all I can see right now are clouds, I swear the sky was clear about 20 mins ago and now

Sorry @modest nebula but u say see the stars but which software? I assume PhD2?

[modest nebula]

Yeh

[low mural]

Bit hazy, but the 40d is working!

[low mural]

Damn! 15 min auto stretched stack. No calibrations.

[low mural]

30 mins of data until the clouds rolled in. Going to stick with M31 and get 1-2 more hours in. Hopefully clear tomorrow...

[random night]

Nice work! It's a biggun that target

[modest nebula]

that doesn't look too bad provided you don't pixel-peep

I think I'll give the Nikon a try if I can actually get some sky

[modest nebula]

damn, seems my Nikon is too bulky for my setup. never mind, I'll just have to do a mosaic for larger targets

[modest nebula]

@low mural can you ping me when you have some spare time. I'd like you to try a narrow band processing technique for Siril using pixel math that I've been working on. It could work well for you

[low mural]

@modest nebula Sounds good! I am free and intrigued!

[low mural]

Yeah I had the same problem, I had to move my mini pc haha

[modest nebula]

I'll private message you if I can work out how

actually, I'll start a new thread in "processing" so we can do this publicly

ok pls join when you're ready

[modest nebula]

so I've run this exposure calculator thingy in NINA. it says I should do 25 sec exposures 😮

let's see how this goes then

[low mural]

Good luck!

I'm all set up and pointing at M31 but there is a big ball of white fluffy stuff in the way. Also got my other dslr out on the table to take some star trails. No for the sky to clear...

Apologies for my diabolical cable management.

[low mural]

Well I am imaging. Not sure why, there is a lot of high cloud

[low mural]

Well another 1.5 hours of M31 and my first ever stair trails image! That was unexpected. Just need to edit out all the Aeroplanes from the stair trail stack. Here is a quick Autostretch of M31 and my unedited star trail image.

[lament lion]

Finally!!! Clear and no smoke/haze from any fires

[lament lion]

It seems everyone else here had the same idea with andromeda Galaxy lol, also I’m happy about switching the wedge to the William optic wedge so much better than the skywatcher

[modest nebula]

Did you ever try to "fix" your Skywatcher wedge? https://astro.wheep.co.uk/equipment/wedge/

mine works really well since I did that

[lament lion]

No I never did try that, was thinking about it, but decided I’ll just get a new one since mine went through a little beating when it was attached to the swsa 2i I learned my lesson keep Astro stuff in the garage so kids don’t get to it

Yeah I forgot the dew heater…….. it’s been so long since my last session (not including the 4th of July only messing around and trying to fix the tilt) oh well 2 hours of usable data, good thing I’m going to image this every clear night to get around 10+ hours on it

[modest nebula]

I learnt that lesson long ago

[lament lion]

I thought I learned it to but since my break from this since I got to frustrated from all the clouds and then on “clear” nights smoke and haze so I stopped for a few months I got to excited last night and forgot the one thing I told myself I don’t care what the temp ever is it’s going on the scope and well nope

[modest nebula]

yeh I always turn mine on at least lowest setting, even in summer

[lament lion]

Yeah well now it’s a double lesson learned and I know it’s going to happen again in the future but Friday and Saturday night it’s looking clear as of right now so plenty of time to get more data before it’s time to start something else

Also was messing around with phd2 last night got tired of it telling me my error in pixels and not the arc seconds was doing just barely over 1 arc second so happy about that but looking forward to getting a mount and getting that sub arc seconds

[modest nebula]

I regularly get ~0.6" on my azgti so the mount is capable of doing it. Guide cam & lens will play a part in good guiding. I guess the question is, how good do you need it to be?

e.g. my imaging camera & lens are ~2.47"/pixel so it wouldn't even notice small guiding inaccuracies

find yours here https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

[lament lion]

As long as I don’t go over 1.87 arc seconds my camera will do just fine

[modest nebula]

great 🙂

[lament lion]

47 mins left to stack

[modest nebula]

gosh. lots of frames or slow computer?

[lament lion]

Lot of frames, was doing 15 second subs taking 64gb of temp space but not worried about space

[modest nebula]

I was trying that last night too

[lament lion]

Yeah the 15 secs was for the core, I’ll be taking longer ones to get the rest and then combine it so I can get detail close to the core, all I know is next project is going to have to look at pixinsight, I just cannot get it to stack data but I could have dss stack that data and way more with no problems I’m wondering if I have something off or on in the stacking setting but idk

[modest nebula]

I tried using the exposure calculator in NINA and it recommended 18 sec exposures, so I did a load of 20 sec ones

not used to doing many short exposures, and I didn't get enough sky to see if it was working or not

[lament lion]

I used the calculator last night told me 5 or 7 seconds but said yeah no imma just do 15 seconds I am curious as what will the pics look like if I can get 4 hours of doing what the calculator says to do compared to longer exposures with the same integration time

[modest nebula]

exactly the same thoughts going through my head 😄

[rugged jackal]

I am building my confidence to do this.

[random night]

What are you using the exposure calculator for? Trying to avoid blowing out the core?

[modest nebula]

it's supposed to tell you what your optimal exposure level is given your camera and sky conditions

[rugged jackal]

Need help figuring out the setting for the sv305 guide cam, I seem to have bitten off more than my ability/knowledge, please suggest what settings I should have to reduce noise, so I can detect stars, hoping to have another go tonight, possible clear window, lool,

[azure solar]

in phd2? I always used the default settings and only changed the exposure time, you can change the gain in the brain icon > camera

[rugged jackal]

Yes in PHD2. Perhaps due to focus issues as I struugled with a lot of things in the dark

[azure solar]

try with focus with something like sharpcap, phd isn't the best for that. or at least I've always struggled with it

[random night]

I dont think that ever works, Your far better just doing it using your eyes 😂

15 sec subs sounds very short to me, dependinmg on light pollution and target subs should be into the minutes (if tracked)

[modest nebula]

Indeed. however I've learnt from experts about the ideal exposure length and it is indeed supposed to be that short. I don't really believe it myself but thought I'd give it a try

[low mural]

Don't worry I had trouble too! You are best focusing on a very far object like a street lamp or roof aerial in the day time. The when you have a clear night, you should see the stars in PHD2 and can focus more accurately.
Try not to play around with the phd2 settings for now. The default settings should work OK. Make sure you create a Darks library in phd2. Once you have focused, you will want to calibrate phd2. It should run this automatically the first time and can take a few mins.

A lot of gradients in my image but managed to tackle most of them probably due to the thermal noise and high cloud cover.

Not bad for a 16 year old camera though!

[rugged jackal]

Yeah I have been messing with focusing during the day and though the optics are not great I can focus fairyl well on distant objects, when I set up I will focus on a distant object using Sharpcap and then move to PHD2, unfortunately I have made changes to the camera settings already and not sure how to reset them to default. I have already created a dark library.

[rugged jackal]

TBH - looks fantastic, please provide details on how you got this image, sub exposures etc. I may try again.

[low mural]

Send me some screntshots when you have it set up in phd2 again on a clear night. Or perhaps we can do a screen share? It's a tricky one to get a hang of. Took me a few clear nights

[low mural]

#1141788163325567087 message

[random night]

Unless you're doing lucky imaging (which you would need shorter exposures) I can't think of any reason you would want tracked subs that short? The signal to noise ratio is just massive

[low mural]

Dr Robin Glover explains optimal exposures quite well. Beezer shared the video quite a while ago. But I have not got the disk space anymore for short exposure lol

[modest nebula]

yeh, and he was one who was promoting shorter exposures too. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a try just to get it out of my system (unless it works well)

[random night]

That's in reference to lucky imaging though right? Fine if that's your goal but not standard or early to master. Plus, as you say, hd space and processing speed is an issue. I think 15 sec is too long for lucky imaging anyway and you'd have the worst of both worlds?

[modest nebula]

from what I understand it's more to do with optimizing according to the background brightness of the sky. If the sky is dark, you can run longer exposures. If the sky is bright, you need shorter exposures or the sensor gets overwhelmed

it seems counter intuitive. Here's a video that explains it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrM8X4J5EFs

anyhow, I wanted to test it. That's all

[rugged jackal]

Thank you,

another great night in store, aaagggghhhhh

[random night]

Absolutely, but 15 secs seems nuts. Thanks for the link, I'll have a read and watch

[lament lion]

2 hours in bortle 7 using the Uranus c, only stacking artifacts where cropped, as it seems I’m never doing short exposures again it took forever, didn’t really process besides blurx, starnet and trying to fix a star and little bit of curves

[low mural]

Nice! Which scope? You have probably told me before but my memory is crap!

[low mural]

Just had a go with your M31 @rugged jackal - It is nice data. Just those flats were not right Perhaps the camera shifted or the focus. Stars a little trailed but overall its a nice sharp image of Andromeda! It resolves better than mine!

[lament lion]

It’s the svbony sv503 70ed

[rugged jackal]

Thank you @low mural . The flats were pretty rubbish and could not recover them - the dust motes had ghost twins which was disappointing, Think the camera may have moved when bringing the gear inside. However your processing is brilliant and nice to see that I am actually getting fairly good data even with my unmodded Sony camera.

[random night]

Interesting video, yeah that all makes sense, All I can say is that you must have fed something incorrect into the formula to get 15 seconds, even in the most light polluted sky shooting towards a full moon 15 sec will be way too short, you should be able to shoot well over a minute to get a median background that's not blown?

[low mural]

Just come back from a free Astronomy talk with Dr Chris Pearson from RAL, set up by my local astronomy society. All about life of an atom. From the big bang, right up to rings on our finger. He handed us stickers saying "We are all made of Stardust" and concluded with Stickers at the end saying "we are all made from nuclear waste" 😂

[lament lion]

Well clouds came in fast tonight was supposed to be clear till 4am but seems like a stretch of clouds right where I need to shoot till it gets overcast again…….

[cold breach]

@rugged jackal are you in birmingham ?

[rugged jackal]

I am in Birmingham.

Sorry for the late reply I did not see your message until now.

[rugged jackal]

Surprise surprise

[modest nebula]

it's perfectly clear tonight, and I've just got home

[rugged jackal]

Was supposed to be clear

I have setup and voila clouds

[modest nebula]

I'm ok until about 2 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/maps-and-charts/cloud-cover-map

[rugged jackal]

Pass some of it my way,

That is the only bit of sky visible to me at the moment

[low mural]

Was showing clear for me. Got setup, took 1 image.. Then boom.. cloud.

[random night]

a rare moment of clear sky so im set up and imaging tonight!

[low mural]

That sub looks nice!

This was my one and only sub of the bubble Nebula 😂

[random night]

Looks good too. What length exposure you running there?

Bubble is a tricky one. Not tried it myself yet

[low mural]

240 second with L-enhance. Never imaged it before myself yet

Thought I would give it a go as M52 is also in the frame 😂

[modest nebula]

I tried fireworks galaxy for 40mins. That target is so small and faint I've never got much on it. I'll have to revist over many nights to get anything decent on that

now trying on Andromeda. Not done that one for the last few years

https://astro.wheep.co.uk/livestack/ <-- just 6mins so far

[rugged jackal]

Getting this error message

[modest nebula]

see that at the bottom that says 0.01s? change to auto

[random night]

Wow, that's one extreme to the other! Hope it goes well

[modest nebula]

lol yeh, had to turn the gain to zero to get max full well depth

it's so bright 😮

[random night]

I normally do standard exposures for all the outer part the take some short exposures stacks for the core and do a HDR (similar to Orion) for that one

[modest nebula]

that's not a bad approach

[rugged jackal]

Thanks changed it, and now ... drum roll ... clouds, someone is having a party and the music is not bad so I have that to help me !

[random night]

You want to avoid dropping the gain below your cameras unity gain Val ideally

[rugged jackal]

Now I am getting this! Is it even guiding on a star or a hot pixel? and also I am too far from the equator ?

[low mural]

What star are you calibrating with?

A star like this perhaps?

[rugged jackal]

That is a good question and I do not know, I simply connected, started looping then click on the auto select and then clicked on the green button and it started guiding with the error I have shown above.

[low mural]

I'm guessing you are aware of calibration? I was not when I started and I was so confused, my fault I didn't read up on it. But when you first start guiding, it will automatically star calibrating first. But it needs to calibrate close the the equator. A star around 30 degrees south east is a good place to start. But there are not many bright stars around there at the moment. Algenib should be a good one though

[random night]

You should definitely calibrate of you haven't already. Just hold shift when you click start guiding

[rugged jackal]

Err I am aware of it right now and the chance of me getting a star near the horizon is very slim as I am surrounded by houses and trees and the cityscape.

[low mural]

It should start calibrating automatically if its first time.

[low mural]

Just find a star as low as possible. I think I calibrated at 50 degrees to be fair but it was in the south east

[random night]

Oh that would make sense, been so long I've forgotten

[rugged jackal]

I am getting this at the moment

[low mural]

That's not hurrendous tbf

Keep it running for 10 mins and send the graph

With the az-gti I would be happy at total RMS of 2.00 and yours is currently 2.12

[rugged jackal]

ok, will do, 1.13 at the moment

[low mural]

Yeah nice!

When you start imaging, remember to dither! Very important now you are guiding!

[rugged jackal]

I am dithering every 4 at the moment

[random night]

That's not to bad, some subs I run about 0.8 and some can go as high as 1.5

[low mural]

How long are your subs?

If I'm taken 120 second subs, I dither every 2

Any longer, I dither every frame

[rugged jackal]

60s at the moment

[low mural]

You should be OK every 3-4 then

[rugged jackal]

ok

[low mural]

60-90s might be your limit at Bortle 7 with no filter anyway (depending on your target)

[rugged jackal]

I was surprised how many hot pixels the sv305 has

[low mural]

You should see my Altair imaging cam 😂

[rugged jackal]

I am going for the soul nebula - hoping that I can get the some blues etc but think I am not going to get good results using this Sony.

[low mural]

Here is my single 4 min uncalibrated sub before the clouds rolled in. Ran some noise reduction in there😂

[low mural]

I got some decent reds from the heart Nebula with my canon 40d last year at 40 seconds. So you should be OK! Good luck!

[rugged jackal]

is this a property of astro cameras - hot pixels, my Sony is not as bad?

[low mural]

I think it may be because of the higher sensitivity and smaller sensors. But dark frames wipe them out anyway and dithering removes the noise generated from it too.

It's could be different for cooled cameras.

But yeah I definitely notice more hot pixels in my Altair than my DSLRs

[rugged jackal]

Well like you I am also saving to get the Uranus C - cooled version - even Cuiv likes the sensor in this camera, hopefully get better images but I am thinking/hoping black friday might see some discounts.

[modest nebula]

you can also get PHD2 to take dark frames which will help

this is my guiding at the moment around Andromeda. It's not as low as usual for some reason but it's low enough and stable

[low mural]

Oh yes! Again phd2 should do that on first launch

[rugged jackal]

I did build a dark library when I setup a few days ago.

[low mural]

I just realised I was reading this wrong 🙈 the total is 5.29" haha, what is it saying now @rugged jackal ?

[low mural]

0.87 is like my best these days. Probs cos I cba to focus my Guidescope everytime

[rugged jackal]

Fluctuates a lot as you can see

[low mural]

Is that jump the dithering?

[modest nebula]

that looks like backlash

here's my advanced settings. I have so much backlash I maxed it out and it seems to work well

[rugged jackal]

what is Backlash

[modest nebula]

it's slack in teh gears. PHD2 is telling the mount to move a little, and then it sees no difference in the stars, so tells it to move a little more, etc etc

you can see PHD continutally telling it to move until it moves too much, then flips back again, etc etc

[low mural]

Every mount has it @rugged jackal and each mount is different but I would stick to getting your head round the guiding first.

You could run the guiding assistant. I think it's in the tools tab

I would run the assistant for about 5 mins then hit stop, it will then calculate backlash and give you some recommendations to apply in the settings. It will also tell you how accurately polar aligned you are

Recalibrating to a star closer to the equator could help too.

But really the best thing to do is check your stars.

If your stars are round, then what more could you want at this stage? It's easy to get obsessed with the guiding graph when you don't really need to if its not affecting your images

I swear everytime I am imaging you guys are not and everytime you guys a few imaging, I'm not

[low mural]

This is looking good @modest nebula

[modest nebula]

1hr so far

if this turns out well, I might even mosaic the rest

I made a fix to Astro Live Stacker to overlay some stacking stats onto the image. I sent a pull request to the author but he's not merged it yet. I think I'll have to build it myself & start using it

[rugged jackal]

Just looking at your live stack @modest nebula - looks really good.

[low mural]

What software you using for live stack?

[modest nebula]

https://github.com/gehelem/als <-- just for preview though

[low mural]

Cheers, I will take a look!

[rugged jackal]

I am running the assistant which has disabled the guiding and wow the guiding did make a major difference - this is what I got without guidance for an exposure of 60s:

[low mural]

Oh yeah I should have said that lol

Yeah it will start drifting 😅 it's supposed to. Stop imaging whilst the assistant is running

[rugged jackal]

loooooool

[low mural]

At least you know guiding was doing something!

[rugged jackal]

I have stopped imaging

[rugged jackal]

Oh yeah now I know!

[low mural]

Don't worry, the assistant should bring your target back into frame when it's finished

So polar alignment and calibration seem to be the main issue. You could apply the settings and see how well they work

But if you fancy it, try and do another few runs of polar alignment

And change your exposure time to 2 seconds rather than 1

But like I said, if your stars are round and you are happy. Then keep going! I would 😂

[modest nebula]

ok I think the fun is over tonight. it's getting misty

[rugged jackal]

no stars at the moment, those fluffy things have rolled in again.

[modest nebula]

make sure to hit "apply" on that guiding assistant scren!

each of the 3 "apply"

[low mural]

You have both probably just got the clouds I had 1 hour ago 😂

[modest nebula]

hmm seems to have blown over

[low mural]

[modest nebula]

anyway i better get some darks and pack it in for tonight

got a long drive tomorrow, oop norf

[rugged jackal]

Thanks, and safe journey.

[modest nebula]

2518 dec backlash is miles better than mine! Once it's dialed in, you should get super guiding

[random night]

Take lights while it's clear skies, don't waste time with darks! I'd leave it out all night

[low mural]

Why do I have to live right where the clouds are staying for the night 😂

[random night]

Sorry, I'm lucky to get a rare second night of imaging but I think this will be it for a while. Hoping to get some RGB data to finish off my Cresent nebula project

[low mural]

Enjoy! Looking forward to seeing the result! It has just cleared up here but I realised I have a driving lesson tomorrow so probs shouldn't set up 😂

[random night]

It's starting to cloud up here. I'll leave it running overnight and see how many subs are useable in the morning

[rugged jackal]

I had a mixed night, seem to be making progressive vis-a-vis guiding, half of it is fumbling in the dark (pardon the pun), the other is the erratic weather, as soon as some clouds were near the guide star I was getting erratic guiding but was surprised at how round the stars looked versus unguided image for the same exposure (60 seconds). Had a approx 1 or 2 hour window of clear skies but generally lots of clouds messing me about.

[low mural]

Keep it going! Was you shooting anything?

[rugged jackal]

I was targetting the soul nebula.

[random night]

Got there in the end.. Only managed 2.5 hrs of the RGB data in the end but its enough for the stars

[rugged jackal]

Wow, that is really good, well done.

[random night]

Thanks the processing was tricky but I enjoyed this one.. Managed 3 night of data in the end.. probably the last 3 clear night for a while

[rugged jackal]

Remind me what is your rig?

[random night]

Tak FS60-CB
Uranus-C (IMX585)
SW Alt-Az GTI
AltairGuideGPCam and 30mm scope

[rugged jackal]

That is a sweet rig, esp the Tak! and on a az-gti - even more impressive.

[random night]

Its basically a copy of the biscuit travel rig from his video

[rugged jackal]

Biscuit keeps breaking his scopes!

[modest nebula]

wow, looks nice! That target is slightly too small for me

I got a cheque in the post today. Inheritence from an Aunt that I didn't know I had. So, going to invest some more in this hobby 🙂

[random night]

What's your rig?

[modest nebula]

Evoguide 50ED

[random night]

That's a similar fl to my scope? You just need a camera with a small sensor 😉 oh actually it's only 240mm that's probably a tad too short

[modest nebula]

yeh exactly

Zuluviper's 72ED would be fine

ok off to read up about that new Touptek that Cuiv reviewed

[random night]

Yeah looks good, same sensor as my camera but cooled

[modest nebula]

that HDR mode is interesting too

I wonder if NINA has native drivers for it?

[azure solar]

nina only has risingcam drives natively as far as I know, I doubt they have the hdr mode thingy enabled

btw be careful with that camera, check your pixel scale and make sure that your mount can track it

[modest nebula]

it's same pixel scale that I have now, but slightly larger sensor

[azure solar]

it's funny to hear that the 585 has a larger sensor, like 99% of the time it's the smallest

[modest nebula]

my existing is a IMX464. That's like the smaller brother of the 585

[low mural]

I'm £100 away from the Uranus C pro. The temptation to pull it out of my daughters savings account is high. But it's really not ethical

I mean I have enough to pull the trigger but nit when customs ask me for the tax 😂

[azure solar]

it's unethical only if she finds out

[low mural]

You are supposed to talk me out of it! 😂

[azure solar]

sorry I missed the memo

[modest nebula]

you could sell your daughter, then you could afford more

[scarlet stump]

Do we know when the next astrobiscuit video will come out?

I have finally decided what my next rig will include

Heq5, 130 pds or 150p for ota with a canon eos 2000d
For guiding my bresser guide cam and a 70/350guide scope

What do you guys think?

[low mural]

And it would mean the savings account would fall back to me by default. Could get myself a proper rig!

[modest nebula]

I bet your missus wouldn't buy into that idea 😄

[low mural]

I would sell her too!

[modest nebula]

😄

[low mural]

Seems decent! Vanilla comes to mind when I think of this rig though 😂 seems like a classic combo haha
No idea when astro biscuits next video is coming out. I'm guessing it's going to be based on his video to the canary islands? I used to really enjoy his top gear style videos but I struggle to relate to them these days

[scarlet stump]

I noticed that he got the eqm35 as a mount for his travel rig
I was considering buying but i think an heq5 is safer@low mural

[azure solar]

I trust the heq5 more than the eqm

[scarlet stump]

Should i buy the 130pds or the 150p?@azure solar

For this mount

[azure solar]

heq5 will take the 150 without issues, it's a matter of focal length and size preference

of course the lighter the payload the less headaches but you're still in very safe territory as far as I know

[scarlet stump]

I might want to add in the future an eaf and some diy staff or even upgrading the camera,so i will probably buy the 130

Just to be Safe

[cold breach]

@rugged jackal im only 45mins south of you, im chipping norton, im lucky to have an IDS site our astronomy club uses.

[modest nebula]

hmm that Uranus-C Pro is £60 cheaper than the brand new (and unproven) Risingcam

[low mural]

Yeah, direct from Player One works out at about £470 ex vat with my banks conversion rate.

[modest nebula]

it's much cheaper than that at the moment, especially with a discount code

£441.88 (on AliExpress)

[low mural]

Player one you get he warranty though. I don't trust aliexpress in that sense haha

[azure solar]

nah risingcam is legit, they'll take care of it if you get something defective

[random night]

Are you not now tempted by the tubetek offering cuiv just talked about on his channel?

[potent turret]

I was testing my new az-gti eq. It was clear in my grandpas backyard b2 location. Everything working, dithering, platesolving… And THEN A THIN BIG CLOUD COVERED THE SKY

[rugged jackal]

Welcome to the world of astrophotography, we ee it everyday. 😆

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15E7iLCLoWIAjMlh_75Hi6mC3Vf7_umqg/view?usp=drive_link

Soul Nebula, cannot saee any nebula & once again too many dust motes, not sure why my flats are so bad?

[potent turret]

Well atleast I got 30 min on the trunk nebula

[random night]

Wow you get to go to a B2 location! Thats great. Well done for getting everything working ok, the weather you cant control

[potent turret]

It’s great here but the weather is really bad

[rugged jackal]

Surely - the warranty is still with Player-One regardless of the vendor? The Touptek version has HDR, is more expensive and comes from Ali Express? Also I thought Ali Express charged VAT on checkout? I am new to all this international cartels wheeling/dealing in cooled and uncooled astro gear getting high (into the sky looking for DSOs)

[potent turret]

Please help! I saw that in my recent image I see a bit of star trailing using my az-gti eq mode. I polar align with Nina 3 point alignment and get a PA error of 1arc minute. Repeat the tppa for several times and do 120s exsposure. But there is star trailing. I do not guide, and my pixel size is 6arc second per pixel (bad I know). What am I doing wrong?

30 min integration time on elephant trunk nebula

[azure solar]

If it trails just do shorter subs

Like 90s instead of 120

[potent turret]

Oh ok

[azure solar]

without guiding there's not much you can do

maybe check if it's properly balanced

[potent turret]

Oh balance

I forgot

Now I know the problem

So I’ll try to polar align better and balance better

[random night]

You wont necessarily manage 120s without guiding all the time.. My az-gti was very good but some people report they cant even do 1 min!
Make sure you eyeball all your subs before stacking and ditch any that are trailing bad

1 arcmin or below PA will be absolutley fine

[potent turret]

How can I mount a guide camera on a Sony camera?

To get better subs

Well the trailing is very small

[random night]

If it has a flash saddle you can get adaptors to mount to that otherwise mount it to your scope or elsewhere on your rig?

[azure solar]

An l-bracket is also an option

[low mural]

As far as I am aware, it is ex vat. But Ali Express is not an official player one vendor and therefore the warranty is not valid. (having looked at the T&Cs)

[low mural]

When are you taking your flats?

[rugged jackal]

Might be worth emailing player one and asking them about Ali Express and warranties, the price on Ali Express is at ;east £20-40 cheaper. as for VAT we will have to add an extra 20% approx £100 plus handling fee, wow it will be £650 by the time we get it!!

[rugged jackal]

I take my flats the following day after an imaging session, in this case it was 2 imaging sessions, but I did not clean or do anything to the rig, except I had to refocus for the second session. I try not to move anything including the camera until I have taken the flats.

[low mural]

Try and take them the same day. Also does you camera have a sensor cleaning function when switched on and off? If so, is it switched off?

[rugged jackal]

doh, ofc 🤪 , I'll turn it off.

[modest nebula]

I finally processed that Andromeda data from the other day. I didn't spend too much time on it because I want to do another 2 frames so I can get the whole galaxy in one image. The data seems ok so far though.

[low mural]

Yeah the flats are letting you down I think. Also more intergration time would be needed for a target like this. Especially with a stock camera. I will have a go at processing though.

A very rough process so you can see the data.

[low mural]

Was this from aliexpress @modest nebula ?

[modest nebula]

yes, Risingcam have an official store on there. They seem quite communicative too. been chatting to them this morning. They even called me twice on my phone except I don't answer random calls from China 😄

They wanted another few days to deliver because i asked for AR glass instead of IR-cut filter

btw if you order from there, always google for "aliexpress discount code" first. There's almost always some discount you can apply

[modest nebula]

also, just confirmed on NINA channel, it now natively supports HDR mode on Touptek cameras in the latest nightly release

[low mural]

This could be a game changer for me. Just need to save £150 and I can buy it!

May wait for you to be my Guinea pig though

What was your reason not to get IR-CUT?

[modest nebula]

because I'd rather have the choice of which filter I use. If I use their IR-Cut, it's there forever.

perhaps their IR-cut is a fantastic quality filter, or perhaps it's pants. I remember the one fitted to the Raspberry Pi camera was complete crap and even a Zwo cheap filter was 1000x better. I didn't want a repeat of that

[potent turret]

Is Nina 3 point alignment feature accurate?

[modest nebula]

yes, verified with a PHD2 drift alignment

[potent turret]

Can I check my mount RMS on phd2 without guiding. Like check your untracked accuracy.

[rugged jackal]

Thanks @low mural, much appreciated, not enjoying imaging nebulae using the Sony - I need to get the new cooled camera 😆 .

[potent turret]

I have Sony a6000

It’s good

[rugged jackal]

Did you just order this camera? why not the Uranus-C pro?

[azure solar]

if it's fast enough to download the exposures then maybe, you need quick 1.5s/2s subs

[potent turret]

Wait oh sorry I mean unguided

[modest nebula]

Because Uranus-C Pro doesn't offer that HDR mode and it looks quite useful

[potent turret]

Not untracked

[drifting cradle]

Dam

3k messages

[rugged jackal]

I have the same A6000 - lovely camera, also can use with NINA which has been a game changer and then people here pushed me to keep buying more toys inc the mini-pc which is such a brilliant addition and can monitor from my 'control centre' in the warmth comfort inside. however have not had much luck with nebula.

[potent turret]

You use the Sony ascom driver?

[modest nebula]

"pushed". You didn't take much persuasion 😄

[rugged jackal]

I do use a driver though not sure if it is ascom - I think it was developed by an individual who released a copy of it to control Sony cameras in NINA and it works well.

[potent turret]

Yes I use it too it’s great!

[rugged jackal]

It really is. I also have a fuji camera - which might be better for nebula but no ascom or similar driver and cannot use in NINA.

[potent turret]

Another question is phd2 polar align better then Nina polar align?

[rugged jackal]

I was badgered and hounded to get it, "you will thank us if you do..." I thought about it for about oh 5 seconds and caved in to the demands. Not my fault 'onestly guv. 😆 🤣

[rugged jackal]

@low mural are you still going for the Uranus-C pro or now moving to this one with it's HDR feature? Also if you use PayPal you may want to use their pay in 3 months interest free payment plan - that is how I funded many of my purchases.

[modest nebula]

I never used AliExpress before now, but they have one feature I really like. If the seller says he'll dispatch in x amount of days, AliExpress will auto-refund if it's not dispatched. I wish ebay did that 😄

[low mural]

Yeah after watching Cuivs video on the Rising cam for the 1000th time, he has persuaded me with that HDR function.
But I'm holding back until @modest nebula tells me the experience with aliexpress was good and the camera lives up to Cuivs review

I can't do pya in 3 with PayPal thanks to my poo money management as an 18 year old and thinking it was fine to get loads of credit cards, buy loads of games consoles and other tech and then never pay it back 😂

Safe to say as a 28 year old, I have paid it all back now but my credit score will suffer for the next 6 years

[rugged jackal]

Right, what is the HDR feature, why is it good to have and is that a hardware or firmware/driver issue?

[modest nebula]

Usually you can have low read noise or large full well depth. Usually one is at the expense of the other. However, HDR mode on these cameras gives you great full well depth with little read noise, best of both worlds

[rugged jackal]

Right, thanks for the explanation, but if Uranus-C uses the same image sensor then can they provide this via a software update or is that a hardware issue?

[modest nebula]

the hardware supports it but I'm not sure if it's a firmware or just a driver thing

you could try to contact PlayerOne to ask? You'd get to see how good their support is 🙂

[rugged jackal]

That is a good idea.

[low mural]

Yeah I do prefer the look of the uranus C pro tbh haha

[rugged jackal]

Also you get a tilt plate etc.

[modest nebula]

is that just for solar?

[azure solar]

the tilt plate?

[modest nebula]

yeh

I read that it's used to eliminate interference patterns when shooting solar. Does it have uses for deep space?

[azure solar]

isn't it just to adjust tilt? I don't see how it could help with solar

[modest nebula]

ok, it seems with DSO, it's used to remove tilt caused by tolerences in your imaging train https://www.altairastro.com/altair-m48-camera-tilt-adjuster-212-p.asp

with solar, you introduce tilt to get rid of interference patterns such as banding

[azure solar]

ah cool, I had no idea that was a thing

[low mural]

Packing away my Astro gear and turning my DSLRs into ordinary cameras for a wedding shoot this weekend. (it's where I got the funds to out towards a new camera) use a camera to buy a camera!

[modest nebula]

cool!

I'd hate to have the responsibility of wedding photography

mind you I expect it was harder in the old days with film

[low mural]

Yeah, I offer a super cheap rate which backs me up a little and plus a shoot with another photographer for extra security!

It's fun though, you get fed fancy food and people buy your drinks all the time 😂

I don't do it often but have some of my wedding photos here tommybenn.myportfolio.com

[modest nebula]

do you have dual memory cards in your camera?

some nice pics there!

[low mural]

No I have a 6d which has 1 sd slot and a 40d with a CF card slot haha. But I do have a shed load of sd and cf cards. And a USB reader so I can upload to the drive on the go!

I really should upgrade my cameras if I'm shooting wedding though

[modest nebula]

my Nikon is even older. It's a D90 from 2008! It was quite decent in its day though

[modest nebula]

and speaking of tilt plate, the Hocus Focus aberration inspector in NINE can tell you if you're suffering from tilt or not. You can run this even if you don't have auto focus

https://youtu.be/M1-izvBlO44?t=1742

[rugged jackal]

😆

[drifting cradle]

Yooo i know that guy on the emoji

I watched his vids

[modest nebula]

perhaps this is his Discord channel?

[potent turret]

My camera saves fits and raw files but when I view fits and raw stars look better and rounder in the fits variant

Why?

[potent turret]

Do you use fits or raw from the driver?

[rugged jackal]

I save all my astro images as FITS.

[azure solar]

Fits aren't debayered

[potent turret]

But I view them in Nina in color

[azure solar]

Nina does debayer and stretching for the preview

[potent turret]

Oh

Stretch

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MZqEdqNSeJQ-FtXWS5GU3Et2UQVrcmUz/view?usp=sharing

90 second subs but not great guiding many subs lost due to star trailing. Guiding was adversely effected by haze & cloud and perhaps the mechanics of the az-gti or my guiding setup? Your advice & constructive criticism would be much appreciated.

[modest nebula]

I've been experimenting with "bayer drizzle" in DSS and I think I prefer it to other forms of debayering

[low mural]

Send us your guiding graph when you are next out. I'll look at the data later.

[rugged jackal]

Thanks @low mural will do but no luck on the cloud front, fluffy skies tonight.

[rugged jackal]

Cocoon Nebula

[low mural]

Looks like you pulled some nice nebula there! What was the total intergration? Did you resynth the stars?

[lament lion]

Andromeda 2 nights (night 1: 2h of 15sec(night 2: 3-4h of 60sec)) this is the best I can edit it I’m not good with that

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wn5ZHpLd6mk-dbzjjleC6Qpseu5p_LlJ/view?usp=drivesdk

The stacked file if anyone wants it

[azure solar]

gave it a shot

it's a shame that there's so much fringing, I really don't know how to get rid of it

[lament lion]

Yeah I didn’t even bother to deal with that lol, might be the uv ir cut filter but idk

[azure solar]

what telescope/lens are you using? usually it's caused by that

[lament lion]

Ahh then that explains that, it’s a svbony sv503 70ed

[azure solar]

yeah good chance that it's that, some people say that it's not that bad with svbony scopes but there's a clear QC issue here

[lament lion]

Yeah been looking around for scopes just been driving me up a wall

[rugged jackal]

approx 90 x 90 seconds subs @ iso 1200. Yes the stars were re-synthed in Siril.

[azure solar]

can you share the stacked file?

[lament lion]

Another problem I run into is pix will look like one thing and saved on a jpeg on the laptop but as soon as I see it on my phone it’s like I didn’t see all that color in the background I had it dark and not what it looked like on mine

[azure solar]

I'm curious to see if I can bring something more out of it

I save my "export" image to png, it's not as badly compressed as jpeg

[lament lion]

Ohhh I didn’t know that will have to try latter

[modest nebula]

Gimp has an unpurple filter in q'mic plugin that will cure that

[lament lion]

Also almost 3k messages well if you need info it’s all here…..somewhere….

[azure solar]

I feel like we need to rename this thread

[modest nebula]

well, we do talk about polar alignment occasionally

[low mural]

My very rough process in Siril only @lament lion - It is good data! But the fringing was getting in the way of adding colour. In the end I split the channels. then ran a starmask on RGG channels and then starless on the blue channel. I then put the starless B channel with the starless R and G channels and put in the RGG starmask. It got rid of the fringing but could not tackle the yellowish brown colour. The dust lanes look nice though!

[modest nebula]

my Risingcam has been dispatched. Should be in soon \o/

[random night]

Probably worth starting an az-gti forum as thats what this is really?

[rugged jackal]

The AZ GTI Forum

[low mural]

[rugged jackal]

I hope everyone is ok with the new name - The AZ GTI Forum

[low mural]

Yeah i think that works. Im just a parasite which no longer has the az-gti but has an eqm35 but enjoys this thread 😂

I do have a lot of expereince with the az-gti though, so i guess that makes up for it!

[rugged jackal]

The experience and help you provide make up for being an ex-GTIer

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sibtHiZZ6H5EhqpavfTrrb_6NziZKKFj/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PhF3lMLL8-lEUSup41kPAyIPeqbA0Gsn/view?usp=sharing

[azure solar]

I might have fried the nebula a bit

yeap it's totally overcooked

[random night]

how much data did you get? It does look like youve pushed that data too far

[azure solar]

it's zuluviper's image, can't rememeber how much it was

#1077178051512774756 message 90x90s

I was trying to pull some colors out of it but ended up going too far

[modest nebula]

It looks like its crashing & burning 😄

[rugged jackal]

😆

Cocoon Nebula - 90 x 90 seconds subs, stacked in Siril.

[scarlet stump]

The guiding graph with the az gti horrible as usual 😂

[rugged jackal]

it really is

[scarlet stump]

Also the rms has seen better days...

[rugged jackal]

hoping I can be given the 'magic' settings to get it to a more settled level.

😆

[scarlet stump]

Have you run the guiding assistant?

[rugged jackal]

I have run the assistant and applied the settings.

[scarlet stump]

I regreased my mount and it helped a little

[low mural]

What does it say regarding polar alignment @rugged jackal ?

When you did the guiding assistant?

[rugged jackal]

I carried out the TPPA 3 times and with the final reading at 00,00,17. The guiding assistant stated 19.6 arcseconds error.

[random night]

I don't think your guiding issues have anything to do with your polar allignment. 17 arcsecs out is about the best you can do

[random night]

Are you using eq direct for your mount or the WiFi via synscan?

[low mural]

Yeah thay shkuld be fine! Aslong as it didnt say arc minutes 😁

Perhaps try recalibrating?

To to that hold the shift key wholst clicking the guide button

[rugged jackal]

Apologies for the late reply, I had all sorts of issues - my camera would not connect for some reason when I got that sorted it did a sort of flip and the guiding went out of the window, then when I would centre my target it started pointing too low down, went to home position chose another target, and then the clouds rolled in and I was in bed.

[random night]

Hmm did you platesolve first? I normally do a platesolve of my home point to get its bearings

Be good to know what you are using to connect to your mount though.. There is some configuration you need to do with eq direct if using that

[modest nebula]

HFD for your star is quite high. Is the guide scope in focus? Also, can you show your settings in the "Guiding" and "Algorithm" tabs in advanced settings?

[rugged jackal]

No I do not plate solve my home position - how do I do that to get it bearings? I do use the eqmod cable, I found the wifi was not reliable.

[random night]

That seems ok to me.. Being bang in focus isnt normally a big deal for guiding

[rugged jackal]

Yeah I find getting that pin point focus on the guidescope is difficult and that was the best I could do by looking at the dots and getting them as small as possible.

[random night]

I suspect its do do with your calibration and the mount isnt getting big enough pulses to correct

Assume you have checked cable drag etc?

[modest nebula]

I'm sure it will perform well once it's dialed in. Mine does very well and yours has less backlash than mine

[rugged jackal]

I make sure the cables are all loose and has no snags - enough give to rotate a lot without being tangled.

The clouds have been pretty rotten - cannot get enough play time to get things right.

[random night]

yeah weather is bad atm.. You didnt say how you are connecting to the mount? Wather looks better this weekend so may have time to play with it a bit

[modest nebula]

can you upload a few of your recent logs to Google Drive and share the link? They'll be in "My Documents/PHD2"

[rugged jackal]

I conec to the mount using the EQ-Mod cable to my mini-pc, then I connect to the mini-pc via wifi using MS remote server/desktop

[random night]

Yup, thats what i do... Have you made the necessary confutation changes in eq direct for guiding?

[rugged jackal]

I have made no changes in EQ direct for guiding, please explain.

[random night]

You need to jack up the pulseguide setting in the ascom eq mod configuration https://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/eqaindex.html

Basically I jacked up the pulseguide from x0.1 to x0.9

Then ran the PHD2 calibration

[modest nebula]

more reason to use GSS 😄

@rugged jackal can you get those screenshots and logs that I asked for? perhaps we can spot something there

[rugged jackal]

The only screen shots I have have already been added in here.

I will send them when I am setup - hopefully Friday 😆

[low mural]

I completly forgot about this part of the process 😂 this should change everything

[random night]

My guiding basically didnt work until i did this

[rugged jackal]

OK, I will try this next time I am setup.

[rugged jackal]

I do use GSS, that was a major game changer for me when you suggested I use GSS.

[modest nebula]

great 🙂

[rugged jackal]

Advanced Settings p 1 of 4:

[azure solar]

https://i.imgur.com/neJrY3Z.png

[rugged jackal]

Yep when it did the flip, it messed up the guiding significantly. Thanks, I have now elected that highlighted option.

[modest nebula]

ok some recommendations:-

camera - noise reduction - none

camera - autoexposure - min = 0.5s

camera - gain = something much higher than 10. I think 90 is the default

guiding - is the focal length correct for your guide cam? seems too big

guiding - tick auto restore calibration

guiding - I have "reverse dec after meridian flip" enabled but not sure if that's correct or not

algorithms - dec should be "resist switch"

that's all for now 🙂

[rugged jackal]

I believe my guide scope FL is 240 (it is the svbony sv106)

and thanks

[modest nebula]

ok that's good then. It looks much the same as my Altair one.

PHD2 says about lowpass2, "may be a good choice for users with good seeing conditions and well-behaved mounts with little or no declination backlash" which is not the case for azgti

Resist Switch = "This is appropriate for declination guiding, where reversals in direction are both suspect and likely to trigger backlash in the gears"

https://openphdguiding.org/man/Guide_algorithms.htm

incidentally, "hysteresis " is the default for RA guiding. However, Cuiv has recommended "predictive pec" which is what I'm going to try sometime in 2026 when this cloud clears

[rugged jackal]

Good luck on the cloud front

[modest nebula]

I got the bill from UPS for import duty & VAT on that camera. The government part of the bill (without UPS brokerage fee) was £37.80. That's a lot less than I expected

perhaps Risingcam have been "helpful" with the paperwork 🙂

[rugged jackal]

how much was the total import bill?