The AZ GTI Forum

[low mural]

I added the Oiii data to this one too

[modest nebula]

Just the RGB and Ha stacks

[low mural]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dacBNn6FW01alDqYo4tQSEwtCGVkxBGF?usp=sharing

Here you go. Good luck haha. I am giving it another go at the moment but without the OIII data. I think it may have been washing out the ha

[modest nebula]

Ha so noisy 😮

[low mural]

It is... I did pull it using the script. Did you want the original stack?

It's not the busy Ha data considering it's 2 hours 😂

Best*

[low mural]

I'm really struggling with colour balance at the moment. It's bugging me 😂

[modest nebula]

how did you stack your Ha? Did you use Siril with Sirilic?

[low mural]

No I just used DSS

[modest nebula]

do you have enough space on your Google Drive for all your subs?

[modest nebula]

I am crap at processing galaxy, but here's what Siril 1.3.3 SPCC got. I wasn't able to add Ha data because it was just too noisy

[low mural]

Yeah I can put them in

[low mural]

That SPCC looks like it ran better than mine. I haven't updates though 😅 what do I need to do for that again?

[modest nebula]

https://siril.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation/windows.html#building-on-windows-with-msys2 <-- follow it exactly and it works great

[low mural]

Much obliged!

[modest nebula]

btw latest Siril has a "unpurple" filter which I used on your stars. I wrote that \o/

[low mural]

That's awesome! Congrats!

[modest nebula]

I think I decided on my upgrade. I'll relegate the Evoguide to guide cam duty https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-ascent-80mm-ed-triplet-apo-f48-astrograph-465-p.asp

[low mural]

So my results seem to be coming through similar each time. I found a good pixel math method which would have worked better if I had more Ha data. If I get a clear night on a full moon, I may get some more. But I think I'm going to wrap this one up now 😊

[low mural]

Pricey but nice! 😂

[modest nebula]

Well, I got it so apologies for the cloud

[low mural]

Well that explains it! Congrats though!!!

[weary solar]

One question. Can you point the az gti to a certain alt-az coordinate and leave it there with no movement? To make a solar analemma

[modest nebula]

I don't see why not

I mean, even if it insists on moving, just switch it off at the power switch!

[weary solar]

In the app you can set it to point at a coordinate instead of an object?

[lament lion]

Don’t need a mount when doing a solar analemma since the camera and lens/scope needs to be pointed in the exact same spot, that’s why people leave the camera on a tripod during the whole process and put something to cover so it doesn’t get rained on, if you are using a mount all that’s going to do is stop you from doing anything else, since everything has to be the exact same which means if the camera moves slightly out of the position it could ruin the whole thing and it will be noticeable

[tough scaffold]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/146056729814? new mount from china juwei 14

price at chinese marketplace is very good 611 usd. But they don't ship outside china

[azure solar]

That's so cheap wtf

Idk if their ebay price makes sense when the juwei17 is only 200$ more

[tough scaffold]

looks like test examples

[azure solar]

Kinda random to ship test samples to normal users

[modest nebula]

this is a comment by someone on the OnStep mailing list (not me)...

Good performer, works well. I'm currently using it with an old Meade 5" F/7.5 APO refractor which weighs a lot and camera and OAG and large filterwheel, together with a counter weight, and slews and tracks just fine. On a excelent night, PHD reports good numbers down to ~0.4", but usually it sits on the ~0.6" to ~0.8" range which is fine.

About the OnStep implementation their using... It's a board someone came out with, IMHO a too complicated board. Let me elaborate...

They have some decent space inside the mount, but decided to come out with a highly integrated small board that takes over about 70% of the available space and it will be a pain in the backside to fix if anything goes wrong. Flux residue all over the place, typical of cheaply produced boards. SMD ESP32, SMD 8266, almost SMD everything and the component layout is very tight. The stepper drivers seems to be some sort of TMC2XXX. Maybe 2208's, but since the modules are soldered down, didn't get around to confirm that. No heatsinking on these. As soon as I saw AXIS1_STEPS_PER_DEGREE values down to ~3580 on the configuration page, I was almost sure their not using SPI for controlling the drivers. These values are adequate for the gear ratio combined with 16 microsteps, so the simpler STEP/DIR method works fine. Don't expect a high slew speed. It comes from factory set at 2.6 degree/sec. You can try to set it to a higher speed on the OnStep APP or ASCOM driver, but the motors will stall.

Ah, one little annoying detail. I don't know how they managed it, but sometimes it takes 3 or 4 power-on/power-off cycles in order to get it to start tracking. Go figure...
Since, in the past, I have had already designed an OnStep board for my ancient ALTER-D6 mount which gave her a new life (thanks a lot Howard!), I designed a new OnStep board for this JUWEI-17 harmonic mount and replaced the original board - No more silly issues.

All in all, a nicely made little mount (except for the eletronics that work, but could be better made) that weighs only 5.1Kg. A joy to carry around and quickly assemble it.
YMMV, but it worked great for me.

the way I read that, it's a well engineered mount with shitty electronics

[azure solar]

Sounds like it yeah

Is that comment about the juwei17? The 14 weighs less according to the image above

[modest nebula]

this is the question that triggered it:- "Good Morning,

Hopefully I'm not wasting anyone's time with this question, but I've spotted these AM5 Clones with 13-18kg payload capacity on AliExpress. Yes you heard it right lol. These mounts have onstep on them. Has anyone had the opportunity to tinker with one of these and can possibly review them. I recently posted about building one on the cheap, but now Google has put this in my view. Thoughts?

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKeST4k"

[azure solar]

so yeah that's about the 17

[modest nebula]

I doubt the 14 has a different control board

[modest nebula]

It looks like it will be clear tonight

[tough scaffold]

I have printed some of my photos at photolab. It's epson printer and epson luster paper. Like the rusult. Also want to try make backlit photos in future

[queen thicket]

Quick question folks : I was shooting the comet last night with my 135mm f2.8 and Sony crop.
I managed 1.6 seconds before trailing.
I was also on a static tripod as I didn't have Time to get the mount out.

So my question is : do I need to be tracking in sidereal to help with sub times or stick with 1.6 second's?

Thanks folks.

[low mural]

When I imaged a comet last year, I manual tracked. Deep sky stacker has a comet stacking mode.

Some people use guiding and use the phd2 to guide on the comet

Either way you will get star trailing

So you need to make a composition

This was my data from last year

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1073399503882821692

[queen thicket]

@low mural thanks. Still not had the chance to get the mount out.
Yeah I have used Dss for manual stacking on the comet. I'll give that a go when I can. Thanks.

[modest nebula]

last nights effort

[weary solar]

Little question. If I use the az-gti in alt-az, will the field rotation between frames give me "free" dithering?

[azure solar]

Artifacts from field rotation are pretty bad, even if it were to add a small amount pf dithering it won't look good

[modest nebula]

and you'll have to heavily crop the end result

[weary solar]

What artifacts does field rotation create? Does it depend on the software used to align?

[azure solar]

It's inherent to alt az imaging, all around the center you get areas with way lower snr and messy noise

[modest nebula]

it is possible though, but not ideal https://telescopemount.org/short-exposure-alt-az-astrophotography-learn-how-to-get-great-results/

[weary solar]

Oo yeah. I am planning on buying an az-gti and I searched up some equations on exposure time with alt-az mounts. And I made a geogebra calculator for myself. I will be able to do 10s exposures at most. More if I point to east/west.

[queen thicket]

How is everyone?

[modest nebula]

excited that I'll likely have sky tonight, after weeks of cloud \o/

it'll be first light for my new scope

[modest nebula]

This new scope has perfect shaped stars. It's 100% better than that Altair scope I had

[raven oar]

How is y'all experience with star adventure mounts?

[fallen gyro]

SWSAGTI is great for me

[regal pagoda]

Is the AZ-GTi still the best budget-friendly GoTo mount, or are there better options available now?

[regal pagoda]

I found someone selling it for $340, including the mount and the SynScan controller. Seems very reasonable.

[azure solar]

I would hope including the mount lol

is it with the wedge or just mount head and tripod?

[regal pagoda]

with the wedge

[dense hound]

hey guys please some help. I have the az gte AZ mode. recently i am having a problem with it. say i want to north level, i point it up to polaris but then it just won't slew down so i can level it, i can hear the motor running but the telescope is not moving. it seems to happen only when it's pointing high up and cold seems to be a factor

[azure solar]

pretty good deal then, the hand controller isn't that useful but by just adding a cw shaft and cw you get a decent goto mount

[azure solar]

you may have to open it up and check the tensioning on the motor, I'm not sure what else it could be

[dense hound]

what do you mean tensioning

[azure solar]

the motor has a spring that keeps it meshed to the gear

https://youtu.be/hgEzeXrhhEg

[dense hound]

yeah i did that. the worm and the gear

i tightened it so that the spring is useless now, the worm and gear tightly meshed but it does not seem to help

[azure solar]

you don't want it to be that tight

you get the opposite of backlash, binding

[dense hound]

how does that manifest?

[azure solar]

prob motor grinding or something

actually did you push the gears together before tightening the screw?

[dense hound]

i did or at least tried to

[azure solar]

ok time to open it back up

[dense hound]

if it's not that then what else could happen? the motor's running but the gears not turning

is there like another gear on the motor that connects to the worm?

[azure solar]

I don't think so or at least I don't remember

[dense hound]

could it have anything to do with it running on AA's

i just replaced them

[azure solar]

I doubt it

[dense hound]

ok, thank you. i'll have to open it again tomorrow then

[queen thicket]

People in the uk : chin up, I'm trying to keep the faith.

[modest nebula]

it'll blow over 😛

[queen thicket]

🤞

[west brook]

It hasn't blown over

[west brook]

But has inspired me to buy more gear

Is this all I will need physically to get this bad boy working in eq mode?

[azure solar]

I think so? I'm not sure about the thread adapter as I had a cw bar that had the right thread

[modest nebula]

and remember to update the firmware with the eq capable firmware

[queen thicket]

Yes. Not sure about the reducer though.. I do believe it will work. I use thr same one but has the Alan key (hex type) on the other end.

[winged dove]

There’s my azgti on the top of Haleakalā a few weeks back

Made a great travel scope, was guiding under .7 arc seconds the whole time

[queen thicket]

"HaPpY Christmas to all". 🎄 🎁. Good health & clear sky's to all.

[languid wing]

you too mate

[low mural]

Wow I'm so out of touch 😂 i think it's been about 4 months since I last did astro. How has everyone been? (P.s Merry Christmas!)

Looking to dust the scope off in the coming weeks 😬

[modest nebula]

hey @low mural. I think we're in for clear sky on Thurs & Fri. It'll be nice to get out again.

[low mural]

It's also looking freezing 😂 but yes hoping to get out. I sure wish I was able to say I had a new telescope for this upcoming galaxy season 😅 perhaps one day!

[modest nebula]

I got a new one. Hope to get a better camera in April too

[low mural]

You went for a refractor right?

I'm still thinking either a Newtonian or to start planetary imaging with a Mak

[modest nebula]

yeh, William Optic GT71. I really dislike star spikes that much, and I'd hate the hassle of collimation every time I want to use it

[low mural]

Exciting! Have you taken any images with it yet?

[modest nebula]

a couple here. I'm getting much better data now and to be honest I'm struggling to do it justice with my processing. https://astro.wheep.co.uk/

here's a few hours on Rosette. I plan to get another 5 or so until I put this one on the site

[queen thicket]

Hey all. Happy new year to all. If you out tonight, have fun and enjoy. Please wrap up warm.

@modest nebula looking good 😊.

[low mural]

They are looking good! Did the scope and reducer cost you about £1k?

[low mural]

Happy New Year! I've chosen to just switch on my equipment indoors and in the warm tonight haha. It's been about 3 months so wanted to make sure everything was running and working as it should 😂 hopefully the forecast stays clear for me tomorrow.

[modest nebula]

a bit less than that but it wasn't cheap 😮

this one is much better value for money https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/askar-71f-flat-field-apo-refractor.html

[low mural]

Yeah I was eyeing that one up for a while

But I think I will be sticking with the 50ED and go for something for visual astronomy on the side. Now I have a car, I'm hoping to do more visual with my little one whilst camping next year

Probably a Mak for moon and planets

[trim seal]

Me too. Life gets in the way. I was on a course for 2 weeks away from home and took my gear with me and it turned out to be the only course I've ever done that actually had full days and work to do in the evening as well so didn't even get chance to use it 😞

[modest nebula]

a quick process on tonights data so far. I plan to stay on this all night

[modest nebula]

and here's the final. I managed to get some nice detail in there

[low mural]

Very detailed! Nice work!

Anyone chancing it tonight? My apps are saying cloudy in the next hour or so

[modest nebula]

last night was decent. I stayed awake until 3:30. Only went to bed because my target dropped into a light pollution zone. Tonight is cloudy

[low mural]

Yeah I should have just went for it yesterday haha

Finally posted my latest image on Instagram haha. Taken in September. Feels so long ago now 😂

[low mural]

I was thinking of trying the tadpole nebula next. Didn't you try this one?

[modest nebula]

I did that one in the past. Not very well, but less well than Monkeyhead. Tadpole is in my sights. It will yield

[low mural]

The witches head is another one I've never done. I feel it's too close to the horizon from my location though. Might have to one I drive to shoot next year 😂

[rugged jackal]

Hi Guys, I know I have been away for ages but lost my job a few months ago and I have been down, lost interest esp with the weather being so crappy. LOL.

In the meantime, I did some 'writing', self published on amazon, set up a print on demand online shop (let me know if anyone is interested I can provide a link).

Anyhow long story short, I am trying to get back to doing some astro stuff and ofc the clouds are here to stay. Just wanted to say a quick Hi and touch base again.

[azure solar]

long time no see

I've also been unable to shoot for a couple of months now, I haven't published a book tho lol

[rugged jackal]

Hi, buddy, yeah been a long time, glad to see you guys are fighting the good fight on this forum. Hopefully will be bugging you guys for help more often.

[azure solar]

always here to help 🫡

[rugged jackal]

The people are great and have always helped., Thank you.

[modest nebula]

@rugged jackal, nice to see you here again 🙂

[tough scaffold]

Hi all, guys. I've had a half year astronomy break. Now I am at vacation with star adventurer + samyang 24 + canon 6d. Have not tested this setup yet. So hope to try widefield astrophotography soon

[rugged jackal]

Thanks, nice to ne back.

[lament lion]

welcome back, glad to see you again

[rugged jackal]

I am out trying to get back into the game, will be going for the Orion Nebula, hopefully a few hours of nice clear sky, fingers crossed.

[modest nebula]

Do you need help with your polar alignment? 😄

[rugged jackal]

For the first few minutes I was like err what do I do, then it started to click and got fairly good alignment within 30 mins

[modest nebula]

the sky won't arrive for me until about 2am. I'm not waiting for that 😄

[rugged jackal]

Loool, I don't blame you.

[queen thicket]

Sorry to hear what been happening with you. Stick with it and you'll find your mojo again. Warmer months Comming.

[rugged jackal]

Thanks Karl, yeah it is tough, still looking for work, but at least we have so much astronomy to do... looool.

[queen thicket]

Yeah. I'm hoping to 3D print a step-down ring tomorrow so I can use my duoband filter with my vintage lens.

[rugged jackal]

that is a cool setup

[modest nebula]

@rugged jackal I got a new setup too since you've been gone

[rugged jackal]

Wow, that looks awesome! is that an Askar and a new mount?

Is there a big difference in image quality, lool?

[modest nebula]

yeh it's a lot sharper than the Evoguide. It's a 71mm so similar size to yours I think

[rugged jackal]

Yeah, mine is 72ED which I assume means 72mm (lol), but you have a sweet rig there, send some sample images if you can. would be nice to see some of your recent work.

[trim seal]

Does anyone have any recommended apps that are useful/make life easier?

I have the synscan pro app, the polar alignment app and stellarium free version.

Are there any that will help with milky way shots?

Is it worth upgrading to the paid stellarium?

I'm on android.

Thanks 😀

[azure solar]

if the intent is to only do widefield milkyway I'd say that you're good, the pro version of stellarium allows to control the mount but I'm not that sure it's worth the cost when you're already using the synscan app

if you want to try it it's easy to get an apk with the paid features

[trim seal]

I'm just going to try a basic camrra/az gti/app outing somewhere where its dark.
I'm just getting back some free time after being up to my eyeballs in work for months.
I'd only just got the hang of plate solving on my laptop etc but I want to try something super basic and get that to a good standard first this timr

[modest nebula]

make sure to get a cheap usb powered dew strap from ebay unless you live in a very dry environment

[trim seal]

I have one. Good shout. I havent tested it yet though.
I'm going to have to cowboy some usb ports with a buck converter from my 12v battery

[rugged jackal]

FYI, I got a gemini auto focuser for my rig, I was a bit worried that it may not work for my scope but after a few tries I managed to attach it to the focusing spindle and did manage to get some sort of auto focus routine working, that is until it got clouded over and have not had the chance to test/refine it further. But in case anyone is interested - the gemini seems to be a good product for the price.

[modest nebula]

I have a Gemini now 🙂

Got some more Jellyfish Nebula last night. I'm tempted to call this done for now

[rugged jackal]

What would you suggest as the sttings for gemini and my rig, at the moment I have it set at 125 auto focus steps and 300 (out) backlash, though many people are using 400 and curve fitting as hyperbolic?

[rugged jackal]

That is a great image. Nice one.

[modest nebula]

I have 25 steps, 50 out backlash with overshoot method. curve fitting hyperbolic

the steps and backlash depends on your scope, so you can't compare unless it's same scope

[rugged jackal]

Right, ok that makes sense, I need time under the stars to get to grips withit. Thank you.

[modest nebula]

tomorrow & sunday night are clear for me \o/

[modest nebula]

I did this Rosette in Dec and never been happy with the way I processed it. I'm still not quite there yet 😦

[rugged jackal]

All cloudy for me. I have had 1 half decent session but have not captured enough data to bother processing.

[rugged jackal]

Still, very nice, I'd be happy with that.

[tough scaffold]

new mount from china https://www.ebay.com/itm/365350092086

looks like this the cheapest mount with home position sensors

[modest nebula]

a quick stretch of some horsehead RGB data I got last night. I'll get some narrow band to add in tonight & see what that does. Looks like I have a gradient to remove too but I'll worry about that later

[queen thicket]

Hope everyone doing OK. I Managed to 3d print a laser pointer holder. Will align at some point tonight.

[azure solar]

Nice to see so many new competitors in the harmonics market

[modest nebula]

What's that for?

[azure solar]

rough pa maybe

[modest nebula]

did you guys notice that NINA now has a live stack plugin?

[azure solar]

I haven't touched nina in two months

but cool to know, at least you don't have to run siril or dss in the background

[lament lion]

Wait what?!?!?

[modest nebula]

you got to install 3.2 nightly, but it's there and it works great

[lament lion]

Finally, might try it out to see how good it is, I know it’s new so not expecting much but glad to see they finally started on it

[modest nebula]

written by Stefan Berg - the NINA author, so it's a proper plugin

[lament lion]

Oh even better

[queen thicket]

To align my ultraviolet laser to Polaris.
It's more of a gimmick though as I'll never use it.
As per the situation with thr clouds over the last few year's we ordered a 3D printer and I decided to have a go at printing a bracket for it.
It's worked well. So I won't be using it as I use nina 3ppa.

[queen thicket]

Yeah, NINA from there on. 😊

[queen thicket]

Oooh..

And we're away!. 1st time this year!. If your out, I wish you a good session!

[trim seal]

I spent ages getting plate solving done. Can't seem to do it at all with anything other that 18mm fl on my lens which is annoying.
Anyway. After abojt an hour or arsing around, I stood on the extension lead and the plug came oht of the socket and everything went off 😄

[rugged jackal]

It was all clear, setup, and about to focus when the clouds rolled in, waited for a while then packed up.

[modest nebula]

clear here until 8am

[modest nebula]

added some more RGB. Collecting Ha now. I do wonder if I should have just stuck with RGB because it's looking good

perhaps I can subtley add some Ha to bring out the nebula a bit more

[tough scaffold]

Nina now has mobile app and mobile web interface. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMCeTYhAyuw

[modest nebula]

yeh I tried it. It's going to be fantastic at some point

[modest nebula]

I added Ha to it

[rugged jackal]

wow, that is a hard target and you have done a great job.

[trim seal]

How many hours total?

[modest nebula]

6 for RGB, 3 for Ha

[queen thicket]

Some kinda luminence mask?. Not sure, but you'll crack it.

From a few night's ago. 1st time shooting the Rosette.

1.5 hour's @ 120's. W/40 darks & 40 dark flats.
Zwo 585mc on 72ed
Guided
Laida 7nm.
GraXpert
Seti Astro
Lr

Fairly happy but I STILL need to figure out my focus and HFR.

[tough scaffold]

I have tested my samyang 24mm. Center part is ok, but coma at the angles is very big at f2.5. So first try of widefield was not very successful - it was too bright for this lens and I forgot to set Bulb mode, so my max exposure was 30 sec. I used "Compass Level" app to polar align star adventurer. Pretty convenient it shows north and angle at same time. Not sure how well I was aligned coz of 30sec limit. Will test further

[rugged jackal]

I'd be very happy with that, very well done.

[queen thicket]

Thanks bud

[trim seal]

when running the mount on battery, would you guys recommend using a dummy battery in the camera powered from usb supplied by the same battery as the mount or would it be better to just use regular camera batteries?
i did try to test but the fuse is blown in my fluke so couldnt test consumption.

will test when the fuse arrives. i have only 1 camera battery so considering buying spares

im seeing 2a for dew heater and 2-2.5a for dummy battery online. seems a lot

for a smallish battery

[queen thicket]

@trim seal testing needs to be done. Personally I'd be investing in more batteries.

[trim seal]

thats what im thinking.

i mean, i need them anyway tbf

[tough scaffold]

I have used dummy battery with type-c for 600d and power bank. it's about 10-15$ at ali. Camare does not consumes much, so little power bank was enough for night. If you want to image all night long, then use dummy, so you don't need to reconnect battery, reconnect software, start sequence again

[trim seal]

I'll look at type c. Regular usb is stepping up from 5 to 7.4v and requires a 2a supply

[rugged jackal]

I am out tonight - rare clear skies, but orion is now passing into the west ie the city centre glow and my star count is dropping as the light pollution is going up, should I carry on, or ?

[rugged jackal]

This seems to be causing an autofcus run after every image, and getting this graph: any suggestions?

[trim seal]

Tonight is super clear and I can't get out 🎉

[rugged jackal]

I missed out last night, so I know how it feels, hopefully more clear nights soon.

[azure solar]

Try to reduce the steps size

It's probably going too far with focus to a point where it can't process the hfr

[rugged jackal]

Yeah, my backlash was too high reduced to 200 and reduced the steps from 150 to 100 and the graph is much better. Thanks,

[trim seal]

Initial tests show dummy battery and dew heater on high pull my supply down to 11.6v. That's without mount connected.
Psu puts out 12.2 with no load.

It's just a random brick that I found in my store. Supposedly 12v 10a but it's old so I'll probably need to look at an alternative

[azure solar]

Meanwell is supposed to be very reliable

[trim seal]

Weird. I've got a solid 12.1 with everything connected. Practically no drop

Earlier it was dropping a lot

Well. 12.2 but my ali express Volt display is saying 12.1

I think the claimed 2.1a of the USB ports is a bit of a lie as I need to connect the USB and turn it kn before I plug the battery in or it won't work

But the dummy asks for 2 as a minimum so maybe in expecting more than realistic values

[tulip ingot]

Hi guys, anyone used the az gti eq mod in this configuration with ekos?

would my eq wedge need to be 90 - latitude?

[trim seal]

I think so

But I'm a noob so I may well be wrong 🫠

[trim seal]

Finally get set up and the clouds come in

Much better with the cowboy box instead of an extension and a load of usb chargers

Now I just need a way to extend the mount cable and the camera usb cable

[rugged jackal]

in Siril when do you use the OSC_Extract_HaOiii script?

[azure solar]

the same way you'd use the standard preprocess script

it goes though all the calibration part and then does the extraction

[rugged jackal]

I know I have been away from astro for a while but my polar alignment was always pretty decent, and always had it aligned around 00:00:20 mark these are stacks of different nights from january to now, I am rather perplexed why the field rotation is so poor also includes a couple of meridian flip in this stack. any thoughts/suggestions please?

[azure solar]

the camera rotation itself changed, pa wasn't the cause

[rugged jackal]

Yes, of course, this happened due to the installation of the EAF and I had to remove the image train to get to the focuser!

Might do this target again from scratch since I don't have any data for the Sii data.

Just need 2/3 clear nights!

[shell heath]

Could i maybe get the autosave

to try it out

like edit

[rugged jackal]

yeah sure, i'll get the data to you.

[shell heath]

thanks

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlOz7sPeJ2_1ZgZ9hKEgV2do6Qt46ds9/view?usp=sharing

[shell heath]

Here it's amazing data

[rugged jackal]

nicely done. if ony we can get some clear nights.

[trim seal]

Cloudy af all week 🎉

[rugged jackal]

😥

[rugged jackal]

Heads up and advice needed - SV240 filter on sale for £98 incl free delivery. Is this a good price and is it worth getting for Bortle 7/8 site, and considering the never ending cloud cover? link: https://www.svbony.com/sv240-multi-narrowband-filter/#W9191A

[azure solar]

it's a little weird, makes more sense to use with a camera with good ir sensitivity

cuiv used it as a luminance filter in b8

[modest nebula]

I guess you can combine it with an IR cut filter to chop off that IR bandpass, then it's a 20-ish nm OII & Ha filter

for the money, I'd get a 2" sv220 instead

[rugged jackal]

I have the Askar C1 and C2 filters - TBH - I hardly used them! but these are not suitable for galaxies or star clusters?

This filter seems to be a good - fairly cheap way to image galaxies from my Bortle 7/8 location, Cuiv also added data from UV/IR cut filter to add some colour, he did endorse this filter esp at this price point.

[modest nebula]

I'm dreading galaxy season. I hate taking pictures of galaxies

I did make a purchase today though, a second hand ZWO filter wheel with LRGBSHO filters ready for my next camera

[rugged jackal]

Do you use your Sv220 for galaxies?

[modest nebula]

no. I do them broadband

[rugged jackal]

what do you use for BB?

[azure solar]

not really, the bandpass is pretty much exactly like a dual narrowband + that part in the ir spectrum, you won't get any color data on galaxies other thanthe Ha and OIII

what cuiv did was using this to enhance the uv/ir cut, like a luminance filter

[rugged jackal]

TBH I find filters really confusing, all the different types, function, and in my mind all filters are used is to reduce the effects of light pollution and to isolate certain bandwidths - colours emanating from a target, However, there are BB, NB, LPR, luminance etc and I can't get my head around on these various types etc.

[azure solar]

realistically you can look at the band passes on a filter to understand what they're for

luminance is more of a mono setup thing, it's the same thing as a uv/ir cut but it's not used to add data but to selectively enhance the rgb. Unless I misunderstood its function

[modest nebula]

Just an IR cut filter

[rugged jackal]

Anybody had any luck imaging this week?

[modest nebula]

cloud, cloud, cloud, and forecast for the next week is - cloud

I'm spending my time dreaming up new ways to improve my image processing. My current research is whether I can use sky survey data to create an artificial background layer that I can use to fix gradients in my image better than Graxpert can do

I also recently created a Multiscale Median Transform filter for Siril

[rugged jackal]

It is frustrating but at least you are busy, I am trying to understand Sirilic but have have really poor data to work with.

[rugged jackal]

What is this?

[modest nebula]

it applies a subtle blur to an image but does it at different scales so you keep sharpness where there's detail but the background areas blur a little more

https://www.pixinsight.com/tutorials/mmt-noise-reduction/ <-- not sure mine is as sophisticated as Pix but it works ok

[queen thicket]

Yup.. Its been crap. Seems like here in the uk we had some amazing sky's in the first week of January.. But since then it's not great (again).
All we can do is keep fingers crossed.

[rugged jackal]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aGsXx-y7sO30P7npB9Qc0K3P_9OYlG2y?usp=sharing

This folder contains data of the Orion Nebula as created by Sirilic for a data created over a few days and using the HaO3 and S2O3 filters though s2O3 data is minimal compared to the HaO3.

Note sure what to do with it now?

[trim seal]

Had incredible skies for the first weeks and I had no time at all.
Now i have a the time in the world and it's thick cloud for 3 weeks

[rugged jackal]

Yeah sorry guys, it is me, as soon as I decided to re-start some astro, the clouds turned up.

[rugged jackal]

Dear Diary, I have not seen the sun for so long I think I must have imagined all those days when this golden orb would warm my skin and dazzle my eyes. I wonder if I ever will meet this lost friend and see the blue azure once again?

While the clouds are here I am thinking of 'servicing' my az-gti - give it a clean and regrease the bearings etc. I am hoping some of you guys have done this and can guide me.

First of all should I do this? I am fairly proficient working with bolts and screws etc and have the tools to undo/redo the mount. Though I am nervous about the wires - seem to be fairly delicate.

Since I already have this - can I use lithium grease to grease the bearings, if not, please recommend which grease should be used, and for cleaning I am thinking of using turps substitute?

Where can I get stronger springs as this seems to cause some of the backlash (some details of type dimensions etc would be so useful).

Please feel free bringing up any other issues I may have forgotten. Thanks.

[azure solar]

I would only open up the mount if it really needs it, I did a full regrease on mine with ceramic grease because guiding was all over the place

[rugged jackal]

That is my preferred way of of servicing the mount, I am open to suggestions on how I can improve my tracking/guiding without openining it.

[tough scaffold]

buy other mount

I have cleaned and regreased both az-gti and star adventurer. There are manuals at youtube how to do it. No problems with wires, they are ok. Used silicone as I don't have lithium.
I you never opened it, i belive it could help with backlash a bit.

[tough scaffold]

You can reduce backlash without changing spring. I don't remember but maybe it was lazy geek video with backlash fix

[rugged jackal]

lol, yeah good idea - I should get an am5n for £2000+ that should get rid of the backlash, except from the family, that backlash might result in having to move into the shed with the am5.

I have watched cuiv's video but not too convinced by what he suggested.

I think the easiest way to mesh the worm wheel with the gear is by using better springs so that the meshing is stronger, reducing backlash, while also allowing the mechanism to compensate for the defects in the wheels.

There is another video by Astrobloke who did a complete servicing of the mount, tearing it all down - cleaning everything, making sure the friction plates were grease free and liberally greased only the bearings, he managed to get 0.8" guiding after servicing it.

[trim seal]

With the az gti, 600d and a kit lens, what's the most exposure time that could be expected with reasonably good polar alignment?

[rugged jackal]

I normally do not go beyond 4 minutes though some here with excellent guiding have done 5 mins and above, a kit lens is normally 18 to 55 mm or thereabouts and hence I think - considering decent tracking that you could try 5 mins and see the shape of your stars - if elongated then drop your exposure until you get round stars.

[trim seal]

Perfect. I'll do some testing when weather allows.
It will be unguided though

[azure solar]

Unguided I couldn't go over 30s at 400mm

[trim seal]

Sweet. I've done 20s with no issues.
I really need to get the actual routine squared away.
Atm I'm not really sure what to do regards flats/darks etc.
I know what to do sort of, like how to, but it's all abut of a mess and I feel there's probably an efficient routine that I'm missing.

[azure solar]

I skipped darks entirely with my dslr and I used a master bias

Flats on every session

[trim seal]

So that's highest shutter speed, cap on and same iso as lights?

Flats are the white frames right?
Thats an issue using the kit lens as the zoom/focus changes when the lens is touched

I'd need to buy a panel I guess?

[azure solar]

Yep and yep for flats

[azure solar]

Not a must but it's handy

One thing you can do is take flats after focusing and before shooting, so in the morning you can just take everything inside

[trim seal]

I'm just prepping an ali express order so Ill see what's on there.
Svbony 9mm redband thingy and phone holder so far

[trim seal]

I don't have the minerals to leave things unattended overnight
If the rain doesn't get to it the locals will

But I will definitely do it before shooting

[queen thicket]

Last night : proof that with TLC and tweaking the mighty lil az-gti CAN DO 600s!

420mm with 585mc

Guiding at 33 & 30

[rugged jackal]

That is so good, well done, btw what is the TLC?

[trim seal]

https://tenor.com/view/feliz-alegre-sorriso-burro-gif-14645687

You got to hold her! Squueze her!

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal Tender Loving Care & thanks. Not sure of the hit ratio aka : "keep rate" but something I'll be testing in the future.

[rugged jackal]

I meant, please share what you did to the mount yo get 600s, I don't think I have ever gone more than 240s, though I'd be very happy if I can get to 300/360s.

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal as you may know with the az-gti it's more of a lottery when it comes to the az-gti.
You either get a "good quality unit or a" not so good unit".
The az needs looking after from time to time.
I achieved this over time so there isn't anything that "can be done straight away" to maximise sub length it mainly comes down to leveling / ballance & tuning guiding (phd2 in my case).
Before u started guiding I was getting 300s but after that I have only shot 600 once before but was pointless as I just didn't have the filters to block light pollution.

What's your gear? (all of it) and I'll see if I can make some suggestions.

[rugged jackal]

My scope is the evostar 72ED, my camera is the Uranus C - cooled version, svbony manual filter wheel with askar ci and c2 filters, I have a reducer - 70% cannot rem the makemy focuser is the gemini, my guidescope is the svbony 60mm and with svbony 305 guide camera. all on the az-gti and skywatcher wedge and tripod.

[azure solar]

no uv/ir cut filter?

[queen thicket]

Ok so very similar to myself. I also have the 72ed and the Svbony 60mm guidescope.
The main difference is the guide camera as I'm using the zwo 120mc-s. Your Svbony 306 has 2.9um pixel size but mine is 3.75... This is nothing major as it's all figured out by phd2 or other guiding software, so all relavent.

You should be leveining the best you can and pa error MUST BE sub minute. Aim for the best polar alignment you can. Make sure your clutches are tight and keel you scope "camera heavy) this means : unbalanced. This will help keep the gears meshed. As for guiding setting YOU'LL NEED TO play with these but the default should be good enough. PhD and other guiding software WILL SET THEM CORRECTLY.

How is your guidescope attached to the main scope?

@rugged jackal do you have ANY guiding graphs or numbers that you can show us?

@rugged jackal alot can be told from guiding graphs.

[rugged jackal]

Sorry, yes a uv/ir cut filter too.

[rugged jackal]

Hope that helps, I do get better guiding than this but when it is hazy my numbers are all over the place, my best guide was approx 1.60" in good seeing but genrally hovers around 2-4+

I managed to open the mount today but after removing the saddle I found rust on the saddle clutch where the allen head screw is located, I could not remove the screw and I think i have round the head by using too much force or I need to buy better quality allen keys, any suggestions on how I can remove would be really helpful.

I could not grease the main bearing but managed to liberally grease the gear wheel and the smaller bearing wheels. I did not touch the bottom section (dec?) as it looked rather delicate and far too many things to deal with, however I noticed in the field that perhaps this needs the grease more than the rest! I think I will have to bite the bullet and give it another go.

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal I'll look into it tomorrow for you. But your graph don't look too bad. Your DEC MAX looks way too big. I'll get back to you later

@rugged jackal a few questions : how ole of your mount and what, was your guiding BEFORE you took apart?. Chat tomorrow mate

[tough scaffold]

wd40 can help with rusted screws

[queen thicket]

A better Allen key is always best.
If not then you can try using a rubber band in between the Alan key and screw (YouTube will explain better). Do what you can today and run the guiding assistant and we'll take it from there.
Before you run phd2 y pi ull need to turn the axis (both) manually without the gear connected so that you can free wheel them 360 degrees a few times (important to do this without the counterweight on).

@rugged jackal guiding assistant is beat done near the maridian. 2s exposure on the guidecam. When you get to this point then we can talk about other settings such as guiding algorithms.

[rugged jackal]

I tried WD40 - that did not work, i'll try again

[rugged jackal]

Thanks much apprciated, I had a look on YT and a rubber band or even duck tape might help me remove the saddle clutch screw, I'll have a go again today.

We have the sun - woohoo- out today so hoping we have clear skies today, would like to be ready if clear. I should have learnt this ages ago but is the movement of telescope part of the mount called the dec and the axis that rotates on the tripod called RA?

[thin raptor]

Hi - hoping someone can help - my SW2i after 10 mins I get star trails ( PA and balance is spot on) 135mm Samyang and canon 700 so no weight issues, I’ve stopped using app ( never did) but tried to reboot the app by taking out data so the sidereal doesn’t default back to the app settings - can’t stop it and I’ve used this for 2 years without fail - any ideas ?

[tough scaffold]

you can try to update sw2i firmware, if it's not latest

[queen thicket]

Not my photo but thus may help remember

[queen thicket]

Have you any photos to help up pinpoint what happened?

[thin raptor]

Hi Karl, yes here are some shots from last night

So started with 60 secs no problem but later on just went

[queen thicket]

Is this the issue with BOTH east and west tracking?

This would be the 1at thing to test.

[thin raptor]

Also, checked the power 5.5 amps so not the power supply

[queen thicket]

Any weird noises?

[thin raptor]

This is east to west then tried another star and not worked

No noises and had it checked as well all working fine

[queen thicket]

So this is only happening when tracking orion? Not on things like M51 or M65?

[thin raptor]

I’ve tried Betelgeuse Leo stars and all the same

[queen thicket]

That's a positive then. 🤔.. Nothing changed with thr firmware (as @tough scaffold said)

[thin raptor]

It’s killing me at the moment 🤦‍♂️

[queen thicket]

No way. Sounds like a software issue than a hardware (physical issue)

[queen thicket]

I bet

[thin raptor]

So I sent it for servicing and was told the update was done but I think it was not however this was happening before I sent it

I agreee I still think it’s software

[queen thicket]

Decent reliable service company?

[thin raptor]

Yes 👍🏻

For a mount from them as well and that’s fine

So seeing from you guys if I really missing anything before I try the firmwide again

😊🙏

I have an EQ6 R pro and a eq3 with no issues just this

[queen thicket]

Sorry, can't be more help.
Is the tripod sinking into the ground?, that's my only other suggestion.

@thin raptor as with thr az-gti.. We can revert to an older version of the firmware. Something that can be done with thr Swsa?

[thin raptor]

Thanks Karl - no it’s on a level next to my pier so I know it’s all solid as well that what’s frustrating 😊

[queen thicket]

Ok. Sorry can't help more. Can I ask why you serviced?

[thin raptor]

Taken in Tenerife with the mount

From Portugal

So it’s not me 🤣

I’m going to try a firmware again but thanks for your thoughts 👍🏻

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal hopefully we can get you down to this!

[rugged jackal]

Oh wow, amazing, never seen that on my mount loool, though @modest nebula tends to have great tracking...

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal this was one of the better nights. I'm useualy hovering around in the point 30s and point 40s.

East guiding (location) always seems better for my az-gti.

[rugged jackal]

Imagine a sky so good that I can post a 600s image too, loool.

[queen thicket]

With your c1 & c2 filters you SHOULD BE shooting at 300s anyway.

Your 585 cooled is very capable of doing 300s. It's designed to go long

[modest nebula]

I use 600s with my narrowband filter. I think I was doing that with my az-gti too

[trim seal]

Sometimes you can use a small flathead diagonally also. Or a torx bit. Just be careful not to mash it into oblivion. It's easily done

[rugged jackal]

I tried again today, used rubber band and duck tape but it did not budge, applied wd40 liberally but seems to be tighter than my mate's wallet.

[trim seal]

Plate solving works repeatedly failing even after being successful up to the point of making adjustments 😄

Maybe this just isn't meant to be

Like why does it work a couple of times and then just fail 15 tines jn a row

[rugged jackal]

Merdian flip hass messed up my guiding, now it is all over the place

I was getting a nice 1.60-2.22 now 42.19, sky is clear.

[trim seal]

Did you set up bias frames in nina?

[azure solar]

with the dslr I just took them in manual mode

[trim seal]

Just on the camera itself?

[trim seal]

Not with a sequence?

[azure solar]

yep

same for darks and flats

it takes too long for nina to do stuff with the dslr, the flat wizard even managed to fail

[trim seal]

Cool

I'm just doing 30 30s darks now with the sequencer

How's the best way to do flats?

With a tablet or something?

I don't really have much else

I'll do bias after darks are finished

I have 30x30s subs and about 20 60s subs

How many bias should I do?

[azure solar]

I use 50 bias

the amount of bias and darks doesn't depend on the amount of lights

[azure solar]

a tablet and white shirt or sheet of paper works

keep the light to the minimum on the tablet

[trim seal]

So not bright?

[azure solar]

ye

[trim seal]

And focal length and focus the same as lights?

[azure solar]

yes

[trim seal]

So It turns out I did my lights at 25s and my darks at 30s 😩

And 90% of lights have cloud

I hit the sequence go button and came inside

I'm feeling a lot more confident now.

Ill be able to get set up in half the time next time I think.

I had some issues with nina slewing way off the target initially but it seemed to work itself out after a couple of tries

[rugged jackal]

Just keep practising every chance you get. I started with a Fujifilm and some crappy zoom lens, with an involmeter and photographic tripod tracking by hand.

[trim seal]

I will. It's hard to get the time. As in it's not as often as if like that the weather is good and I don't have work/something else going on either that night or early the next morning

my stacked image is awful hahaha

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/22m10ka2oulsgqr1h121y/stacked-1.TIF?rlkey=xjwpw3oncrewn8txg8k6p3tbr&st=j0utwwib&dl=0

too big to upload

its pretty much all black :S

[rugged jackal]

Have you applied an auto-stretch?

[trim seal]

no

[trim seal]

when i autostretch it goes bright red

[rugged jackal]

Did you use Siril to stack?

[trim seal]

dss

should i use siril?

[rugged jackal]

I started with DSS and ended up with siril as most people use it for stacking.

then you can also process the image straight in the same app

I also use graxpert to remove the gradients and noise

[trim seal]

ok ill try to stack in siril

looks complicated :/

[rugged jackal]

actually the stacking is not too bad - make sure you have all your lights and calibration frames in one folder, all lower case and should be called - lights, flats, darks, biases - any deveiation and it will fail. In preferences you can add your camera's bayer matrix such RGGB. and play with Siril. Ensure you set the home directory to the main folder containg the lights and the other 3 folders.

[trim seal]

ill have to do a youtube search tomorrow

it seems to be sending files all over the place 😄

Can't seem to see home directory. I'll do some reading in bed and have another go tomorrow

[rugged jackal]

Yeah youtube is our best friend - everything I have learnt is either YT or people on this forum, in fact I am the person who started this forum because I was stuck and could not even polar align or aim for a target. 🤣

So you are already way ahead of me when I got my az-gti.

I would recommend moving away from kit lens etc and get a decent second hand scope, this was the biggest improvement when I started this hobby.

[trim seal]

I've just bought a 200pds so a scope for the az gti will need to wait until my wife stops moaning about this first 😄

[rugged jackal]

OH sorry I thought you were using a kits lens but you have a 200PDS - nice!

[trim seal]

I'm using the kit lens on the az gti. Pds is just for visual

[rugged jackal]

Does anyone know the size of the grub screw that holds the telescope saddle to the mount? The one that is rusted and rounded?

[trim seal]

I had a try at stacking in siril using the siril manual and I'm just going to have to wait until I have the time to sit and do it while watching a YouTube video.
It makes no sense

[rugged jackal]

Been there and have not moved very far, this hobby is amazing but you have to learn a lot.

[trim seal]

I managed to stack some lights.

I've just found a how to that is much more clear than the siril manual

[rugged jackal]

That was quick! - do an autostretch and see what you have got. Do a snip and paste it here.

[trim seal]

Will do

The ones I did earlier still don't really show too much tbh

[modest nebula]

it's that time of year when my deep space setup takes pics of small blobs in the middle of a lot of black. This is last night's effort

[rugged jackal]

wow, dude that is good, bet that is not the az-gti!

[modest nebula]

no, but I don't see why the az-gti couldn't do that. It was guiding about 0.7" which I regularly got on the az-gti

[queen thicket]

I never got along with Siril. Stacking. Too much conversion / duplicating files. I use ASTAP stacking. Quick and easy. Nebula photos on YouTube did a comparison of all the stacking software a while ago. Have a look for it.

[queen thicket]

Oh yes. On the plus side.. M51 and 81/82 are in better position.

[trim seal]

I will do thanks.
The output I got form siril was better than dss but I'd was such a pain in the balls to use.
Unnecessarily complicated

[queen thicket]

@trim seal agree. It's French 😂. Siril has come along way since it was published. Much better than it was though.

@trim seal I found THIS useful when I started out.

Just remember that darks are temperature dependant and the others are not

& bias are for DSLR (CCD CHIPS).

[trim seal]

Thank you for that. I appreciate it

I too lights and darks with nina sequence

Bias I did manually and flats I did manually using a tablet with a sheet of paper over it.
I feel like my procedure was good but

I watched the first few exposures and all was good.

I went in the house for 30mins while the sequence ran and when I came out it was still crystal clear sky

Probably 5 or 10mins after the sequence was finished

When I checked the images 90% were covered in cloud 😂

[azure solar]

The first introductory video to pixinsight by adam block also explains calibrations frames really well, to me it was what really made them make sense

[dusty current]

Having an issue with my GTI and ASIair. Occasionally when setting up a shot the mount starts to slew without any reason. Then I generally have to stop it before it gets too far. Any ideas why it would just start slewing while I'm in a menu?

[queen thicket]

What's your other software and other gear?. How are you powering the mount?

[trim seal]

I'm going out into the dark tonight to do some planetary obs with my daughter.

I've cowboyed a battery pack together so will be taking the az gti and dslr with me.

Any recommendations for a target that will be easy to get some data with using only the mount and synscan app?

I'm thinking andromeda or orion hopefully.
I'll only have a 55mm kit lens.
Could take an 80mm kit lens but it's a bit rubbish.
Would 80 or 55 be better?

[lament lion]

The whole Orion region with Bernard’s loop and witch head

[modest nebula]

my Bodes

with a heavy crop on Cigar

[rugged jackal]

Nice one, good colour in the cigar too.

[modest nebula]

yeh that's a mix of rgb & narrowband

[dusty current]

No other software, powering the whole thing through the Asiair

Camera is mc585pro

[trim seal]

Bit of a disaster tonight.

But I learned that the synscan app crashes if you change/close app when taking photo sequence.
Then restarting means re aligning..
Then when I got it sorted every picture was ruined by headlights 😄

Also learned that the enthusiasm of a 5 year old soon diminishes when it gets dark and cold.

[queen thicket]

@trim seal 1000 point for getting out though.

[trim seal]

It was great tbh.
I've never really took much notice of the sky until recently.
I drove about 25 minutes away from home and the difference in visibility is unbelievable

And all of these failures are useful.
I'm more confident every time

[queen thicket]

Exactly. If astrophotography was error free and smooth sailing it wouldn't be worth it when seeing the result

[trim seal]

It's just a shame good weather nights are so few and far between
It's quite deflating getting set up, getting no good results and the having to wait 3 weeks to try and most likely fail again 😅

[queen thicket]

🤔

[queen thicket]

Oh yes I stood in the garden for just under 1 hour the other night.. No avail.

[trim seal]

The last lot I did it was perfectly clear. I set the sequence off for 30 minutes of subs.
Went back out when it was finished.
Sky perfectly clear.
Open files on my PC.
All but 4 images thick cloud.

[rugged jackal]

Last few sessions - some frames look like this with weird vignetting on the bottom and left side and corners - this seesm to occur after a merdian flip, but have seen other times too and then goes...?

Please let me know why it occurs and how to stop it? Thanks.

[queen thicket]

Sensor too big for the scope? Flats sort it?

[trim seal]

When doing star alignment with the synscan app. After I manually centre the target, how do I get it to store that position?

There's no option to do anything but back out. Then I slew to a target, try to slew back to Jupiter for example, and it's off centre as it was when I first started alignment

[rugged jackal]

This happens intermittently and is a new issue - however I am guessing this being caused by my monitoring cam which uses IR to work in the dark and recetnly have positioned it on a box at camera level and was poiting dircetly on the image trains inc the filterwheel and camera vents which I think caused the vignetting, I have not used the camera today and it seems to be ok so far.

[queen thicket]

Yes. That's a probably cause. I too also have two Blink cameras in the garden. They are fault small BUT the IR emitter is Very strong.

[azure solar]

While doing the alignment you should get a button to sync the position

[trim seal]

i dont see that anywhere

[azure solar]

I haven't used the synscan app in years but that's the whole point of star alignment

No idea why it's not showing up

[trim seal]

its weird

ill get the mount back out tomorrow and have a look again

doing 2 star alignment, i centre the first. move to second. centre it. then theres nothing to press after that

so i back out

and it doesnt store the alignment

just rtfm and it mentions the last buttons on the centering procedure need to be RIGHt and UP for some reason

ill check it out tomorrow

[azure solar]

I think that's the right way to do it

It's the onstep app that has a sync button, I wasn't remembering it right

[trim seal]

It's very odd. When I back out, the 2nd star is centred. You'd assume that slewing to the first star would slew and centre it but it goes off to where it was before centering originally.

Very strange.
I'll try the up right thingy tomorrow

[azure solar]

How's your polar alignment?

[trim seal]

Pretty good I think

[queen thicket]

Anyone else out?

Mosaic for the 1sy time!. If your out then please enjoy! 😊

[trim seal]

Cloudy af, 😫

[queen thicket]

Where are you? North?

[trim seal]

Hull

Sadly

[queen thicket]

Next few nights any good as they good for me!

[trim seal]

Cloudy every night up to friday

[queen thicket]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[trim seal]

Thanks
Clear night's seem so far between

[queen thicket]

Oh yes.

Let's see what we get THIS galaxy season eh!

[queen thicket]

Last pannel and guiding amazing!

[modest nebula]

nice. I can't wait to see the result. What are you going to use to piece the mosaic together?

I thought I'd get Orion Nebula before it disappeared for the season. Not done this one for a while

[queen thicket]

Thanks, To be honest I don't actually know I have played with ICE before but only for my photography (not astro). Think I may follow one of Seti Astro videos.
Yet another learning curve 😂.

[queen thicket]

Always a beauty. Done M42 this year. I'll give it a proper go in November this year.

[modest nebula]

last Siril dev version can do mosaic

[queen thicket]

My duoband from this year.

[modest nebula]

nice

[queen thicket]

Thanks. I'll check it out. I have been lazy and not updated my version. I was excited when sky story announced that it was going to receive some decent updates.

Sky has gone to crap now so I'll call it a night.

5 minutes on Leo Triplet. Not worth carrying on tbh

[modest nebula]

https://astro.wheep.co.uk/assets/images/resized/leo-triplet-2025.png <-- I got that one last week

[queen thicket]

I'd be happy with that mate.

I did shoot it years ago with my old gear. It's about time I gave it another go

This was March 2022. Mirrorless Sony

Bad bad data 😂

[modest nebula]

Last night's Pinwheel. I'll spend one more evening gathering Ha and call this one done. Galaxies are so boring.

I might try Coma Cluster at some point

[rugged jackal]

Lovely job, I have been chasing this target and horsehead too.

[azure solar]

finally imaging, doing m44 and later m94

[rugged jackal]

The guiding is great, I wish I could get even as good as this!

[rugged jackal]

wow - is this using the az-gti?

[modest nebula]

I struggle to get excited about star clusters

[azure solar]

same, I'm only shooting it to fill the messier catalogue

[modest nebula]

I suppose it's a good exercise for your focus & guiding

[queen thicket]

When you get going ill happily guide you through it.

[queen thicket]

Yes.

[rugged jackal]

Much appreciated. My recent sessions have revealed issues with my mount (I think) with high errors, so I have taken the plunge and have cleaned and regreased the dec part and though it works I can now hear a strange grinding noise when I rotated the dec to 90 degrees east, so need to figure out what I have done wrong, also I seemed to have gained an extra washer! oh dear.

[azure solar]

I might have forgotten to polar align and I'm guiding at .7" rms

[rugged jackal]

I get my TPPA below 20" these days - it is the only thing I am getting right, lol.

[modest nebula]

I got my polar alignment to about 1" pretty quickly. However, my guiding sucks tonight at almost 1" RMS. Not sure why.

my target is very low in the sky so perhaps it's atmospheric turbulence

[rugged jackal]

I used to have my exposure set to auto and that used to chase seeing, I havew now set it to manual at around 3 seconds.

[modest nebula]

in PHD2? I'm at 0.5s - seems to work best for me

actually I think I have some cloud too even though the forecast says it's clear

oh well, let's let it run & sort it out later

[queen thicket]

Bloody hell. May I ask you WHY YOU took the mount apart in the 1st place?. Ive had mine for 4 years and never really missed a beat to tracking and any other physical issues.
Was it you who mentioned about taking it apart last year (summer I think it was).

[queen thicket]

It wasn't great at the later part of last night. It was perfect until 00:00ish.

[rugged jackal]

My guiding was all over the place and it was getting worse, with PHD2 calibration finding errors too. I improved my TPPA even with the shockingly bad SW wedge that has a mind of it's own but even that did not alleviate the issue and felt that I needed to service the mount.

my most recent efforts - messed up the flats - this is the problem with mutiple sessions due to the clouds and the target moving out of range within 2/3 hours.

this is using sirilic and denoised in graxpert - no other processing yet - don't think it is worth the effort, lool.

[trim seal]

Does anyone know of a way to fit a polar scope to the mount?
When not using the laptop I'm just using a compass to align roughly north and then doing the synscan star alignment.
Is that enough?

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal that's "embossed" circle looks funny 😂.

[queen thicket]

Youll need to fit the polar scope to the WEDGE not the mount.

[queen thicket]

Sorry.. I missed this comment. Do you remember your guiding numbers BEFORE you took the mount apart?

[trim seal]

Thanks. I'll have a look for some examples of it.
I guess I could print something probably

[rugged jackal]

It was erratic - it go from 0.8 to 12+ during the night normally settling around 2-6 rms

[queen thicket]

Dec is ALWAYS an issue with the az-gti, no matter what quality of unit you get

What's your firmware version?

[rugged jackal]

The last time I added a firmware to the az-gti was when I bought it about 2+ years ago so I am not sure if there has been an upated firmware since then by SW?

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal I'm running the older version. I have read a few times that the newer ISN'T as good. I'll tell you what version I have when u can as I'm out shooting!.

And we're off again.

[queen thicket]

Still going well. Sky's are little murky / orange now though. Let's see peep's, how this turns out!.

[rugged jackal]

I had a go with my regreased mount but the sky was hazy and 1/4 moon, but wanted to test the serviced mount and it is much worse, 😥 though this could be due to the seeing conditions, I packed up very quickly.

[tough scaffold]

Did you fix backlash or just grease?

[rugged jackal]

I just cleaned and regreased, how do yiu fix the backlash?

[tough scaffold]

https://youtu.be/hgEzeXrhhEg?t=391

I believe i did like this. Can't say for result, as i don't measure it before disassembly, but I get pretty nice guiding 1-2 arcsec

[rugged jackal]

Thanks

[queen thicket]

Seeing won't effect too much.

[rugged jackal]

Guiding is much better today, seeing is also much better, but the mount performs much worse after a meridian flip, currently imaging Bode's as it poiting away from the moon.

[queen thicket]

70 in Dec & Ra isn't bad. Change this :

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal as your using 4" exposure time this yould effect your peaks and dips. If the guide star is moving away within thoes 4 seconds then the mount must make a correction (this is my understanding) hence the sharp jump. If you keep to 2 seconds then I believe this will help.

[queen thicket]

For myself.. My az-gti guides slightly worse when it flips.. I believe this is normal for the az-gti.

[queen thicket]

Where did you get these numbers from? Did guiding assistant change theses?

[rugged jackal]

Right I'll adjust it to 2 secs, my algo numbers have been obtained from trial and error trying to get some decency into my mount's guiding. I'll try guiding assistant, also I need to improve my focus quality on the guide cam - something I struggle to do.

[modest nebula]

I saw a Celestron CG4 for sale on Facebook only £90. That would be superb for a Terrans Onstep kit. You'd end up with a EQ5 class motorized mount for a few hundred quid. The only problem is, pick up only from south wales 😮

[rugged jackal]

Do you still have that tutorial on improving the SW wedge?

[modest nebula]

https://astro.wheep.co.uk/equipment/wedge/

[queen thicket]

Personally il deplete your profile and start a fresh. Then run guiding assistant ONLY THEN you can test and fine tune.

[queen thicket]

I tried adding Nylon washers but I couldn't get it working right.. So it's back to no washers.

[queen thicket]

On thing at, a time 😊. Reset and 2" exposure time.

[modest nebula]

Did you drill and add that brass bush as well as described in my tutorial?

[queen thicket]

@modest nebula I did not. I had some ultra-thin nylon washers and though I could slip them in. I'll rewatch your video again.. Thanks

[modest nebula]

Yeh the biggest problem with the clamping mechanism on that wedge is that they built it from alloy with strengthening fins each side, clearly designed so that it doesn't flex, then they expect it to flex when you tighten it in order to clamp the bit in the middle

the mod that I did adds a sliding bush so that the bush is able to move in/out as you tighten or loosen. This presses on the bit in the middle in order to clamp it

[queen thicket]

@modest nebula yup. For now I'll keep using it as is but eventually I'll try your design. I'm not to worried so far as its more of a frustration. If I had a William Optics wedge then I'd be comparing it and therfore feel let down.

[rugged jackal]

My TPPA routine is to do the first run which is just to get an idea of how bad the alignment is, I correct it as close as possible to the bullseye then run another TPPA, this time fine tuning so that 1 am below 20 seconds, but many times I have made my adjustments and TPPA shows no change, I let it capture 2/4 more images to get past the lag, - no change, this is the frustration with the wedge, at this stage I rerun TPPA and find I have overshot, make my adjustments and get back to the bullseye - re-run TPPA and if it is below 20 I trust the result and start my imaging.

[trim seal]

Mine does this. I've found it's the Tppa at fault because I can physically see the wedge move.
The program just doesn't update for a few cycles

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal 20" is fine!. Running 3ppa isnt a bad thing.

[rugged jackal]

right ,so tppa is at fault? is there an alternative?

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal old school phd2 will do something similar but it's not automated and requires a view of Polaris. Hard work & takes time. As soon a 3ppa was invented I changed.

[trim seal]

I just have to leave it to keep retrying to solve.
Sometimes takes 30 seconds. A few nights ago it took like 5 minutes before the adjustments updated

Keep in mind I'm a complete noob so may be missing something like yourself.

It's a shame that the few clear nights I get are spent learning the basics 🙃

[queen thicket]

Nothing lost though. My setting are : Platesolve with gain 400 & 5" sub's. Best focus you can. I do this at the earliest chance (recently as stars are just visible as to maximise the imaging time).
Start 3ppa as "current position" and adjust the alt/az first before the east/West knob as this is where leveling comes into play.

I'll try and make a video next time I'm out and setting up. (hope this helps)

[trim seal]

It certainly does help. Thank you.
To be fair each night of 'failure' has been very beneficial.
I'm pretty much there with the routine now and I just need to fine tune the whole workflow

[queen thicket]

I started back in 2020 (not sure why). I'm always looking for new ways and anyway that will help cut down time from start to finish.
It used to take me what seem forever to setup and pa and then star align. Using 3ppa has been a god send. Best advance (when what Ive learnt) is to not panic & take your time.. This might seem counterintuitive but it helps settle the mind, instead of thinking "it's getting dark real quick & I'm late".

Multitasking helps too ie: turn laptop on first and then you can load your software while you plug everything in.
I'll explain better in my video 😊.

I've been a photographer for 28ish years so one of the hardest things was the sun time for my head to get around! 😂

[rugged jackal]

PVery hazy and cloudy for me tonight

[queen thicket]

@rugged jackal yeah not even bothering.. Instead I'm having a real fight & pulling my hair out with my mosaic data!. Never, never again!

[modest nebula]

are you using Siril dev edition for mosaic? It's really rather good

[queen thicket]

@modest nebula I've tried Dss, and Astap stack. Nothing working.

[modest nebula]

Share each stacked panel with me and I'll run it through siril

[queen thicket]

@modest nebula much appreciated but it's too much hassle. If this was very good data then I would. This is the best I got just now :

Something very strange. I've never done a mosaic so I have to learn (if I bother again) 😂

[modest nebula]

let me just run it through Siril and send you the result. I won't fiddle with it much

[queen thicket]

It's still crap data 😂.

[queen thicket]

Let's see 😂 @modest nebula

[queen thicket]

Pixinsight encountered an issue. It can't finnish stacking.

Shame as there some great data in there just not the whole thing!

[queen thicket]

So now that we are leaving dso season and the arise of Galaxy season is Comming our way fast : what's everyone's 1st target(s)? What's you all looking forward to and what challange are you all setting for yourselfs?

[modest nebula]

I hate galaxy season. I end up with a bunch of small blobs in the middle of a lot of black. However, I've done better this season than before. Check here for what I've done so far https://astro.wheep.co.uk/

[queen thicket]

@modest nebula yeah I agree. Little to no time on a target, small, unless you go for a group of them), can't use filters (L-pro and para possible) plus other things to think about like family get togethers.

We take what we can get at this time of year and HOPE FOR something though.. Its a long time to wait until autum / winter.
On the plus side it's warmer 😂.

Ngc7000 and the Butterfly Nebulae plus M27 are a few that are decent enough though @modest nebula

[modest nebula]

I've done M27 before but I'd like to do it again. Butterfly is TINY in my fov. I'm also trying to get a sniff of cat's eye nebula. I managed 10 whole minutes on it the other night before the clouds rolled in

I'll do Markarian's Chain again too. Lots of small stuff there but enough to keep it mildly interesting

I tried the Coma Cluster but I think the galaxies there are just way too small for me

[queen thicket]

Totaly agree.

Yeah M27 I'd like yo smash this year. I'd like it to be a target that I put everything into.
Still small but worth it. It's also at a great declination for a long time.

[queen thicket]

Markarians might be an issue for me.. House might just clip is (this is why I couldn't get Thors!).

[trim seal]

The murdered out 12v/5v leg hugger is almost done

I'll probably look at getting some usb breakout boards and making the whole thing 1/4 the size

[modest nebula]

nice. I built similar with a large leisure battery. It weighs a ton but lasts all night

I wrote a useful toy for it too https://github.com/IanCassTwo/bm2-battery-monitor-ascom-alpaca

[wanton moat]

whats the link to that ?

[trim seal]

I'll put a link once I've sorted all of the files and made some kind of bom/list of parts/alternatives

[wanton moat]

Oh I thought it was a ready made battery you bought

[queen thicket]

Painful to watch

[trim seal]

I'm just using 2 9ah batteries in parallel and that box takes 12vin. Has 4x usb out and 1x 12v out

[trim seal]

If youre in the uk and don't have a printer I can print parts and send out to you
You'd need to provide/fit your own hardware though

[wanton moat]

oh nah im in saudi arabia

[trim seal]

Shutter didn't raise before it moved across?

First tumble didn't look too bad. The big one took a colossal slam though 😩

[queen thicket]

@trim seal ouch and a heap of insurance paperwork.
It would be interesting to see how the company responds to the clients

[trim seal]

Had 1.5 hours of sequence running. Check camera when it's finished. Nothing there 😄

[modest nebula]

We've all been there. I once sat there feeling dead proud because I got perfect guiding. It took me over an hour to realize I didn't restart the sequence and it wasn't imaging.

[trim seal]

I think I left the 2 second delay on from when I had the camera on the newt

Which I assume was the problen

But if it's using synscan camera control I'd have thought it'd ignore that

[modest nebula]

it's crystal clear outside tonight though

[trim seal]

Yea it's nice

I've had to pack up though. Early start tomorrow 😑

[modest nebula]

I wfh so my bed is about 10 secs away from my desk

[trim seal]

The dream

I've got an hour drive to work tomorrow

[modest nebula]

My old commute was about 65 miles each way via M25. When they closed my old office, they gave me a choice - they'd fund my home office, or I could commute to London every day on the train. Tough choice 😄

[trim seal]

Mine is usually an hour each way tops.
Sometimes end up going to barrow or somewhere which is about a 10 hour round trip. Always fun

[queen thicket]

Sucks.
Sorry this had happened.
All been there.

[potent turret]

Does anyone know any good ways to polar align a az-gti

without tppa?

because it doesnt do a good job and i need to inprove my guiding

[azure solar]

use sharpcap polar alignment

[potent turret]

it cost money:(

mabye phd2 polar alignment, but it looks too complicated

[azure solar]

15€ a year, it's worth it

[potent turret]

is it better than tppa?

[azure solar]

I find it to be more reliable

and quicker for sure

[potent turret]

hmm is there a lifetime license on sharpcap

[azure solar]

nope

[potent turret]

sharpcap pro seems like a great deal, with so many features

im gonna get it

[queen thicket]

Sharpcap or the harder mwtnon would be phd2 (takes alot of time though).

[trim seal]

How do you guys do it with just the mount and a phone/tablet?

[modest nebula]

I don't

[azure solar]

I don't think anyone here does

[trim seal]

As in don't use it unless connected to a laptop or as in just point it about north?

[modest nebula]

I run a mini pc (a Mele Quieter 3q) that's permanently connected to the mount & camera with USB. I then remote desktop into the PC and run NINA. That's what does the polar alignment after I roughly point the mount north

[azure solar]

The first part, there's not much point in not using a pc/laptop

Unless it's for visual of course

[trim seal]

Ah I just have a battery pack I've made and have been testing with phone/tablet and plan on being able to take it out to random places without much hassle.
Tracking seems to be OK but I'm only pointing the mount to true North and not using a polar scope or anything.

I take it the best option for this use case will be to print some kind of mount for a polar scope?
Or is what I'm doing adequate?

When I'm just in my garden I use laptop with nina

[low mural]

Hey all! Sorry I have not been responsive on here at all.
With a heavy heart I've decided to sell my astro gear. The cost of living got the better of me. Hopefully one day I can have a set up again.
If any of you are interested in the stuff I have, let me know.
Evoguide 50ED
EVO-FF Field Flattener
EQM-35 PRO Mount
Player One Uranus C Pro Camera
Guide Scope
Mini PC

[modest nebula]

that's a shame 😦

[low mural]

Indeed! ☹️ It's like the only asset I have so it seemed silly to have it sitting there when I have not really had much time to get out. I am for sure not giving it all up though. When I can burn money again, I'll be back 😂

[trim seal]

Sorry to hear that. Hope things get better for you ❤️

[queen thicket]

@low mural so sorry to hear times are difficult for you. Yourself and family come first, although this hobby is good for the soul, it's a roof over your head and food on the table that matter. Nebula and galaxys are always going to be there.
The odd occasion that something is happening like a blood moon or an eclipse then you can always use binoculars (official solar filter with the eclipse).

Youll get back out with thr same or better gear.
Keep chin up and don't be a stranger in this group. 😊

[true nymph]

sorry to hear that man. Ill hit you up if I have the money in the future to get that cam

[modest nebula]

my last 2 evenings, m106 in HaRGB

[wanton moat]

Nice what scope ?

[modest nebula]

William Optics GT71. It's really a nebula setup. Galaxies are too small for it, but it's quite sharp for what it is, so I can crop without too much loss

[wanton moat]

That fl works good on the az gti?

[modest nebula]

perhaps, although I'm not using it on my az-gti right now

[wanton moat]

oh i thought it was azgti users only in this chat

[azure solar]

a while ago yeah, many of us moved away from it

[modest nebula]

I still have an az-gti but I tend not to use it much these days

[wanton moat]

Ah I see

[low mural]

Thank you all for your kind words. I appreciate it! I will deffo be spectating and checking out everyone's progress

[queen thicket]

If your out, enjoy

[modest nebula]

I'll be out soon. The last of the clouds are rolling past now

[potent turret]

Finally fixed my guiding with my az-gti, a 1hr of rossete stretched and saturated. I took 25 150s exposures.

just need to get lots of more data

[queen thicket]

🤔

[queen thicket]

How is everyone?

[queen thicket]

Is everyone okay?

[azure solar]

Yeah, nothing new is happening really

Haven't shot anything in weeks

[placid ocean]

Yup.

Imaging at the moment in fact.

[queen thicket]

@azure solar same just the odd luna and solar imaging.

[trim seal]

Samesies

[queen thicket]

1st 15 second image. Luminence only

Anyone tried bin x2 and resampled?

All going well so far!

120 seconds.

[queen thicket]

Well managed 88x120s the other night (2h54m)

1st time imaging M51.

Not a fan of galaxy's.
Found this one tedious to edit.

Happy enough though but a bigger inch would be much better so I'll wait for my 130pds 😉.

[modest nebula]

good job. Luckily, galaxy season is almost over. The Milky Way is starting to rise towards midnight.

[queen thicket]

Thanks.

[modest nebula]

clear tonight, so I'm going to test my new camera

unfortunately, it seems like my guide cam has given up, so having to use my old planetary cam in it's place

[azure solar]

what did you get?

[modest nebula]

Artemis-M. I wanted at least MFT and that pixel size is ideal for my setup

I also picked up a 2nd hand zwo (spit!) filter wheel

[azure solar]

interesting pick

[modest nebula]

just setting up now. the backfocus was way off, but I think I've nailed it now

[modest nebula]

gosh, mono imaging is just cheating. I've got better Ha in 20mins than I would have got in hours 😮

[azure solar]

Yep it's insane, I really want to go mono but I'm still saving up

[modest nebula]

I ended up getting 2hrs of Ha in the end. I'll do some OIII at some point

I hope to get this when I'm done 😄 https://cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/ngc7822

[languid wing]

why don’t yall actually make a forum for this

[azure solar]

wdym? this IS the forum

[languid wing]

no like in #1019671488200196227

[lament lion]

Because this is home, no drama from randoms and no brain rot; just a bunch of people with similar gear posting and helping each other.

[azure solar]

I forgot to reply, but yeah what he said + a lot of people here ended up moving on from the azgti

[queen thicket]

Pushing the boat out tonight. 1st subs in.
Guiding is good at 0.30 and 0.18.. HFR isn't the best.
Had to wait until 22:45 before Pa.
But at least I'm out in my shorts and flip flops enjoying looking up and appreciating our sky's.

Planning for an ambitious 2 hour's of the Western Veil (ngc6960) in 7nm NB (Ha & 03) as never shot in NB.

If your out, enjoy. 😊

[modest nebula]

I did this one a few weeks back

[queen thicket]

Did you post on here?

Filters? @modest nebula

[modest nebula]

No, I'm not happy with the edit. I need to go re-do it.

it's sho filters but not using a sho palette

[queen thicket]

That's bonkers result.
It's a credit to your art mate.

[tough scaffold]

Very nice, is it mono?

[modest nebula]

yeh. Still learning how to use it

[tough scaffold]

Will az gti handle it?)

[lament lion]

It should but at the same time it won't, like it will get the job done but I am expecting a bit of subs will be thrown away, a slight little wind will throw a sub off, I had almost the same set up but a 70ed, manual filter wheel and Uranus c pro, with a 30mm guide scope and camera before I upgraded everything and it did okay for a bit but the amount of subs I had to delete was getting tiresome but do let me know

[queen thicket]

I don't see it being much of an issue, as always.. TLC and tweaking will help. I can't see the length of your dovetail though. If your running PhD2 there are always small tweaks via that to help. Keep us all informed please.

[tough scaffold]

I have made first tests. Guiding was not bad. First target was high altitude and i got about 1' rms. Second lower target was worse - 1.5' rms with spikes over 2'. No wind.

[queen thicket]

Still feel there room for improvement?

[tough scaffold]

The cables were not fixed and just pulled to ground, tripod feels unstable need to add some weight to it. So fixing it maybe will make some improvements - need to test.

[queen thicket]

Good point's.
Yes adding some weight would definitely help. I've found that slightly camera heavy will help with Dec rms. Interested to see how it goes for you.

[trim seal]

I need to get mine out again 😩

[tough scaffold]

This is the graph of az-gti with filter wheel and focuser. Not bad, I got no spoiled lights until 3:30 then it becomes dawning. Looks like adding focuser and wheel did not change much for az-gti

[modest nebula]

nice

[tough scaffold]

This is hfr graph, when you forgot to turn on heaters))

[trim seal]

I'm seriously considering building the Hadley refractor as shown in #🔨-do-it-yourself
Would it be OK to use on the az gti?

[azure solar]

Sure enough not for dso

Like not long exposures

[trim seal]

OK. Too big?

I'll maybe give it a miss then. I ready have a 200pds for visual

[azure solar]

Too much focal length too

[tough scaffold]

I have damaged my az-gti. I didn' reset global sequence from last night, so parking, stop guiding were set as already completed and it collided. Now it makes bad noises, when moving.
It has alredy collided before, but without any problems. Will try to disassemble

[trim seal]

Thanks. I was about to order the parts 😄

[queen thicket]

Sorry to hear this. Hopefully it will be an easy fix.

[tough scaffold]

The problem is with this plastic wheel. Gears look ok, but motor goes crazy spinning different direction. Looks like mount determines motor rotation with this wheel

Anyone know what is this? Focuser also failed and this came out of my tube

[tough scaffold]

So it was focuser bearing

[modest nebula]

so you're also missing a ton of tiny ball bearings?

[tough scaffold]

Yes, I found 1 tiny ball inside the tube. will try to buy similar bearing

[azure solar]

I had that happen too, no idea how or why

[tough scaffold]

Did you fix it? Bought new bearing?

[azure solar]

I left it as is, the focuser I have is pretty bad and I just went back to the stock one that was on the scope

[modest nebula]

those bearings are cheap and easy to obtain. It looks tricky to get to that screw though

[tough scaffold]

The whole part with bearings could be taken out, so no problem with that

[tough scaffold]

I have glued plastic wheel to axis. At least motor stopped move like crazy.

[tough scaffold]

Replaced focuser bearing. Looks ok. Mount works too, but with more noise than usual at high speed. Hope it will not affect tracking much

[tough scaffold]

My hopes were dashed

[modest nebula]

Wow, that's not great 😮

[queen thicket]

Your numbers look good though.. Spend more time testing? Or is the mount done with now (not worth repairing)?

[tough scaffold]

This spikes up to 12' would defintly blur image. There is an option to replace whole motor assembly. Looks like this spikes are from plastic wheel touching metal housing. Will try to insert some shim to avoid touching and test again.

[tough scaffold]

So i got this. It's better now. Still spikes, but not as high. I got hfr about 3, so it's usable for my camera with rms 2-3'

[tough scaffold]

Also had a bug with touptek wheel tonight. I could not change filter and when I came to scope in the morning it sounded like filter wheel rotates infinitely. I wonder did i make my lights via non stop rotating filter wheel all the night . Also found out that touptek filter wheel had a bug with ir diode and it does not turn off after rotating, inducing light leak. Updated to latest firmware with fix.

[modest nebula]

Time for a new mount? I bought a 2nd hand Exos2 and put an onstep kit on it. It'll normally do 0.5" to 0.7" all night long

[tough scaffold]

I wanted to build a pier this summer and upgrade mount. Not happened. Maybe next summer. Leave as is for now or buy motor assembly.

[queen thicket]

Hm..

Start building the pier now?.
I wouldn't keep using the az-gti.. I feel this would only lead to frustration.

A used az-gti to see you through the winter and spring may cost you £160 ish.. But no gatrentee that it hasn't also been damaged or missed used.

I believe it will come down to finances.

[raven agate]

I am also frustrated with the az gti. Last test I will do is with the qeq backlash reducer cable. If that does not help either, I will replace it with a small strainwave mount.

The az gti is so damn unreliable.

[queen thicket]

You must have a bad unit.

What's your main issues and the software your using? (if you don't mind me asking)

[modest nebula]

azgti is a great starter mount or a travel mount, but sounds like you guys need to progress onto something better

[raven agate]

this is the guide cal plot:

RA (green) calibrated just fine. But DEC (blue and yellow) made this weird loop. To me it looks like the body of the mount is not rigid enough, and the RA axis gets polluted when DEC moves.

[tough scaffold]

the body is metal, I doubt rigidity of body could be a problem

[raven agate]

metal is quite a strong word. Have you seen how easy is to strip the bolts in the body ?

[tough scaffold]

Have no time for pier now. I am looking at clearsky st17 mount as possible upgrade. It's like juwei17 but it has home positon sensor. Will be usefull for remote

[queen thicket]

Very strange what happens if your turn the Dec axis around manually when the mount is off?, any grinding? Feeling of grinding?, noises?.

@raven agate

[tough scaffold]

no, I have no problem with bolts. This is my setup and it guided about 1' rms before I crashed it. So it can perform pretty well. But it took some time to tune it like that

[raven agate]

No, I left it with new grease and feels quite smooth with the motors. Manually the dec axis feels quite smooth. The ra axis has a couple stiffer points , but always has been like that. I left no significant backlash in dec and ra, at least when pushing a bit the axes side to side.

[tough scaffold]

Mine is also not smooth at RA, but looks like it does not affect guiding much when you tighten the clutch. I had similar graph at phd calibration in the past, but I don't remember what was the issue.

[tough scaffold]

I don't know what software you use. Phd gives you recomendation where to start calibration. Maybe you start calibration too close to pole and it gives you this result?

[raven agate]

Unfortunately phd2 keeps crashing in this little armhf machine 😂

[tough scaffold]

I would suggest you to make test with some windows machine with GSS + PHD.

[queen thicket]

I tend to agree. Gss has never let me down in 5 years. PhD will ha e the tools that might help troubleshooting.

[raven agate]

my machines are too slow for windows 😛

the fastest one for astro is a N100 one, and there windows is just horrible to use

[tough scaffold]

i am using beelink with N95 8GB with windows. N100 pretty the same. I only had horrible lags with bad wifi and rdp. Is it lagging over hdmi too? It's not super quick, but no problem running phd nina gss

[modest nebula]

I used to use a Beelink. I swapped to a Mele and all my lags in NINA & PHD2 were gone

[trim seal]

Brought my az gti and camera to wykeham with me, a place known for very dark skys. It's cloudy af the whole time im here 😄

[modest nebula]

oh gosh, that's always the way though

[trim seal]

It actually cleared up and was beautifully dark.
I got set up. Got my camera out.
Only to find my dovetail was in the garage at home! 😄

I made this to keep it on the tripod whenever no In use

[trim seal]

Why does my plate solving fail 9/10 times 😩

1st and 2nd points work first time. 3rd takes a couple of attempts. Error adjustment has just failed like 30 exposures in a row

[azure solar]

low altitude? trailing? short exposure time?

[trim seal]

2 second exposure tune

Time

All are just the default settings

I'll try 5s

It's even worse now 😄

I got it pretty close and then stopped it. Tedious after a while

[trim seal]

15sec exposure

i took 50dark at 15s. 50 light at 15s and 50 with the lens cap on and shortest possible exposure.

short on time but its been a while so spent some time figuring out how to set up again

[raven agate]

It happened to my with a touptek, and it is because it was using a wrong resolution, taking only part of the image only, and of course it did not match the estimated fov

[trim seal]

Hmm maybe. Last time an issue with focal range It wouldn't do any at all.
Could it be a lens issue? It is quite old and looking at the display on the camera, appears to have random red/green dots in places and looks noisy. Dead pixels perhaps?

I got it near enough in the end.

From my picture, top left is andromeda I assume?
That was just from slewing with nina and then no adjustment.

Next time I should slew, take an exposure and then manually move to centre the target?

Sorry for what may be silly questions. I'm a complete novice 😄

[queen thicket]

@trim seal sorry (I'm late to the party).

What's the lens and what's the camera?
Are your setting within nina correct?
& have you downloaded the corect database?.

[trim seal]

It's the canon 600d with 28-80mm lens I think

But yea, focal length and pixel size etc were correct

It almost always passes the first 2 points first time. Third takes forever usually and adjustments it fails almost every time

It probably is a settings issue though. If it stays clear tonight I'll try to get set up

[queen thicket]

Ok., so crop frame & 80mm (using?) if your using 28mm then it will most likely fail.

In nina are you asking nina to "start from here"? Or are you slewing to a manual location THEN Platesolve?

Your database need to be the smallest database. Sorry I forget the New Designations for them.

After I pa I'll ask nina to Platesolve (although some may disagree) I find this gives me a decent result with Platesolve.. I have NEVER had to Platesolve twice as its been kind to me and useualy finds my target 1st try unless I have too much daylight in my sky's.

@trim seal ..... When you said about your 3rd image, just a thought.. Are you getting any foreground objects like houses or fences on you shot

[trim seal]

No foreground

I just connect the camera and mount and then press go on tppa with whatever the default settings are tbh lol

[queen thicket]

@trim seal OK, so pa on Polaris and then Platesolve on something that's in the east and try and increase your SEARCH tolerance to a few more degrees. 5 seconds should be enough.

Let us know how you get on please.

I can see why it's completing 2 and leaving the 3rd one out. Strange.

[trim seal]

Didn't manage to get out tonight but when I do I'll let you know how I get on

Thanks for advice 🙂

[queen thicket]

Evening all.

I'm out!

A cold one but I decided to setup.

Last time I was out it was the 12th July shooting the Bubble nebula.
Tonight target is the same.
It's been so long that I forgot some things.. Since not shooting I decided to change my image train and I totaly forgot the order that it "should be", I didn't have enough back focus so being cold I did t want to drop anything so I dismantled it in the house.
I achieved focus and did the jsie Platesolve in nina. Slewed to Bubble and focused.. Did a 300 test shot and all looks good.

Sitting watching a movie in bed I watched my guiding as I felt that I didn't take the time to setup up as good as I should have..
Well I'm pleased.. Thr mighty az-gti does it again.

Total RMS under 40!
Guiding is good.

Hope to shoot for as many hours as I can.

If your out please enjoy 😊.

[queen thicket]

Result : 4 hours with ALL SAS PRO stacking & editing (1st time using SAS for all).

48x300 w/ f & df.

[queen thicket]

On K1 tonight. 60x60 is the plan.

Guiding is spot-on! 😊.

If your out, enjoy

[queen thicket]

Not easy. But I'll take it as a Win.

[tough scaffold]

Cool. Is it single frame? How long exposure? Is it visible real time at guide camera?

[queen thicket]

@tough scaffold my post?

60x60 but ended up with 55x60. Yes visible is single frame. Next to the Plugh (Usar Major).
I doubt it will be visible in guide camera as they take 2 second long subs.

[tough scaffold]

Yes. Did you change tracking rate or same as usual?

[queen thicket]

@tough scaffold normal tracking,😊.

[queen thicket]

I'm out! 😊.

Well I did something something today : I modded my zwo 585mc..

Initial testing nina reported the sensor temperature at 10.10c now it's reading around the 3c mark.
£15 Mod.

Working well so far.

Guiding is perfect too.

On the Heart of the Heart
(melotte 15 I think).

Plan is for 2 hour's then I'll head to something on Orion.

If you out, have fun.

Will report back with the nights progress and performance with the MOD.

This is just a 45 minute stack (as I couldn't wait 😂)

If your out, have fun.

[queen thicket]

it gets frosty! Now running at 0.7 degrees c.

[queen thicket]

Well this is the result for a few days ago with the modded cooled camera.

This is 22x300 so only deleted 2 subs. 1.8 hour's.

Monkey Head (1st time shooting)

72ed
ZWO 585MC (cooler mod)
Phd2
Svbony sv220

Nina reported the sensor temperature staying between -1 & - 1.5c so that's 6 or 7 below ambient temperature.

DSS to stack & SAS Pro to process.

I did learn that the peliter was getting too cold so I'll add a USB Potentiomiter to I can control the amps that the cooler receives.

No frost on sensor.

[queen thicket]

Last time I was out in December.

Same night as my Monkey Head data.

Melott 15. (and some of the Heart)

1. Duoband & 2. HOO.

2 hour's of 300s

This was from the other night when testing the zwo 585mc with my cooler mod (please see previous post).

Az-gti
Zwo 585mc (with Peltier Mod)
72ed
Svbony sv220
Phd2
40x flat's. (no dark flats as SAS don't accept them)

SAS Pro

[queen thicket]

Hey all 😊. Hope your all well. Have you managed to get out tonight (UK location)? If you have I hope you're enjoying being under the stars ✨.

1st time out since 6 Jan!. Didn't really know what to shoot so went with these lovely two.
Not shot them since 2021 ish and certainly not with a dedicated.

Hoping to get a good few hours 🤞.

So far I've planned for 60x120.

We will see how it goes!.

[queen thicket]

Cheap and crap process. 3.4 hour's of 120s w/ 40 flats and 40 dark flats.
I can do so much better with the stars and colours.

72ed
Az-gti
585mc (DIY cooler)
ir/uv cut

Dss
Siril
(various other Seti & veralux)

[azure solar]

How's your azgti dealing with the weight?

I'm glad someone is keeping the forum alive lol

[queen thicket]

@azure solar no issue. I'm slightly over the limit for astrophotography ut I make it work with lots of love, TLC and tweaking.

With the az-gti it's more about camera end of the scope heavy.

On average my guiding is around 0.4 & 0.6.

And yes. I did wonder where everyone was 😂

@azure solar

[azure solar]

That's some good guiding for that mount

[raven agate]

My az gti often fails to calibrate, and when it does, usually it is more around 2 arcsec

I think it is a crappy mount in general for astrophoto, even if there are some lucky units out there

And nowadays it makes very little sense to get it

[queen thicket]

Yew, unfortunately ther are some "not so good units out there".

It has its place when it comes to imaging.
Now that the AM3 and Sal mounts are around the az-gti is kinda old.
Remember though this mount is a fair few years old now. Pair it with a 85mm lena and something like a 585mc duo air and your laughing for travel.

[queen thicket]

Evening all.

With this year being crap for astrophotography as the weather has let us down..
What's everyone thinking about Galaxy Season?.
Any targets that you have in mind?.
Something you haven't shot before?
Time to add date to your existing?.

Share your thoughts 😊.

[azure solar]

I'm really bummed this galaxy season, I've got a new mono camera I bought this summer but no way to use it on galaxies

I have two newts, one that needs a new focuser and coma corrector to be used and one that is disassembled and is lacking a tube

So yeah no shooting for me this season

[queen thicket]

I feel the same. Just can't settle on a subject.
I'm not a fan of this season but considering that we haven't been blessed these last 6 or so months I feel that I should be getting out for something. Even just for the mind & soul.

I'm ready to go in the way of gear and have Jimmy rigged my vintage 50 & 135mm lens.
This would mean I'd have to forget guiding (unless I strip everything down and reconfigure nina) but it's worth a shot. I'm not completely sure it reaches focus though.. This was not something that I wanted to test in the cold.

They are only 52mm objective diameters so not holding out for detail... I'm more interested in the IFN that it MAY capture.

Well see how it goes.

As for targets. 🤔, I'm awaiting M27 & M31 again.

But as for the next 2 or so weeks I'm at a loss.

[plucky garnet]

95 more msgs until this post hits 10k msgs

94 now