Starflyer

I started on it a week or so ago, only ten subs so far. Atik 460, OO VX10 @f/4.8, OIII, 600s at bin x2. It's so faint in OIII, I was thinking it would end up being a multi year project. Happy to share data if it allows both of us to get an image more quickly. Drop me a PM and we'll work something out. Cheers Ian

Thanks for the reply and Terry's number, I'll give him a call tomorrow.

It's the starlight express OAG on an Atik EFW2. I imaged fine all night and the main camera flats were as normal, so nothing obstructing the main light path. It'd been fine a week or two before this, I'll have the light-path-tube-thingy out of the OAG tomorrow and check the prism etc. I'm just hoping it's not the camera, they're not cheap to replace. I may drop SE an email and see if they recognise the half image as a possible electronic fault. Cheers, Ian

It's a C-mount thread on the Lodestar - 1" / 25.4mm

Good call Dave, I'll get one ordered. Is this the sort of thing I'd need? I can't see them any cheaper than this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Fujian-35mm-f-1-7-CCTV-Lens-Fixed-Focal-Lenses-for-C-Mount-Canon-Sony-Cam-UK/173547226544

It's not an impossibility, but I'd have thought it would fail to connect rather than work with some of the rows darker than the rest. It worked all night like this btw.

Last session I experienced something weird with that I've never seen before, see below image. The image coming out of the guide camera was very dark at the top and I had to move the brightness slider all the way over to the right to see stars at the bottom of the image. I'm looking at this now and can't see what's causing it. I've removed the camera and looked down the OAG tube and the view looks normal through the prism. I've looked at the prism, as best I can without having the OAG apart, and it doesn't look loose or moved from it's usual position. I don't know when I'm going to get out again and would like to solve this. Any pointers on where to look, what to check and has anyone seen this before? Cheers Ian

MURE denoise only works on a linear image that is an integration of your subs, a mono image from one channel. From how I understand it, If you do anything to that image, crop it, DBE it etc, then MURE denoise won't work correctly. It needs to be the first process you perform after image integration.

+1 for SGP from me, after the initial set up of the parameters it's never let me down. I run it on both my Baby Tak at f/3.9 and my OO newt at f/4.8. Bang on focus every time, refocusing every 1°C temp drop and on every filter change. I never bothered with setting up filter offsets, maybe I should, but with the 460EX I can focus narrowband filters at 8 second subs.

SGP here too, plate solving and auto focus has made imaging a pleasure.

I think this speaks volumes, with users needing to upgrade from Avalon mounts but not from Mesu mounts.

Awesome build thread, really enjoying it. After spending so much time and money on your build you deserve to splash out a couple of hundred more on a decent Ascom stepper focus controller. What's manual focusing?

Are you going through a hub? The only time I had problems with image downloads hanging (and it was an ongoing, very annoying problem) it turned out to be the hub. If you're using one try removing it from the equation and connecting the camera straight to the laptop/PC.

Look out for a second hand QHY8 / Pro, they often come up for that price. These are a massive step up from a DSLR and will blow the 183 out of the water.

SGP has changed my imaging, it's an amazingly powerful piece of software. I've used APT and I've used Maxim, it has tighter integration of its component parts than APT and is simpler to use than Maxim. I don't agree that it's expensive, of course $99 is a lot of money to some people and if money is that much of a consideration then start with APT. Having used SGP for three years now and comparing it to the cost of Maxim I'd happily pay 3x what the developers sell it for! Cheers Ian