Big Ian 65

Hi Pete - the image was taken at native focal length of 2350mm - I do have the F6.3 focal reducer and will try that when skies allow... I was too excited to get my new camera operational so I just set up with the camera in place of the eyepiece in my diagonal - Thanks for your comments - what targets have you had success with using your setup? Do you think the cooled camera gives good benefit for eaa - I am on a budget and my camera is uncooled - initial results seem OK so far!

First light last night with my new SvBONY 705C camera - obviously still a lot to learn, but here is a live stack of the Eskimo Nebula - NGC2392. I think its a good start, seeing was poor, and the light pollution in Margate is not great, no calibration frames, and focus can be improved - but I'm having fun... and my EAA adventure is proceeds... Image data - Celestron CPC 925 GPS XLT [SVBONY SV705C] FrameType=Light Debayer Preview=On Output Format=PNG files (*.png)(Auto) Colour Space=RAW16 Binning=1 Capture Area=1920x1080 Pan=1216 Tilt=144 Black Level=0 USB Speed=1 Frame Rate Limit=Maximum Gain=400 Exposure=2.500s Timestamp Frames=Off White Bal (B)=128 White Bal (G)=128 White Bal (R)=128 Trail Width=3 Minimum Trail Length=100 Trail Detection Sensitivity=9 Remove Satellite Trails=Off Background Subtraction=Off Planet/Disk Stabilization=Off Banding Threshold=10 Banding Suppression=0 Apply Flat=None Hot Pixel Sensitivity=5 Subtract Dark=None NegativeDisplay=0 Display Black Point=0 Display MidTone Point=0.5 Display White Point=1 Notes= TimeStamp=2023-02-19T23:44:32.1656355Z SharpCapVersion=4.0.9478.0

Robin, thanks for the reply, I will definitely add some wire ropes to the surveyors tripod. AstroKeith, I think your idea is the solution I was looking for, I have some old bicycle brake pads which may do the job with a little profiling… thanks for your input 👍

Thanks for the replies guys, fyi the tripod is a Leica surveyors tripod - it was an eBay special… I think it was about £30. Unfortunately the central thrust washer idea won’t work, as the tripod bowl adapter fastens centrally to the bottom plate. The squashed sponge may work though.

Hi everyone, following up on an idea I saw on binocularsky.com, I purchased a Neewer camera crane from Amazon, which I have mounted via a homemade azimuth bearing to a surveyors tripod. Once balanced with my 20x80 Celestron Bins, the system is quite stable with a reasonably quick settling time. However, my azimuth bearing, which is based on a lazy Susan bearing (well over rated) is far too free moving, and literally continues rotating for ages, making the assembly pretty useless… As a temporary solution, I have used wood working clamps to secure the upper and lower square plates, with some success, however this is a poor long term solution, and is not great. Do any of you have any ideas on how I can either a. Increase the bearing friction to slug the azimuth movement, or b. Fit some kind of mechanical locking system, or slo mo apparatus? please see attached photos showing my current setup… I have considered the following so far, but have not finalised on a solution. 1. Find a sticky grease of some kind to slug the bearing. 2. Drill and tap the top bearing plate, and fit a knurled hand screw to introduce a mechanical friction source (may need two screws to balance the twisting moment) I would appreciate any input, especially simple and cheap options… 😉 Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hi all - here are a few EAA images from my second outing on Saturday night 9/10 July (unfortunately my learning has been delayed by a bout of Covid...) however I am slowly evolving my setup procedure to make things a little easier (limited by the equipment I have) I tried to use my Antares F6.3 reducer, but couldn't achieve focus with that, so these images are at the native focal ratio of my scope (F/10) - I think I need an extension tube to be able to use the reducer. (Camera has 18mm focal path, the sony T adapter adds about 36mm + the focal path of my 2" diagonal) FYI The Y focal mask works great! Thanks for the support from you guys, I think I am progressing slowly, and I am pleased with the results so far.

Just a quick update, the Y focus mask seems to work well when placed at the opening of my dew shield!

Hi all, another question… does it matter where you place the focus mask? Does it have to be placed directly in front of the corrector plate on my SCT, or can I just place it over the dew shield? My dew shield adds about 450mm in front of the corrector… obviously easier to use if I don’t have to remove the dew shield.

Thanks Toltec, good luck with your EAA adventure!

Thanks Peter, good luck with your EAA endeavours!

Thanks Mike, is the need to refocus due to temp, just down to the expansion/contraction of the scope components, or something else?

Thanks happy-Kat - I intend to just drill three holes 120’ apart and put some M6 number plate plastic screw through.

Hi Guys, After printing out a Bahtinov mask template, I ended up making a Lord Y mask - cut out of black craft mount board, 'cos it was easier... Then I gave it a couple of coats of matt black automotive paint to slow any moisture ingress. I intend to try it out next clear sky! Just a quick question on Focussing, My understanding is that all DSO's are far enough away to assume that the light rays are effectively parallel, and that once focussed on a bright star - I should not need to adjust focus for that evenings session. Is my understanding correct? Or is there sufficient distance between objects to make re-focussing necessary?

Hi All, after a bit more learning, please see attached some lo res screen snips from my first EAA session carried out on Wednesday night... I am more than pleased with the results - Each live stack was taken with the Sony A5000 stacking between 10-30 10sec images @ ISO6400

Thanks for the suggestions Happy-Kat - I already printed out a focus mask template, and have been to the local craft store for some thick black card… Do you know how accurate I need to be with the cutting of the mask? I will also give the NASA fits liberator a go!

Hi Mike, thanks for the advice, I am looking forward to getting a bit more efficient with the setup I have, and learning to use jocular. What a buzz to see these objects in your own back garden…

Hi All, Just an update to my original post, Last night I made my first tentative steps into EAA... Blimey, I am blown away with the initial results which I know can be improved... In the end, being an old skinflint... I decided to go down the Zero cost route initially and found a Sony Mirrorless ASCOM driver which supports Sharpcap... then using my Sony A5000 connected by USB, I aligned the scope and slewed to my first target... After some flaky USB issues (resolved with a different cable) I managed to get a rough focus on M3, then using Sharpcap with 10sec exposures at ISO 6400 I began to live stack, the first image processed and I couldn't believe the clarity starting to appear... I then had a play with the white, Black and intermediate sliders and saw a slight improvement. Moving on I slewed to M39, M27, M71, and then the Heart and eagle nebulas finishing with a good view of Double Double. I captured between 20-50 images on each target. Unfortunately I am unable to upload any of my tentative images, as I had selected to save the stack as a FITS file, which I had read could be used in Jocular... I do have Jocular installed - but the learning curve just to get connected, focussed (ish) and live stacking, with Sharpcap was steep, and by 0330, I was not ready to learn another package... 😉 The initial results have spurred me on, and in view of the fact that I was using the free version of Sharpcap... (I will be purchasing the full version) and have not even scratched the surface of its capabilities, I was only roughly focussed, and need to obtain a focussing aid (bahtinov mask) have only tried acouple of exposure settings I am sure I can get some pleasing results. I have the following questions for you lovely people... 1. What is the simplest way to achieve focus? I assume the Bahtinov mask is the way to go... I only have the stock CPC manual focuser, and having only done visual observing to this point with my knackered eyes (varifocal glasses with some astigmatism) the stock focuser has been adequate. 2. What is the best format to save the live stack in? 3. Is Jocular a replacement for Sharpcap, or can I use Sharpcap to feed the captured frames into Jocular... sorry for the question if it appears stupid, but I have only opened Jocular once and being a windows guy, I need a little help getting started. 4. Once I manage to capture some good frames, it is clear from what I have already seen that with a little post processing the image can really be improved... What software would you recommend for this task? I do have a copy of Photoshop Elements 13. 5. Best software for viewing/processing FITS files? 6. The session was completed without using my f6.3 focal reducer, I read that this would assist with the correct sampling, and increase the field of view, should I just use this in any case? 7. The livestack images I produced, were full of detail, but I was unable to achieve some of the colour 'pop' that I have seen from other similar users setups... Is this because their images are post processed, or is it just where I am on the learning curve? 8. Further to point 7. above - I can see that the histogram is central to understanding how to get good images - but at the moment it is all greek to me... can you recommend any online (or other ) resources for learning what the Histogram represents and how to use the processing features of sharpcap? - I understand that some additional features are unlocked when you register the software (such as the autostretch function (again a new concept to me...)) All I can say is Wow - EAA has definitely bitten me... any support you guys can offer will be gratefully recieved! I am now deciding if I can do without a kidney - to fund a camera and remote focuser... LOL

Thank Xio1996 that looks like a great setup, thanks Cosmic Geoff for the link!

Thanks for your advice Mike, just need to decide which camera to go for now… will keep you guys posted on how I get on!

Thanks Martin, for the positive initial response, I will continue to research online, before deciding which way to go…

Hi All, I wonder if you could give me the benefit of your experiences, so I can avoid (if possible) wasting a lot of time and money… apologies for the long winded description of my situation, but hopefully the background will help you to give me some sound advice! I would really like to get into EAA, but like most, I have a limited budget. I retired from my career in Electrical Engineering in early 2020, and finally managed to devote some time to my interest in astronomy. I have owned a celestron Nexstar 5se for a number of years, but never got to devote much time to learning how to use it, after a few months of learning with it, I had the good fortune to acquire a CPC925 XLT alt az scope, which is so much more stable than the 5”. I have added the starsense accessory, and a few eyepieces, and am starting to find my way round the night sky. I also was given a neximage 5mp planetary camera, and have had some great views and images of the moon using the celestron image capture software and Registax. I have started to be able to visually observe some of the favourite faint DSO’s, and am hungry to see more detail… I live in East Kent in a bortle 5 zone, with some potentially disruptive light pollution from some local industrial glasshouses… I purchased a light pollution filter which really helps bringing out the contrast of for instance the Orion nebula. I also have a 0.63x Antares SCT reducer, which I believe may help with eaa. My interest in EAA was initiated by a review of the Revolution Imager R2, and the potential increase in detail that it seems to be able to provide, this started my research journey down the rabbit hole… video astronomy, CCD, CMOS, DSLR, Colour, Mono, pixel size, sensor size, sensitivity, real time, live-stacking, software, raspi, laptop, Wi-Fi, Ethernet etc etc etc… I have been flitting around from one solution to another… and it seems there are infinite ways to go… so I will lay out some of the bits I have already available, what I would like to achieve, and hopefully you may be able to point me in the right direction to get started. I have a couple of Raspberry pi computers available ( a 3B+ and a 4GB 4plus) I have a Windows 10Pro laptop, celestron Wi-Fi module, a stock nikon D3200 and t-adapter and a Sony alpha a5000. I have the Antares 0.63x reducer and a 2” diagonal. I would like to view some DSO’s such as Orion Nebula, dumbbell nebula and Other Messier objects in more detail, and in colour if possible… if I can improve my views from the faint fuzzy mono eyeball views I already see, I would be over the moon… I am aware of some of the limitations of my scope (alt az mount tracking star trails with longer exposures, long focal length and slow optics) but I am not in a position to for instance start again with a new scope/mount. if any of the bits I already own could be used in the setup that would be great… but if they are not useful then that’s OK too… I look forward to hearing your suggestions for a first move into the world of EAA. Thanks, Ian