Mal22

For me, Trevor’s Astrobackyard channel was the most important one for me in my first year, and I continue to look forward to his videos. Really well made, nice guy and he explains things really clearly. Astrobiscuit is also excellent. Dylan O’Donnell is very good and funny and he posts regularly. Nebula Photos has a great way of explaining things too. I follow most of the channels recommended by others in this feed and they all have their benefits, but these are my top 4.

Great start! Much better than my first efforts. The journey begins… I started out about 18 months ago and found it very frustrating at the start - felt like I was asking simple questions but only getting complicated answers - with better understanding now, I can now look back and appreciate that those answers were the answers! I just needed to be patient and allow my knowledge of the hobby/obsession to grow. Keep it up and enjoy 😊

@Elp @Budgie1 Thanks both for the helpful responses! I’ll do exactly what you suggest and try fitting a NVME SSD

Hello, I’m Looking for some advice on how to speed up my laptop for processing. At the moment it takes most of the day to do a +10 hour stack. I have an Acer Aspire 5 - obviously not the best comp for the job but for a while it is what I will have to work with. Eventually I’ll build a comp specifically for processing, but not for a few years. The Acer actually runs PixInsight processes fine and without too much delay, but it’s stacking in DSS that takes a lifetime. My question is: if I add more RAM to the laptop, will the stacking be faster? Is that how it works (I don’t really understand what’s under the bonnet of computers). Is there something else I should do to improve it? Adding more RAM seems to be a relatively cheap and technically simple to due process, from what I can see, so will it make a big difference? Grateful for any advice! Tim

Wow! This is outstanding - super effort!

A tip for Deep Sky Stacker - unless perhaps this “bug” was fixed and I didn’t get the memo… if you put calibration frames in Group 1 then they will be applied to all other groups, while from Group 2 onwards they will only be applied to the group they’re placed in. I usually just pop one light frame in Group 1 because it can’t be empty, and then Group 2 has all my lights/darks/bias etc from one night, Group 3 a different night etc etc etc. Of course if all your nights of data are the same exposure (and collected within the same year), you can just put one master dark frame in Group 1 and it will apply to all groups.

Thank you for such a detailed and helpful response! I’m very curious about what’s in my images, and finding out what i’m looking at but didn’t realise I was looking at. It’s all so fascinating! I’d actually reduced stars a fair bit in the processing so AE And was more visible in the original data.

Thanks @Xilman Where is AE And in the image? I tried to Google it but nothing helpful came up 😊

This is my attempt at the Andromeda Galaxy in Bortle 6 skies in the UK. This is 16 hrs of data collected from 5 nights over the last 3 months in between long stretches of cloudy nights... I've been doing AP for about 9 months now and still learning it all, and finding my way around PixInsight, so constructive feedback is very welcome! 341 lights x 180 secs 50 flats and 50 dark flats for each of the 5 nights 50 x dark frames180 secs -20degrees Zenithstar 73 ASI294MC EQ5 Mount ASIAir Stacked in DSS and processed in PixInsight

Thanks for trying @david_taurus83! I’m pretty certain the USB stick was to blame… I’ve since found out that whatever happened that night also corrupted some subs I had on the stick from an imaging session a week earlier but hadn’t transferred, which had been fine until then. Annoying but life goes on! I’m now saving direct to the ASIAIR as you suggest. I’m also plugging my dew heater into a separate power source from now on… just in case. I managed a nights imaging the night before last with no corrupt files, so hopefully problem solved…

Hello, Hoping for some advice following an issue I've had with corrupt files after an imaging session last night. Using ASIAir I had set up the scope to Autorun through the night tracking the Elephant Trunk Nebula with 180 sec subs. At some point during the night, a large chunk of the FITS files became corrupted and I can't open them. I've tried opening them on Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight and ASIStudio and get the same error message, which is: "Error Message: 1st key not SIMPLE or XTENSION". Out of the 95 subs it was due to take. 26 work fine, and the rest get that error message. The first two subs from the night definitely worked as I watched them live, but by the morning they'd become corrupted and get that error message. The ones in between around 10:45 and 1am are all fine. And then every sub from 1am onwards gets the error message. I have a USB stick inserted directly into the ASIAir to store the subs while they are being gathered. The corrupted files are the same file size as the non-corrupted file, so they obviously worked at some point. My set up has worked fine for me for many previous nights of imaging without this issue occurring. Any idea what's happened here? And is it possible to salvage the corrupt files? It would be a shame to lose about 4 hours of imaging on a nice clear night! I do have my dew heater strip, mount and camera powered via the inputs on the ASIAir and from searching online it seems possible that the issue could have been caused by power (but I've had it set up this way for a while with no issues before). The whole set up is plugged into the main supply in the house though, not powered via a power pack. I've attached one of the files that works "0008", and one of the files that is corrupted "0038" - do these give any clues? Very grateful for any advice! It's another clear night tonight so I'm hoping to prevent it from happening again. Light_HIP 106890_180.0s_Bin1_20230526-232847_-14.1C_0008.fitLight_HIP 106890_180.0s_Bin1_20230527-012447_-14.1C_0038.fit

Thanks for the tip! I’ll run a stack without the bias frames and see how it looks

Hi @tomato I’m away with work for a couple of days but when I’m back I’ll run it again and take a screenshot. The error message is definitely along the lines of failure to plate solve, even when using the data from Image Solver

@ONIKKINEN Thanks for the feedback! I’ll give SCNR green a go and see how it changes. I had tried Image Solver to fix the problem and while it ran the script fine and solved the image, PCC still wouldn’t plate solve even when it was using the data from Image Solver 🤷‍♂️ I did drizzle the image x2 when I stacked it so I halved the pixel size when inputting the details, which I think is the correct process. I’ve lowered the star magnitude, forced plate solving, still doesn’t work. I’m also processing some Markarians Chain data and PCC also won’t plate solve that… I’m thinking it might not be connecting to a database, or perhaps I need to download one and sync it somehow.

First DSO attempt - Sh2-171 The Teddy Bear Nebula Advice very welcome! I didn’t have a field flattener when I captured the data last month so stars stretch toward the edges. I’ve cropped it, and I have a flattener now for future data. Processed in Pix Insight. First time using it but followed a tutorial on YouTube. Mostly went fine but couldn’t get Photometric Colour Calibration to work - tried loads of tweaks but wouldn’t plate solve! Zenithstar 73 scope EQ5 mount ASI294MC Pro L-Extreme filter ASIAir 51 x 300 secs Lights 25 x darks 25 x flats 50 x bias

Incredible. I’m in absolute awe of this! Amazing work.

That’s pretty much Mars to be honest… it’s very small in a telescope and its features are very subtle. 99% of the time you’ll be looking at a very small bright red ball. I use an 8” Dob too and you might (might) just about see whiteness on the pole in perfect conditions, but probably not. Jupiter and Saturn are wonderful though, rings and bands and giant red spots all visible in an 8” Dob, but still smallish. Below are some quick images I had of Mars and Jupiter this year. Mars was at its closest point, so it won’t be getting any bigger, but some detail is there. Plenty to see in the Jupiter pic though, with Callisto passing in front and Io and Ganymede either side. I’m a real beginner to astrophotography so these aren’t award winning pics, but gives you an idea on size. They are stacked so obviously won’t get it that clear through the eyepiece, but you can pick out those details still in good seeing.

Thanks both, I’ve just contacted the shop and they’ve said it’s really unusual and they’re going to contact Skywatcher.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue with their Synscan handset. It’s a new upgrade kit that I only fitted last week on my EQ5 mount. It mostly works fine, slews as it should etc. but I seem to have a fault on the handset where the text on the screen keeps slipping down the display. It does this randomly, but frequently, and the only way to get I can correct it is to turn it off and on again. Basically, I lose the second line on the display. I also quite often lose both lines - the display is lit but nothing on it. Again this will happen at random and it happens both when using a power pack or connected to mains. It’s frustrating because so far I can’t get all the way through a three star alignment before this happens, and then I can’t pick the 2nd or 3rd star to align, or view the objects lists to slew to and track, because the display has slipped. Turning it off and on again resets the whole process and I’m back trying to align again. Here is what I mean… the display should look like this: But eventually it will “slip” and what I get is this with the second line missing: Is this a faulty handset? Or am I unknowingly making it do this? Grateful for any advice! Thanks

To anyone keeping track… It’s December 2022 - and this thread is STILL helpful. Installed the upgrade on my EQ5 with no problem thanks to this. Your face should be on the box.