CheshireChris

Well, l like it. A nice clean image of M31. Chris

Wex are knocking them out at £473. I already had mine before starting Astrophotography so it didn't factor in to the cost. If l was starting out now l'd probably get a 'proper' scope - something like the Askar SQ55 - which can double as a camera lens.. Chris

Thanks Yup, the manual Samyang/Rokinon 135mm f2 - it has a very good reputation as an AP lens - there is an extensive thread on SGL --> Samyang/Rokinon 135mm Imaging - it's so popular that there a lot of AP specific accessories for it. The manual Canon fit lenses can, however, be hard to find these days. Chris

Don't know why it's so bright - the brightness seems to have increased after l exported the final image as a jpg from PI, then opened in Photoshop and cropped it a bit. I'll have a play with it. Not today - PixInsight has broke my brain and I'm in serious need of a stiff Gin Fizz 🍸 Chris

I have all three of rc-astro plugins - I used BlurXTerminator (correct only) right after doing SPCC, then NoiseXTerminator. I think it's a matter of establishing a workflow. The clouds rolled in and stopped me doing any more - otherwise I'd have let it run for another couple of hours Oh, Me and my bank balance are well beyond that stage....😯 Chris

Images shot 12-13/09/2024 100x60s lights + flats/bias/dark. Not sure the darks were really needed for my ASI533MC, Gain=100, Temp=-10degC Processed in Pixinsight - took many attempts; all part of the fun 🙂 Not without issues, some stars look a bit bloated but overall I'm pleased with it.

Last Tuesday (17/9) was a clear(ish) night so l decided to go to the weekly Open Night at the Keele University Observatory. It's about 45 mins away from where l live, What a pleasant few hours that was: had views of the Moon, Saturn+its moons and briefly the Ring Nebula. The 150 year old Oxford Telescope is a wonderful piece of equipment. The observatory staff were great fun and very enthusiastic. The other scope was busy watching T Coronae Borealis for any activity; that rig is also very impressive with some unique equipment to run it. They also have an impressive collection of old telescopes: some operational, some not. What l was impressed with was how busy it was. I expecting perhaps a few people but there must have been 20 or 30 (wasn't really counting) visitors through the evening: some with children and one family with a young lad who has Down's Syndrome - he thought it was fantastic and it was a joy to see him look through the scope. Well worth the visit. Chris

Powerline Adapters do work across extension reels - just how well will depend on the total length of the wiring between the two adapters. I have an external power point in the garden that is a spur off my garage so l plug one of the adapters in to that; I get about ~10Mb/s with my ASIAir which is fine, stable too. I have (today) put an external WiFi AP in the garden (TP-Link) but haven't tried the ASIAir with it yet. Chris

Rory, Thanks for posting this. I hadn't heard of Indigo Sky until now. Like other who have replied here l also have an ASIAir Plus - and I like it very much, for the forseeable future it will be my primary imaging system. However, l do have a Star Adventurer GTI sat there not doing much and have been looking at options to have a widefield rig with my Canon DSLR and lens without purchasing another ASIAir. I also have a couple of RPi5s with 500GB NVMe using the PiMoroni NVMe boards. I think I'll give this a go - l like to tinker with this sort of thing. Indigo Sky also looks similar to the Stellarmate OS offering: which isn't free, but is a very reasonable reasonable £38. Does anyone have any view on how the two compare? Chris

I've been doing some research on a suitable APO for a low(ish) price that is also easily transported. For DSOs - l have no interest in planetary imaging. Doublet or Triplet? I've seen several posts (on another forum) saying fast doublets are not good because of 'physical limitations' without offering any explanation. I've been looking at The William Optics ZenithStar 61 Mk II - with a flattener they come in at <£1k. Would a doublet of this nature be a dead end? Or would a better option be spend a bit more and get a triplet? It's early days; l won't be making a purchase until next year; it doesn't have to be William Optics and l have some budget flexibility. Chris

A reasonably clear night on Friday so decided to have a go at SH2-108. Not without its problems but nor is it too bad considering the only filter is a UV/IR-Cut: 50 x 180s light frames + associated dark, flat and bias frames. Processed with PixInsight then saturation tweaked a little in Photoshop. I'm pleased with it...apart from Sadr being totally blown out - not sure how to deal with that yet and looking at the image as l'm typing this l could probably get away with cropping a bit out at the bottom of the image. . Chris

A new version (2.2.1) has been released which fixes the Android crash problem --> ASIAir 2.2.1 Chris

Wise words - but if you are someone firing up your shiny new ASIAir for the first time you need the app and will inevitably get it from the vendors app store, or you need (or want) the latest bug fixes or new features; then you end up with the same problem. There is no excuse for not fully testing new releases; which should include downloading from the app stores. Chris

Indeed. Installed the new version it on to my older Samsung Galaxy S7 tablet and yes the Play Store version of 2.2 crashes when 'Enter Device' is pressed, uninstalled it and downloaded the version direct from ZWO and that works OK - there is also a firmware update to the ASIAir that comes with the new version - ZWO don't mention that in their release notes. I guess a fix for this should get rolled out soon, although it clearly didn't come out in testing which sort of implies their testers don't use the Android or Apple app stores. Interesting new feature is the new version now offers Bluetooth control of AM3/AM5n mounts which could free up a USB port on the ASIAir. I think in the future I'll just stand outside in the garden and look up - seems more reliable..... Chris

The latest version of ASIAir (2.2) has been released - the Android version will crash on hitting 'Enter Device' if you use the Play Store version I checked the ZWO Support forum first to see the list of New Features & Fixes so managed to avoid the problem --> ASIAir 2.2 The iOS version seems to be unaffected. Chris

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far. Complicated? Yes - to me; it's all so new. Interesting? Oh yes - l love this. Frustrating? Totally; clear nights seem to be at a premium. My other half, bless her, is very patient but has observed that the opportunities to use some rather expensive equipment are few and far between 🤣 She is also dropping some hints about a telescope she can 'look through'.........more money <sigh>. Chris

Thanks Robin I have noticed that the ASIAir works out the focal length of the Samyang to be 129mm rather than 135mm - why does that happen? I put the numbers in to the astronomy.tools calculator you linked and got these results: Chris

Yeah, l think l can safely ignore (i.e leave at BIN1) for anything I'm doing in the forseeable future. I'm one of those who wants to know what every setting is for and the ZWO manuals are , quite frankly, dreadful and tell you nothing. Chris

Thanks Jim, Yes, couldn't agree more about trying various settings out - problem is clear nights have been so few and far between in NW England this year (and this my 1st year of imaging): it's a trade off between trying various settings and as you say... 'get the images in'. Chris

In the absence of any clear sky in NW England l have several questions about what settings to use and perhaps equally important when. Setup is ZWO based : ASIAir/AM3+TC40/ASI533MC Pro/ASI120mm mini+ZWO Mini Guide Scope/Samyang 135mm - only filter is a ZWO IR Cut filter (which l haven't captured an image with - yet) I've not even managed to get the guide scope focussed. I get the fact that no single set of parameters can be universally applied and conditions will vary over several nights imaging sessions: if l ever get several any clear nights..... 1. How do l decide what gain and exposure times to use for a given subject? The two images l have managed so far (NGC7000 & M31) look great - to me - for first images and were shot at the default gain of the ASI533MC Pro. 2. BIN Settings - when might l need to change them? I get the impression that anything other than BIN1 isn't much required but do wonder why it's there? 3. Temperature - so far just used -10deg. Do l really need to use any other value? 4. Calibration frames - l have shot a lot of dark frames at various gains/exposure times but so far have not shot any flat/bias frames...yet - indeed some astroimagers (mainly on youtube) seem not to bother with them for dedicated astrocameras (DSLR's are a different matter). A bit unclear on that one. 5. Best dither settings (assuming l get the guide scope set up correctly!) for the Samyang 135mm. I have watched lots of YouTube videos - probably too many - but l enjoy watching those by Trevor Jones (AstroBackyard) & Peter Zelinka: far more interesting than anything on TV. Thanks Chris

🤣 Ha! I've already spent about double my 'budget' for this year, haven't even bought a 'scope yet and I'm still trying to resist the urge to buy an s50. For the money it's a remarkable piece of equipment and clearly, based on images posted on SGL, capable of very high quality results. Chris

Hmmm....I can't get StarNet2 to work either. My system supports AVX. PixInsight is the latest version. StarXterminator is working. Chris

I'm new to all this and have no experience of astronomy clubs/societies. Like a few others posting in this topic l find social situations difficult and engaging with people in such circumstances can, for me, be quite stressful unless it's with friends who l know and trust. It's highly unlikely that l will ever join a club. I don't use X or Facebook either - l use WhatsApp a bit to keep in touch with some ex-work colleagues. Even participating in forums such as this one can be difficult for me. l've even gone to the extreme of blocking social media on my home network; much to my partners annoyance as she does use Facebook. ...and all that is my loss l think; l have no doubt that clubs can be of great benefit. Chris

Wow! If you were just shown the image l doubt if you would know it was done with the s50. I'm very impressed with what you are doing with it. Chris

Arthur C Clarke nailed it again in 'The Fountains of Paradise' - that was 1979. Chris