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Geordie mc

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Everything posted by Geordie mc

  1. Qsi660wsg-8, TSQ65 refractor, AZEQ6GT mount. Guiding Lodestar x2 PHD2. N.I.N.A. Capture software. Processed in Pixinsight. 34x300sec Ha, 33x300sec OIII and 32x300sec SII. 65 darks. No flats or bias yet. This was a quick process just to see what I’d got. Needs some work but pleased so far. Outlet 4, SW France. Any helpful processing tips much appreciated.
  2. I use the Skywatcher Star Adventurer with a Canon 7dmk2 and a canon 100-400mm L lens. With good polar alignment I can get 3 minute subs at the 100 end but only about 1 minute at the 400mm end. It will guide in RA but I haven’t tried it. It’s mounter on a Manfrotto camera tripod. Very lightweight setup. I’m pleased with it.
  3. If you get a t-ring for your dslr you can attach to your scope. Advantages are that you can control exposure times. You’d get good Lunar images with very short exposures so no need to guide. Planets wiki be very small in the frame and not very rewarding.
  4. Mine has been out under a cover for days on end and gets stored in my barn which gets pretty cold. No issues after 10 years of use!
  5. Sounds promising. Sure you’ll be enjoying using the EAF soon presuming the weather improves.
  6. Thanks David. It’s a msystery. I think I’ll just have to experiment. I have a QSI660 I could try with the scope and see what happens. As you say, if the flattener is in a fixed position then trying different spacers should make no difference. Maybe it’s the ZWO filters? But then you’d think others would be reporting issues. Hoping I can do something in Pixinsight to reduce the issue.
  7. I don’t have this scope, but I believe the top left/right and bottom l/r are the screws that fix the the focuser of the scope, so I’d use the bottom l/r and remove the focus lock knob that’s center right. The screws are M3 and I think 8mm so you’d need M3 screws that are long enough to go through the ZWO’s plate and still have enough reach to thread firmly down. I can’t remember what length the ones in the kit are. Pop one of the originals out at a time and put in the ZWO screw before removing the second one just to keep everything lined up although it shouldn’t move. There are some pictures on the ZWO compatibility chart that show the 72ED but they aren’t very clear what’s being used. If the ZWO are too long you can just add a washer or 2. If too short then it’s easy to get longer ones online. Good luck. The EAF has worked really well for me. I’m thinking a of getting second one when funds allow.
  8. Hi Steve. All the scopes would be fine for lunar viewing or imaging. For planets the 150 would probably be best for visual and would show some deep sky objects well. However, if you think you’d like to image deep sky objects you really need an equatorial mount. Alt-az mounts like those you’ve listed can only be used for very short exposures due to field roataion. The mount is key in imaging. Here you need to think about where your main interest lies. If your going for deep sky imaging then things like the William Optics Redcat of short focal length refractors can go on small mounts, but these will probably not have go to - eg Skywatcher’s Star Adventurer which is very portable and just goes on a camera tripod. As you go to more stable mounts, like the Skywatcher eq3, they have more features but they get a bit heavier and still work fine with small scopes. I’m afraid that imaging tends to need more than one scope to cover all bases. Small refractors are less than ideal for lunar inaging and no good at all for planetary. Then there’s the camera. A DSLR will be fine for lunar or deep sky imaging. Planets will be very small due to the large sensor. As you can see, it’s a bit difficult to choose one setup to do it all. Give it serious thought. The scopes you list will be great for visual use. They’ll give great views of the Moon, major deep sky objects like M42 in Orion, M31 Andromeda etc. With a Barlow lens (2 or 3x magnification for any eyepiece) you’ll be able to see some detail on Jupiter and Saturn. Globular clusters and open clusters will be okay too as will larger/brighter galaxies. Normally I’d say get along to your local astronomical society, but clearly that’s not an option at the moment. Be aware that imaging can end up being both addictive and a very expensive hobby if you want to go for deep sky and lunar and planetary! A large mount, several scopes and cooled cameras not to mention guide scopes and cameras, filters etc. Not sure I’ve helped, but hope I’ve given you some ideas. Good luck in your search.
  9. Hi all. Does anyone know the backfocus limits on this scope please. The 4th lens acting as a field flattener is in the tube. As the focus tube has to move to reach focus I presume that their is a range for the backfocus rather than a set distance. When I image with my ASI1600mm - cool, with good focus and guiding showing a total RMS error under 0.7 using the ASI air pro, when I zoom in on the image the stars look slightly triangular. I think this means I’m too far past the ideal backfocus distance, but I’m not sure. I’m confused as to what I can do. The sensor has to be at that distance to be in focus. Is the 4th lens in the draw tube of the focuser? If that’s the case I could remove a spacer and get the ASI1600 about 3mm closer to the focus tube. Image is one Ha sub of 300 secs at minus 20 degrees. Any advice very much appreciated. Thank you.
  10. I will not be subscribing. Hate that model of software use. N.I.N.A. has been my choice this season and has worked superbly for me. Also the team have listened to user requests. The platesolving offers several options and works well. Autofocus likewise. Options for framing and mosaics. The list goes on. SGP has always been a bit unstable for me so I was looking at APT or M.I.N.A and the latter seems to be my preference. I think he SGP team are goin to be sadly disappointed at how much this strategy will raise in income.
  11. From my reading of the new model - which SGP themselves say is a subscription based model - you will be billed annually unless you don’t buy into the new model. As soon as you fail to pay your subscription you lose “premium support” whatever that is. They may decide to keep working on past versions, but v4 is due out soon and I suspect v2.7 users like myself will see little or nothing in the way of development. my point really is that if they need to raise cash this method is unlikely to work long term. Existing users may well decide it works as is and therefore won’t subscribe. Newcomers will try free software first like N.I.N.A. Or APT, find it works well and have no reason to buy into the SGP model. On that basis they will raise only a small amount now and put people off in the future, raising little new revenue. I hope SGP continues. There are lots of satisfied users who would lose out if it all goes under. I just think they’ve gone about this all wrong. If they’d said £10-15 a year gets you continued updates and access to new versions, even though I hate subscriptions, I would have paid it because there might have been times I wanted, or needed to use it. But at £50 a year I will not be subscribing. I expect quite a few others won’t, or can’t pay that fee. Unfortunately for SGP there are now very good alternatives that are free, regularly updated and don’t involve any hassle with changes to accounts and new liscence keys etc. which are already causing issues according to many on the SGP forum. if someone was getting into imaging and asked for a recommendation for capture software I’d point them to APT or N.I.NA. Why would I recommend SGP which is expensive and will have ongoing costs for them? That’s before we even mention none PC based platforms which are also set to improve and lure both existing and new Astro imagers down a different route. I hope SGP make o go of things, but I fear this marks the start of its decline. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
  12. Just had an email from SGP saying that a subscription model for payments is now here. I had already started to move towards N.I.N.A. and I think this will make that move my preferred option. What do others think? I hate subscription models for payment and now that there is a great free alternative I think they might lose a lot of users. I’d have paid £10 or so each year but £50 is way too much for me. I get the impression that maybe they are not getting many new buyers and need to generate funds from existing users. Could this be the end for SGP?
  13. Sounds a pain. Hope the release comes soon and sorts it. I’ve been doing okay with it so far. Wi-fi range is only a few meters but ts been going well. Hope the new release includes autofocus feature. I’ve even using NINA on my laptop this ast week and had all sorts of issues with the QSI camera driver and losing connection to the mount. Compared to that the ASIAir pro seems very straightforward but probably jinxed it now! Good luck with the update it’ll give you a really portable setup.
  14. Hi Richard. Sorry for the delay in responding. If it’s the asi120mm mini then it should be fine. I have the mini too but guide via eqmod which is not an option with the Sr]tar Adventurer. However I do have a Star Adventurer to test things with. If you haven’t already sorted things give e shout and I’ll rig things up and see what happens, John
  15. Hi. Just started trying NINA and like it very much but not sure on setting gain for my QSI660. The old driver had high, low and auto settings. The new (and rather unreliable) driver seems to have dropped the auto option. In NINA there is an option to set the gain but it needs a numeric value. Does anybody know these values for qsi high/low gain settings? I don’t think I enter the 0.2-e/ADU or 0.4-e/ADU but maybe I’m wrong! NINA just show a 1 in brackets in this field as I’m choosing in the ascom driver and entering nothing in NINA. Wish there was a direct driver for this camera. I’ve had a lot of issues with the Ascom driver. I’ve tried the old one but no luck. 1.o.o.4 works most times but seems very shaky! Any advice much appreciated. Sorry if this should be in software threads but it is a camera specific problem so guessed here. Oh and running Windows 10 home 64bit laptop.
  16. Is the asi120mm the new usb 3 or the mini? The original usb 2 120mm does not work with the ASIAir.
  17. Got my asiair pro and asi 120 mm mini today. Everything connected and running fine! Took 60 3 minute darks at minus 10 degrees cooling ready for imaging the triad nebula tomorrow night but it’s the only clear night forecast for the next 10 days. Why does the weather always turn bad when we get new kit?
  18. Welcome to the group. Hope you enjoy it and good luck with your studies.
  19. All would be okay for Lunar observing. The ST 80 is often used as a guidescope too so if you get into imaging later it might be handy. The Skywatcher Explorer 130 is a nice scope and would give excellent Lunar views. I’m afraid I don’t know the Meade. You are right to think of portability. It’s no good having a big scope you can’t easily setup and use. None of the scopes are likely to give you much in terms of planetary observation. They will give nice views of open star clusters like M45 or bright galaxies/nebula like M31 and M42. If it were me I’d get the Explorer 130. It’s a great little scope on a reasonable mount and if you do decide to upgrade later it will have a decent resale value. Be warned, if you get the astronomy bug it can severely dent your wallet!
  20. You could just enter 00 for the seconds but why would you want to? Presuming you setup in the same place EQMOD and Stellarium save the location for session to session. The more accurate your location the ore accurate your goto. If you change where you setup, an app called Polar Align for iOS will not only help with a Polar Alignment but also display your location including seconds.
  21. I’m just getting used to it so it’s early days. I’m happy so far with most aspects but focus at F2 is hard to get really sharp. I’ve just added the Celestron motor focus so hoping that makes things easier. I need to get the correct step size and backlash sorted to make best use of it. Early attempts with SGP have not produced good V curves but it’s improving each attempt. I might try my old FocusMax V3 with it and see if that does any better. I did the calculations for step size so I think it’s a backlash issue. It’s hard finding clear nights here right now to get time to experiment. im using the Baader filter drawer system with their F2 filters (2inch) in Narrowband which seem very good if rather expensive. Still, if I can get it all working properly then the ability to get a lot of data, wide field etc will be worth it. Trouble is, if I get a clear night it’s hard not to just stick the QSI660 on my TSQ65 which is so reliable and gives great results.
  22. Thanks James. That is exactly right. I’ve just watched the video again. The sensitivity increase seems to be somewghat cancelled out by the read noise. It’s discussed starting at about 1hour 7 minutes into the video. The whole video is interesting though. I suppose some of it comes down to how well the software/firmware carries out the binning. I only use my 1600 cmos on Hyperstar where I can get frame and focus data with very short exposures without binning so I never use it. I’m happy with it and clearly a lot of others are too as it’s a very popular camera. I think one point that doesn’t seem to come across in the video is cost. My QSI660wsg-8 was more than double the cost of the ASI1600 even allowing for adding a filter wheel and Off axis guider. The pixels are a similar size but there’s a lot less of them! If the 1600 had been around 10 years ago I wouldn’t own the QSI. On the other hand I’ve had 10 years of very reliable use from the QSI. It’ll be interesting to see if the 1600 proves to be as reliable. I think it’s a great time for Astro imagers. There are more affordable cameras and scopes with better guide camera choices. Some great scopes and mounts. I’m even thinking of eventually getting a OSC like the ASI294mc pro so I can do colour on Hyperstar in one unattended session and maybe add Ha from the 1600 another night. If I was still looking at £3000 plus for a good OSC that would never be a justifiable option. ‘That said, someone please stop me buying gear! What is it with this hobby? There’s always something else you “need”.
  23. I don’t know enough about it to be honest, but he definitely said you cannot bin a cmos chip. It’s done in software and you don’t get the same increase in sensitivity you get with CCD’s. I’ll try and find the link to the video. It was an Astro imaging channel livestream. The 1600mm cool has been fine on my Hyperstar. The issue for me has always been focus at F2. Such a narrow zone. Hoping the new Celestron focus motor will improve things. I only shoot narrowband with it as I have no LRGB filters for the Baader filter drawer system. I’m using the 2inch F2 narrowband filters from Baader. I have some 1.25 inch filters in LRGB in my QSI but don’t want to keep taking it apart to swap to the 1600. I may invest in the 5 position filter wheel later in the year and give them a try on the Celestron with focal reducer but I’m not splashing out for new filters for Hyperstar use. I will try to post images when I can, but I’ve moved house (and country) twice in 14 months and am finding time for Astro rather tight. I’ll just get things sorted and we’ll be at the point where it doesn’t really get dark here. I’m at 46 degrees latitude now. I think another 2-3 weeks and I’m done until August. On the plus side I might have my pier concreted in place by then. Depends on when I’m allowed out. Rules very strict in France.
  24. Just came across this post while looking for something else but found it interesting. I’ve heard that Sony are discontinuing CCD chip production in 5 years time. CMOS seems destined to become the only option but cmos chips are also improving rapidly. Same guy said you can’t bin a cmos chip, it’s done in software hence the lack of improvement in sensitivity. He still thinks the Sony 694 chip is the best he’s used. I’ve got that chip in my QSI660 and have the ASI1600 cmos on my Hyperstar rig. I now feel compelled to try imaging with this on my Edge 8 with the reducer and with the QSI and comparing results. Obviously the field of view will be different but will be interesting to see what results I get. If I can fit it in before the light nights arrive I’ll post some images. I’ll be using Baader filters but not sure wether to go NB or Broadband. I’ll need to see what looks a good target.
  25. I’m afraid previous posts are correct. Good polar alignment is vital if you want to have reliable goto and unless you leave the mount in one place you’ll need to do it every time you set up. There is an app called Polar Align that shows you where you need to put Polaris in your polarscope. My setup is computer controlled now but I always did the 3 star alignment through the handset. Use an eyepiece with a wide field of view when you do this such as a 40mm. Even then the star may not appear in view. This is where you need your finder scope to be be reliably lined up with your main scope. You can do this during the day using a distant object. It takes awhile to do all this the first few times but you get better and quicker with practice.
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