kirkster501

I think people tend to impose their workflow and ways of doing things learned on other software onto NINA and then expect it to work the same. I agree it is quite hard to readjust. For example, I like the way SGP put the autofocus frame in the main window - you immediately see if the focus has gone wrong by looking at the stars. NINA does not do that (not that I know and happy to be corrected). There are many other differences too.

Primark 100% cotton wool. Costs 99p or so for about 200 pads.

Runs off of a PSU along with rest of my gear. I could try running it off of a battery to check that possibility. Thanks for the thought. I use a quality USB cable -£16 one - since I know how important cables can be. The cable bypasses the hub and runs straight to my desktop computer. I can experiment in that department as well.

About 8 seconds. With flat-darks of the same length.

Yep, familiarity breeds contempt with the moon and unfairly so I think. it is a fascinating object. We get excited about details in galaxies and Mars etc. and yet we can see astonishing detail on another astronomical object, The Moon, and yet we curse it to high heaven when it is out!!!!! 🙈

...and this is my workflow. It worked perfectly with my previous images. My lights are getting messed up by the dark now for some reason.

Hi all, Produced some good pics with the QHY268C. However, (without yet another moan about the weather) on my one clear night (or four hours) this winter I grabbed some dodgy data on M67. Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to astronomy in the UK. Anyway, my dark seems to be very "bandy". And these bands then pollute the lights. Rather than removing the [lighter] bands in the lights, the dark makes them worse. I know the dark is working in other ways since the dead pixels get removed. Same workflow as I used successfully before so I am not sure what has changed. I'll need to look further into this when and if we get some more clear nights. This was the first time I used 120s subs - I normally do 180 - 240s. What do your guys darks look like please? Why is mine such a mess? I am using a quality USB cable that is 1.9m long and have experimented with different USB settings and the banding seems the same. I use G0 and offset 30. The final integrated image with the calibrated subs is a line filled mess!!!! Thanks in advance, Steve

That is why I have gotten into lunar visual and imaging this last year. Without fail, every time it has been clear this winter - on the very few occasions I might add - The Moon is beating down.

Your 11 images is a reasonable haul there mate. The season has been an unmitigated disaster, the worse since I started buying astronomy gear in 1991. We have had no clear nights without the moon with even semi reasonable seeing since Bonfire Night over four months ago and even since July it has been very poor. A total cloud out. I have tons of testing to do and gear to get set up if only we could get couple of clear nights to have a run at it. The best I have managed is a few glimpses of M81 with my bins in between clouds.

I missed out on yours last year Mark!

Thanks guys. Yes I saw Rob's one on ABS - I bought my C925 from Rob in Leicester 8 years ago - and he is a good guy. I really want the 60 though, or even the 80. And I\d also prefer the 1200 or even 1800. I am 100% into this, since I have been doing white light for years, so this is not a passing fad. I want to get a great Ha scope now and not have to upgrade next year. There has been a 60 on ABS since January and that looks good too but he's too far away in Worthing (I am in Nottingham) amidst the current restrictions to pop round for a look. I am not sure how one would trust one of these Ha scopes from a description on a website. Money ready to commit to this so will just wait for the right one to come up, maybe a bit closer to me.

You click on the object in CdC and from framing module in NINA you import the exact coordinates that are selected in CdC by clicking the button. I spoke to Patrick - developer of CdC and the NINA developers - and he is also exposing via the API the rotation of the CdC reticule so that this information will also be imported into NINA. I have also developed some Python myself that I am in discussions with NINA developers about. I can see the power of NINA and believe this is the future. We just have had such a shocking six months of skies that I have not had the clear skies to completely commit to it yet. I know how to use it but just not fully using it for my active sessions just yet.

Hi guys, any idea how I get this metadata please? When looking back at CMOS subs I want to know what G and O I used but these parameters do not seem to be written to the FITS header. I think I am probably missing something.....

I have been playing with NINA too but not committed to it fully yet because clear sky time has been so incredibly precious of late and I won't waste that time to me playing around with new software. I would pay the SGP subscription fee were SGP a bit more stable with less lock-ups and they listened to development requests from the community. People been asking for certain features like dual cameras for a decade now. As a two man shop they will fall behind NINA because they will never match the coding hours that the community model of NINA can deliver and I feel the best days of SGP are behind it. I do find NINA slightly cumbersome in terms of workflow. I readily concede that I am accustomed to the way that SGP does things so I am probably trying to unfairly shoehorn the SGP way of working onto NINA which I acknowledge is not ideal. I will have a play around when and if we get some more clear sky time. A feature I LOVE in NINA is the way it works with Cartes Du Ciel. I wish SGP had that. Another ask of the developers. It should be simple to interface to CdCs openly published API.

Many thanks Gordon!

Always been a white light guy and want to get a Ha solar scope to increase my hands on astronomy more after the winter nighttime cloud-out. Quite fancy a 60mm one from Lunt and probably the B1200. Am I thinking along the right lines please guys? Would a 80mm be that much better? 80 seems very much more expensive. Use case is visual observation and imaging, I do both - nighttime too. This is not a fad, I have been a quiet stalker of the solar sections for many a year. A bit of share trading on the NYSE has seen some money come in Does much go wrong with these things in terms of the Etalon? Is buying a used one generally OK? They do not seem to hang around for long when they come up. Many thanks!

There is always a reason that the guidecam can't focus. Always always it is because the distance between objective and imaging sensor that you get into focus on the main camera has to equal the same distance to the guidecam sensor as well. Bullet camera sensors can get deep inside the OAG drawtube - so a lesser distance, whereas the "hockey-puck" ones sit outside the draw-tube and are further away. Almost 100% certainly you have not got these distances correct and matching. Play about in the day time with a remote roof or chimney and get them into focus that way. Then, at night, a slight tweak and you are a-ok. Seriously, once you crack it you'll wonder why you ever bothered with guidescopes. Good luck.

We have so many clouded out nights in the UK - 99% of the winter - that we spend more time looking online at telescopes than we do looking through them, eye or camera...

Nicely done. Very nice images to peruse. Shame the lunar imaging section is so overlooked on SGL since you’d get a prize with these.

Brought my C925 back into service. Best 15% of 5000 frames in RGB on ASI174M with Baader CCD filters. Scope at native FL.

I got mine in a batch in September. They are very good. You still have to study though.

Happens to sunloungers as well 😂

Well done, very nice picture.

.......to add to that, a very kind member on SGL lent me a piece of expensive gear to test to see if I liked it before buying my own. This was last September. They have been hardly any occasions when I could use it since then. Sorry for the moan but boy, there is no end in sight to it.

I'm almost on the verge of selling up and refocusing on activities and things that I can enjoy with more regularity. This winter - actually all the way back since June - has been almost impossible for astronomy in any meaningful sense in the UK and every year it gets worse and worse.