Xplode

1 hour ago, Adam J said:

i5 is total overkill for a mount PC unless you are processing on it too. I would rather save the money and get a filter or something. 

An I5 can do pretty much everything you would want an astro pc to do without problems and it's a lot more future proof than a Celeron.
Tasks like video capture with the ASI1600 can be pretty CPU intensive and newer high megapixel cameras will need more and more power so spending a little extra on future proofing is in my opinion saving money in the long run...and of course saves work.

Who said anything about spending much extra? I found a good pc for Fellside with an I5 4590T that i linked him in a PM, it's a very good pc for the price and has really great specs for just £200-230

This isn't the link i shared with him, but it's comparable: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-9020m-micro-Mini-Intel-i5-4590t-2-0Ghz-16Gb-Ram-500Gb-HDD-Win-10/184030981825

26 minutes ago, Brian28 said:

Hi Ole , I. Have just brought one of these myself , not received it yet .. but I have a question .. silly as it may be . 

This will be mounted on my pier ..  so when I fire it up how will it connect to my laptop to operate it ..  normally when I connect my laptops , one outside , one inside in the warm with me .. I bring up team viewer on the outside laptop get the password then connect inside .. but when I turn the new mini on outside there will not be any screen ..  I don't know if I have explained it too well ..  

You need to setup a Teamviewer account so you can use a personal password that doesn't change.

I'm sure you will be happy with a quality tiny pc 👍

Here's my friends setup with a Lenovo Tiny pc, it's mounted in an industrial cabinet with DIN rails. The cabinet is mounted on the first story part of his pier made of chimney elements, 2nd story is a steel pier.
Lots of other stuff in there, focus controller, USB hub, POE switch, power suplies and a charger for the battery rotating with the dome.
I 3D printed all the brackets for him.

 

In my opinion pc's like those are total crap, Celestron just means stay away!
For a good quality small pc that doesn't cost much look for Lenovo Thinkcentre M93p Tiny. Here in Norway i've seen them for everthing from £90 to £250.

Usually they have Intel i5 CPU (and most often 4590T)
Some have Wifi, if not it's not much for a Wifi dongle.

Older models can have mechanic HDD's, switching to a SSD is super easy to do yourself and won't cost much. Windows will reactive without problem after upgrade.

There's also other choice for these pc's and they are all meant for professional use so they are very good quality and there's good support for drivers and new bioses.

You should look at the alignment of the stars again, it's possible to get it much better, you might want to look into what order you do things when you splice the panels

I've used PCC and got the standard blue color, i think your images color is affected by the misalingment of the stars since they are used for the color calibration.

5 hours ago, Tyson M said:

^ my observing buddy said the same thing for his EQ8.  He does long exposure imaging and ended up selling it for a 10 micron

I did the exact same thing, had a 10 Micron since 2015 and now it's at a co'owned remote observatory in Spain imaging 200+ nights per year since summer 2017

I wonder if they fixed the EQ8's actual biggest problem which is the tolerances of the machining, i've had 3 EQ8's an all had unacceptable backlash

Your Baader filters must be old or  you haven't looked hard enough?
All unmounted Baader filters i've seen for the last 4 years has arrows on them to help mount them the correct way

The way the filters are mounted could also play a part.
On my QHY163 i'm using 36mm Baader filters mounted the "correct" way (arrow towards the scope)

On 15/10/2019 at 14:33, Rodd said:

A lot has been written about microlensing causing artifacts around bright stars when using the ASI 1600.  I have noticed several things about this that I would like to add to the discussion.

1) The effect seems to be getting worse over time.  Not sure this is even possible, or real--but it seems that way.  It is not something I noticed up until recently--then again maybe there were not bright enough stars in the FOV.

2) I think the artifact from microlensing--if that is what it even is-may be related to resolution (pixel scale).  I say this because I have imaged the Horsehead Nebula with the FSQ 106 at a pixel scale of 2.46 arcsec/pix and the TOA 130 at a resolution of 0.78 arcsec/pix.  There is no sign of a microlensing artifact around Alnitak at a resolution of 2.46, but there is a severe microlensing artifact around Alnitak at 0.78 arcsec/pix.   I do not think it is the TOA 130 OTA, as stars in general are quite nice. 

Any ideas?  I have images to show as examples but it will have to wait until I get home to post (later tonight). 

Thanks,

Rodd

I've used the QHY163 which has the same sensor with a TOA150 with 645 flattener and haven't seen any microlensing so it's weird that you get microlensing with a TOA130.
Right now the setup has an 1.6x extender that i can test with to see if f ratio/pixel scale makes a difference. 
Later i could test with a FSQ130 without and with 645 reducer

Thank you @Martin-Devon, @ollypenrice and @carastro

41 minutes ago, widotje said:

I love the way you post process...still got a lot to learn. What techniques / software are you using? Any tips? thanks

I cannot comment on how it was processed, but i can tell you that it was calibrated with PI, registered and stacked with APP, stitched with APP and processed in PI

19 hours ago, Gina said:

Brilliant!!

Thank you Gina!

FITS does actually have header for this use so it must be your software that doesn''t write it.

On 10/10/2019 at 23:41, Pompey Monkey said:

I stretched the astrobin image out over nearly three monitors! It's a brilliant image.

When you get it printed, make sure to find someone who will help you get the best results.

Cool. It's amazing how some images still look good even in 100%
I'm already in the process to find the best way to print and best paper to use for astronomy images.

On 10/10/2019 at 23:22, gorann said:

A totally stunning wall Ole Alexander! Got a HST feel to it, Congratulations!

Thank you Göran!

Thank you for all the kind comments ☺️

Pompey Monkey: I will definitely make a poster of this!

This is our first mosaic from SkyEyE Observatory with our new telescope, a 14,5" reflector.

Ola Skarpen did most of the editing while i did the stacking and stitching
It was a lot of work getting the panels aligned and stretched exactly the same, but it was definitely worth the efford.

Gear:
AG Optical Convergent FA14 14.5" reflector (1855mm/f5)
10 Micron GM2000
Optec Gemini focusing rotator
Moravian G3-16200 (pixel scale 0.67")
ZWO ASI174MM Mini (OAG)

Exposures
Chroma Ha 3nm 50mm: 101x600" bin 1x1
Baader OIII 2" 8.5nm: 48x600" bin 2x2
Baader SII 2" 7nm: 70x600" bin 2x2
Total time 36,7 hours shared between the 4 panels. 
 

Click for full resolution

Detail from the 100% image

It's not like the corners of APS-C sized images will be great either because of no coma corrector, but at least you're taking some images.

I say use full frame mode, you can just crop after anyway.

I don't think there is any way to judge if spacing should move one way or the other way in CCD Inspecter, your best bet is to adjust spacing and look yourself if the images are better or worse.
Using different filter thicknesses isn't optimal, but it should not affect the spacing much with a f5 scope, you will probably not see the difference.

The sigma lens looks very good

If possible i'd go with the 600d instead of 550d or 1100d if the option is there.
1100d and 550d has almost comparable noise levels, 600d has has lower noise than both.
Check the comparison here: http://dslrmodifications.com/T3iReview/T3iReview.html

Fn is a key that's normally on laptops which is to use F1-F12 as 2 key.
Normally boot menu is opened with one of the F keys.

Ok. Normally the pc should boot right from the USB stick since it has no other valid choices, if not you will have to figure out the boot key for the pc

It's clearly not installed.
If you make the memory stick with Win 10 you should be up and going in 1-2 hours.
Then you can activate it later when you receive a code from the supplier.

Did you install Windows 10 yet?

1 minute ago, pete_l said:

This is quite normal. All you have to do is d/l Windows from Microsoft onto another computer (a windows one). The download a tool called rufus onto the same PC. That software is used to convert the Windows version you downloaded (which is intended to be burned onto a DVD) into something that will boot from a USB drive.

Once you have created your bootable USB drive, insert that into one of the USB ports in your barebones machine. If that claims it can't find it or won't boot then you will have to fiddle about in the BIOS until it can "see" the USB drive. But once it can find the drive, it should boot up Windows and install it as a trial version. After that, install the drivers.

Windows will then complain about being unlicensed. But you have a period of grace to obtain a licence for it - some weeks.

This is an old outdated way to do it, it's how it was done before Windows 10.
With the Media creation tool from Microsoft it will make the usb stick bootable and copy the newest Win 10 build to it

No you don't need a licence, it will be installed as a "trial" version that you can activate after it's up and running