Starwiz

Thanks Adam, I'll look up Straton. It takes me hours to remove stars manually and I'm not usually happy with the results. John

Lovely images! What do you do to control the stars when processing? Mine turn out a horrible magenta for the Hubble Palette unless I spend a lot of time trying to remove them. John

Thank you.

A quick image from a couple of nights ago. Two hours of LRGB data with the ASI1600mm-Pro. L = 120 x 15s Bin 1x1 Gain 139 RGB = 60 x 30s Bin 2x2 Gain 139 (each filter). John

Just to add, in addition to the good advice given so far - it's a good idea to run all your applications as Administrator. I don't know if it will help or not, but I've had all sorts of weird things happening when I don't. John

Thanks. I got it working. I decided to use the drift alignment tool in PHD2 as although I can see Polaris from my terrace, it means assembling the scope too close to a wall for comfort. Once aligned, I use CdC to slew to the chosen target, then do a platesolve, sync and goto using the APT Point Craft tool, which platesolves again when it reaches the object. Very similar to the process you've described, but using APT instead of Sharpcap. John

Ok thanks, that makes sense. I suspect I've already got it configured for my FOV as when I downloaded the index files, it gave me the option of only downloading those applicable to my camera/scope setup.

How do I restrict and prioritise the index files? I've had a look but can't see how to do it. Thanks John

Thanks all, some very helpful suggestions there, so I was able to look at a few things I hadn't thought of. I think I've finally got to the bottom of it after much daytime experimentation. I was aligning CdC exactly with Polaris to polar align the mount. Polaris of course, isn't in exactly the right position and I think this was confusing the software somehow. When it actually needs to look directly at Polaris, it has to slew the mount by about 6 hours in right-ascension at the time of the experimentation. I love this hobby 😀 Now I need to get plate solving working. John

I'm having some problems with this. I set up the scope to point to polaris, then set CdC to the same and in CdC do a right-click - Telescope - Sync Alp:UMi to sync to polaris. Then I try slewing to another object, but the scope doesn't go where expected. Also, sometimes it will give a 'below horizon' warning when it is clearly not. Any thoughts on what the problem might be? Thanks John

Awesome stuff Mike. Welcome aboard. John

Thanks all, for the help. Much appreciated. John

I've just got Cartes Du Ciel controlling my telescope, but of course the hand controller is no longer connected. So, my question is - how do I align the telescope now? The logical way I can think of is to make CdC point to Polaris, then point the scope at Polaris. Then slew to another object and adjust scope as necessary for a sort of 1 star alignment. Is this correct or am i barking up the wrong tree? Is there a better way? Thanks John

One of my favourite galaxies. Good luck!

I'd been a casual observer for many years, but always felt that I needed bigger apertures which I would never be able to afford. Starting imaging eliminated the 'aperture fever' desire and is incredibly addictive, but also immensely satisfying.

Been there too during my first midlife crisis, with 29 parachute jumps almost 30 years ago now. Much happier these days with the ability to explore deep space. ?

Oh well, you can't use that one then. I'm in a similar dilemma with my CBR1100xx Super Blackbird. ?

Just tell her you're having a mid-life crisis, and it was either this or a high-powered motorbike. ?

Thanks Vlaiv, that's very helpful information. John

If all goes to plan I'll be starting imaging with an ASI1600mm-Pro next month. The exposure times seem incredibly short compared to the 10 - 15 minutes I was doing with my modded Canon 1200d. Is that because the sensor is much more sensitive on the ASI? BTW, I've just emigrated to Malta, so looking forward to the cloudless skies. Light pollution where I am is slightly worse than my UK location (Bortle 5 compared to Bortle 4), but I'll also be doing narrow-band as well as LRGB.

Welcome back! John

Hope I'm not stating the obvious, but is the meter switched to read AC not DC? The reason I'm asking is that low cost digital multi-meters don't read true RMS AC volts, but use a diode to convert the AC voltage to DC then use a multiplication factor to come up with the result. DC voltage passes quite happily through a diode, so if you had AC volts selected on your meter it could show around double the actual DC voltage, thus fooling the meter. Swapping the leads over will show zero volts as current can only pass one way through the diode. Just a thought John