rodrigol

20 minutes ago, Paul M said:

That's a very pleasing image. Lots to see and not cooked to a frazzle 

Nice to see Alnilam included. It adds perspective and scale.

Thanks for the comment, Paul. 😊

This is my first image of 2024. The weather has been awful during the last 3 months and other reasons have contributed to not being able to roll the roof off the observatory. However, last night the wind gave up a bit and I decided to risk it. I went straight for the centre of the dusty Horsehead region (to NGC 2023) using NINA and my 'old' Altair SW80 doublet and ASI071MC Pro mounted on my CGEM-DX, which still delivers good tracking. I took 30 x 300s of data. Data was processed with PI + RC Astro AI tools.

Stunning!

OK. Problem solved. It turns out there are 3 screws holding the focusing ring, which can go loose. You cannot tight them too much or the ring will not turn but rather lock the focuser in place. I have never heard of this issue before with the COAG, but there you go. This OAG is very good but not perfect. 

Cheers!

Thanks for your replies. I will go the obsy and bring in the whole optical train to check your suggestion and answer. 

R. 

I'm afraid I may have done to damage to my COAG helical focuser. While refocusing my guide camera, I turned the focuser all the way out and it got stuck. I don't want to try to force it as I do feel mechanical resistance and don't want to break it completely. I would appreciate some advice.

Kind regards,

R.

Hi, Garden truck or motorcycle cover? I used mine for a number of years until I got to build my obsys. These covers worked really well for me. Here is the link to the discussion 

Many thanks for the advice above. I had the lucky luxury to have clear skies on a Saturday/Sunday night and decided to image the Eagle nebula after having reseated the entire imaging train when the telescope is in a inverted vertical position. The Celestron OAG (which is a great piece of kit but one has to be careful all parts are seated properly flush to one another before tightening all the thumb screws) was probably one of the mayor contributors to the tilt observed above.  Another posible source of tilt is the Celestron heater ring. I reduced the voltage going to it to ~1/3 (don't know exactly how much) of what it was. Siril is an amazing piece of software! Thanks for the tip!!!

Below is an early processed Eagle nebula with the result of SIril's 'tilt' command. There is some way to go but the tilt has been vastly improved!

Stars are rounder on all corners and I feel the telescope and current imaging train are performing much better. The only possible moving part in the imaging train is the tilt corrector on the ASI091MC Pro, which I'm going to examine as soon as I understand which corner of the image corresponds to each screw. 

I'm very grateful to everyone for their comments and kind help!

Fantastic - Siril, eh?! Going for it now. Many thanks! Lot's to read and learn now 🙂

Wow! Thank you so much for all the advice above. It all makes perfect sense to me. Please, can I ask how did you measure the tilt onthe image? To me it seems there is a lot of tilt. I hope the main cause is in the imaging train and your advice regarding re-threading eveything carefully helps. 

I really like how people help each other here!

Best wishes and thanks again!

R:)

Thanks for the kudos(!) I really want to get the most out of the scope and mount. I feel I have learned a lot about processing but what is the poiunt if the kit is not performing 🤗

Here is the image above after processing with calibration frames (darks and flats).

Here is  the image after processing with calibration frames (darks and flats). Thanks!

Hi,

I recently installed a C11 dew heater ring in front of the corrector plate. I did this with the telescope in the vertical position and don't think I've overtightened anything.  The issue I see now is that stars look egg-shaped, more on one side than the others. The image attached (not processed nicely but only to show the issue I'm facing) shows this (please zoom in to the corners). What can be causing this? Is this tracking, flex (I use COAG), collimation, corrector plate alignment? Thanks for watching. 

R. 

Nothing in the form of calibration frames- I will do flats and darks next.  Spacing between the FR and the sensor is 147+/- 1mm. Collimation is good in the centre. I don't know how to diagnose this. 

Thanks for replying!

Hi,

I recently installed a C11 dew heater in front of the corrector plate. I did this with the telescope in the vertical position and don't think I've overtightened anything.  The issue I see now is that stars look egg-shaped, more on one side than the others. The image attached (not processed nicely but only to show the issue I'm facing) shows this (please zoom in to the corners). What can be causing this? Is this tracking, flex (I use COAG), collimation, corrector plate alignment? Thanks for watching!

Hi,

This is my first M45 of the 2021 winter season. The weather has been very poor and clear nights are few. However, they are clear, which is a huge 🙂
This was taken with an Esprit 120 w/ 0.7FR + ASI071MCPro and Altair Quad. (60x 120s Lights and corresponding calibration frames for darks. Flats and bias too). Processed using PI only.

IRT the Quad - Can anyone recommend another filter for reflection nebula? I think the quad is eating the nebulosity.

Thanks!

Hi Chris, I'm going to try PNG here to check....I think it makes a difference but not quite like the masterlight xifs
 

Here is my first Leo Triplet from a clear night on the 6-7th using an Esprit 120 w/ 0.77 FR and ASI071MC Pro. Integration was done on 30 x 200s lights and a library of calibration frames using PI. The JPG came out a bit noisy for some reason. I need to improve on my uploads to SGL! Feedback welcome 😅

Here is my "4 in 1" from April 2nd using an Esprit 120 with 0.77 FR and ASI071MC Pro. 20 x 200s. The second image is annotated to show the location of nova V1405 cas, which was pointed out to me by a keen and friendly person. My framing needs improving. The image was processed with Pixinsight. 

Enjoy and comments are welcomed. Thanks for watching, 

R. 

Just to let you know that PRIMALUCELAB are in contact now and will report back asap.
They have managed to reproduce the issue. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.
From my side, just to let you know, viewing these logs grow madly as soon as the focuser is connected, using:
 

From a PowerShell terminal:

Get-Content <file> -Wait

 was quite alarming 😓

R.

5 hours ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

I take it you're running on Windows, but other systems could also do it as well, you can create a small batch file that will delete the files, that can then be run by the "Task Scheduler" system at pre determined times e.g. every 15 mins

That is what I had in mind - however, I'm skeptical of this approach as deleting logs files, while the driver is running can lead to other problems. But this is indeed the last resort option.

7 hours ago, DaveS said:

Yes!

Found the boot drive of my remote PCs filling up to saturation. I had to delete the files as I couldn't find what they were used for.

Haven't found out how to stop either Sesto Senso or ASCOM writing them.

So, I'm not going crazy then. Thanks for confirming the issue! I'm regularly deleting the files manually but this is quite annoying. The focuser software can trash the entire system if left unattended, which is normal, and I'm consideing returning and replacing it for another brand. 

8 hours ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

does the software 'calling' the Ascom driver have logging enabled ??

No. That is one of the miseries. PRIMALUCELAB has created the ASCOM driver version 3 and I would guess they have somehow managed to get hardcode debugging on at a high level. But they haven't replied to my emails. 

Hi,

I'm having an issue with ASCOM logs files with the Sesto Senso 2 focuser. The ASCOM driver does NOT have login/debugging enabled and I'm still seeing giant logs, which can be several Gb in size, after a long session. I've checked for a setting to toggle logging off in the ASCOM diagnostics and HUB tools but I can't find anything.  Is anyone seeing the same or a similar issue?

Thanks,

R.