pixueto

Mark, I've just been watching your picture of the Helix nebula. Astonishing! An it's not even guided! You put us all to shame!

Forgive me if I'm a bit cheeky but we all could learn enormously with a thread where you explain step by step your digital imaging processing. I now you have many youtube videos on it but I was thinking about something similar to what you did with your Horsehead and Flame nebula where you took a particular DSO and explained with all detail what you did.

:)I mowed the grass today:icon_salut:

I suppose I am lucky in that the wind is kind to me in my area. Maybe that's the secret to get 10min subs with the EQ5. What about you QM? Does it get windy there? Do you use anything to shield the scope?

At the moment, I haven't had much trouble obtaining 10min subs with my budget kit -although the light pollution in my area is a big problem. This is my setup for whoever may be interested:

-SW200P on EQ5 with modded handset (shoestring mod)

-Stellavue F50 finder + 2X celestron ultima barlow to reach focus + Philips SPC 880 flashed (I use this setup as the guiding scope)

-canon 350D (unmodded) + a very cheap chinese remote shutter timer

-aurora flat panel (for taking flat frames)

-Zoostorm notebook (probably the cheapest notebook out there) to control the mount through PHD

-Bahtinov mask to reach focus

-extension lead

And yes...the grass needs cutting!

By the way, that's the picture. 1 hour with 1' subs (unguided), 1'30'' and 3' subs (guided). The PHD graph was very rough and the night a bit windy.

Thanks.

Hi guys, it's me again. I've been quite busy with work recently but yesterday I managed to get my stuff out again. Yes, swapping finders to locate targets and to guide did work nicely. It made things really, really easy.Thanks QM.

Yesterday it was a bit windy but I still managed to try the guiding system with M13. I went for 3' subs and, although the PHD graph wasn't very smooth (I blamed it on the wind), I still managed to keep 95% of the subs.

Now I'm quite happy with my setup for guiding. So far, I've been able to direct the stellavue finder/guider to a suitable star close to the target using the rings. So, to be honest, so far, I don't see the need of spending £200 on a QHY type guider.

Thanks

By the way, as I said it's not all bad news. Yesterday I got PHD guiding nicely with a very flat and smooth graph. I don't really understand why because I used the same settings than the other night when the graph looked like the Andes! Also M51 was nearly vertical and close to the meridian and I would've thought that would make things even more difficult? But the graph and the subs were brilliant so I was really chuffed about it.

About exposure times, I think that, being realistic and considering the light pollution in south London, I should limit my subs to 2-4 mins at ISO 800? I also got a very cheap timer and if the thing is guiding properly I can leave it on its own whilst reading some astronomy books.

About swapping finders, I would I thought that it you put a tiny different amount of pressure when screwing the finder into place, you lose alignment between finder and scope. Isn't that so?

To be honest, there is always a bright enough star not far away from most targets. What i'm doing at the moment is planning in stellarium which is the closest magnitude 6 star (or better). I point the scope to the DSO and then I point the finder towards that star.

The problem is that I can't get to that star by only screwing/unscrewing a bit; I have to unscrew the finder loose to direct it to the guide star and then secure it. This is one of the bits that I'm finding extremely difficult!

Thanks QM. Getting rid of the barlow is not really an option as the webcam won't reach focus without it.

Dear all,

I am having a kind of mixed bag experience with my autoguiding project. I am happy because I got my kit guiding flawlessly yesterday night but prior to that I run into a lot of trouble.

If you remember, I am using a modded EQ5 with a SW200P. My finder & guidescope is a stellarvue F50 which takes eyepieces. The finder is in rings with screws. I use the finder with a 2X barlow and a Philips SPC 880 (unmodded) + PHD.

Whereas my webcam won't pick faint stars for guiding, so far I have been able to point the stellarvue finder to a bright star no farther away than 4 degrees from the DSO which is fine. My problem is that, once I move the finder, I really struggle to align it again with the main scope. Also, I find it very hard to direct the finder and secure it where I want to by using the rings.

I would be very interested on any suggestions about how to deal with this. When I started this project I was more concerned about software, wiring and the ability of the EQ5 to produce guided images but that seems to be OK and i'm having the real problems from a 'mecanical' side which I did not expect.

I could really do with some help. I thought of different possible solutions. I thought of using my old generic SW finder to align it with the main scope so I can find targets whereas I can remove it from the clamp and put the stellarvue with the rings for the guiding. Would that work or will a lose alignment every time I remove it and put it back to find another target?

Thank you very much for your help ans suggestions

I ordered a new dual axis motor so I can get the control pad. £97 gone out of my sheer stupidity. With this and the Stellavue American finder and the custom duties I no longer have a budget setup:mad:

Nice one. That's with only 30 subs? How are you finding your new scope?

I know we don't have clear skies every night; that's the downside of living in a country with a temperate oceanic climate. My brother lives in Tenerife; imagine living there with some of the best skies in the world for astronomy! On the other hand, my wife probably would divorce me if I spent every night in the garden! so I won't complain about the weather here. It's not really that bad.

Funny that you mention that about the red light flashing as I recall the light was green. When PHD was controlling the mount the controller would occasionaly go red. I would imagine that was when the computer was sending commands to the mount. The problem came when I stopped PHD and the green light in the hand controller kept flashing. The mount wouldn't track so I unplugged the cables from the computer and still the same problem. I assumed that the battery was the problem but if you say that the light flashing should be red, then I have a problem. I've got a feeling that PHD might have made my controller to go mad. It would be interesting to know if anybody out there doing guiding with this mode for a while has encountered the same problem...I mean, I'll be reluctant to mode a new handset and risk having the same problem!

Thank you very much for your words of encouragement QM. I opened the hand controller and it is dead indeed. Did some research and looked for a spare one in the internet. It appears that you can only buy the hole thing; also found some requests from people wanting a controller so chances are that it will be difficult to get a second hand one so I think I'll have to spend £92 on a new one!

There is something still worrying me. When the controller started flashing and it wouldn't track...do you think that's down to the batteries? I had only been using them for a couple of weeks! Before I used TESCO alkaline ones that lasted for ages. The ones I was using yesterday were normal TESCO ones but if that was the problem they run out very quickly. Does guiding uses up a lot of power? On the other hand, I am wondering if the guiding thing made the controller mad.

I'm so depressed! Tonight I was trying my new autoguiding setup. The stellavue finder pointing towards Alnitak, with the webcam and 2X barlow. PHD found the star and started guiding (the RA graph was very smooth but the Dec one was all over the place). I decided to take a 4 minute sub and see what would come up. I stopped PHD while focusing the camera with the bahtinov but then the hand controller started flashing. It would't guide and the controls wouldn't respond. I started worrying that I might have done something wrong when I modded the controller. Then, it dawn to me that maybe I was running out of batteries.... the computer was next to me and....yes, I did plug the 12V jack in the 6V handset. I fried the chip in the controller. I'm so depressed and I feel so stupid. I'm going to bed.

First of all congratulations on your new scope QM. I'm so jealous!

Well, I got the Stellavue F50 (straight through version) yesterday. I managed to get focus with the barlow 2X and the webcam pointing to a building about 200m away. However it was foggy and I couldn't really test it on a real star or planet. I used it with an ultima 2X and Tal 3X barlow with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces pointing to buildings and the finder took it! I'm well impressed with this little one. It's a bit heavier than my SW finder but not much. The webcam didn't reach focus as I expected (I didn't buy the adapter they sell for that) but it did confortably with the barlow so hopefully I can get focus and start guiding the next clear night.

Thanks for your your help guys. I'm waiting for a stellavue f50 finder which takes eyepieces. If I can get the webcam to focus with that I'll let you know if the stars are OK despite that graph.

Do you think that the fact that I was using it with the 8'' main scope can have an effect on the smoothnes of the graph? Can't wait to start using it with the finder and see if the stars come up round in the picture once I take photos.

Hi guys! Here I am testing PHD with my webcam in the main scope first. Seems to be guiding but the graph looks like the Alpes. Any suggestions from you guys with the same setup?

Seeing wasnt too great by end of the night but got the webcam out and managed a reasonable shot of saturn such a cool planet and m101 but the moon was too bright for any thing great.

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Nice one. What barlow are you using?

Thanks, that's the best one so far but I'll try tonight again . If I'm not mistaken Mars is in oposition tonight and it won't be as close to us for another two years. Considering the Moon is up there and planets are quite bright, I would give it a go QM!

Same one cropped with less aggressive processing.

This is my last Mars. Got it last Saturday with a Tal 3X and a philips SPC 880

Marstest.tif

So good weather forecast for tonight? Brilliant! I checked with stellarium and the Moon won't set till 4:30am. I might concentrate on Mars and Saturn or the Moon itself. Never tried our satellite before. What settings would you recommend? DSR or webcam?

:icon_scratch:No, I won't be able to use it as I don't have the R12 cable. I have a R11 cable and I didn't realised that's a different one! I'll order it from the UK, though!