Bobby1970

First attempt at solar with the Dwarf yesterday. Lots of high cloud but still quite impressed for such a small scope. 

Thanks for looking 

A few images I captured across Wednesday and Thursday evenings. 

Finally for a bit of fun, the mighty Jupiter 🤣

Thanks for looking. 

Playing with the new beta release yesterday. Managed to grab a couple of quick images.

1/250, 0 gain,  x40 stacked in Dwarf, processed in Affinity and windows photo editor

15s, 60 gain x50 ( 8 mins) final stacked image from Dwarf II cropped and processed in Paint.Net and Topaz denoise. 

Thanks for looking. 

Iris Nebula, 300x 15s @ 70 Gain

M57, 38x 15s @ 60 Gain. Always going to be a small target with the Dwarf, but still worth capturing in my opinion. 

NGC7331, 300x 15s @ 70 gain. 

 I'm amazed the Dwarf could make anything out of this target tbh. But also impressed to capture something so faint and so far away, 40 million light years. Lol. 

Thanks for looking. 

18 hours ago, Dave scutt said:

Have you tried the zwo duo band filter it's excellent on emission nebulas

No, i have the Altair Tri band, and Altair CLS. Tri Band seems to perform pretty well even with an almost full moon in play. 

Crescent Nebula from a couple of nights ago. 

205x 15s 70 gain, with Altair Tri band filter. 

Thanks for looking 

Taken last night. 285x 15s, 70 gain. Altair Tri band filter. PNG from the final stack. Converted to tiff, starnet, Siril etc. 

Thanks for looking. 

58 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

2 X 800 X 15 subs,  ,70 gain ,lights, 50 darks, IR Pass, no filter.

Stacked in siril, processed in siril, scrubber, and Photoshop .

 

Awesome. Will have to try something similar. Many thanks. 👍

On 11/11/2023 at 21:08, Dave scutt said:

Nice images Rob.

I love my drawf but still learning to process.

Come on Dave, share your tips on how to get such a great image from the Dwarf, would be great to get your input for the benefit of the rest of us. 🙏

12 hours ago, Dave scutt said:

Nice images Rob.

I love my drawf but still learning to process.

Can you share your capture settings? I assume this was in EQ mode? 

First light with my Dwarf last night. 

All 15s x60, 80 gain, stacks taken from dwarf and a stretch, crop and noise reduction. 

M31 image is solely processed on my phone 

Thanks for looking. 

I've recently ordered a Dwarf II and have to say I am very excited about it. So much that I've decided to have a clear out of loads of other astro gear, with a view to having the Dwarf and maybe a small Mak and camera for planetary captures on a Star Adventurer.

For the limited time I get these days, and the weather we have here in UK they seem like an absolute no brainer to me, and I think a bit of a bargain when you consider what can be done with it and how portable it is. 

All of these were taken with 30s exposures, 270 Gain with a ZWO 178mc and a 72mm semi apo refractor with a 0.5 reducer. None of these are more than 30 min total integration. Darks and flats used. All acquired via Asi Air Pro. Mount is AzGti in EQ mode. 

M31

M42

Comet C2022

M106 (and others)

My processing, such as it is was done using Startools, Topaz and windows photo editor. 

Not going to win any prizes but for one session with a small scope, I'm not too dissatisfied with this haul. 

Thanks for looking. 

2 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

To be fair to the software authors they are using the open source drivers, and unlike ZWO have to support a myriad of different hardware running many protocols. If they had to test each variation the cost of the soatware would be a lot more.

However, I had a look at the available indi-lib mount drivers and there is one for the virtuoso listed here

The synscan and skywatcher alt/az should work  especially if the mount can use a synscan handset.

 

 

Thanks for the information. 

I am pretty sure the Virtuoso GTi driver installed as part of the stellarmate, India, Ekos etc install onto the raspberry pi. As I say the stellarmate people said to use "Skywatcher Alt Az" which is what time name of the driver for the virtuoso GTi is according to the link you kindly shared. 

Now I have selected the Skywatcher Alt Az, the stellarmate is no longer seeing the mount so that's going to need some more investigation time in terms of the mount being in station mode and connecting itself to the stellarmate hotspot. 

I bought this set up in an attempt to re invigorate my interest tbh. I should have really just stuck with my 72mm refractor, AzGti in EQ mode and the Asi Air Pro. Lol. 

I will probably have one more fiddle around with it. Then it's going in the classifieds for someone with more experience to have a go at it. Lol

So I emailed Stellarmate people and asked which mount I should be selecting from the Profile creator section. They have told me to use "Skywatcher Alt Az". Whereas ibjabe been using "AzGti WiFi". 

Unsure if this will make any difference but will give it a try. 

The response to my email also stated they had only tested it once with a Virtuoso GTi and it could be buggy. Lol

This only adds to my feeling of disappointment tbh as Stellarmate is £40-50 right? If they have a mount listed, I would have expected more than just one test run on it for the software they are offering. Lol. 

Essentially, what I was looking to do, is create an EAA rig. Consisting of:

Virtuoso GTi 150p. 

Raspberry pi running stellamate

And an iPad to control it. 

There's no option to select a Virtuoso GTi as the mount so I used the AzGti profile. I am wondering if this is part of the issue, but totally unsure tbh. I think at one point I didn't have all of the indexes I required for platesolving so double checked and installed these. Even the optional indexes. 

Stellarmate connects with mount etc and I have my profiles set up correctly. I start the mount from north level. And when I try a "goto and solve" from the stellarmate app on iPad it never, ever works. Or it keeps just trying to solve in what seems like an endless loop. 

I tried with the 150p and zwo 178. I've also got a zwo 224 attached to a 135mm lens which I've tried. But to no avail in terms of platesolving. 

The only other thing I may try is accessing stellarmate on the pi via a laptop using vnc. But the user interface is awful in my opinion and I need to re scale it so that it all fits on my laptop screen. Asi Air Pro has definitely spoilt me. Lol. 

Well. I have to say. I am bamboozled by this. Cannot get platesolving to work, at all. I have all index files installed. But platesolving fails, always. I've tried a 150mm reflector, and a 135mm ens with a ZWO 224 camera. Checked the FOV and made sure index files are installed. 

I have to say, I am less than impressed with Stellarmate, and can totally understand why plenty of people just get an Asi Air. As I already have. 🤣

May well have a Virtuoso 150 GTi and raspberry pi with Stellamate for sale shortly as it's just too much like hard work imho to get it working, I've already wasted several nights attempting to do so, and several other hours re installing stellarmate on the pi and checking everything. 

Baffled and disappointed is an understatement. 😕

20 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

The camera selection should set the details for the ZWO camera for you. What is more important is the FOV (field of view) that is being passed to the plate-solver and what solver setup you are using.

See this page for details appropriate to which solver you are using in Stellarmate.

 

 

 

Thanks, I will take a look. I haven't set up or chosen a solver as such. Just using whatever stellarmate comes with. Clearly I need to look into this further. Lol. I knew something wasn't right as in the "targets" area the FOV representation is definitely not correct for my camera, so I guess this will be playing a part too. 

So. My stellarmate & 150p Virtuoso GTi. Seems to work. Sort of. 

However. I have a few queries. 

Should I still align the Virtuoso GTi using the synscan app first? Eg two star alignment? Then use stellarmate to fine tune alingment of a target via plate solving? 

Also, platesolving itself seems quite hit and miss with stellarmate, out of four targets last night only one or two were successfully solved and placed bang in the middle of the sensor. 

I will add, I have been starting the mount from a "north and level" parked position. 

I am also using stellarmate app on iPad to connect to the stellarmate / virtuoso GTi rig. 

Also, as there appeared no option for the virtuoso GTi as a mount in stellarmate I used AzGti Alt/Az WiFi option. 

Wondering if this is part of the problem. 

Do I need to specifically enter my camera details in terms of sensor size etc? All I have done is selected zwo ccd in my main set up area and the camera is detected and I can grab images. It seems to be just the solving which is an issue now. 

All a bit frustrating and any advice would be hugely appreciated. 

Thanks so much for the input. Much appreciated 

13 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

If you have not changed the default they should be in /home/stellarmate/Pictures on your sdcard in the Rpi.

If you are accessing Stellarmate via your home network (browser) you can access the remote directory using the network \\stellarmate.local\Pictures then you can copy/paste/delete files as you need.

 

Thank you. 

If using the live stacking, is the stacked image also saved??

I have my stellarmate on raspberry pi, connecting to a Skywatcher 150p virtuoso GTi. Not in my home network, they are both on the "stellarmate" hotspot. Hope this makes sense. 

Sorry if this is a dumb question. But, where are the images I capture in stellarmate saved to? 

Eg, a live stack? 

Are they on the SD card in the raspberry pi? 

And, using stellarmate, is there a way to do a bulk delete. ? 

Many thanks 

Well. I've gone all in. 😁

Ordered a Skywatcher 150p Virtuoso GTi and raspberry pi4 starter kit. 

Just need stellamate once everything arrives. Should be an interesting little project if nothing else. Lol. 

After watching loads of videos by this guy, I was hooked 

https://youtu.be/r0YbWyATAsA

Just now, happy-kat said:

The only thing I can see to use a second laptop outside is if that's the only way to hoover the images from the camera. I'm going to be quiet now and not muddy the puddle.

 

Yeah. I just thought this. The camera needs to be connected to a laptop. Lol. I'm sure some solution will become apparent. I could probably get a raspberry pi and stellar mate. If I can't make what I already have work with it. 

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

If you have the wifi range on azgti leave the laptop inside

Synscan windows app

So. If the range on something like the virtuoso GTi was good enough. I can use a laptop Indoors with the laptop having Sharpcap, platesolving etc on it? 

Sorry, it's been a while lol.