Mikey0368

This is much better, more through trial and error than anything else!

I'm pretty sure I've got good data from last night's crack at the Witch's Broom. 90% of 186 x 30s Lights plus 40 each Bias, Flats and Darks all stacked in DSS. AutoDev is much better but the finished article isn't! Will keep plugging away at it.

I managed to get out last night and imaged the Witch's Broom as above. I lost 14 Lights to satellite and plane trails and stacked 90% of the remaining images (as they all looked pretty good), plus the Bias, Darks and Flats in DSS. AutoDev in StarTools suggests that I've got something to work with but the final image doesn't show it. That'll give me something to play with today!

Thanks for the replies. On that basis I'm now thinking of 200 x 30s Lights at ISO800 with 40 Bias, 40 Darks and 40 Flats. Saturday night is looking promising weather wise. Fingers crossed!

No to both!

I'm relatively new to this so rather than waste a night trying things out I thought I'd bounce my plan off the experts. Please let me know if I'm on the right lines here or if I should be making any changes. I'm not sure how long to make the exposure or which ISO setting would be best for instance. Target - NGC 6960, Witches Broom. Equipment - SW HEQ5 Pro with Rowan Belt mod, SW Esprit 100ED Triplet, Flattener and astro modified Canon 600D. Camera software is APT. 120 x 30s or 60s Lights at ISO400 or ISO800 (I'm very close to the southern edge of Edinburgh so light pollution is a bit of an issue). 20 Bias, 20 Darks and 20 Flats. Stacking will be with DSS and processing with StarTools. Thanks.

Thanks everyone. That's this weekend's project sorted if skies are clear!

Here's what it did with the images. M42 was taken last February using my 8" reflector and M31 was last night with the SW 100ED Triplet. Clearly one is much better than the other! The M31 image is much improved but there's still very little detail.

Thanks for that. I'll try that on my M42 image before trying M31 again.

Well here's a screenshot of what I got from last night's data and it's fair to say that it aint good. It looks like someone has taken a sander to it! Any pointers on where I'm going wrong would be appreciated. The images were taken using........ SW Esprit 100ED, SW HEQ5 Mount, Flattener (which is brand new and the first time I've used it), Modified Canon 600D, 24x120s and ISO800. I also have a decent .FTS file of M42 from last February so I'll run that through StarTools as well and see how it comes out.

Thanks folks. It was clear last night so I now have (what should be) better data to work with. I have a .FTS file that is 24 x 120s stacked images and I'm hoping there's something worthwhile hidden away in there! I'll try it as per that YouTube video and see how it goes........

My set up is relatively new and I'm dabbling with some things while I impatiently wait for the clouds to clear and the skies to get a bit darker. I took 10 x 120s images of M31 last weekend and I've stacked them and tried to run them through StarTools. I've attached a couple of screenshots to show what the FTS file looks like and then how it looks once I hit the AutoDev button. When I compare the AutoDev outcome that I get to a YouTube tutorial it's nowhere near where I'd like it to be. Is it simply because I only used lights and there are only 8 images that have been stacked?

Thanks for that folks, you've helped me work it out. I need to set the exposure to around 1/1000 and ISO 100 to get Live View through the day. I now have a splendid picture of a distant tree!

Thanks folks. It did indeed default to the higher values but there's no change when I set it to 1/100 and ISO 100.

I've installed APT and I'm just fiddling about with it this afternoon, trying to take some pictures of the moon between the clouds. However, when I go to Live View I'm just getting a white rectangle. Any idea what I'm missing?

Thanks folks, I'll have a look at APT.

I've tried all the tricks I can find but I can't get my Canon 600D to work with SharpCap. I also have DSLRController on a Samsung tablet, can I use that just as well to create video files or is there a better alternative? Thanks.

No problem. It's a pretty tight fit and I'm confident it aint going anywhere!

I had a new SW Esprit 100ED delivered on Tuesday and I've already knocked up a solar filter for it. Looking forward to trying some imaging as what I'm seeing through it looks so much better than my old telescope.

I ordered an Esprit 80 last week and went with the Es Reid bench test option. I'm really glad I did as although the telescope has passed, the flattener that I bought with it hasn't. I would never have worked that one out myself and would probably have just assumed that the problem was with the scope itself. It's a bit frustrating that I have to wait a little longer but at least I know it'll be right when I get it. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas and I don't even know when Christmas Day is ?