Stargazer33

Really nice. You've managed to capture the rille in the Vallis Alpes too.

+1 for FireCapture & AS!3/Registax6.

Affinity Photo has a good 'Clarity' tool. You can also work in 16 bit; which Photoshop can't do yet. Plus AP is way cheaper than PS.

Focus with your camera. The focal length will be slightly different between your ep and your cameras sensor. 

If you haven't got a bahtinov aid in your imaging software you can download the free program Bahtinov Grabber. 

Just now, BlobHunter said:

Bryan

I went through a similar process to Mike (mostly to get it working for APT) and have a roughly working driver.

Not been successful with NINA so far (as I mostly use APT).  But let me know if you have no success with the above.

Thanks for your offer. Mike's solution works for both NINA and FireCapture 64 bit version.

13 hours ago, AngryDonkey said:

Just stumbled across this and having been through the ordeal of writing  a switch driver from scratch just now I thought I could help out. I've downloaded the source from the github repository and rebuilt the driver for Any CPU. I've also added an Inno installer (quick and dirty, hopefully it will work). The result can be downloaded here:

https://mpoelzl.exavault.com/share/view/2epu4-f8eqprbm-exdnsvm1

This might throw up anti virus warning as it is not signed in any way. It is clean but please use at your own risk, I didn't write the code...

 

Thanks Mike. That works a charm. AAF2 now loads straight into NINA and FireCapture 64 bit. 👍👏🏆🏅

On 12/03/2021 at 22:17, skybadger said:

One thing to try withe the ascom diagnostics tool is to open the driver in native and 32 bit modes and capture the output which should help to clarify. . 

The installer steps can also be reproduced manually, consisting of moving the source and binaries to the ascom common folder and registering under com for 32 and 64bit operation using the two different flavours of regsrvr. 

If all this is beyond contemplation, it might be worth trying the remote client trick : set the focuser up on the server app and configure the remote client to access. Setup the hub to use the remote client and the remote client/server combo might carry you through the issue. 

🤯 My head hurts! And it's not from having my first Covid jab yesterday! 😄

Thanks for the information. Mike's rewrite below has solved the problem, but I want to work through your suggestions so I can understand the issue better and hopefully be more informed in future. 

Hi Will, welcome to SGL! 

What is your mount sitting on? Are you moving about around the mount whilst the sequence is running? Are your mounts clutches tightened? 

Failing that it could be poorly meshing gears or even damaged gear teeth - periodic error.

Which camera did you connect to APT with last time? APT remembers the last camera used. If you want to connect a new camera you have to hold down shift and then click the connect camera button.

Well done! That's a great first galaxy picture. 

You've started on a very slippery slope though!  🥴🤑😉

28 minutes ago, banjaxed said:

Hi Mark,

Thanks again for your input. I have just done a restore default action to see if starting again might help and noticed my firmware is ver 01 .16.16055 Feb 24 2016 which is out of date. I will try your magic button though.

Maurice.

If you restored factory settings, that would reset the firmware to its original version.

That's a really nice presentation. 

On 16 December 2021 at approximately 22:00 UTC, comet C/2021 A1 (LEONARD) will cross the orbit of Venus. Approximately 3 days later Venus will pass through the exact same piece of Space!

Whilst looking on 'The Sky Live' website and using their 3D Solar System Viewer to see the track of the comet, I saw this!

Makes you think! 

That's really nice. I like the colours and you've got good star shape too.

If you had it in a large enough box, I don't see any problem. As long as it's not 30°C when you're imaging!

Thanks, it's amazing just how colourful The Moon actually is!

On 11/03/2021 at 07:43, skybadger said:

But the replacement hub does the same job with a different name!

Hi SB!

I did try it when I updated my Ascom Platform but I get this error message when I click on the properties button after selecting "Device Hub Focuser" from the Focuser Chooser dropdown:

I have no idea what this means or where I can "See Inner Exception for details"! I just assumed that it wasn't a replacement for the POTH hub and resigned myself to not being able to use the AAF2 in NINA.

Quote

Windows takes care of that if registered properly, it doesn't matter whether it's 32  to 64 or any other combination.

Quote

Checkout the ascom developer  forum on groups io .  IIRC you need to register the driver in 32 and 64 bit modes and may need to compile into any CPU mode rather than  dedicated architecture but many drivers do work without change. What does the diagnostics tool show when selecting as 32 or 64 bit ?

 

I don't think tekkydave (whose code this is) compiled it to run in 64 bit applications. I know ASCOM says that it doesn't matter and that 32 bit drivers should run in 64 bit applications but this one doesn't.

I had a book at Christmas to try to learn Visual Basic Studio so that I could re-write the ASCOM driver; but it is not written very well and the diagrams are useless as the image is too fine a detail and too low a resolution to be able to see clearly. Therefore I am like a tortoise trying to enter a drag race at the moment as far as VBS is concerned!!

The ASCOM Diagnostic Tool brings up this error:

tekkydave isn't supporting this project anymore and hasn't since about 2015 - hence the Zombie post comment. and why I was trying to learn VBS to re-write the code and compile it for 64 bit applications. tekkydave wrote a Windows installer to install all the relevant code onto the system and I have no idea how to do that either. I was hoping that I could just do the ASCOM driver and swap it for the one registered through tekkydave's installer.

On 06/03/2021 at 22:16, sloz1664 said:

If that's the case, which sad as I had built two AAF2 focusers in the past. If you still require a source for a decent DIY focuser then I suggest, if you haven't been there, is Robert Brown's excellent myfocuserpro2

Steve

Thanks Steve, I was looking at Robert's focuser before I stumbled on Dave's which I decided to go for as I could adapt my existing setup rather than start from scratch. 

As programs are moving into 64 bit, I just need an ascom driver for the AAF2 that will work with 64 bit versions of N.I.N.A. and FireCapture etc.

With a modded DSLR it's always going to be towards the red end of the spectrum.  If you upload the stacked raw image then people could experiment.

That's superb Maurice! A lovely colour and fabulous detail. 

The above no longer works as the latest release of Ascom v6.5 has removed the POTH hub!

I'm currently trying to learn how to rewrite tekky daves source code to enable users to enter the maximum step value in the ascom properties box and to enable it to work with 64 bit programs; but I wouldn't hold your breath! 

A reprocess of the data with three stacks being stacked together and then adjusted in AP 1.9.1.

Really nice images. Great detail and focus.

Thanks TD!

It was so nice to get out and actually image after so long! I was able to leave the 'scope out and image the Moon later that same night.

Mare Fecunditatis and crater Langrenus. Saturation has been increased to show the different surface material/colours.

C9.25; CGEM; ASI385MC; Baader Neodymium filter.

A quick process of video taken of the Sun from Saturday (2021-02-27).

C9.25; CGEM; ASI385MC; Baader Solar Film homemade white light filter; Baader Neodymium filter.