michael8554
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Everything posted by michael8554
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Ah, my bad, I didn't spot your test conditions. I just latched onto the Log which I falsely assumed was a proper guiding session. So I gather you were testing your RA and Dec movements, but Dec=90 is not going to give any meaningful information. Michael
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Lunar imaging, DSLR or dedicated camera
michael8554 replied to Chefgage's topic in Getting Started With Imaging
You haven't said what OTA you are using. A small refractor may yield a small image of the moon that the ASI will frame nicely, but will only be using a small portion of the DSLR sensor. Conversely the ASI chip may be too small to frame the whole moon, but the moon nicely fills the DSLR sensor . DSLR 1080 HD Video is not the best way to do Planetary, if FOV allows use the LIveview 5x or Crop Video modes : https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html Michael -
First attempt to Luna with DSLR
michael8554 replied to barbulo's topic in Getting Started With Imaging
Pretty good barbulo. Look at the Histogram on the camera LCD, and select a Manual shutter setting that keeps the right hand end of the "hump" away from the right hand end of the display. So for instance, instead of 1/640s exposure, try 1/1000s. Michael -
It can, read the instructions 😆 Tools / Manual Guide. Set the pulse size to 5000. Each single click on the N, S, E, W buttons will move the mount a small amount that you will only see if you're looking at the guide star. Used for fine framing, or the Star Cross test. It's not a replacement for the high speed slew buttons on the handset, that's not a requirement for guiding. Michael
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Oh dear..... Yes, you were Calibrating at Dec = 90, where stars are effectively "stationary". The first three Cals were done with the INDI mount driver, which reported your Guide Rate = 7.5arcsec/sec, and the RA and Dec positions. But your exposure of 20ms is crazy fast, leading to Star Lost messages. And probably exposures were occurring before Cal moves had completed. Exposures in the order of 1.5 to 3 seconds are usual. Then you switched to ST-4, so RA, Dec, and Guide Rate were unknown. Were you still at Dec = 90 ? Reported Guide Rates were RA = 21.6, Dec = 24.4, your previous setting was 7.5, which is okay. I get the feeling you are using PHD2, but haven't read how to use it ! Look at the Help and How To guides available via the Help menu. Start here: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ Stick with the INDI driver with a correct setup ! Michael
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Calibrating at Dec = 0 is important, but the suspected very low Guide Rate is your main area of concern. Post your previous GuideLog. Michael
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Many questions to ask, so it would be easier if you post the PHD2 GuideLog file. The yellow message refers to insufficient movement during Cal, which suggests your Guide Rate setting is too low in one of the softwares you are using. Equal and opposite 2500ms RA and Dec guide pulses from PHD2 could indicate that either RA or Dec pulses are going to both axes, due to cabling problems. Note that those equal 2500ms pulses were calculated during Cal to move RA 98.2 pixels, but Dec only 22.2 pixels. Did you Cal at Dec =0 ? Otherwise that indicates a lot of Dec Backlash that became part of the calculated Guide Rates during the PHD2 Cal. Michael
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Weird lines on my images.
michael8554 replied to juppenen's topic in Imaging - Image Processing, Help and Techniques
Walking Noise. Dither between exposures helps, Michael -
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/608291-etx-motor-unit-fault/ michael
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The ASI174MM is a 1936 x 1216 camera. ZWO quote some other resolutions: 1936X1216@128FPS 640×480@309FPS 320×240@577FPS I'm guessing that non-standard resolutions like 1024x1024 or 1024x1028 will take significant time to interpolate. From oacapture, my emphasis added: User ROI selection allows selection of arbitrary size regions if the camera supports it. But maybe I'm not understanding the subtleties of downloading ROI resolution versus full frame resolution. Michael
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Which weighs more, 2.2 pounds of lead, or a 1kg of feathers ? 😆 Michael
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With the stars on a lower Layer, and The Ring on the top Layer: Lasso a Selection just outside the blooms of nebulosity. Create a New Mask Layer of that Selection. Add Gaussian Blur to the edges of the Mask until The Ring merges seamlessly with the stars. Adjust black level to match stars and Ring backgound levels. Michael
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Were The Ring and the background stars shot with the same equipment, in other words do they both have the same field of view, and the size width and height in pixels ? Then both need to be cropped by the same percentage, so that the stars image includes only the stars in The Ring image. If from different sources: Crop The Ring and note the width and height in pixels. Crop the stars image so that only the same stars as in The Ring image are included. In the Image Resize or equivalent tool, set the new size of the stars image to be the same as The Ring size previously noted. Layer them, you now have a cropped Ring and cropped stars that match in size. Michael
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Annihilate, annihilate, resistance is futile ! Michael
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That's more like it 😆 What misalignment are you referring to ? Your guidecam focus could be better, aim for HFD of 3 to 4 on the Star Profile instead of over 5. Michael
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The Autoguider port on the LX200GPS control panel is only for old-school ST-4 guiding - for a cable from the ST-4 port on the camera. Connect the camera directly to the PC, USB to USB. Other procedures to while away the hours: Train Drives on a distant landmark - Appendix D of the Instruction Manual. Improves the accuracy of final moves in GoTo's. Has to be followed to the letter or you will keep going back to the start - bin there, dun that ! Check the date after a GPS fix. If it's not 2021, the mount needs a software update to correct the deliberate world-wide "GPS Rollover" in 2019. You can switch off GPS Alignment and enter time and date manually, often faster ! Michael
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As I said before, this isn't coma, it's star drift. The exposure that works depends on the Focal Length of the lens, the longer the focal length, the more the star drift is "magnified". If you're happy with the 12 seconds results, that's all that matters. To improve requires taking say 20 exposures in quick succession and "Stacking" them together to make one improved image. Then using Photoshop or equivalent to enhance the contrast and colour to your satisfaction. You might need to merge one image of the landscape into the Stacked image. Michael
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Hi brenski If those star shapes were only in the corners, and the centre stars round, this would be a lens feature called Coma. Since all the stars are elongated, that's due to the stars drifting across the sky during the exposure, exaggerated in Peter's image. Try faster exposures until you find one that doesn't show drift. Neither of your lenses is the cause of the problem. Michael
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In theory, RA is always being pushed in only one direction - slightly more, or slightly less, when guided. So RA backlash will always be taken up. Unlike Dec, which is guided in both directions, so Dec backlash routinely causes guide problems. But I understand that belt-drive mounts should be "perfectly" balanced. Which means in some positions the wind or cable drag could allow RA to "wobble" over the range of the backlash. Whereas slight RA imbalance would prevent that. Michael
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Hi Paul You could try posting in the DIY Observatories section too. Michael
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Alligators ate them all...... 😆 Some states it's illegal to own one ! Michael
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Sounds like you have PHD2 AND APT both trying to "talk" to the mount at the same time. If so, this requires a Software Hub, such as ASCOM POTH or ASCOM DeviceHub, to mediate. Michael
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Hi Paul You need to load the ASCOM Platform, followed by the Meade ASCOM driver. The are at least three ASCOM Meade LX200GPS drivers, the latest that fixes most deficiencies in the previous ones is: "Meade Autostar/Audiostar Project (October 2019) <- TRY THIS FIRST" which is on this page: https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm It's also known as the "Meade Generic Driver", it works with Autostar II for your mount, and for ETX etc mounts with the 497 Autostar. Next you need a connection between your PC and the mount, you haven't described how you have done this: A USB-to Serial Adapter, connected to a Meade #507 cable, plugged into one of the two RS232 ports on the mount. The RS232 adapter has to show as fault-free in Window Device Manager, note the number of the COM port it creates. After you have switched on the mount and Star Aligned, then open PHD2. Look for the Generic Driver in the mount section of the Equipment selection window, select the COM number, and connect. Michael
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Probably, because the stars appear to "move faster" at Dec 9 than at Dec 60, so they are harder to guide, so a more erratic guide graph. Also Dec 9 is closer to the terrestrial horizon, down where the atmosphere is more turbulent. Michael
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scitmon may be on the right track, on the 6th September did you enter 06/09 (probably wrong with an "American" mount) or 09/06 ? Michael
