alan potts

A kind suggestion James but I do not need another program to get confused over. People tell me that the scope needs to point toward the polar axis when PA is right for pointing to be accurate at the start of play, it makes sense to me. Alan

I am using APT at the moment but not Plate Solving, though the software is on the laptop but not installed. I am going back to absolute basics and stripping the rig of the duel scope set-up and just have one. I really feel I set everything up square flat and good and tight but this has in my view caused the problems. It is ever since I turned the mounting plate 90degrees and put the APM duel bar on that the problem arose. I will report back as we seem to be in a another spell of clear weather, shame this can't be done in the day. Alan

Well I don't recall ever seeing these screen but I best bring the laptop in and sit an try and at least check this, I am sure I don't remember changing anything like this, but that will not mean I haven't. I started a thread last night about scope alignment with the PA, it seems some way out. I am stripping the scopes off today and going back to basics as this seems a sensible thing to do. All problems seem to have come from trying a duel rig, even though I am sure I set it up as good as the equipment would allow. None of it was cheap and cheerful gear and all seemed solid and well made. Many thanks for taking the time to do this for me, Alan.

I feel I have a problem here and I am not sure how it came about as a few weeks back things worked OK. Tonight in a effort to sort things out I put the Canon back on with a reducer giving about a 2 degree field by something over 1,25 degree, so a fair field of view. Even though the mount is according to software about 1arc min from PA and even the polar scope tells me its in about the right place pointing is utterly terrible. I tried to get polaris into the camera field of view and could not, this to me seems to suggest something is rather wrong, in this area the Pole stsr is easy enough to see and at o point could make it appear on the screen. The question is how does one readjust an AZ EQ 6's scope puck or saddle or what ever its called, if indeed you can, or do you shim the scope. I am so fed up that until I can at least get this right I am doing nothing with the new camera which at the moment I am not happy with anyway. Alan

Well it is very kid of you to come up with something different but I am sorry to say I don't have the first idea what you mean (Epoch, J20000 etc), any chance of being a bit more simple for me. I have ticked Save on Park again, it had become unticked. The trouble is I have not been able to re-align with the new camera and not really being very sure of where I am. I have the Canon back on for tonight to do just that, a few weeks ago all was well then the wheels came off. Alan

OK there may well be a few faults here and there but you have got to say for imaging 3.5M of F/L which is beyond many, it is a very good result, this the first effort too. Alan

Wonder ful shaot there, I think it's very nice. When I see this It always reminds me of Yes with Rick Wakeman playing all those keyboards around him.

With me it is just I have used PS going back a long time, it is difficult to pick up but I struggle over what most consider easy, I am not what you would call IT Savvy, trying hard to come to terms with my new 071 at the moment. Everybody is being kind and trying to help but I keep messing things up, can't get the dam mount to point int he right place either, why does life have to be so dam difficult. Alan

The biggest trouble is all images on here or on the Net will have been taken with cameras and they will always in even half capable hands show more detail and colour that through an eyepiece. Then of course it depends on which eyepieces you are using as to how sharp an image you see in the conditions, but most eyepieces are good in the centre if only reasonable at the edges. I have the scope you talk of and I can say it give top class views of all planets for the money, it may well be not as good as a 150mm APO refractor but it comes close enough. If planets are what you want to look at then there are not many better options to choose from. But beware your views even with the best eyepieces will not compare with photography as a camera can record things our eyes can't see due to stacking of many shots. Alan

Now that looks nice, sort of make me want to set one of my 300mm Canon lenses up on the mount, no really bright stars so maybe the it won't look too bad stopped down from wide open. Really an eye opener reading some of these shots people take, I thought there was only really DSS and PS for process with. Alan

Oh there were plenty of stars but it was not where I thought the telescope was pointing and no nebulosity. The odd thing was in the stretch every thing in Levels was so much different, I have never seen a histogram like it, everything was to the right, which is unusual, I will see if I can get the sub onto this computer and post it for you, I have no home network out in the garden, it's too far from the house. Alan

Firstly let me say I have read many many of your posts and feel you know what your talking about, I can't say I always understand what you write but I read anyway. As you rightly state here I see a black sky with the odd bright star at least showing it's working. Even after a bit of a half hearted stretch in PS it didn't look a whole lot better. I am open to try different software, it was just maybe me being pigheaded not wanting to move away from something I thought I knew fairly well, I.E. APT. I did try Sharpcap but this in the short term just confused me, which in itself is fairly easy to do. And do have ASI own software, both these though I feel are squared at planetary imaging, though I'm sure could be used. As storms are the mode of the day after about 20 nights clear, I will give this a read. Thank you for posting. Alan

Pete, Firstly thank-you for taking the time to type this but I know the camera works. My issues appears to be with my expectations of how well it should work, some say I need to take a different approach to work flow but so far have not said what. Maybe I should expose longer, I have dark skies, but I was lead to believe these worked better with lots of shorter exposures as opposed to longer ones. I am having problems with pointing the telescope, in so much as it doesn't want to point where C-du-C state it is, it is infact some way from this. PA according to software is very good. So pointing should follow suite. It is also point at Polaris when parked as close but not perfect. Went I take a preview image I cannot see it well enough, in fact all of the images are very dark but they are images nonetheless and sharp, just nowhere near as bright as an image from my Canon after the same 3 minutes . All I basically require is someone to walk me through what settings are required. Alan

I have just done 4 hours on this and I was only just starting to get a hint of blue, you've done better than me there.

LP is not an issue, I am as good as anyone for this, exposure I was using 3 minute, largely due to many saying they worked better with more but shorter exposures, Can you enlarge on change work flow, surely they still require stacking with darks etc and then stretching in PS or simialr program. Alan

Dont worry Dave what little I had was at least sharp, it's gain is the issue, now I see how to change it. The sort of standard 90 setting is well down on the sider, I wonder if this is geared at Planetary, all the dam software seems to be, Sharpcap, even their own seems to point this way. When you open anything up and the first slide you lay eyes on is in Milli/sec's I don't thing DSO's springs to mind. Can be adjusted though, need to play a bit I think, just disappointed yet another thing described as EASY. Alan

Thanks for the offer Vlaiv, there was nothing much to stretch as I have had it in PS this morning, it also was not pointing at what I thought it was. This is a worrying problem, the better my PA becomes according to software the worse it points in C-du-C, don't make any sense, it is also pretty much pointing at Polaris when parked. The image issue is one of gain, now I know how to alter this I can play, though I am not remotely impressed with this camera at the moment, other than I think it's pretty. Alan

OK it has it's faults but you have done well to get anything, it is pretty low here for and I'm a few hundred yards south of you, well done you must be pleased. Alan

Owning a slightly smaller one I would say remover the reducer, double and triple check collimation with increasing eyepieces until at least X300 mag if you do it that way and then try again. I often top out at 500X when doing this. Alan

Thanks for the encouragement Goran but I really am fed up with it, it is just one problem after another, I guess when one is a useless as me I should expect nothing more. This Unity Gain at 90 is totally ridiculous, I tried to stretch the subs this morning from last night (6), there is nothing really there at 3 minutes x6, the canon would be superb at this even at 800iso. I will look for this ASIcap, sure I saw it somewhere. I can't run at minus 15 it's too hot here, I am at zero as evening temp is still 25c. My biggest problem is a lack of IT knowledge and I can't say with trying to improve it gets easier, PS I am OK as I have had it years. I have taken the camera off the rig until I get this dam pointing sorted out, it's mental, nothing is working that 4 weeks back ran like a dream. Alan

Hi Del, I know nothing about planetary imaging but it appears you have taken good quality images in the past. Jupiter need I tell you is not well place at the moment but on the subject of Zwo camera, I am having a nightmare with my 071, already I feel even if it is all my fault it was a grave mistake buying it. I am sure someone can help you shortly.

I am sure it is my fault, when you know nothing it is so easy to make mistakes, I am not totally sure it was even pointing at M22 as the picture were so bad I don't even know if I sync'ed it correctly as point is awful and that is another thing I can't get to the bottom of. Alan At the moment I am struggling with every aspect of AP, pointing is awful for some unknown reason which seems to get worse the better "software" tells me PA is (1 arc min check 10 times now), and that doesn't make much sense. The rig is more or less pointing towards Polaris, though it is not exactly where it should be, the telescope must not be parallel to the polar axis but I can't seem to improve this. Images from the 071 through APT are so awful I can't really tell where it points other than I think it was Saturn but not totally sure, the scope seemed to be pointing at this. What I may do is go back to my Canon on the main scope and put the 071 on the 70mmED which is mounted beside on a duel rig set-up then put the 071 on a separate laptop so I can see what I an getting in conjunction with something I understand, because for ease of use to a numpty like me a DSLR blows this camera out the water. After 4 nights though I am really fed up and don't have much desire to even bother. Alan Hi James, I have Sharpcap but I found that even more difficult to understand as it appeared to be tailored to Planetary imaging, however there were loads of controls to adjust. I stuck with APT basically because I thought I understood it, seems I again knew nothing, really off astronomy at the moment, I so dejected. Alan

I don't know what this is meant to produce but I would have thought it would be better than this. It is set on Unity Gain which I see is 90, of what I have no idea. This setting make it very difficult to preview to see anything even when binned and after 3 minutes exposure, which at least is now working, there is very little at all. In fact so little my Canon gave a better result in 10 seconds, clearly something is not right somewhere. I was of the opinion these were more sensitive and gave brighter results more quickly, at this rate it will need exposures of 10-15 minutes, it is that poor. After said exposure it hardly showed M22 which is a bright cluster Mag 5.3 I think, after 2 minutes with the Canon it jumps out at you andd this is about 10 years old. Any ideas, I'm really fed and wish I had not bothered buying it at all. 4 nights lost now and not an image worth saving. Alan

A very nice image there Mick, maybe one for me to think of when I get a bit more use to my new camera, or indeed have taken a sub, only darks so far. Alan

Not a big moon fan but very nice images there. Alan