Michael1971

On 17/07/2021 at 17:17, Kinan said:

Nice discussion here,

Mike! I would be curious to hear how the camera worked for you   and if you have some initial photos feel free to share! 

I finally was able to get some decent shots, had issues wih guiding. 

These are 38x180sec at 400 ISO with the Nikon D5300. Dithering, Flats, no darks and bias.

I was/am very rusty in processing but it gives a good initial idea of what this camera is capable of. 

Cheers,

Mike

On 25/07/2014 at 14:51, dph1nm said:

Remember to take a bias (or a 'dark flat')  at the same ISO as the flat, otherwise the flat-fielding won't work.

NigelM

Nigel, If I use dithering and only flats and no darks and bias, then flat fielding won't work?

Did I understand that correctly?

You had me puzzled there..

Thanks,

Mike

I might have discovered a low budget solution for my problem so I would like to share that.

If you take the bottom plate of your mount head off (when its taken of the pier) you can make it more frictionless with a piece of soap

Just put it on the pieces where the mount head meets the plate.  (you might want to use a drop of water on it)

If I now use the az bolts it goes so smooth, just have to test it again under full load but it looks promising.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi,

I know its an old topic, but I have some issues probably related to the pier extension. When doin PA with the AZ bolts, The polestar constantly jumps.  Cant really move it to where I want. I thought maybe the top of the pier is to stiff?  Been out 3 times now and could not take a shot of with decent guiding.

Is this familiar for anyone?

Thanks,

Mike

On 13/08/2021 at 22:19, Mognet said:

Does it work if you set it to manual exposure? My D3100 and D3400 refuse to take photos when attached to the scope if I haven't set that

Thank you both.

In APT taking flats requires AP mode, but you can get around it by using manual and then, like bottletop said, making a few few exposures till  histogram is in then middle and then use that exposure time for your whole flat set.

I also discovered that if you put the manual video mode to off (in the camera setup) , you can set the live view to bulp which makes the screen brighter (other wise its stuck at 1/50)

Hope I can test the camera again soon, the weather gods are against me lately.

Thanks for responding, yes my canon camera's could do this no problem.

I guess its how the Nikon is build.  Also AP mode doesnt work when no lens attached.. (for calibation frames)

 To bad since this is my "new" astro camera.. lol

Hello all, 

I recently got my modified Nikon D5300 and I am setting up as I type this. I got all my gear connected ok, got live view working in APT.

But on the camera itself I am unable to activate live view while the USB is connected. If I take the cable out, then it works. (I use that for focusing with my bathinov mask)

I don't like doin that, putting the cable out..

Is this how it should be working, or did I missed a setting somewhere? 

I could not find it, though I am not familiar with Nikon menus..

Thanks in advance,

Michael

I guess that means I am not so lucky.. 😅

10 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Unfortunatly, I send my camera out for modification and haven't gotten it back so I havent been able to take images.

Did you send to JTW ?

 

Yes I did actually..

Hi Kinan!

Unfortunatly, I send my camera out for modification and haven't gotten it back so I havent been able to take images.

I'm patient since the weather has been mostly couldy.. 

When I get it back and are able to take some shots, I will post the result.

Cheers

Mike 

Hello all,

I use the telescopius website often, but recently I noticed that images I took in the past were not the same in FOV.

Funny thing is that when I slide my camera crop factor to just 1 on the site (instead to 1.6) it looks ok.

Does anyone understand this? I have my DSLR, a coma corrector (that adds 0 FL), and neodymium filter.

For some reason it seems my 1100D doesn't crop? lol..

Reason I ask, I am looking for a refractor with a certain FOV and the crop factor can change a lot in FOV.

But now I am confused because of what I stated above.

Any insights are appreciated.

Cheers

Michael

Thanks for responding, I just made some flats with the d5300 on my 150 and 200mm scopes and it looks ok so far.

I do it with an extra monitor with notepad open and a t-shirt over it. My histogram is bit more left from the middle but I think they will do.

Mike

Thanks Ciaran, I started to get a bit worried after reading that thread, but your comment gave me some peace of mind considering I am always at F5.

I will ask JTW for a quote for a Ha mod in due time. 

May I ask at what speed you shoot your flats?

Thanks,

Mike

I missed the whole first half of France - Germany cause of that thread..lol

Amazing what some people do, writing their own program to counter problems, because Nikon refuses to help.

My d5300 comes tomorrow, hope I am lucky with my Nikon endevours..

21 hours ago, R26 oldtimer said:

I've tried with a 500D, 600D and a 700D. The 600 and 700 are the same (astrophotography concerned) and just a bit better than the 500. Lately I've acquired a nikon D5300 which produces much better data, despite the terrible live view. Also works fine with APT without additions cables.

P.s. my focal lengths go from 480 to 750 mm

Do you also have problems shooting flats in APT? I read that A wont work if there are no lenses attached and that you need to manually enter the settings and use M mode.

Didnt know I could use Nikon lenses on Canon. But well, I dont have any Nikon lenses yet. But thanks for the info.

Yes I am aware. Thats why I had my 1100D modified. Blew me away when I saw my first Orion with that.

btw, I found a cheap Nikon 5300 as R26 Oldtimer suggested so I am curious how that will turn out.

Was busy with finding power supplies, T-mounts etc they all need to be replaced but I feel kinda excited trying it out.

Maybe in the future I try get a dedicated one, hard to say since sometimes this hobby get on pause a while.

That's a really nice image, you gave me something to think about

thanks!

20 minutes ago, R26 oldtimer said:

I've tried with a 500D, 600D and a 700D. The 600 and 700 are the same (astrophotography concerned) and just a bit better than the 500. Lately I've acquired a nikon D5300 which produces much better data, despite the terrible live view. Also works fine with APT without additions cables.

P.s. my focal lengths go from 480 to 750 mm

I was actually also looking at Nikon, because I read the same, that it produces nice images..but since I am so used to canon, bit hesitant to switch.  Probably need another t-connector etc.

I thought it couldn't be controlled from pc, good you mentioned that, I use APT to.

Is it easy to configure, use?

Thanks for responding. I was looking at the 800D, but so far I found that even with all the new processors and upgrades, you see only slight difference in images, just more convience in moveable screen and wifi etc. Ill probably try my unmodded 600D and see where it gets me.

Thanks!

Thanks for your input, I am more of a DSLR guy, but Ill look into second hand options for a dedicated one.

Thanks.

Thanks for responding.

Yes but that would start around the 800$, and I don't want to spend that much..

Hello all,

My trustworthy modded canon 1100D stopped connecting to my pc making it unusable.
Hope I can it repaired. 
Meanwhile I was wondering, since its an old camera, maybe I can get something newer. (I do have an unmodded 600d)
More pixels, newer digic version, movable screen etc.
But to my surprise, when looking at newer camera's, the pixel size goes down a lot and with my 1000mm focal length I am reaching the over-sampling limit. 

Although for me this is something I am recently aware of, I am not sure its noticeable in images.
Anyway, did anyone went up from a 1100D camera and is happy with the switch? I am aiming at an affordable upgrade so don't mention de canon Ra.. lol

Thanks in advance.
Mike

For people who didn't catch up on this:

If you are installing Ascom 6.5 and you use stellarium 0.20+ and the new devicehub, you can expect some bad crashes.

On a fresh installed machine I had APT and Stellarium force close several times. CDC seems to work ok.

So far its seems that Stellarium doesn't play well with the new devicehub.

Its not completely clear where this comes from, but if you use Stellarium and Ascom, be save and use the previous version of Ascom till this gets resolved.

oke! clear Merlin, thanks again!