AstroAndy

It should work, all you have to do is focus out (or in), until the star (I'd go to Meridian, and high up, maybe, as the seeing is better), until the star shows up as a circle with a hole in it, then hold a finger, or a screwdriver up in front of it, and where the ring is thinnest, that's the screw you want to start with (verly little turns). If the shadow of your finger (or tool), falls between 2 screws, adjust the one on the opposite side.

A slightly toned down version, less heavy-handed on color balance. I reprocessed it from the ground up.

Awesome pic of one of my favorite galaxies (and go to object when troubleshooting equipment). Details is amazing, background sky is good, and the roundest stars you ever did see. Maybe the core is a bit overblown , and on my screen it has a pinkish cast. Awesome result for about 4hrs of integration time. 🙂

Thanks, Clarkey, I guess it worked out well enough, there was at least someone who thought it had an ha-ish quality. 😂 This is a strange game we're in, where literally every error is >magnified.

Hi David Of course, there is ( https://wolfcreek.space/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Adjusting-the-Declination-Axis-Backlash-Orion.pdf ), however, those who wrote it saying it's not too different from the new EQ8 didn't take me into account. 😂 There are people who just look at a screw, and it jumps into it's socket. Me, I look at it, and it jumps right out of it. I am not a mechanical wizard, and have 2 left hands. I suppose if I end up having to do it, I can (few hours, maybe, lol). I'm the type who needs a diagram drawn for a 2 year old , and when I see things like ...is hard to get to, had to grind down a 2mm Allen wrench, I run for the hills. Isn't there a rule which says once you open up the mount to fix something yourself, you void the warranty? So now, I'm looking at clutch-gear interplay, hoping to avoid the adjustment.

Way this is developing, unless I find out it's not the mounts fault, I'd have a thing or 2 to say about the "Pro badge". 😂

Maybe Volvo should make mounts then, I got the old 2001 battlecoach years ago, nary a service done to it (not proud of it), and she still performs now as she did then, maybe a bit worse on gas (although that could be due to using it to stay warm at my dark site). 😂

Hi Michael I usually do a West and North movement before calibration, don't know whether I forgot that time, it seems to be looking more and more likely that I have to tighten the gear mesh, which I don't like to do (2 left hands). I've done a similar operation successfully on an EQ5, however, being loath to fiddle with 2mm Allen wrenches, I'm still informing myself as the first few times there seemed to be no perceptible backlash present. Even w/out the North movement, backlash was cleared relatively quickly, and calibration went beautifully in abt. 12 steps, that is why I was wondering how backlash develops (which it shouldn't after such a short time), or whether it was somehow already present but "hidden" when I bought the mount (orientation of scope and weights?, although my setup is well-balanced). However, orientation shouldn't be a problem when calibrating at Meridian and CE Needless to say, for that price, I shouldn't have to be monkeying around with adjusting the insides of a mount after only a few months, 3s seems quite a lot of backlash.

Itaren, Spokh (for the muggles, thanks, Mr. Spock), seems the consensus is too much magenta; I'll have another go (or 10) and see what I can do with it. Tried to get the tracking as well as I could, even though I developped a bit of a backlash issue that night. Dif-tor heh smusma (LLAP) Thanks, Dave..this is an image I can live with. 🙂 Andy

Thanks for the replies...@ Michael, that's kind of what I did, strangely enough, the guiding evened out after awhile, but it's the second time I get that msg (the first time, it didn't even move the guide star North in calibration). @David, thanks for the input, I'll have to check that out, and@ Callisto, maybe Gina will find her way to this post, lol. Andy

Thank you all for the comments, @Peter, Stargeezer and Clarkey, I may have toggled the color balance sliders a bit too much, and will check that out. Thanks for the feedback. @ Clarkey, it kind of looks like that, but here's a little confession, when trying to shoot the ha, my filterwheel, unbeknownst to me, was at position one (Luminance), even though 2 softwares reported it on pos. 6, where my ha filter is, hence one more hr. of Lum. instead of ha. Andy

Hello folks I finally got the chance to get the color for M81, so here is 4:20h in 26x10min L subs, 1hr each RGB, so a total of about 7:30 hrs (7 G subs), C11 on EQ8 R Pro, Atik 384L plus, OAG guided by ASI 294mm pro and PHD2, no Moon, processed in PS CS2, slightly cropped (rim artifacts). C&C welcome. Andy

Hi Folks Although I've been at AP for a while (even if my images don't always show it, ), I've come across this value using the guiding assistant concerning dec. backlash as my calibration and guiding left much to be desired yesterday (today?) night. Erm, this is a bad value, right? The mount, an EQ8 pro, is new, and has performed flawlessly until the last 2 nights. What I would like to know, how does backlash develop (mount is handled with conscientiousness)? Can I offset this with slight imbalance in dec., or do I have to open up the mount to tighten the gear mesh? Strangely, guiding settled down after awhile, and I could get some decent subs; also, the calibration review looked ok, actually, so I wonder about this backlash issue. Regs. Andy

Thanks for the reply, Lee...sadly, the colors fell by the wayside for now. You know how astronomers say don't dew it. Unfortunately, in my blue and ha subs, I dewed it. Now, wit my brand new heated do-shield, I won't dew it anymore. However, too much Moon now, so I have to wait.

Hello Folks Sadly, I lost a bunch of fit files (blue and ha) due to dew. Now, to save my image (and not have to wait for awhile for a reshoot), I would like to composit images (FITs) of different exposure lengths, sizes and binning, which means stacking and aligning in DSS (Scaling and transforming tiff files in post in PS CS2 proved to be a huge challenge, as the images won't align correctly, always jumps a few pixels). So, my question is: Can I resize them before I toss them into DSS, at the very beginning of processing, and how do I stop a strong blue cast to the final image (as bin 2 strengthens the respective histogram due to higher sensitivity). In a program called imageJ, there is a resize function, but it doesn't seem to work (it changes the files to tif ones, and DSS still tells me my pics. are of different sizes and incompatible. I also couldn't find a resize option in FITs Liberator. Changing files to tiff and then stacking (one color tif to a Lum. reference frame) produces brighter files, which are no good. Could I maybe use the autosave image? Regards Andy

Hi Like everyone said, flats, bias and darks are the way to go. Having said this, for a while now, I haven't done flats as they are best shot at the same focus and temp. after an image session, and when you have to work the next day, you can't hang around 'till morning twilight. So, I made them myself (synthetic flats): Here are a few simple methods (they apply to Photoshop, but the workflow can be used with other processing programs, I'm sure): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Zuo5hMxJs Andy

Hello All Things finally came together at my Bortle 4 site (except for some truck shining his bright lights from far away after midnight, had to use all my wizardry to kill a mega gradient), so here's M81, 3:20hrs worth of it in 10min. subs with 14 prime-grade flats, shot with an Atik 383 mono thru a C11 (0.7 reducer, OAG) on a EQ8 pro, guided by ZWO ASI 294mm pro(PHD2), no moon. Processed in DSS & PS CS2. Hope to get the colors for it soon, but it's a right slog with this heavy equipment far from home, and having to work the next day. C&C welcome. Andy

Hello all After a long time, I went out again to my dark spot (Bortle 4) to image NGC 2841 in Ursa Major. Finally, after a few weeks, I got all my equipment to play, however, trying to focus an old QHY5 guide cam. thru a C11 OAG (even stopped down to f/7) had me hopping around in triangles (thought I'd reached some semblance of focus during daytime but no dice with PHD at night) So, with imaging time slipping away, and a windy environment, I did the unthinkable and stuck my guidecam onto the finderscope. So, here is 4:26hrs of NGC 2841 (Luminance) at 200s (80frames), and 90 flats. Equipment: Celestron C11 Edge HD, 0.7 reducer, ZWO ASI294mm pro, Skywatcher EQ8 pro mount, guiding 9x50 finder scope, QHY5 PHD2. Andy

Hi Wael Generally speaking, yes, after lot (can;t tell you how many) of sub exposures (roughly between 1-30 minutes, the law of diminishing returns will kick in. Practically speaking, it also matters how you go about it. While a total 10 hour exposure (10hrs of integration time in, eg, 60x10min) is still 10 hrs., you have to factor in equipment (eg. guiding capability), & sky conditions (eg. shorter sub exposures for brighter sky, and, as was said up there, things like planes and satellite trails). I don't know what you use for stacking, but in DSS (Deepskystacker), if you choose, after registering, the image with the highest value, and set it as the reference frame, all the images will stack to it. If you use a reference frame from a mono camera, shooting in LRGB (say, a luminance one), you can still stack the color ones precisely to it, just uncheck it, keep it as the reference frame and leave it in the stack. If you wish, you can have a look at this, while this is about CMOS cameras, it's still pretty informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RH93UvP358 Andy

Hi Martin, tried a few different USB cables, too.

Hello Lately, I've been experiencing connection problems to pc with my new ZWO ASI294mm pro, especially to APT. It would either not be recognized, or hang up after awhile. Not fun to have a cam. not functioning having to lug an EQ8 and C11 to a dark site, set up from scratch, take down, and drive home in cold conditions with nary a picture to show. Checking into things a lot, and communicating on the APT forum (Ivo's advice was in large part responsible for my success), I have found the following solution (I will list all the steps, as I don't know whether one solved it, or a conjunction of them. I tend to a conjunction, because individual test steps still showed the problem). - set APT CCD compatibility to higher - downloaded APT 3.87.8.1 preview version (I'm a full user of APT, so I have access to it) - uninstalled and reinstalled the newest ZWO camera drivers (native & ASCOM) - uninstalled and reinstalled the newest ASCOM platform (6.5 SP1) - used a separate USB port for camera, another USB port, or HUB, for other peripherals - I no longer run other peripherals (like guide cam and autofocuser) through the cameras USB ports / hubs (I've read somewhere that helps, although one asks what use are USB ports to save on cables when you can't use them?) Just in case, in preview mode, I use 4x4bin (bin 2 for imaging, as I'm now in unlocked bin mode with a pixel size of 2.31um, binx2 will give me the native 4.63um), so download times don't interfere, and have gotten hours long uninterrupted performance with this camera, so everything seems to be ok now (I'm still going to get an Atik 383L plus, though, nifty little machines, those). Regards Andy

Hi Baz, No, no need for a star alignment with plate solving. The star alignment just improves the go-to accuracy (and in the case of s-star, cone error), which you'd already have with plate solving. So, setup tripod, level mount, balance, polar align, calibrate PHD, slew to target, about 30 secs. of exposure (at least with me) of where the telescope is pointing, then engage pointcraft. - Andy -

Thanks for your replies, guys, I now have got it to where it "can see", however, the image is inverted, eg dark is bright, and bright is dark. By this I don't mean the negative function, where you can change the look of the image within Artemis, but I get an actual negative fit file output (when I turn on the negative function, the picture shows up "normal" in Artemis, but the output is still inverted). I have attached screenshots (trees during the day). I've written Atik, meanwhile I'm still trying to fix it. - Andy -

Hello Folks I have an Atik 314L, which until recently has given me good performance. Testing some new equipment, I found the camera "doesn't seem to see" anymore. It will give me the same grayish appearance as if in a lighted room (or shooting flats). It doesn't darken when I close it off, brighten when I shine a light on it., nor change with 1, 3, 5, etc. seconds exposure (day & night) Recently having tested OAG focusing, my thought was maybe it had something to do with this, and had taken a 5-10 sec. long full-dark exposure to "reset it). I've also used different cables, and different computers, checked the settings in Artemis (also reinstalled drivers, no dice. Nothing untoward has happened to it. Does anyone have any experience with this, or would know what's going on? Is my camera shot? Any advice would be appreciated. Below is a screenshot of how it looks. - Andy -

Hi David Thanks for your reply. It was somewhat strange that one one of my computers, it showed the right pixel size, on the other one the 2.21 (which I also know about, from within the ASI software). You are right in saying that the ASI 294 is OP when it comes to guiding, however, the way I got my new setup, I have the choice to guide with a QHY5 (small sensor for a C11, even with the reducer), an Atik314 (somewhat bigger sensor), and the ZWO cam., with the biggest sensor). I mean to use the ZWO and Atik cams interchangeably as imaging and guide cams through an OAG, no sense getting another guide cam. Regs. Andy