bomberbaz

1 hour ago, herne said:

Happier with this effort from my first light.  Still room for improvement but better I think.  Will hopefully get more clear skies soon to add integration time.

I also just bought this dovetail base from Amazon to attach the ASI Air (or guide scope) as I'm not overly happy with hanging the AAP off the top end of my dovetail bar as I have been.  Will let you know how it goes.  (FLO sell something identical made by William Optics for more than double the price + P&P, so I cheaped out 😅).

Much better than the last one, more natural looking. Would happily have that grace my wall. 

On 09/05/2022 at 17:03, mareman48 said:

M101 was my first and still my fav, ( maybe because it was my first ) 🤔

 

I was just about to give up deep sky malarky after spending so much money on kit and learning how to actually capture these images.

Then I got this baby, one shot 30 sec expo from a light polluted back yard, that was it, was back down the rabbit hole.

that is about what I saw visually at a really dark site, probably a little less detail as the swirls were really only hints rather than definite. Good capture for 30 seconds. 

1 hour ago, LaurenceT said:

Your rig is very similar to mine, different guide camera. I'm sure you've mentioned it before but I can't find it, I'm intrigued by the silver plate mounted behind the guide camera for mounting the Asiair. Is this a home made plate?

Did you have any problems with balance on the declination axis with the Asiair mounted at the back?

Edit: just seen your comment about balance better with the new dovetail bar, was the imbalance due to the positioning of the Asiair?

More than likely laurence but it is an ultra light alloy is the plate. (My son works in aerospace industry)

The issue with balance was ever so slight, I mean it  still worked fine but long term imbalance should not be left. If ypu look at the two pictures with differing dovetails you will note it has moved by less than 2cm. 

Regarding the Air+ position, I have seen some rigs that look like a spiders nest gone haywire and that would drive me nuts, haha. 

I wanted it mounting where it was central to all the peripherals so I could keep it tidy.

Changed dovetail on main scope. The bracket, which is 3D printed came with a supplied plastic one (see pictures above).

However it was slightly unbalanced and the green one allows me to address this and also looks sohhh much nicer. 

12 hours ago, happy-kat said:

I'm using a different FF but I only got one filter into that adaptor. When I took an image with no FF and a DSLR curvature was pretty big and I do have after with the FF to see the difference, you could try without the FF and your OSC and see, I've only used my OSC with a FF I didn't take a before shot.

Dya know what, sometimes the most obvious answers are the ones you don't think of.  I honestly never thought of just taking a few basic pictures and comparing, dohhh!

Thanks Steve  @Second Time Around. I have just checked Amazon and it's made by Alevmoom and supplied by Locyop, both chinese. It seems ok and only time will tell. Cost was £28.99 which seems reasonable.

I only use the Ironing chair once the eyepiece drops a few inches below my natural eye height to a level where it is no longer comfortable. I have grown quite accustomed to standing viewing with the dob and can do so in a relaxed and easy fashion when it is at or around standing viewing.

I actually carry a small step (white, plastic and folding) for the odd bit of zenith viewing but it is rarely used.

Cheers, Steve

New cables arrived already, very pleased with end result 

4 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Very nice and tidy indeed, great job. 👍 Do you not get any snagging with the mount power and eq mod cable. 

Cheers Lee, I like tidy.

Re snagging; I always watch it onto my desired target and so far I have not had any problems. Remember once on target it ain't going to move (or shouldn't) in dec.

Also there is a lot more free cable than there looks to be and it can go 180 degrees either direction although I can't for the life of me think why it would ever need to go that far.

Bought so.e new cables ( shorter) to tidy things up. Quite pleased with the end result, cures my ocd for now. 

3 hours ago, markse68 said:

for me I couldn't focus on the concentre rings- I bought the regular one and I know they do a longer one for older eyes. So it works better in that respect for me. But the real magic is being able to adjust focus with a slider so you can accurately align on the focuser draw tube edge then shift the focus to each successive edge and zoom in for more accuracy- its a game changer I think. Makes it all so much easier and I think more accurate. Plus its a fixed "eye" that doesn't shift its perspective

Mark

I am seriously thinking about one. I have a hotech laser, concenter and cheshire. Think if I push the button the concenter and cheshire will go. 

Great piece of kit that. I currently use a concenter and would love to see how much more accurate this is.

3 hours ago, herne said:

Had a play this afternoon from my first light with the new camera last night.

Deep Sky Stacker remains somewhat of a dark art to me, I need to work on taking my calibration frames with the new camera and I don't really like how the background colour turned out, however I'm still pleased the image and is my best shot of M81/82 to date by quite a long way.  I'll still re-work it at some point if only to sort out the background and will hopefully get more clear nights soon to at least double the integration time.  Some of the stars could do with a touch up too.

Other than a slight crop to remove a few stacking artifacts around the edges the image isn't otherwise cropped.

125 x 2 min light frames (I binned 25 due to satellites and a rapidly approaching dawn); 4hrs 10mins total integration.

Stacked in Siril with Bias, Darks and Flat frames.  I did try DSS but I'm still doing something wrong with it plus the calibration frames have room for improvement.

AZ Gti; ASI 533MC Pro; William Optics Z61ii; ASI 120MM mini guide scope; Astro Essentials 30mm f4 guide scope; no filters; Moon 48%.

Stacked and pre-processed in Siril; finished in Photoshop.

 

 

Yes nice effort there but on my big pc screen it just looks slightly grainy. I think it is just a bit over stretched but if you have the data you have a comparison to redo it. 

Also agreed with Lee about the IR/UV cut filter. I made a recent post about that and the difference with and without the filter was very noticeable. I have the astronomik L2.

Thanks for the replies folks.

I have switched the cables around so both cameras will be using USB3. I will store info direct to the AIR+ memory and transfer data to a USB stick after my sessions end. (I had noticed the lag in data uploading but never twigged it was the USB speed)

Finally I have ordered some shorter cables to tidy it all up.

Steve

Hello all.

I use for my imaging an evoguide Sky-Watcher EvoGuide 50ED Guidescope | First Light Optics and it's accompanying FF Sky-Watcher Field Flattener for EvoGuide 50ED | First Light Optics

I bought the pairing as it just seemed the logical thing to do but the downside is I cannot fit a filter wheel to it due to lack of back focus room. (Roughly 10mm)

Now on the upside to this is using a OSC I only really need a UV/IR cut and a dual narrowband filter and maybe a neodymium type filter. 

I can of course have the IR/UV cut permanently mounted using this  adaptor which is how it currently is Astro Essentials M42 to 1.25" Filter Holder / Adapter | First Light Optics

But my questions are, and bearing in mind it is quite wide field using a ZWO 183mc pro is how essential is the FF to results (will there be significant field curvature) & is there a chance I get vignetting if I stack filters using the adaptor instead?

cheers for any helpful info

Steve

I should have mentioned there are only 2 usb3 ports on the ASI AIR+ and these are occupied by the imaging camera and the mount. Really think it would be better with a third. 

6 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

Hi Steve.

The difference between USB2 & 3 is data speed, as @barbulo has said. The plugs are physically the same. As you have discovered.

Given that decent quality cables are a tiny proportion of the cost of cameras and other stuff, why not just buy a good quality USB3 lead in the length and configuration you want?

If your camera and the other end of the link try to run at USB3 speed, and the cable isn't up to it, there will be intermittent errors.
A few £ spent vs nights of frustration with kit not doing what you think is another argument in favour of spending.

HTH, David.

 

Yeah good point well made. See if there is such a thing as a 6 inch version ideally. 

Hello all.

I have on my imaging rig the guide scope currently using a USB3 cable but into a USB2 A port.  The USB3 cable is long and even when tied up makes the whole thing a little untidy.

I have a USB2 short cable with a right angle B fitting which would be far tidier, however the camera has the USB3 B type socket fitted. (This USB2 cable came with the camera btw)

I know it should work but will using a USB 2 B plug in the camera USB3 socket affect the results at all.

TIA

Steve

Collapsible stool for observing, intended use for sw steel tripod, skytee 2 and my fracs or giant bins. 

Here is the collapsible stool, certainly very portable.

and it seems strong enough

We shall see next time i get out with my fracs as that is what I got it for on the Skytee 2 mount. 

Not going to help you my answer because I never tire of any DSO or planet. 

I can revisit something from one year to the next and still look and be amazed by what I am observing.

Currently I am in a "look for difficult objects" & "revisit well viewed dso at a really dark sky" phase. 

Last time out got my most distant galaxy, furthest ever object (a quasar) and my best ever view of M51. M51 view was stunning, beyond anything I have ever viewed before in beauty. 

However the other week I did my first double star session in years and enjoyed it immensely. 

I guess I am something of a night sky butterfly 😅

Very interesting thread. I will have to dig out all my items that may benefit from a light coating to see if it is worthwhile. 

After that is my fishing tackle and box get their pre summer season tidy and clean.

Pfft, too many hobbies!

FWIW I will throw in my opinion of filters although tbf they aline very close to many others already stated.

Buy good filters, cheapos are generally not anything like as good as top names. 

UHC and Olll should be your first two because the HB is as already stated of limited use.

There are differing views on exit pupil size for filters but in light polluted skies you have a larger exit pupil and dark skies smaller. (Caveat; subject to object fitting in view for some dso).

Uhc 1 to 4mm exit pupil 

0lll 3 to 5mm exit pupil

Hb 4 to 6mm but I find 5mm optimum.

The above are a guide only. For example when viewing bright planetary nebula, eg; ring you can go far higher with the Olll. 

Some of my best views of the ring have been at below 2mm exit pupil with the Olll. 

Nice effort but a bit of a purple-ish tint to it  

That was amazing, I was half expecting to hear, "prepare to be assimilated, resistance is futile".

Stuff like this is good for astronomy,  gives interest to the greater masses.  

3 hours ago, Nakedgun said:

How do you play the audio portion?

Towards the bottom, after you click the show more button there is a picture with a play icon arrowhead ">" in it, press that icon.