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Posts posted by Blazar
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Welcome aboard!
As knobby Says....it used to be fairly busy, but life took over I think 😉
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Nah...this is our own private group now...I will keep posting stuff when I have it. I also have the North American to do...will post them both in here and the imaging section. Cant wait for you to get your new mount and then perhaps we can try out a combined imaging target...
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Just now, knobby said:
Glad to have been part of it Steve (albeit remotely)
Looks like the aperture mask has tightened up your stars nicely, no more weird spikes !
Amazing that you can image under a full moon ... The magic of Ha filters.
Definitely a Pterodactyl though 😂
Yeah....the Pelican is very subjective...I will keep trying that PAPS side of things and see how that goes. I guess for larger apertures it might not be good enough, though time will tell. Was glad to have you onboard and chatting whilst being outside...it's so much more sociable 😉
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So first good try out of using some of the APT tools (Such as PAPS, and the Bhatinov mask tool), and then try to do some imaging for the first time in ages. The mount and laptop did not want to play ball at first (Windows 11 and driver updates that had been done without my permission). After all that we could mess around with PAPS and see how good it could polar align. As this was the first time we were a little slow, but im sure with practice and adjusting the config it will get faster. So in the end it was IC 5070 - The Pelican Nebula which was best placed to mess around on. Focus had shifted on the first few subs, so that needed tweaking. All in all it was circa 36 x180 second subs, using a WO Star71 (with aperture mask), guided by PHD2. its just a rough process job, and looked not so bright on my other laptop, but hey..... Great fun to be out, and just in time for the end of the good weather o_0...darn.
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3 hours ago, knobby said:
You might want to post this in the solar section of the main forum ? Not many people will see it otherwise ... The cloud Dodgers are ... Very rare 🤣
Yeah...I put them over there as well...but my Priority was of course this page 😉
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Hey all,
Managed to get out and catch some rays! decided to make some time being as it was sunny. There was a slight haze, but I think these came out ok whilst I was trying to remember how all the kit works 🙂 . These were with the TAL100RS, on the CGEMDX. Quark Cromosphere, ZWO174mm camera. Stacked in AS3, processed in ImPPG and finished in PS5. I tried various processing options and had to try and recall what some of it was...Might try and do this again at some point!
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Hey all,
Managed to get out and catch some rays! decided to make some time being as it was sunny. There was a slight haze, but I think these came out ok whilst I was trying to remember how all the kit works 🙂. These were with the TAL100RS, on the CGEMDX. Quark Cromosphere, ZWO174mm camera. Stacked in AS3, processed in ImPPG and finished in PS5. Might try and do this again at some point!
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Very nice indeed ! I might have to give that a go at some point (probably too late now I would imagine).
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29 minutes ago, knobby said:
Thanks gents, interesting replies, I've been stubborn in sticking with 300 sec / 139 gain ... might have a dabble ( and new darks library 🙂 ) going down to 180 seconds as @Blazar has done the maths from Robin Glovers video which implies 170 ish is optimal for my situation.
Probably get less subs lost by wind / satellites etc
Well its a start 😉 . I never said I was any good at math of course 🙂 kind of makes sense though looking through it all.
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I like the Red to be honest 🙂 but this is part of the fun....
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Never bothered with an ADC (but I did buy one), and I have a 174mm...I guess shooting with a colour whilst they are low is ideal and the ADC is beneficial... Jupiter is around -20 degrees below the celestial equator even at the meridian. Probably why I have not been out for two years or so!
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I have asked FLO about tuning it...
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Not sure what they are....though it is a gen 1 WO star71....I think it will need tuning unless anyone else has any thoughts?
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Ok @knobby....here it is. a cropped view...tried to keep it natural, but not done this in a few years!
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1 hour ago, knobby said:
Probably loose / poor soldering inside ... just pull it apart and have a looky
😨 I will have to have a look at it over the weekend. Think it comes apart once the knobs are off I would think. You ever taken one apart? what dew controller are you using?
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2 minutes ago, knobby said:
Had a great night imaging remotely again last night ( courtesy of @Blazar and anydesk ) despite several hiccups, a couple of changes of plan and some ascom issues we managed to align and plate solve successfully.
Gave up on ascom and used the Celestron CPWI software (excellent by the way) and after all sky plate solve wouldn't detect focal length, went with ASTAP ( which I use and trust ). 90 minutes into session we had M13 dead centred and I left Steve doing 3 minute subs with excellent guiding and cuddled up to Mrs Knobby to watch some telly.
No pressure Steve but show us the result !
HAHA...ah yes I now remember the joys of astro imaging. I am waaaay to tired! I finally took my shoes off at 2:25. I decided to take a few more subs (due to the odd car going past, and also a few more satellites). I also had the DSLR battery drain, so had to stop everything to change that. Once the first part of the imaging plan was complete, I thought about your comment on the guiding assistant....so I ran that whilst I waited to take the last 5 subs (once all the street lights went out)...it was just after that the battery died :-)....typical....and guiding then started to have a problem with a low snr alarm....so had to re-start that. Oh and found my Hitec astro 4 port dew controller now has a dodgy / loose cable somewhere (anyone know how to take these things apart?)
As knobby pointed out, there were a few issues, and I am grateful for his assistance, though as stated, I guess these are the times you learn the most! I am going to re-check every setting today just to make sure they are right. I now have quite a few subs, darks and bias...that I need to do something with! I will post it back (might not be today though, as I am still working here ;-))
So grateful for your guidance on this stuff. I was also messaging another friend who was out. he had a power cable issue, guiding issues, then a massive power cut knocked out most of his area, then all his gear came to life, and he now had black skies to work with, so I guess the sky gods do give a little back every now and then 😉
I will try not to muller the data I got, it looks promising for my first stab at M13...
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On 10/05/2020 at 14:35, astro_john_palmer said:
Hi, I just got back here after an extremely long hiatus. Dug the Newt out of hibernation, and fell deep into the astrophotography rabbit hole again during lockdown with some of the clear skies we've been having.
What guiding setup have you gone for John?
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Thanks Guys. I will do. The next test is to get plate solving working, then I might actually take a snap of an object! I think if I can crack this, then I will be ready for the Winter months with ay luck.
I can't wait to actually catch some data at some point...though then its going into the murky world of processing! I do need to do some reading up. @knobby, perhaps you already have some data I can use to practice on? I know we used to share a few bits and bobs over cloud drives etc? maybe we need a folder on here to share data?
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Well it is a little quite on the ECD pages, but thought I would say what a successful night it was last night. Managed to get all the new software, and guidescope camera and mount talking...and guiding at the first attempt....though did not take any images (that is reserved for now). Was glad to have Knobby on the end of the phone when there were a few 'funnies' that showed up. Still great to start getting my hobby back on track.
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Shame to see our once busy forum not as active. I guess life has got in the way for many of us. Hopefully this year I can get all the scopes out a bit more...Anybody get any astro stuff for Xmas?
I was after a few bits, but Santa was not on the same wavelength! Hope all the dodgers are well...
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Jupiter - Just past Opposition
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Posted
Taken me long enough to get the data processed and happy with it. Think this is the best I can do really. Usual equipment. Would need to dig through the logs to get the free numbers etc. Though there were 2000 frame captures. RGB +L.