tooth_dr

Bad conditions but nice image Billy. Great start 

Hi Robin

It's hard to make out the grid on my monitor here.  I'm noticing that it is out of focus.  Could this be creating problems in the image?

I'm looking some help.  I bought a scope with a Moonlite focuser and associated stepper motor.  I have this connected to a Hitec Astro Mount Hub Pro.  I'm using Astro Photography Tool to control everything.

Any pointers on getting the hang of using it, as I have no experience of this type of focuser.  I took some subs last night, but ended up disconnecting the motor focuser and manually focused it.

TIA

Adam.

This is fantastic!  Not too bright at all on my screen.  I know you prefer to do things manually, but if you can get APP to work, the gradients will be gone and these will be seemlessly joined together!!

Very nice, deep dusky red with star colours coming through!  A great start to the season!

I’m not a pro but there isn’t much wrong with those!  Plenty of detail in the centre and nice focusing.  A resounding success Adam!

Adam. 

Outstanding. Thanks for sharing this beautiful image you took. 

APT flats assist is pretty essential! I use it for my CCD flats.

1) choose a ADU you want

2) choose an acceptable range outside of that ADU eg 5%

3) select starting exposure time and max exposure

4) APT will take a number of exposures until it finds an exposure that delivers the correct ADU.

5) It then sets up an image run in the flats section

HTH

Adam 

Thanks for the help. In the end I went for 4mm aluminium. It was the minimum thickness I felt happy with after seeing it in the flesh.

I didn’t bother countersinking bolts and just used surface mounted ones that I had, as the hub fitted perfectly between them!

Shame about the focus but it’s still a very presentable image 👍🏻

@Xiga is another member using a belt modded HEQ5 and definitely gets lower RMS than that, the norm being 0.8 as far as I can recall.

I think anything below 0.5 is exceptionally unusual, and I wouldn’t say you should be expected that.

It will also depend on the local conditions too. My belt modded EQ6 gets below 1.0 RMS. A couple of nights ago my DEC was 0.39 but the RA was 0.76.  It’s on the limit for weight thought but still I’m content with those figures as I image at 2.13”/px. 

Real nice job Paul. Nice bit of contrast makes the wall really stand out. 

12 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

If you've got another dovetail bar,

just use it...
I was made to drill one extra hole in it.

 

Very nice looking setup there Roland.  thanks for the suggestion.  There is an engineering workshop a mile up the road, I'm picking up a piece later.

Thanks guys. I wasn’t sure, now I know 👍🏻
 

Ill get a piece 125 x 225mm to fit neatly between the flat areas. 

Can anyone recommend a suitable thickness for the purpose of holding this hub between the rings?  I have some 10mm aluminium but that’s excessive I think 😂 

Thanks

Adam

Already posted. 

Typical dramatic daily mail, it's not a 12 ft high dome, 12 foot high in total.  I'm glad I dont have neighbours like that.

' Melvyn Thurlbourn put the 12ft high dome on top of his shed in  Cambridgeshire '

1 hour ago, Ibbo! said:

M31 from home after about 6 hours with the Tak collimator last weekend.

Slighty better stars but still the odd shape on one or two of the brighter ones.

 

 

•  

Thats a nice start on M31.  What Tak scope do you have Steve?

As above ^^
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-adapter-for-skywatcher-focal-reducers.html

That is a fantastic result. APP is brilliant software 

3 minutes ago, Magnum said:

Thanks, ive never found I needed flats with my Atik314 as its a little sensor and I make sure I have no dust in my system. But yes I may need to use flats for LRGB with the larger sensor, though Ha is much more forgiving and I can't detect any vignetting or uneven illumination so far in the first light subs. in rare occasions that I have had issue in the past I find it simpler to correct with Maxims Flatten background tool, its like DBE in Pix insight.

I know I will get flack for this , but as long as the images look good to me I m happy 😛

Lee

 

Fair enough!  As long as you are happy.

2 hours ago, Magnum said:

Amazingly it was clear last night until 1:30am so allowed me to get first light image with my new (2nd hand) Atik 383L CCD camera. Wasn't expecting it to be clear so had to rush out after dinner to set camera - reducer spacing and re balance the mount, had no image planned so decided to go for the Heart Nebula as I have several images with different cams and scopes to compare to. Unfortunately I hadn't realised when I started that the almost full moon was quite close as it was hiding behind the house DOH :-p and consequently lowered the contras of the data. The much larger chip allowed me to almost fit the whole heart in without needing to use a smaller scope. This is total of 4.5hrs of data comprised of 18 x 900 second exposures in Hydrogen Alpha, using my Altair Wave 102 Triplet & 0.8 reducer at f5.6. As normal for my CCD images I didn't use calibration frames at all, just dither guiding combined with sigma rejection stacking in MaximDL, processed in photoshop. Must say im rather happy with the camera so far.

 Using this camera with the KAF8300 sensor is a bit different than what im used to with the Sony sensor in my old 314L. With the Sony the individual subs are so clean you can almost get away with 1 sub and still look decent, but with the Kaf sensor the individual subs come in quite noisy looking, but when you start stacking them it cleans up remarkably fast, and actually id say the final result is a little smoother in the end. But its the larger field of view I bought it for and it doesn't disappoint.

Nice image and congrats on the purchase!  I also use the same camera.  It's my first CCD, so I've no comparison, save that it is a LOT better than the DSLR it replaced!

I would still recommend using at least flats with the camera, (lthough I use a full set of calibration frames), as it will make post processing easier.

Nice Steve! A very faint one 

51 minutes ago, carastro said:

Message Sharkmelley, I am pretty sure he used to use a 350D and got around this problem, I think it was with an extra cable. but he can tell you how to do it.

Carole 

I think that's pretty much what we have all been saying Carole above!

1 hour ago, deanok said:

Ok thanks for the responses...... so I will need two desperate programs running ? One to fire the shutter and one to download the image , am I correct ? Sorry for all the questions it’s just driving me mad but worth the effort I think as the 350 looks in spot on condition for it

No you can use one program to do both. I would suggest trial version of APT

https://ideiki.com/astro/Download.aspx