red dwalf

i would take camera off the setup completely to take dark's and put it somewhere completely dark, it`s amazing how some light can get into an imaging train, then make a little library of your usual expose times, i.e. 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes and so on at your usual imaging temperature, mine being -10 degrees Celsius, these dark's will keep for a good 5 or 6 months before they need doing again.

i can sympathies with your dilemma, following advice  

Yes indeed, I use DSS for stacking and can remember seeing these details for fwhm now, didn't really pay much attention too them in the past, I usually use the score to determine the best subs, many thanks, I'll do a few subs and try to use formula.

many thanks for the reply, sorry for the late reply by me, busy weekend here.

to quote one of your comments,

"Best way to asses if you need higher resolution is to examine your average FWHM that you get in your subs. You can safely use following formula to assume close to optimum sampling rate for your system / conditions on a given night (I know that is going in "reverse" - finding out optimum resolution after you've done imaging - but it is good for future reference to help you decide if it is feasible to switch to different resolution) - FWHM / 1.6 = sampling rate."

i`d like to try this but have no idea on the way to do it, could you, if not too much trouble, please go into detail on how to get the average FWHM in the subs to achieve the sampling rate, as you say at least i`ll know where i am and if any more resolution is obtainable, cheers

i use a starlight express filter wheel with my Atik 460, one reason being that i like the fact that it only needs one usb cable to operate instead of atik that need two, one power and one usb for transfer, plus easy to change filter wheels from 7 x 1.25" to 2" if you require them in the future, the 1.25" filters are ok with the atik 460

what is or would be the ideal imaging resolution i should be looking for under a bortle class 6 sky ?

currently imaging with a William Optics gt 81 without the reducer fitted and an Atik 460 mono which gives me a resolution of 1.96" per pixel, for greater detail should i be aiming to get this lower to around 1" per pixel or does my light polluted sky set a limit to the amount of detail obtainable ? 

or should i be looking for a smaller pixel camera with bigger imaging chip and a larger aperture telescope ?

was thinking of a Skywatcher esprit 100 ed with a smaller pixel camera but i`m getting confused by it all and can`t make my mind up, any help gratefully received.

I too was looking at these myself last night, looks like the version 4 gives a slightly faster f ratio and a slightly wider field of view although nothing major or noticeable, but the interesting thing about the version 4 as far as I can see is that a filter draw is available for version 4 which makes changing filters much easier, still looking at information and wouldn't mind seeing one in the flesh.

if that was my fist narrowband image i`d be doing cartwheels, excellent result.

best bang for buck telescope you can buy, a bargain second hand

i`ve used the Meade 3.3 and the 6.3, had no problems with either.

It's a brilliant program when it works, it's the settings that make all the difference. I notice that sometimes when i start it up that the settings change for some reason so make sure you save the settings information that works for you then load it up at start up.

On 21/08/2017 at 12:49, daz said:

I downloaded this yesterday and works perfectly - even with no settings in, so it was a true blind solve.

Rob - happy to test your image... email to daz@stargazerslounge.com if you like...

 

thanks Daz, next clear night i`ll try to get one

On 21/08/2017 at 12:23, spillage said:

@red dwalf If you have a separate guide scope then only use your imaging camera or else the target will be off center or miles out. I take it you have the mount in the parked position but unparked and are then running a auto solve first? Then choosing your object and solve this. Been ill for the last week and I cannot remember the last time of started up my kit due to weather but this will help you.

(when doing my alignment using blind solve I seem to always click the scope position to help speed things up).

Cheers

Spill.

i`ve been unparking the mount which is polar aligned to begin with, then slewing to a target, which has been in the right area of the sky and not miles off, then doing a plate solve using the imaging camera, nothing happens in nebulosity 3, i get no image appear like i did when using astro tortilla, i`ve also made sure that eqmod has not stored any alignment points as i know this used to cause problems when using astro tortilla, when i used it with astro photograpy tool an image would appear and i would get a message saying something like "slew to alignment" i`d click yes and the mount would not move.

Just reading your post again, you use your guide scope camera to capture an image for solving ? I've been using my imaging camera which I used when I was solving with astro tortilla, do it matter ?

Excellent ken, much appreciated, I tried again the other night but no joy, I produced an image with astro photography tool but nothing with nebulosity 3, even when using APT the sync was off.

Had some luck today using the program with astro photography tool, it displayed and image and tried to solve it, obviously it couldn't as it was daylight, so I'm guessing that all sky plate solver isn't compatible with nebulosity 3.

can you confirm that the camera you are using definitely provides a workable image under your ASCOM settings.

thanks for the help, I don't see any image appear, can you tell me how to check ? I've just been ticking the boxes for connecting the mount and camera, it says the mount is connected on the bottom left of the program, but I see nothing for the camera, what I did try is taking a 10 second sub with nebulosity, saving the file and then loading the file in the file name box at the top.

Yes I did see that YouTube video but had know idea what he was on about L.O.L

here is one of the error messages i get, is there a step by step tutorial anywhere that you know off that i can look at, can`t seem to find any instructions on how to use it properly on the internet.

i set it up to use the atik 460, i`m sure i`m doing something wrong, not sure how to capture a reference image and what to put into the file line at the top.

first clear sky for ages last night and could not get all sky plate solver to work, i have put in all the scope focal length and camera pixel size but the instructions on how to use a basic and i could do with a hand held instruction list, i`m using windows 10, stellarium, eqmod,and trying to plate solve with all sky plate solver, i have switched to this as i was using astrotortilla very well until it stopped solving too, any help please or address to a good website for user help.

many thanks

if your mount is ascom compatible then you shouldn`t need the st 4 cable, i use the zwo asi driver usually at the bottom of the driver list in phd 2, i would recommend that you use phd 2 and the latest snapshot version, google phd 2 snapshots for the most up to date version. 

Looks a great setup, can I have your thoughts on the lakeside focuser please, looking at getting one for my GT 81, or my other choice is a moonlight focuser and a moonlight motor focuser to go with it, although this adds another £500 to the bill, is the spend every done L.O.L

can you recomend a reasonable price ip camera Mike, looking to install something into my obsy

super i`ll give that a try later finger crossed.

i did a few 10 min subs on the horse head neb the other night before i lost it over the houses so would love to add more to it if i can get the same position on it, previously i`ve tried to align the images from different nights but always end up cropping the image somewhat.

thanks for your help