Skipper Billy

I can't pretend to understand 90% of the technical aspect of this thread but I do recognise several rare and special things.

People with specialist knowledge that are happy to share it freely

People helping each other because they can

People seeing an issue through to its end

Men asking for help!!! 😉 

Well done all of you.

As an observer this is truly heartwarming.

Are you refocussing on each filter change??  Even sets of filters advertised as parfocal rarely actually are parfocal.

Lovely image and you have come a long way!! 😉

Its personal preference but it looks very green on my (calibrated) monitor - My personal preference would be to dial the green back a bit.

I haven't had any issues with narrowband compared to broadband in SGP autofocus but I do use significantly longer exposures. From memory I use 10 seconds for LRGB and 20 - 30 seconds for narrowband. Might be worth a try??

25 minutes ago, iwols said:

thanks billy what i mean is does the autostretcher setting or black clipping setting alter the image it saves to the image folder or just the image it shows you in nina ,cheers

No - it doesnt make any changes to the image - its purely a screen stretch.

12 minutes ago, 8324689 said:

Is that a pc ? 
it’s tiny! 
which one if so? 

Its an Intel NUC.

Believe it or not that's a i5 processor with 16gb RAM !

1 hour ago, 8324689 said:

Can I buy just literal 2 Guide Scope rings and attach ?

Yes - you might have to do a spot of light drilling and tapping but its far and away the most secure flex free way of mounting your guide scope.

It would be better mounted on the top Losmandy plate

The mount your guidescope is on now looks like the type that is on a rubber ring at the front and a two fixed and one spring loaded at the rear - v. prone to flexure.

Bolted down securely to the top plate would be much better and much easier to balance in all 3 axis.

16 minutes ago, iwols said:

does anyone know if nina saves the image from ccd to folder without altering the image

The drop down box in the attached image shows where you can choose how NINA saves files - you can choose from TIFF, FIT or XISF as a native format for Pixi users!!

15 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

SGP has a nice framing tool where you can loop exposures of say 2 or 3 seconds, without saving them, so you can hone in on your rough focus before engaging the autofocus.  

Anyone know how to do that with NINA?  I was looking how last night but the clouds rolled in...  There must be a way I'm sure.  I will ask on Discord.

In the section highlighted red in the attached image

Choose your exposure time, filter, binning and turn on 'loop' then click the aperture symbol and it will keep clattering away and displaying the image.

Bit more info in case anyone else has the same issue and finds this thread.

Gluing the mirror back on is easy but recalibrating the autofocus is not a DIY task and is apparently essential after gluing the mirror back in.

Two quotes received so far £66 and £90 inc VAT and RMSD return. 

Canon service centre not replied yet (Bank Holiday in Scotland today).

30 minutes ago, muletopia said:

I also use Sitech with my Mesu 200 (mark1). Do you have a mount model? I f so how did you build it.

31 minutes ago, muletopia said:

Another question about NINA, does it support QHY8L, my imaging camera

I don't use a mount model so I can't help you with that sorry.

I see no reason that NINA wouldnt work with a QHY8L.

I am no expert on NINA - I only started using it 10 days ago!!  The support forum is very quick and responsive and there is  a wealth of information there inc the main developers.

No you don't 😉 

2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I think that if this does take off (I know it is not exactly new and has been around a while but is one of the newest players I think) then it may ell not be free anymore, but that is fair enough, I have no issues with paying for good software, with good support heavens know we pay enough for our equipment, I just hope they don't go like SGP and keep it to a one off payment , that is fair (with maybe a very modest upgrade charge). 

I have no problem paying for something that does what I need it to do and works properly.

Thanks all. I have just been informed that there is a Canon service centre in Glasgow which is only a couple of hours away so I will give them a call on Monday.

I dont feel up to DIY on this one - its an old camera but I am quite fond of it!

3 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I find myself wondering if it even needs to be there at all?  Or does the camera report a fault if it isn't?

It reports 'Err' and locks up. 😞 

I really hammered it a couple of nights back - changing settings mid sequence - disconnecting and reconnecting things at random - absolutely stable.

The only thing I haven't done yet is a meridian flip which may need some tweaking of settings but I have no doubt it will do it - plate solve - adjust and crack on.

4 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I find myself wondering if it even needs to be there at all?  Or does the camera report a fault if it isn't?

That's a good question! 

I will try it without the mirror - it would be OK for Aurora but I couldn't live without the viewfinder for daylight photos.

Set my Canon 5D Mk1 Classic off on a 200 shot x 30 seconds aurora run last night. Brought it back in and downloaded the images and the last 20 or so were all very dark.

Whilst disconnecting the cables and dew heater from the camera I noticed what sounded like broken glass from inside the camera!!!!

Took the lens off and found the mirror was completely detached and fell out onto the (thankfully deep pile) carpet.

Anyone repaired this or similar - looks like a straightforward task to glue it back into its holder??

What sort of glue to use??

2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

1. Does NINA have a the ability to set a link to a previous image that it will use in the platesolve to make sure you are in exact same framing as a previous session ?

2. What Planetarium software works with it ?

1. Yes - I did this the first time I used it and it solved and slewed then re-solved and ended up within 2 pixels

2. Tried it with Carte du Ciel and Stellarium - zero issues

31 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Yes, thank you - does this mean that you are using the 32 bit version of NINA as I notice that the Sitech driver is located in the 32 bit folder and my understanding is that NINA 64 bit requires all ASCOM drivers to also be 64 bit as well?

I am using the 64 bit version of Nina - after installing it I just pointed the scope module at SiTech and it worked. I have just checked and you are quite right SiTech is installed in the 32 bit folder.

5 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Is NINA Windows only?   Does the world really need another control app for AP? 

Yes

Don't know but if something comes along that is better, free and well supported then I would say yes! 😉 

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

I am about to start looking at using NINA myself and I wondered what driver you were using with your Mesu 200 - I assume that it is 64 bit so any chance of you looking up its version number for me, please?

Bit more info once connected.....

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

I am about to start looking at using NINA myself and I wondered what driver you were using with your Mesu 200 - I assume that it is 64 bit so any chance of you looking up its version number for me, please?

Is this the info you need ??

Hello Steve.

I will have a look when I get home this evening.

David.