groberts

Mastering Pixinsight ordered (book & online) + looks promising 🤞- waiting for confirmation information to download and get going. Also getting stuck into Light Vortex and see what you mean, it's good, though I never like reading long documents on screen.

Thanks everyone, whilst I know it'll take time and preserverance, I'm just trying to avoid the obvious pitfalls + find something that takes you through the blow-by-blow sequence and related processes for each step to get a basic narrowband and broadband image in an clear and uncomplicated way; at the moment I'm still battling to understand basic workflow. Obviously thereafter it's about getting into the finer points and tricks. Anyhow, time to roll my sleeves up and dive in! Graham

I purchased PI a couple of months ago but have not yet found the enthusiasm to really get going. I have looked at some online tutorials, of which Harry's Astroshed was probably the best, I have Warren Keller's book and watched a few of his free videos but frankly am battling. In general O find there's a lack of narrative, just lots of complex individual processes, without demonstating how it all hangs together or, as in Warren's case, just not to my taste (rambles + too soporific in style!). In almost all cases, apart from the actual processes the workflow is not clear, at least to me. Can anyone recommend a less painful, more accessible source of tutorial preferably on video e.g. would Adam Block's Fundamentals work better / are they worth the cost? Thanks, Graham

Many thanks for your help David. Just ordered one of these @ 37.88mm required this has a little wriggle room too. Graham

Update - checked again and definitely do not have all those items and am fairly sure I never did, so will need to purchase something suitable. Graham

OK thanks, I'll have another look. I retain everything, boxes as well, but this is second generation bought December 2016 and I wonder if at that very early stage these were not included? Although the info attached does not say Cool, they were (I think) the ony ones at that time + the items shown conform exactly with what I do have. If that is the case could you point me towards somewhere that would have suitable extenders - I believe the EFW and reducer are both M42 x 0.75? Graham

OK I've had a look and this is what I have, which does not seem to add up to what you're outlining.

Thanks David, I should have but will need to take a look. Frankly I'm bemused by the M42, M48, T2 etc terms, in general there still seems to be a lack of standardization between equipment and manufacturers in the world today, even after the VHS-Betamax fiasco + others, which I find very frustrating. Graham

I have a William Optics GT 81 with a William Optics x0.80 focal reducer + a ZWO 1600MM-Cool camera and x8 EFW. What would be the correct length amd type of thread extender to join the said focal reducer with the EFW? Graham

So cleaning the filters should work?

I have used this for +3 years OK but I take your point, do you know what size it would need?

OK I'll read that tomorrow Alan - sounds like I might need to change my calibration techniques. Hitherto I've been doing conventional darks, bias & flats and the results seem to have been fine, except for the 'fairy rings' mentioned elsewhere, which are more likely to be down to dust etc? Many thanks. Graham

OK thanks again Alan, now I'm begining to think I should leave well alone and just take a look at the sensor window and filters? Like you, I'm not aware of any icing or condensation problems but just thought it was good proactice to keep these things up-to-date. I did not know that bias was not used with CMOS sensors though you seem to indicate they might be sometimes- when would that be? Excuse my ignorance, what are dark flats + / how do they differ from darks which I've been using hitherto? Graham

Thanks to everone, all very helpfull. As you may have gathered, this is the sort of job I like to put off but after +3-years reckon a spring clean is a good idea. Kev - couldn't open the link but have managed to locate the file elsewhere + looks very helpful. Julian - that's good advice and will beed to check - I've already bought repalcements form FLO so hope they're the right size https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-desiccant-tablets-for-cooled-cameras.html Alan - so it seems the desiccant tube is really for use in the event of a condensation 'incident' and for routine replacement it's still best to remove the front plate, as instructed in the manual for the first generation camera. I'm not aware of any condensation issues but thought after more than three years replacement might be a good idea. Graham PS obviously I need a new set of flats after cleaning etc. but are new darks and bias subs also required?

I acquired my ZWO1600MM-Cool camera at the end of 2016 and therefore think it's second generation? I'm not aware of any condensation issues but have been having some problems with smudges / fairy rings: Amongst other things I'm looking at I'm thinking that it might be worth changing the desiccant, as it's never been done before and after looking at the ZWO intructions, as usual I am confused. Is this a good idea? Am I correct in thinking that you take off the silver screw (see image below) and attach the ZWO desiccant tube + new tablets and either: It stays on thereafter / until renewing the dsseicant tablets again at a later date? Or after leaving the tube + desiccant on for 24-hours, it is removed and the silver screw is replaced? The manual seems somewhat ambiguous or I'm just stupid! Graham

I guess it's possible Tom. As mentioned above I will use the summer months to take a closer look + refresh my calibration librbary. Graham

Thanks, sounds encouraging 👍

Somewhat unexpectedly I've just picked up a second-hand Lodestar X2 - I already have one with my existing set-up and find it to be excellent. I purchased the addtional camera to go with a widefield Samyang 135 rig I'm curently setting up and want to use it with a suitable guidescope. Now I've got the Lodestar x2 (I had intended using my ZWO 120MM and a mini guidescope like the ZWO) I'm now considering either another Willam Optics 50mm guidescope, which I currently use, or a SW Evoguide 50. Would appreciate any comments on the pros and cons of either, obviously I know the WO but is the SW Evoguide a better choice +and from first hand experience how does it the Evoguide work with the Lodestar? Graham

Thanks for your thoughts Carole. I hear what you're saying but can't say that's my experience. The so-called 'fairy rings' appear as light smudges always in the dark sky part of the image, almost entirely with narrowband and come out as fairy rings after fully calibrated processing, which I then deal with in PS. Broadband seems much less affected, if at all - FYI I'm 5/6 Bortle here. The smudges + fairy rings can be seen in all narrowband wavelengths, in what I think are the same position. Now we're running out of darkness for the summer I'm going to strip down the optical train (for the first time in 3-years!) to see if I can see anything. I see that others have suggested changing the dessicant, which I'll also be doing for the first time. Watch thsi space! Graham

Interesting thread - I live just north of Gatwick airport and according to the aforesaid light pollution map this is Bortle 5 SQM 19.84, though I suspect that in the early evening when the airport lights are fully on looking south it's more like Bortle 6, cerainly no chanace of seeing the Milky Way. However, in this era of Covid-19 lockdown my eyes, imaging and guiding tell me we really are benefitting from less light and cleaner skies. I wonder if anyone has any emperical data to support this from their location? Graham

Thanks Wim, that sounds like the sort of thing I was thinking of - I have PixInsight but have yet to tackle its use, this is another reason to do so! Graham

I shall be interested to see the outcome of this as I've had something similar, as yet unresolved - see this recent thread + look at the lower section of the processed image, below M106.

Last night I was looking to add more subs to my M51 project, now running on-and-off since the end of last month. To my eye the sky didn't look too bad, though not as good as other nights recently and when I started imaging the PHD2 results varied between ugly and none i.e. poor seeing. After waiting for an hour or so + playing around with PHD2 settings my sense was that there was indeed some thin, high cloud causing this problem and I abandoned for an early night and some much needed sleep! However, during the time I did capture x10 x 180 secs red subs which on processing strangely don't look too bad and I'm wondering afterall (a) whether I should have continued last night and (b) if these can be included with the previous subs data that will ultimately form the final image? Attached are two stretched and highly magnified r-sub stacks - Top = last night , Bottom = some from last month. Apart for any aesthetics (subjective issues) is there any empirical test that can be applied to such data or resulting stacks that can help to quantitatively compare their respective merits? Graham

For the record - I've now completed a test of stacking three identical sets of L subs of M63 including plane tracks (approx 30%) and, at least based on this, Kappa (K)1.50 and K2.0 show no plane traces after stacking and stretching but K2.0 is noticably less noisy. Whereas K3.0 still shows vestiges of the aforesaid plane tracks and is the least noisy. From which I conclude K2.0 is the best outcome, which was where I started but had been removing subs with plane tracks from the processing and stacking. I'm pleased to see that afterall I can now include those subs spolit with plane tracks, though would be even more happy if they weren't there - oh well. Notwithstanding, thanks for the input and comments - I can now increase my integration times by up to 30% by just returning the subs with planes back into the pile = result! Graham

Thanks Dave - yes in 50-years of international travel and geology it's right up there as one of my best trips ever (the other would be to the montains of Iryan Jaya - western Papua New Guinea - including cannibals too, at a distance!), which I would heartedly recommend. The mid-west of the USA is really beautiful + fantastic rocks/scenery and great night skies, much of it away from the more traditional tourist spots. Graham