dannybgoode

I suspect this right here is your issue. Android 4 is around 7 years old and I doubt very much that Asiair will be compatible with it. Indeed checking the info on ASIair you need to be on Android 5 or higher...

Best bit of advice Adam @ RVO ever gave me was to overspec the mount. I bought an AZ EQ6 GT when they first came out and astrophotography was still a distant dream. I have only just started to make the most of it however I am glad I bought it when I did

They are nice images. I can still remember the magic of seeing the first DSO's appear on my computer screen from data I had actually captured and my early attempts were not as good as these . I like your M47 in particular - some really nice detail to the nebulosity...

Beautiful scope and I now know who to blame for the wall to wall cloud in Sheffield at the moment. Would be lovely to get even just one clear night a month

EDITED - new Ha data used and did a little work in DxO. Workflow updated. Had to give this another go. Every day I seem to learn something new about PixInsight and I wanted to do more of the heavy lifting there. I am acutely aware I have been very reliant on Photolabs, LR and PS to fix flaws with my final image from PI instead of subtly enhancing it and I wanted to try and change this. So, armed with some new knowledge I had put myself to learning overnight here is attempt two with the following workflow: PixInsight; For each R G B I ran ABE and for reasons unknown it was better behaved today than yesterday. Then EZ Denoise and I lowered the settings a bit for it to be less aggressive trading a touch more noise in return for retaining a little finer detail. 5000 iterations though so each channel took some time. For the L I ran ABE and EZ Decon but left out noise reduction this time - again trading NR for more detail which I felt important in the scheme of things, particularly with the L data. Then for each LRGB I ran Masked Stretch and then used the RGB combine process to have the initial image. Now for a new trick to me as I had very much neglected masks in PI however using the lum data I blew the galaxy core to almost all white using Histogram Transformation and then applied this as a mask. Using ColorSaturation I pumped up the colours in the galaxy and stars and was pleased to see how well the mask worked and left the background pretty much untouched. Ha followed the same as R G B however I applied a smidge of convolution just to soften the edges a bit with a view to more subtle blending when adding the data in using the NBRGB script. I felt I overblew the reds far too much first time round so decided to try a less is more approach. I used Starnet++ to create an Ha mask and applied this to my RGB image and then ran the NRGB script. The Ha data is strong in this one so scale was right down at 0.4. To add the Lum I ran PixelMath to create a 15% gray mask which I applied to the HaRGB image and used Channel Combine to add in the Lum. The mask just tones down the Lum a bit to avoid blowing the highlights too much Then Photometric Colour Calibration and played with each R G B in the Histogram Transformation process just to balance the colours a touch. SCNR next - full whack to get rid of the green tinge and then just a smidge on the blue (Amount = 0.25). I was battling the colour tinge far far less this time round anyway and that just did the trick. A couple of final steps, first a hint of CurvesTransformation just to increase the contrast a smidge and then reapplied the saturation mask and tweaked it until I was happy. I them merged my second attempt with this one using PS CC. I also added just a hint of some diffraction spikes to some of the stars. I have the PI only image as a bottom layer and then added the v1 image and applied the diffractions using Astronomy Tools and dropped the opacity down to 60% but boosted the saturation. I then dropped another layer of the PI image on top and dropped the opacity on that down to 65%. Overall I think this about balances the Ha and the stunning sparkling blues of the galaxy whilst retaining a soft overall look with plenty of detail. Finally into DxO as I wanted a little punch whilst retaining the dust lanes etc as far out into the arms as possible. DxO has a feature called ClearView plus which is incredibly effective when dealing with terrestrial images. It is not entirely unlike HDR but adds punch in a different way. However, it is usually too much at default settings for DSO's etc. So I added in just a hint and then used the colour wheel feature to selectively add a bit of saturation and to change the luminance of the blues and reds. The colour wheel works quite differently to LR's HSL slides and can remove or enhance colours as you see them and does not subtract them from the overall RGB mix. Very handy for killing visible greens without changing the rest of the colour balance.. A touch of vibrancy and saturation, a tweak of NR and contrast finally some control points on the outer rim of the nebulosity to control some colour tinges. I am now calling this done. Honestly there is so much in this data and it's fascinating to see so many different interpretations of it however I fear madness descending if I continue to faff and fiddle. Overall this left me with a final image that I was pretty pleased with - certainly my best attempt at getting a decent image just out of PixInsight and then minor tweaks in PS and DxO. Certainly not something I would have dreamt of being able to do 48 hours ago...

Blimey - I hope I have done this lovely data justice. Still pretty new to processing and PI in particular however it is very nice to be able to work with quality source material. Trying to balance detail without oversaturating the colours or destroying the fine detail in the dust lanes was a real challenge. Loosely my workflow was as follows: PixInsight; EZDenoise and EZDecon the LRGB data. I also ran DBE on the B however it did not seem to have a positive effect of the L R & G so I didn't repeat on these. LRGB combination playing with the various intensities to get a decent base image. DBE and EZDenoise on the Ha and then used the NBRGB script to add in the Ha data. EZHDR and EZ Star Reduction and the much playing with the histogram levels for each R G B individually. EZ Soft Stretch and then more playing with the histogram levels for each R G B again. So much subtle detail in the dust lanes and getting this balanced with having a bit of punch to the blue and red was hard for me. As was the red tinge to the background as a result of adding in the Ha data. I wanted to minimise this without upsetting the colour balance too much. Overall it took me 3 or 4 attempts in PI to get a base TIFF I was happy with to shove into other software for final editing. DxO PhotoLabs 3; PL3 has a brilliant colour wheel feature that seems to work differently to the HSL sliders in LR. It makes tweaking saturation and luminosity a doddle. So totally removed the green and enhanced the blues and red. Added just a hint of what DxO call ClearView. It's a bit of an HDR type effect and is very effective for daylight terrestrial photography however at default settings it is too much for astro work so just added in a hint. Little bit of a play with vibrancy and saturation also. Finally I added in a number of control points around the main structure of the galaxy and used this to null out the red in the background whilst leaving the main nebulosity of the galaxy intact. PS CC; Finally into PS and applied a few Astronomy Tools actions - Enhance DSO, Deep Space Noise Reduction and Make Stars Smaller Then a tweak of contract and vibrancy & saturation and I think that I am done.

To align the finder scope it is sometimes better to work a bit in reverse and use a terrestrial object instead. Do you have any telegraph poles, radio masts or the like visible but a mile or two away? Get the scope focused on a far away land based object and then look through the finder scope. As the finder scope it a wider field of view you are likely to see the object your scope is pointing at so adjust the finder so the same object is centred on the crosshairs. It can be a bit hit and miss and also use the longest focal length eyepiece you have in the scope to give you a wider field of view there too. Any questions just holler...

Personally I think that apparent view is misleading - I have never seen Mars look a similar size to Saturn but it could be mind playing tricks of course. I think the issue is twofold; Mars is just a red dot through most scopes - you need a really good scope with quality EP's and a fair bit of magnification for to be anything else.. Saturn on the other hand has rings, rings everyone knows about - even people with absolutely no interest in astronomy knows that - rings that everyone has seen photos of and then bam, there they are in your eyepiece. I do not know anyone who has seen the view for the first time not get giddy about that. It is just so unexpected that through even a fairly modest scope in someone's back yard you can see the rings. Secondly, and this in conjunction with the first, I think it's expectation. We have this view of Mars of being almost Earth-like and full of mystery. It is the planet that science fiction is built on and yet when you see it. Meh. I think people expect to see features and stuff - a bit like the photos from space we see of Earth - and be able to imagine little aliens trotting around and no, just a red dot. It is the planet I think beginners have the most expectation of and it just lets them down. To be honest Mars let me down when I first started and I haven't been back for a second look. Now I have a good frac though I will at least revisit it to see if I can discern some features on it however if I had only an hour of scope time and both Saturn and Mars where visible I know what I would spend my time doing

Oh the number of times I've just got everything set up only for clouds to roll in. They usually clear just as I have given up for the night and packed everything up too. Ditto a perfectly clear night only to do something stupid like forgetting to press start on a sequence...

Quite excited now. As per my 'doh!' post in the Lounge forum I have worked out how I can mount my Moonlite focuser on my TMB very easily and quickly. This means I can attach the Pegasus to that as a permanent installation and quickly swap it between my TMB and Meade SCT depending on which scope I am using and not have to worry about changing step ranges etc. A few more little tweaks and fiddly jobs to do as well but this I think will be a big step forward for my imaging

I have an autofocus unit on the way which I'm giddy with excitement about. Will utterly transform my ability to quickly gain focus on wall to wall clouds :). Oh and a dew band to try and tame my SCT a bit and make it usable. After that it'll be a Pegasus PowerBox Advance. Never quite saw the point of such a device until recently when I've been looking at going portable and can see the sense it makes.

And no, I have never tried to plate solve or guide off an out of focus camera where the 'stars' are hot pixels or dust. Never ever...

The biggest issue with say a dark field with perimeter lighting isn't the impact those lights have on the sky darkness quality but what it does to your sights dark adjustment if you glance at one. At a properly dark site you'll let your eyes adjust over 30-60 mins and will do anything o preserve that adjustment and big perimeter lights are likely to come into play in stopping your eyes becoming properly dark adjusted. But, you are still in a way better position than many of us in the UK where city viewing is all we have much of the time and nice Bortle 8/9 skies, security lights, a conveniently placed street light etc

Mars is deeply disappointing for most visual observers. It is as you describe most oftentimes just a orange dot that looks very much like a star but a bit bigger. But think about what you're looking at and how far away it is and it becomes more magical, in my mind at least. You found M42 also and managed a photo of it which is recognisable and that is an achievement. I struggle to find targets manually so cheat and computerise the whole process but that throws up a whole load more issues and frustrations, not to mention cost. Wait until Jupiter and Saturn are visible though. Boy are you in for a treat then. Don't overlook some close up lunar observations too. The moon can be truly captivating

What you describe is basically what plate solving software does and yes it can either work out where the scope has slewed to and make the necessary adjustments to get the target bang in the centre or match a previous image to mean you can keep adding data. For a time I used APT on a laptop however since moving to a Raspberry Pi running Astroberry/Ekos I much prefer that. Brilliant to use all round. Doesn't use Stellarium though, it has its own inbuilt planetarium, guiding software, platesolving etc. To hit start, watch the scope go off and find the target, focus if you have autofocuser, start guiding, do all the filter changes, meridian flip and recentre the target etc all automatically is just magic

Wall to wall cloud here in north England and I am itching to get some imaging in! Good luck and I hope your night continues to go smoothly

Oh and they take some cooling - by crikey can they take a while to stabilise!!

Don’t confuse the mount type with the telescope type . You have a 150mm Newtonian reflector on a Dobsian mount. The 150 is an excellent scope IMO and with the addition of some tube rings and a bit of fettling, you could plop it on a goto mount and have a nice set up. The scope your looking at is an SCT type scope on an EQ goto mount. SCT’s have the advantage of having a very long focal length for their size meaning you can put nice wide view long focal length eyepieces in and still get good magnification. Their disadvantage is price. You could get a much larger aperture Newtonian for the same money so more photon capturing ability. Much comes down to what you want to use it for? Visual, AP, deep space, planets and double stars, lunar etc? For what it’s worth I bought a 10” SCT and barely used it as it’s cumbersome and it mists up at the drop of a hat. It’s bloody heavy too, sure it’s in a relatively short tube but by god it takes some man handling to get it mounted. I wanted to love, I still do, but right now it doesn’t get used. My 4” frac and 150 Newtonian do get used. I have some bits coming that I hope will mean I get to start liking the SCT and using it a bit more but we’ll see.

Polaris is a poor choice of stars. Assuming you are in EQ mode make sure you are polar aligned so the front leg of the tripod needs to be pointing north but also the mount needs to be angled so the parked telescope is pointing pretty much at Polaris. It can’t be horizontal like it is in AZ mode. Then it is just a matter of picking 3 bright stars you recognise. The mount from the park position will skew roughly to the first one then you manually adjust the mount using the arrows on the app, confirm. Rinse, repeat for the other two. Polaris is a bad choice as that is where the mount starts from so won’t really dial in any error correction. Does this video help?

The other thing to consider for DSO is your skies/light pollution. My skies are Bortle 8+ so I have little chance of seeing anything but the brightest DSO’s even if a chuck a 12” mirror at them. Now, if I were under Bortle 4 skies I’d be laughing with my 10” SCT. As it happens I mainly use that for close in lunar obs which is a bit of a waste really. If you have nice dark skies then you’ll see more through a 6” newt than I will through a 12”. The reason I mention this is when you start looking at AP you really need a good EQ mount and a smaller newt is easier on the mount than the 250 you suggest. With this in mind I’d be tempted by a Skywatcher 150P and perhaps a decent motorised EQ mount. The 150P is a great scope and will have a wider field of view to your 127 and has around 33% more light gathering due to the larger mirror. The 250 will be difficult to tame for a beginner to AP given its focal length and size and the mount entirely unsuitable. If you are going to stock with visual then it’s a good choice

For some time I've been trying to sort a way to getting a fine focuser on my TMB 105/650 without modify the rather lovely stock one as whilst it works well it's not precise enough for AP or very high magnification EP's. A while back I was rather pleased with myself for figuring out that my Moonlite SCT unit would accept a threaded nose piece from a 2" extension tube. Job jobbed I thought until I tried it and with the tube that screws onto the ota to hold a 2" ep I could not get enough inward focus. I was a bit disappointed to say the least. Today, having read an old S&T article on my scope I realised something. The tube unscrews to remove a 100mm extension 🤣. As it happens this is brilliant news as I have an autofocus unit on the way and now it'll be a very quick job to swap the Moonlite between my TMB and Meade SCT and have autofocus capabilities on both...

Well order placed. Plumped for a hand controller as well for visual work . Very excited now for it to turn up...

Got to be worth a try. RVO will let me return the unit if for some reason it does not fit but in any event I can use it on my Moonlite I have fitted to my Meade 10" SCT and to be fair that is the more cumbersome thing to try and nail focus with :). The whole focuser back plate thing in the photo is also held down by the little allen bolt you can see on the side of it near the focus wheel also so should be sturdy. Will order one and feed back accordingly. Will dramatically alter my AP workflow for the better if it works...

I've plopped a second photo in the post above. The base bit comes off so you can grease and adjust the gear mesh but other than that the rack is integral to the focus tube which in turn is integral to the OTA. Having printed off a template of the mounting bracket though and having taken a focus wheel off and measured the pin the wheel attaches to I think I will be able to remove two of the allen bolts and use the 6mm coupler that comes with the unit.

That's great news. It's not the torque that was concerning me though as much as just getting something that fits the focuser. You can see it just about in this photo and it is integral to the scope unlike the later APM ones that use Featherlite units. You cannot remove it and put something different in its place.