Lee_P

1 hour ago, ONIKKINEN said:

M33?

Plenty of broadband signal with also emission nebulae that would pass with the filter.

You may be onto something there...

M45 would be good, but my neighbour's hours has other ideas... I don't have an LEnhance or LPro, so can't compare. Not sure about the Veil, as that's a prime narrowband target. Optolong are pitching the L-Quad as broadband.

Ok, first test is complete. LDN 1251 (Rotten Fish Nebula), Askar 130PHQ telescope, 2600MC camera, Bortle 8. 10 hours with no filter, 10 hours with L-Quad. These images have had the same basic processing steps, just so I could stretch them for comparison. If anyone's interested, you can download the fresh integrations here.

No filter:

L-Quad:

No filter / L-Quad

To my eye, the L-Quad data is a bit better, but it's not a dramatic difference. However, this is the first broadband light pollution filter I've ever tried where I've come away thinking it was worthwhile using. 

When the weather permits I'm going to repeat this experiment with the Iris Nebula. (Unless anyone can suggest a better target!) And hey, I've actually collected a grand total of 24 hours on the Rotten Fish, so I'll mix up all my L-Quad and no filter data to make one image to rule them all.

5 minutes ago, Bluesboystig said:

Thanks so much for the feedback. I think that two things play up in my mind: I'm still scared of meridian flips 😧 and I'm scared that a passing bird will poo on the telescope (this is probably my paranoia hahahah)..

Oh yes, I remember well the fear of meridian flips. The ASIAIR is pretty good with those though. Maybe sit and watch a few to help with your confidence. Bird poo, I know that fear too! Never happened to me, despite my telescope being a big target, and plenty of seagulls and pigeons overhead. But hey, we've got refractors, it wouldn't be too hard to clean bird poo off!

Just now, Bluesboystig said:

Thanks! Theoretically yes, thanks to the asiair, but I wasn't at home, I went to a darker location just out of town. But to be fair, the L-Extreme should allow me to shoot from the garden (still learning my ways around all this really). My fault for not dressing for success. 

Ah, gotcha. You've got the beginnings of a really stunning image there. I think the trick is to have long integration times, and the secret to that is controlling everything remotely so your rig collects data while you sleep!

This is great, good job! Are you able to control everything remotely, to avoid ending sessions because it's too cold for you? 

Thanks for everyone's input here. I think I'll stick with deep sky, and maybe play about with lunar every once in a while. Meanwhile, the replacement ASIAIR will go back to FLO -- I really do love their no quibble returns policy!

2 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

My thinking has been very similar and so far I’ve only stuck with broadband OSC.    120s seemed a reasonable compromise for all the reasons you cite. It already takes overnight for my aged MacBook to process the subs. The poor old thing’s fan is whining away for hours on end. I’ve taken to raising it off the table slightly to allow air to circulate.  on the other hand lengthening subs runs the greater risk of having to throw away longs subs ruined by wind shake, planes, satellites, intermittent clouds etc.  Though I guess filters should reduce the contribution of satellite trails/planes. 

I'm not bothered by satellites or planes. They get removed very effectively during integration. Wind and clouds on the other hand..! 

2 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Interesting you use 120s. I thought I’d read that longer times are often used when using filters.  Have you tried longer subframes?

Yes, but it didn't make any difference. The only thing I found that mattered was the total integration time. I settled on 120s a sweet-spot for me of not stressing my mount too much; and not producing so many files that my PC would melt during processing. Very almost everything here is made from 120s subs. Come to think of it, I've now got a better mount, and I'm producing longer integration times than ever, so maybe I should revisit this and consider longer individual subframes just to lessen the pressure on my PC harddrive and processor!

1 hour ago, Ouroboros said:

Just out of interest, @Lee_P, what gain do you use with your 2600 camera and dual band filters?  

Always gain 100 and 120-second subframes, regardless of filter or target. 

4 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Have you tried removing the EAF and plugging directly into the Air and see if either camera or EAF disconnects? The USB hubs on the cameras have been known to be flaky. 

3 hours ago, Elp said:

I assume you've already tried not using the camera usb hubs, and plug every required usb cable directly into the air only?

Test complete. With the EAF plugged directly into the ASIAIR, eventually the camera failed but the EAF was ok. I think it's all pointing to the camera's main USB B connection.

1 minute ago, Elp said:

I assume you've already tried not using the camera usb hubs, and plug every required usb cable directly into the air only?

That's what I'm doing right now, thank to @david_taurus83. Seems obvious, but I must admit I didn't think of it!

Bit of a long story here, but the short of it is that I'm a DSO imager that uses an Askar 130PHQ (focal length 1000mm) and ZWO 2600MC Pro camera. I'm currently having tech issues and as part of troubleshooting swapped out my original ASIAIR Plus for a new-style one (256G). That didn't fix it, but before I send it back to FLO I got to thinking about planetary imaging. This is something I've only very tentatively dabbled in, but I have some knowledge of the basics. The newer ASIAIR I currently have installed is supposed to be better for planetary work -- "Imaging efficiency at short exposures improves by 26%. FPS on video mode improves by 30%."

So what I'm wondering is, if I wanted to delve into planetary, what extra kit would I need?

* A new camera I guess, but what would the options be?
* 1000mm isn't so long; anything that can be done about that?
* Any filters or gadgets to open the door to solar work? (My 'scope is a Petzval-like design, which may be restrictive here).
* Anything else?

If it looks to be too expensive or difficult to try planetary then I'll just send the ASIAIR 256G back to FLO. 

Thanks for any advice!

Just now, Stuart1971 said:

Also try a USB 2 cable on the camera, as you don’t need USB 3 for any camera for deep sky long exposure work, it’s just overkill, and USB 2 is far more stable then 3…

Yep, already tried different cables, inc, USB 2.

4 minutes ago, FunkyKoval35 said:

Hi.

Are you using USB 3 cables? In my setup I had a similar problem. When ZWO EAF was in use(autofocusing) my guiding camera(ASI120MM mini) was constantly disconnected - not enough voltage to operate both(?) .  After changing ALL cables to USB 3 ones problem dissapeared.

Disappearing camera from the list after disconneting is normal. After disappearing, the camera may receive a new address (COM port) and that's why you need to reinstall the camera`s USB cable to allow ASIAIR to see it.

 

Thanks. I'm switched to Lindy Cromo USB cables from FLO as part of the troubleshooting. Camera is USB3, EAF is USB2. I don't think it's that though; those class of cables worked for years, and the issue isn't timed to when an autofocus routine is in operation. It's a pickle!

18 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Can you explain how you got that colouration to the images please, were they stacked as mono but mapped to the hubble pallette or something along those lines or is that the actual colour you got during data capture. Totally stunning btw!

There's a bit of info here. I use a similar technique to the video posted above, but my own recipe! I'll make a processing video sometime. But it's basically about splitting the Ha/OIII and SII/OIII data into their constituent RGB channels, then giving them a stir and making S H O images which you then apply false colour to. It's a dark art!

12 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Have you tried removing the EAF and plugging directly into the Air and see if either camera or EAF disconnects? The USB hubs on the cameras have been known to be flaky. 

Good idea, thanks. I'm testing that now.

Ok, so here's an update and all the things I've tried to stop the camera and EAF dropping out.

* New USB cables
* New power cables
* Wiggling all cables
* Different ports on the ASIAIR
* Different ports on my cigarette splitter
* Removing dew heaters from the rig
* An electrician friend used a multimeter to test my Nevada regulated power supply, cigarette splitter, and all cables. Clean bill of health.
* Entirely new ASIAIR and power cables! 

Yet the problem persists. Options remaining:

* Dodgy EAF. But would that cause the camera to conk out? 
* Dodgy regulated power supply or splitter. Possible but the electrician friend doesn't think so; and surely an issue there would affect more than just the camera and EAF. Still, possible.
* Dodgy camera.

I think dodgy camera because last night I was testing and the camera / EAF dropped out, again. I could reconnect the EAF, but the ASIAIR wouldn't display the camera in its list. Like it didn't exist. I did a full power cycle but still the same. I removed the USB B cable from the camera, and hey presto, it sparked back into life. For a while at least. It disconnected a while later, but again I could get it back by removing and reinserting the camera's USB B cable; this time at the ASIAIR end.

So I think this points to it being an issue with my camera. Which I guess would necessitate being sent to ZWO for repairs.

Thoughts welcome! 

Good tips! Here's another:

12. You can create custom targets and framing, then add them to a Plan mode. This means you can image the same bespoke area night after night. Instructions here.

32 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I don't know about the time balance (though it looks fine to me) but your total integration times are the real thing, and so are the images. All the images have a real 'three colour dimensions' feel to them, the Soul nebula above all. That's a wonderfully broad gamut.

Olly

Ha, the annoying thing is that the Soul Nebula pic was one of my very first experiments with the SII/OIII filters, and for the life of me I can't recreate the processing steps to get those exact colours! Maybe I'll have to dedicate a day to trying sometime. It's like modern-day alchemy...

This is a good question. For optimal results it's probably best to alter your times and ratios based on which specific target you're imaging -- but speaking personally, I like to keep things simple and just try to get a little more SII/OIII, given how weak the SII often is. That also helps boost the OIII. Here are some examples:

Cygnus Wall
– Optolong L-Ultimate (Ha / OIII): 540 x 120 seconds (18 hours)
– Askar Colour Magic D2 (SII / OIII) : 570 x 120 seconds (19 hours)
– No filter (RGB): 90 x 120 seconds (3 hours)

Butterfly Nebula
– Optolong L-Ultimate (Ha / OIII): 450 x 120 seconds (15 hours)
– Askar Colour Magic D2 (SII / OIII) : 600 x 120 seconds (20 hours)
– No filter (for RGB stars): 15 x 120 seconds (30 mins)

Soul Nebula
– Optolong L-Ultimate (Ha / OIII): 300 x 120 seconds (10 hours)
– Askar Colour Magic D2 (SII / OIII) : 420 x 120 seconds (14 hours)
– No filter (for RGB stars): 90 x 120 seconds (3 hours)

Here's a PDF with more info about this filter: L-QEF New Product Info 20231009.pdf

7 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

Ordered a new ASIair, 😮 that is an expensive way to test, when you could have just hooked up to another PC to test, that would have ruled out the ASIair, you must have an endless supply of money…😂😂

If it fixes the problem then great. If not then I'll return it 👍

17 minutes ago, Elp said:

Likely cable or usb port, have you tried moving the usb cables near the port whilst they're plugged in and running?

Yep, everything passes the cable wiggle test. Except for the main ASIAIR power cable, but if that moves (unlikely in action because I have it tied down) it knocks the whole system out, not just the camera.

An electrician friend visited today and tested everything with his multimeter. All fine. Even opened up the ASIAIR and re-soldered the USB ports. No joy.

I've ordered a new ASIAIR from FLO. I'll swap that in and see what happens. Either it'll solve the issue or narrow down the suspect components.

Gah, sometimes I realise how mad we are to have this as a hobby 😅

10 hours ago, Elp said:

Yes but I suspect they draw a lot of amps and not necessarily in a controlled manner. You'll immediately know by switching your setup on and removing them to see if you get the issue, can try this during the day, have your cameras cooling and running, mount tracking etc to replicate night time use.

Definitely not dew heaters. I removed them from the equation entirely but the fault remains.