Atreta

Could someone please post a picture of the secondary viewed from a collimation cap? I ask because I'm trying to align the secondary mirror to the primary mirror  but can only make it to show two of the three primary clips..

Thanks. 

Just downloaded it. It's fine with my moto z. 

I'd love to see too an apt, the main one,  for android. Is there a possibility? 

Thanks Yoddha

Beautiful image, Carole

On 10/17/2017 at 10:30, alacant said:

M31: Canon 700d. What a pity we don't have quite enough FOV to fit it all in. Which gives the perfect excuse not to bother collecting any more data for the faint dust at the edges! Thanks for looking and clear skies. 

WOW

that's an amzing image.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

First light: Markarian's Chain. Having got used to 208mm f3.9, the first thing that strikes you is how much longer you need to get anywhere near... but hey, just look at that FOV...

Glad you got the 130pds, welcome to the club

Are you using a cc? I'm waiting for my spacers to arrive so i can use mine.

 Very nice first light for the 130pds. Congrats

7 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi. 20mm should do it for a dslr. HTH.

Thats nice,  i'm using a low profile  t ring,  but i have another one with about 10mm, so i'd need just another 10mm?

2 hours ago, rotatux said:

Splendid, nice colors and I can guess more "hidden" data. With more subs and some processing (push more, strip some background, ...) a very nice image will come

Your T5i camera seems to be a modern one, maybe you could push up the ISO a bit (e.g. 800-1600) to reduce sub duration and get more frames per session, while keeping the best dynamic range possible ?

Thanks,  that was just a test shot to see how guuding was.  I normaly use iso 800 with my imaging.  Gonna give it a go again  this weekend. 

thanks a lot, Wim

I have a GSO coma corretor but i don't have any spacers to use with it. Gonna have to import it along with an LP filter.

PHDLab shows 40' 30" polar alignment error, a bit on the high side, gonna try again this weekend to shorten it.

Great news, got to test it out tonight, did some play with eqmod and stellarium to get my way around it, then  ran phd2 drift alignment and did a rough azimuth adjustment, didn't bother with altitude adjustments this time.

guiding was a lot better and i did a single 5 minutes test shot. here it is:

m8 - lagoon nebula 1x300s iso 400

Besides the huge coma, is this ok for a 5 minutes sub? Let's hope it's not just beginners luck 

thanks a lot for all the help so far,  sure i'm gonna need more.

17 hours ago, spillage said:

I can only add that you us a eqdir and allow phd to drift align until the graph starts moving along. I find that until the graph starts moving my pa will not settle down.

I got to connect my mount with eqmod through pc direct mode,  tested everything indoors because the sky was all cloudy.  I did a lot of research and decided to give the pc direct a try since i don't have the eqdir cable and if this works nicely i may make one eqdir cable myself or import one from shoestring.  Lets hope the skies clear soon

Thanks. 

7 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi

Yeah, I think the asi also needs to be set to 8-bit for ST4 operation. You need to put your logs into PHDLab so that you can see what's going on.

Louise

I'll give it a try tonight if the skies allow it and get a cleaner log file too.

thank you.

7 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Frank, have you tried running the PHD guiding assistent (under the Tools menu)? It will report the status of your setup. If there is backlash or the settings are off, the assistent will suggest what to do.

Wim, yes i did, yesterday i tried and the polar alignment error was bouncing from 0.4 to about 10 or more, backlash i don't recall the value but it displayed some backlash too.

if i'm able to run it tonight i'll grab some screenshots and post here.

thank you

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

ps be aware that if you happen to be guiding with a qhy5l-ii in ST4 mode then your guide cam must be set to 8 bit rather than 12 otherwise it won't work!

Louise

Hi Louise,

i'm using an asi120mc with an orion 50mm finderscope. does the asi120mc have to be at 8bit too?

here is my logs from the previous night, there are some crazy graphs because i forgot to turn guiding off while i tried to do a new darv alignment.

PHD2_GuideLog_2017-04-22_005622.txt

the one below is when i tried to guide with only the t5i.

PHD2_GuideLog_2017-04-22_005622.txt

thank you for all the help

PHD2_GuideLog_2017-04-16_193117.txt

Thanks,  gonna post here when i do it

4 minutes ago, wimvb said:

I know the feeling. Some time ago, I had a similar experience. I couldn't get polar alignment right, no matter what I did. Finally it dawned on my that I was stepping around on the soggy grass after winter, and my telescope actually bounced up and down every time I passed too close to the north leg of the tripod. This despite it being on fence-post-anchors that are driven into the ground. Sometimes it's those small annoying things that ruin a session, untill you figure out what it is. In the end, I gave up on trying to get polar alignment perfect and just went with it. Guiding was good and the images turned out ok anyway.

I'm sure that if you come back another night, everything will run smoothly.

Thanks,  Wim

Problem is my guiding never worked the way it should.  It goes ok for a few seconds and then everything goes crazy.  The next thing i'm thinking of trying is to use an eqdir cable to help with it and send my mount to somebody try it. 

I'm feeling completly dirheartebed about getting my 130pds out.   Tried everything on the book to get a good polar alignment,  sharpcap polar alignment to alnost 0:00:00, phd2 drift alignment keeps bouncing up and down,  the synscan polar alignment utility.  Also tried darv method,  one star drift and so on. 

With my 135mm lens i can get up to 2 or 3 minutes unguided.

I don't know what else to do,  yesterday i wasted a whole night trying to use and came back with nothing. 

What could it be?  I'm feeling like i'm the dumbest astrophotographer ever. 

Great news

i took a shot with my dslr to see if the scp is visible from my porch, ran it through nova.astronomy plate solver  and it is visible.

Just ran sharpcap polar alignment routine and  i got it polar aligned real quick.

I was getting so disappointed about not managing to polar alignment and it made me excited to continue with this hobby

this is a great software. how can i become a supporter?

thanks a lot, Robin.

Thank you,  Robin. 

Hi,  just found out about the sharpcap polar alignment and i have one doubt.  

I live in the southern hemisphere and my south view is kind of blocked by a building.  Can i still use it to align my mount with the SCP? 

Thank you. 

very interesting,  will give it a go for my lunar imaging too.  

thanks 

this is my last night's attempt of the lagoon nebula.

i've yet to buy the spacers to use with the CC, that's why it's showing a lot of coma in the corners. also i need help to make phd guiding more smoothly, but i consider this a progress.

14x120s lights (it went more west and LP was washing out)

10x120s darks

iso 800

On 7/11/2016 at 04:03, tehmac said:

Ah okay. So I it's a 2" T2 adapter I need, not the 1.25" T2 Adapter? 

And the 1.25" adapter it comes with to use eyepieces in means I don't need a 2" Barlow? I'm aware the 130PDS comes with a 2" 28mm eyepiece, so I'm worried I couldn't use that with the Barlow unless I get a 2" Barlow ...

i have both a regular t2 ring and a low profile(thinner one),  don't know if thete is 2" t2 rings,  the more experienced guys can shed a light into this.  

no worries,  you can use your 1.25" barlow and other eyepieces with no problem. 

ps:  about the 2" eyepiece i think you'll need a 2" barlow for it and other 2" eyepieces you eventually get. 

i don't know if this is what you asked,  but the 130 pds comes with the adapter to use 1.25" eyepieces with it.  to connect the camera in primary focus you just unscrew the 1.25" adapter and attach the camera with the t2 ring. 

this is my first try with guiding.

7x130s iso 800, i forgot to take darks. edited in photoshop and did some noise reduction too. i'm still not using the comma corrector, will try soon to see if the spacers are needed.

quite  happy with it, thanks.

Gina, apt works fine here without a memory card, but i use a 700d .

maybe the 1100d needs it with the app? Also, the save to option is set to computer and camera(something like these words)? I leave it with that option or pc only and works fine.

I wish you success with debayering your new cameras, this a thread i follow with very interest.

ah, i meant to removed the asi and use the dslr after the PA adjustment with phd, i'll give it a try tonight.

thanks, Louise.

Depends on the coma corrector. You'll have to try it and see!

Enjoy your vacation!

Louise

Louise, 

just tested yesterday the cc and it helped with the missing chunk problem.

i have another doubt, since my finderscope is in the mail limbo. can i use the asi120mc with the 130pds and use phd to help improve my PA and then do unguided shots?

thank you