StevieO

This is the glory of forums (fora?) like this. I 'm in the process of installing all the drivers and software needed for imaging on a brand new mini pc to be attached to the mount. EQMOD was doing exactly this, randomly stopping tracking every few minutes. I was tearing what's left of my hair out. Then I thought 'This can't be just me, someone else must have been through this, I'll bet it's a settings issue.' So I came on here, as many times before, and found the solution - uncheck the mount limits box, and as if by magic, the problem has gone away. Thanks guys, for posting these, you've saved me a lot of heartache. StevieO

Problem solved - I got up at 6am today and let Cha from QHYCCD in China take over my PC via Teamviewer. He did exactly what I've done numerous times, except that he installed EZCAP and the native driver only first, got that working and only then installed the ASCOM driver so that I can connect with APT. I couldn't see any other differences, but that did the trick. But it's in and working. Thanks to Cha, and Bernard at Modern Astronomy who put me in touch with him. Very impressed with MA! And thanks to Stuart1971 and Teoria_Del_Big_Bang for their input. C'mon clouds, gimme a break! StevieO

Hi Stuart, Thanks for that, I've had the camera completely disconnected and powered down each time I've reinstalled. I have V6.5 ASCOM and have tried both 6.4 and 6.5 drivers, uninstalling each time it's failed. Tonight I've found a possible solution on Cloudy Nights using ASCOM Diagnostics, so I'll try that and report back. Trouble is I'm away from home for a couple of days so it'll have to wait until Wed. Watch this space! StevieO

Hi Steve, Thanks, yes that's exactly what I've done. I've tried installing it with EZCAP and without (EZCAP won't recognise the camera, nor will APT which is my goto capture software) I've tried installing just the ASCOM driver, just the native driver, both drivers, versions 6.4 and 6.5 of the ASCOM Driver, the beta version, many times over. I rang Bernard at the supplier, Modern Astronomy. He was extremely helpful and emailed me another version of the all-in-one package, but that was the same. I don't think it's the camera, I'm sure it's the driver, but if I can't get it to work it's just an expensive doorstop and I can see myself getting an ASI2600 instead. Luckily, the cloud cover has been relentless all week so I haven't lost any actual imaging time, but I was hoping to have started on my darks library by now. All the best StevieO

Hi, Apologies if this has come up before: This week I received my new QHY268M camera. I downloaded and installed the driver package, which contains the ASCOM and native drivers, from the QHY website. The computer won't recognise the camera. In 'Devices and Printers' it displays an icon labelled 'Westbridge' with an exclamation triangle and the words Driver Error and Driver Unavailable. In Device Manager it says 'Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed). I've done this numerous times, each time uninstalling before I try again. At first I thought it was my (fairly) old laptop, which runs Windows 8.1 and which runs all my other image capture software, including my ATIK 383, without problems. So I splashed out on a new Beelink mini PC from FLO, running Windows 10 Pro, and it is still happening. I've now spent several hours on this and am ready to return the QHY if I can't find a solution. I'd be grateful for any tips on how to get this problem sorted. Merry Christmas! StevieO

Thanks, for some reason PCC won't plate solve when I try it, so I use normal colour calibration. I've input the correct focal distance and pixel size but one of the other settings must be wrong. I'm still in my first week with PI but am learning fast. Since posting the pic I've come up with another version using a star mask in PI to prevent oversaturating the star colour, and it seems to have worked well:

Due to weather and other reasons, haven't had my rig out for months. Amazingly just had 2 clear nights and managed to get 11 hours of narrowband on NGC 7822 in Cepheus. This is my best version yet, processed in DSS, Photoshop and Pixinsight. I'd like to get the stars less orange , but am still on the Pixinsight learning curve so maybe the next version, or the next.........

My humble offering. I had to run each data image in FITS format through Deep Sky Stacker to convert it to TIF so that I could open it in Photoshop. This is 'Hubbled' HOO, with Selective Colour adjustments to bring out the gold hues. It was a pleasure to work with such good data, and I can't wait for the next one, as well as being determined to improve my own data capture (with, as it happens, my new identical Stellamira ED104) StevieO

Good thinking, will do. StevieO

Hi, I've just bought an SM ED104 and am wanting to put my Sesto Senso on the focuser. The small 1/10 knob comes off without problems using an Allen key but I can't figure out how to remove the large 1/1 knob, which also has to be removed to gain access to the shaft. Can James or anyone who has done this shed light on the process, please. Cheers StevieO

The video doesn't show the fitting of the field flattener and I can't see it in the image train. How is it fitted please? The reason I ask is that I've just bought the Stellamira and flattener and I'm wondering if it can fit internally inside the focuser and whether that's what's happened here. Regards StevieO

Excellent, I've been looking forward to seeing the data, especially as I have a Stellamira on order from FLO. I use Photoshop for processing and it wouldn't open the FITS files, so I ran each file though Deep Sky Stacker one at a time and 'stacked' it, producing a TIFF file for each filter which can now be processed in PS. I'd be interested to know if there's an easier workaround or if there's any loss of data doing it this way. Cheers StevieO

Hi, I've not been doing much in the way of imaging recently, so I've only just got wind of this project, which seems to me incredibly exciting, it's a serious piece of kit. One question, the 10 Micron mount is AFAIK capable of non-guided long exposure imaging, but there is an off-axis guide camera fitted. What's the reason for this? Looking forward to 'first light' being posted. StevieO

Thanks for that. I think somewhere in there is the answer. Looking at my flats I can readily believe it could be down to internal reflections, and I will try adding a 5mm spacer between ccd and filterwheel. I'd have to think long and hard before trying to paint the inside of the FW matt black, though! Regards StevieO

Hi Wim, thanks for your response, They're Baader 36mm unmounted 8.5nm. I hadn't noticed the borders before either. I've now over-stretched the Ha and Sii filters and they also exhibit the same thing but to a much less noticeable degree. 2 possible causes spring to mind: I'll check that the retaining clips aren't too tight, causing tension in the filters It may be that even 36mm is too small for the 383L chip. Stange that I didn't notice this before my long break from imaging. Cheers StevieO

Hi all, Since taking up imaging again after a long break I have found that my Oiii flats are exhibiting a circular feature on the left hand side (see the attached image). Doesn't happen with Ha and Sii. At first I suspected my filter wheel to be at fault, eg. not centring the filter in the FOV, but I've checked it and it's fine. It's not the shutter on my Atik 383L as the exposures are 5 sec. I've stretched the image more than usual in order to show the feature clearly. Any ideas would be gratefully received. Cheers StevieO

That's been very helpful, thanks. Taking everything into account, I think I'll stick with what I've been doing, which is 50% Luminance and 50%RGB. I think after all that creating a 'false' Luminance from a greyscaled RGB image will be noisier and less detailed than otherwise. S.

Wow, my gob is smacked, I wasn't expecting so comprehensive a reply, thank you! I was especially struck by the improved SNR to be gained from capturing genuine Luminance subs, and if I interpret correctly, that adding a greyscale copy of an RGB image as luminance is likely to increase noise, rather like stacking multiple copies of the same sub together. The last part about including RGB data in the Luminance stack was interesting, I will give that a go and see what happens. Thanks again! StevieO

Hi, I'm whiling away the short cloudy nights by trying to improve my processing skills. I have been re-watching Anna Morris's excellent video tutorials https://www.eprisephoto.com/videofiles/h1b3af346#h107c11a6 She has a technique whereby she creates a luminance layer by combining R, G & B into an image, copying it and turning the copy into a greyscale image. It would mean that all data captured would be represented twice in the processed image (once in the RGB and once in the luminance). My question is, how would this compare with shooting separate luminance subs in terms of capturing detail? It would certainly mean more time spent on RGB capture if no luminance subs were needed. I'd be grateful for any thoughts. Cheers StevieO

I too have been thinking about where and how to get away from the UK clouds. A simple solution would be to go somewhere where they have all the equipment you may need and use theirs, like Astrofarm or Les Granges. My trip to Les Granges (Hi Ollie!) a few years ago is still green in my memory and I still have images on my wall from that trip. More adventurously, go to somewhere like La Palma or Tenerife, and take your own gear. Easyjet fly to both places and, out of season, accommodation costs would be low. Then you can rent a car and drive up into the mountains and set up. My problem with this approach would the amount of gear it would be necessary to take in order to take full advantage of the pristine skies: mount/tripod, OTA, laptop, cables, camera, power supply etc etc. - enough to cost a small fortune in excess baggage fees. I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has taken this approach and how it turned out. All the best StevieO

Thank you, yes, 3292 works , and once again APT sends the co-ordinates to CDC which centres the location for slewing. Plate solving was something I'd previously shied away from but now that I'm getting it to work I'm anticipating being a lot warmer next winter! Cheers StevieO

Hi, I'm returning to imaging after a break and have decided to include plate solving as part of my re-education. I've followed the steps of this excellent tutorial and am now in a position where I can get APT and CDC to slew to any named object, and also to successfully plate solve using ASPS and PS2. Initially when I pressed the 'Sync' button APT would give the co-ordinates to CDC, which would centre the object in its screen and I could slew to it from there. However, for some reason all I get now when I click 'Sync' is a message in the log that 'Cannot sync to co-ordinates. Exception occurred)', although I can manually input the co-ordinates into the GoTo section and it will slew perfectly. I could settle for that but it's become a challenge. I wonder if the Planetarium setting is correct in APT Settings? The 'Port' setting for CDC defaults at 0. Should that be something else or is this another problem? Any ideas gratefully received. All the best StevieO

First of all I'd like to say Hi to all at SGL. I used to post regularly but lost my imaging mojo a couple of years ago after the UK weather wore me down. But I'm back, and to celebrate have treated myself to a new OTA, the magnificent Edge 8"! I've had some teething problems which I wanted to share to anyone getting one of these to save some time and frustration They're all minor but avoidable problems: First, needing to swap out the Vixen dovetail for a CGE, I found that you need 3 separate allen keys, all in Imperial (Thanks, America!) - 5/64", 9/64" and 5/32", to do the job. Hands up everyone who has these sizes lying around! As it happens, I own a Harley Davidson so I have a large Imperial toolkit, otherwise it would have been a trip to B&Q. I only got to know the sizes through trial and error so you'd need to buy a full set to make sure you had the right ones (but now you know!) Second, the domeheaded screws for fitting a finderscope and accessories are different lengths, so if you want to fit a finderscope to the 'right' side of the OTA, you have to get the screws from the holes on the 'left' - Why? Wouldn't it be simpler (and therefore cheaper) to have the same sized screws in every hole, also saving time for the poor customer who has to waste time finding out these things for themselves? Last, and most serious, I wanted to fit the Vixen dovetail to the top of the OTA for my guidescope. There aren't any suitably placed holes for this, but there ARE some holes of identical size placed right where you'd expect them to be at the front of the OTA (see photo), with 5/64" grubscrews as above, but which don't come out and appear, on closer inspection, to have blue Locktite on them. It turns out that these hold the corrector plate, and by interfering with them I might have affected the collimation - Doh! There is no mention of these grubscrews in the literature that came with the OTA. This is a fantastic, beautifully made scope and I'm looking forward to many years of enjoyment with it. I just wish Celestron didn't put so many minor but stupid and avoidable issues in the way. Sorry to restart my posts with a moan, but hopefully I'll be back with some first light images soon. Clear skies all StevieO

Here's one from last night, NGC7000 in Hubble pallet with my recently acquired AtiK 383L. 12 x 10min Ha, 6x10min for OIII and SII, stacked in DSS and combined in Photoshop, using the excellent Annie's Actions plug-ins. Looks well at first sight but I keep getting slight misalignment of the channels towards the edges, which I assume is down to tracking/rotation errors. Any suggestions or comments welcome. Cheers StevieO

Earlier on in this thread I posted my new TS Star 71 as it came out of the box. Here it is (almost) ready for its first light. I fitted a SW finder shoe to hold the finder/guider, having first drilled countersunk holes into the shoe to fit the lengthwise orientation of the finder holes on the scope. StevieO