Catanonia

2 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

Are you stars round ?    If so 👍that’s good guiding 

2 hours ago, Same old newbie alert said:

Is it thou, errors on both axis cause bloated stars.. they can still be round

Small round stars are

Stars are small and round, but the question is really about CCD suitability that says "possible with good guiding" and I wanted to try and quantify this broad statement.

CCD selector tool mentions that under sampling is ok if you have “good guiding”

• What is good guiding?
• is 0.3 RMS on PHD2 considered good guiding ?
• What RMS would be considered good guiding

in my case imaging at 1340mm and 2000mm FL if that is relevant 

thanks

4 hours ago, R1k said:

Thanks very much, I was really pleased. I think I’ve hit a sweet spot with this setup (294 and 10” f4 newt). Image scale is 0.96 arc sec/pixel which helps.

 

What bortle class are you shooting from? I assume you’re using an RC10? 

Bortle 6 as well. 

Using a RC 10 inch open truss @F8 2000mm with a ZWO 2600MC Pro (no filters)

I think that is 0.78 arc/pix but not 100% sure as always confused how to work it out

I am on the limit of CCD suitability, but I do have very good guiding with EQ8-R and PHD RMS of around 0.4

I am experimenting with the 0.67 reducer tonight to get that down to 1340,mm @F5.3 (ish)

BTW : I am south Cheshire - Sandbach so not that far from you

Really nice to see a close up of this rather than the usual wide fields.

Stunning work

6 minutes ago, R1k said:

Here’s a single uncalibrated 4 minute sub

 

wow, that is a cracking sub

So 4mins at F4, I would need 4x that for a F8.

I took over 200 subs at F8 2000mm and got nowhere near the detail you did. 

Nice work

Amazing detail there   Cracking image

Can you post a single sub as I am playing with this target at F8 2000mm and getting nowhere near this detail.

Looks like I have got the 10 inch RC sorted now in terms of collimation / focusing etc etc

It has been a fun week having to sort out guiding, focuser slip, auto focuser, collimation and many other things. All stuff that makes this hobby fun and frustrating at times.

I decided to strip it all down and rebuild from scratch with a new collimation with the Ocal and star tests. Amazingly the Ocal was VERY close with a little star test tweaking needed. Was easier the 2nd time around

Also learnt some new PI skills and now happy to present my 1st "proper" image. I may come back to this and try to see if my lEnhance filter will give me some of the Ha jets

I have also tried to keep the colours as natural as possible with new new processing method in PI

Details

• M82
• 4 hours in 3min 1xbin subs
• Bortle 6 skies on the 22nd March 2022 
• 10 Inch Open Truss TS Optics RC
• ZWO 2600MC Pro - No FIlters
• EQ8-R Mount
• WO66 Guide with ZWO 120mm guide camera
• ZWO ASI Air Pro

Fun Fact - If you squint and zoom in, there is a skull or even a Darth Vader helmet in the middle of M82. Well I can see it   (see the zoom)

Hope you like it and happy for C&C's to help me learn more.

8 hours ago, Clarkey said:

If you look on the technical specifications on the ZWO website it states the 2600mc has a IR D60-2 cut off filter. This is at 700nm so should still pick up Ha. I think a lot of cameras cut off a bit earlier.

Protect window: D60-2 IR Cut

 

Thanks, every day is a school day

44 minutes ago, powerlord said:

DSLRs Usually have 2 filters. An LPF1 and LPF2 for canons. For astro modification the LPF2 is removed. NOT the LPF1. The LPF1 cuts uv and ir. The LPF2 IR into red - hence that is removed.

Not being funny, bit the folk who commented do know what they are talking about.

You would NEVER* want to shot astro with no uv/ir. maybe the moon, but then it would usually be either a uv/ir blocker or a uv/ir pass.

stu

*except - add exception here. but pretty much never. guidecams is another exception.

Thanks was not intending to offend anyone. I didn’t realise there was 2 filters in play

On 18/03/2022 at 14:02, Astroscot2 said:

The 2600mc doesn't have a uv.ir filter as far as I know as what would be the point of it being an astro camera if it did.

 

Im sorry to tell you but the 2600MC front window has UV/IR blocking.  

This has me confused.

The UV/IR filters in DSLR's are always taken out by people so as to get the Ha and other data.

This is one of the reasons people buy dedicated astro cameras such as the ZWO 2000MC Pro.

Why would ZWO put a UV/IR filter in this camera, especially when they sell these filters individually.

Do you have any links stating that the 2600 MC Pro has a UV/IR filter in the window glass as I still can't believe it ?  (Happy to be disproven)

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I tried that and got a very nice image of my house 🙂 
 

I did realise I needed a longer FL than the Esprit 100 for Galaxy season and recently did acquire a RC6 but still in the process of getting it ll set up so hopefully should have that in my armoury in next couple of weeks and maybe need to look at travelling or moving scope to bottom of garden to get some different sky to point at.

Steve

Yes, if you are limited skies, don't be afraid to move your kit accordingly. 

I used to have a roll off observatory, but it really limited my viewing, so now my EQ8 is portable setup. Spends most of the time on the patio, but can "easily" move it to bottom of the garden for the targets that require it.

6 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Definitely, I did try these targets, with my LP filter (IDAS P2 - I think) but I do not think that filter does anything regarding the moon so no decent data at all.
As mine is a mono I guess the l-eXtreme is equivalent to using Ha or OIII filters.
I did try Ha later on, as I had seen people often add Ha to galaxy images but that was not much better so put that down to maybe it was not as clear as I had hoped, maybe try that again tonight then add it to some RGB is I get  chance when the moon subsides.

Steve

This is still Work in Progress, but gives you an idea

This was taken under a 83% moon with NO filters (bortle 6) at 2000mm.  M81 was in same section of the sky as the moon for most of it.

ZWO 2600 MC Pro OSC

A little gradients to sort out in processing, but nothing mad.

Plenty of clear nights and I don't let the moon worry me.

Galaxy season is upon us and if you have a decent FL say 1000mm or more and point in opposite direction of the moon, you should have no issues.

Unfortunately M1 will sink down before contact. Shame

8 hours ago, Astroscot2 said:

The 2600mc doesn't have a uv.ir filter as far as I know as what would be the point of it being an astro camera if it did.

 

Im sorry to tell you but the 2600MC front window has UV/IR blocking.  

Wow, the easy question is why ? Dslr owners get rid of them for the very reason it blocks what we want to see. I struggle to see the sense in this if true

3 hours ago, Sp@ce_d said:

At 2 metres it's a challenging scope.. I know I've said this before elsewhere.. I was so close to going for one but opted out for the 150 frac after 5 years with an 8"RC. Looking at this it's still soo tempting.. you are amazingly close to pulling it off! Couple of things.. why not an OAG & would a shroud not give you the chance to do flats?

Thanks I love a challenge.

now using a shroud now I have got the big boy collimated.

OAG was an extra expense and so decided to try with the wo66 refractor I had lying around. If I struggle ZWO OAG is in my cart.

Just now, almcl said:

You can find it in Stellarium :

 

 

oh, i looked and switched everything on. 

Need to check again, thank you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44_Nysa 

For those interested

Just now, Pixies said:

Beat me to it: 

 

Thank you

Wooohooo my 1st asteroid 

1 minute ago, lukebl said:

Asteroid 44 Nysa.

Panic over, no need to unpack the corn beef supplies

Can I ask, where did you find this information.

Just now, vlaiv said:

Object aside, but how can you see into the future?

 

LOL, what a muppet I am, will edit

Can anyone help me identify this object please ?

I have an intruder in my M1 subs and tried looking it up in Stellarium and other places  and my knowledge / skills / googlefu are lacking.

Object is streaking now towards  M1 @21:15 GMT on 18th March 2022

Here you can see the streak in 1 hours worth of 3min subs

Also attached is a single sub with the object identified by an arrow.

It is a big boy and pretty sure not a satellite as it has only move this much in 1 hour

Suppose now is not the time to write it in an envelope and drive on the mountain roads

Thank you

Hi,

stupid question, but what do these numbers mean from the ASI AIR Pro mean.

are they FWHM ?

On 15/03/2022 at 17:20, powerlord said:

how far off was it ? I was hoping to avoid star tests - at least ones involving eye pieces and all that gubbins. Be interested in a quick write up of what worked for you as that looks very nice.

I just did an ocal collimation with my 12" newt - and a single sub seems to show its pretty much spot on, but be good to know for my other scopes.

So the 2600mc has a built in uv/ir does it ?

 

See my other "review" thread. Collimation was a little off, but hopefully sorted out now with help from others.

The 2600mc doesn't have a uv.ir filter as far as I know as what would be the point of it being an astro camera if it did.

As many will know, I have been getting to grips with my new 10 inch open truss RC and many have helped me with the collimation and other aspects of this scope.

Last night was almost a full moon, and M1 was low down to the west away from the moon,. This was nowhere near idea conditions but worth a go.

No filters were used and the moon definitely played a part here, but overall, I am quite pleased with the result and quick processing I done on the target.

I definitely need more subs on this as the scope is 2000mm @F8 and just not used to slow scopes.

So here it is, more data needs to go on, but happy so far.

Details

• Bortle 6 skies, 90% high moon
• TS Optics 10inch carbon open truss RC scope @2000mm @F8 
• ZWO 2600MC Pro and no filters
• EQ8-R mount
• WO66 guide with ZWO 120mm camera
• ZWO ASI Air Pro