Neko

1 hour ago, Gerr said:

Hi, I have an astro modded 650D Canon DSLR and I used the Optolong Pro filter in imaging M42 night before last.

My skies are Bortle 6 and I was able to take 64x40 sec subs (ISO 800) of this Nebula using SW200P Reflector.

I am not experienced enough in commenting about filters yet but maybe my image can help in your discussions?

I do have the L-eNhance filter too and would anyone recommend using this in combination with my clip in L Pro on an astro modded DSLR???? I'm thinking probably not as the L-eNhance is essentially a dual broadband filter and this would  limit the usefulness of the L Pro in the same imaging train?.

I wouldn't put one in front of the other..wouldn't make much sense. Instead you could do some captures with L-pro and some with :L-enhance or L-extreme, then combine them (which is what I'd like to do when I can afford to get one of those two )  
guess you can extract both red and blue channels (Ha and Oiii/hb ) and make sort of HaRed+Green+Oii/HbBlue 
I assume that's how should be to add narrow band to RGB, but since I can't try it can't be sure haha 
 

1 minute ago, Rustang said:

What camera was he using, I doubt it was a DSLR, which is where I feel it has little or no advantage. It has been mentioned online from  well known guy in this hobby that the extreme isant really suited to older DSLR's which is where I feel the lack of noticeable difference is coming from. I don't know everything and I'm just going on what I've seen around  that's all. 

I see, well, if is specifically on DSLR then I don't know.. would depends also if it is modified or not. But to what point would it be that different ?  The fact is that it cuts out more "unnecessary " light, so it contrasts more those specific bands. 
as I understand anyway... I can't tell either. I have L-pro, and a friend of mine has the L-enhance , I had a chance to process some of his files to see what comes out.  but then again he uses a asi294Mc , not DSLR. 
Did you check Astrobin for examples on DLSR + L-extreme? 

will have a look too ^^ 

Hi,, I know it is an old post, but I was looking for this info!

Although, one thing... the original Toshiba ER6V  is 46.6mm, and the socket where it goes measures 48.8mm.. 

those batteries all are around 50mm or more.. how do you fit them ? Because I tried one 14500 and it was too long

so didn't get it . And since the electronics goes closed up in a sandwich fashion...should be same size,right? 

how did you do it? 

11 hours ago, Rustang said:

On paper from a technical point of view yes it probably should perform better, my argument is that I've not seen a single example (I've seen loads) with the same or simular camera and filter (I also have the 600D, and live in Bortel 6) that proves its better in terms of the data it collects against the L enhance. There are many things in life that on paper are better but I go off real life examples before spending out. At the end of the day it's only my personal point of view, people can use what they like and if they are happy with its results then that's all that counts, the above is a lovely image but I personally would not spend the money on that filter thats all. 😊

 

 

Well.... here you have one  
L-enhance vs L-extreme, same equipment, same exposure time and...very different results. 
It depends on what do you want to achieve. I personally own only the L-pro for now, But eventually will get one of this two to combine with the more broad signal of the L-pro. 
But yeah, there's a difference... 

awesome video and results! 

So, bortle 7, no filter, and moon?? wow...I'll have to test that myself!  I am at bortle 6-7 too and usually capture with Optolong L-pro

with filter it takes a lot longer. To capture same light/detail as your m42 I would need some hours i think 

hahaha ...not the answer I was expecting xD 

with my own tunned Vixen SP I get stable total RMS 0.70", sometimes as low as 0.58" , just wondered if I could get any better with belt, 😛 will research elsewhere then

thank you anyway ^^ ; 

On 14/12/2016 at 22:35, Dave_D said:

So after quite a few emails to the excellent Dave at Rowan Engineering, i can get 12T and 47T pulleys to fit, although the 47T will have to be sleeved to 6mm. What i don't know though, is the calculations required to see if i'll be getting the same ratios... my Vixen GP has 144 tooth gears on the RA and Dec, which i believe are the same as an EQ5 and it's currently using an EQ5 upgrade motors and gears.

Anyone got any links to how the calculations work so i can work out if eqmod needs custom settings?

Hi Dave! 

I know it is an old thread...but did you sort out the belt and pulley mod for your GP ? any improvements? 

I was thinking on trying the mod myself on my Vixen SP with SS2Kpc. 

Could you tell me the pulleys and belt used ?

Thanks! 

Carles.

@ElwoodBlues Looks great! 

is that the full frame or did you crop?  

How did you processed it in StarTools?  I processed once a pic from a friend of mine who has the L-enhance too (I only have L-pro for now.. ) and I tried it both straight from "open" and "Compose". Compose delivers better result IMHO. Since You can split the OII+Hb and Ha  then merge them as HOO 

thanks!  will check it straight away! Haven't found many reviews about the evoguide50ED

58 minutes ago, Robindonne said:

Ed Ting has an item on yt about this. 

about the tilt? I don't know Ed Ting ^^;   could you post the link to that video ? 

Cheers

40 minutes ago, vineyard said:

Thanks @Neko yes you're quite right its 4/3 not APS-C, not sure how I confused that, doh!

That's a good idea re tilt - I ran it through ASTAP/CCDinspector and it looks like there is some (see screengrab).  Not sure if that might be causing some of the DSS stacking artefacts too?

I do have a tilter that I should fit in the train (its 11mm optical path which is exactly the length of the nose on the 294).  Will try that next time there's an oppty to set it up for a proper imaging session - its been so miserable or so intermittent for so long now.

Cheers & stay safe.

 

It could be that! In my Borg 89ED with Hotech SCA flattener I was getting trailed stars by the edges with the qhy8L.. and this flattener

is more than enough for APS-C .. SO I ran it through ASTAP-CCDinspector and found out it was tilted. In  my case I think is both the CCD sensor not being

orthogonal and the fact that the image train is not all threaded like yours but rather with the SCA self centering (...yeah right  not so efective really ) and had to play with the 3 screws on my focuser to try to center it. 

Here too been very bad weather so couldn't check it properly. I tried to center it indoors by taking flats on a wall during the day, taking pics on preview/loop mode, then moving the histogram to see the vigneting circle and trying to center than in the image by moving the 3screws similar to a tilter would do . Not sure if that worked but doesn'seem as bad as before! 

Regards!

Carles

Looks rather promising! The M31 looks great

although the 294 camera is not APS-C , but rather 4/3" chip... according to the specs, it chould deliver

a flat 28mm image circle, that should be enough for APS-C , an it should be more than enough for a 4/3" 

like the asi294mm/mc pro, so maybe is the distance with the camera?  back focus for the flattener is

17.5mm , exactly the same as the ZWO cameras.. could it be some sort tilt? 

try checking the images in ASTAP or CCD inspector maybe? 

Still, very good result   

2 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Thanks. I bought a licence for StarTools earlier this week, so will probably have a go at reprocessing this weekend.

You might be alright with 20mm - I use mono+filters the filter takes up a couple of mm of the threads so the camera doesn't fully mate with the flattener and it seems pretty good across most of the frame. The stars streak a bit near the edges so I have to crop 15%ish off, but still a decent usable area. 

That's good to know! thank you!  Is it a filter wheel or filter drawer? To know more or less the distance you're adding. Since you say you crop only the edges, might be able too. Although  my qhy8L is APS-C so a bit bigger than the sensor on the ASI294.. I guess I'd have to crop more 😕

And about the StarTools, I use it too   in case you haven't seen it, there's an unoficial manual with many tips and tutorials for downloading in the same page where you get the main software ^^ ( I did the translation into Spanish of the 1.6version, and working on the latest 1.7 now : )  is very usefull manual!) 

Carles.

looks great! would be interesting to see the whole image too! 

I've bought it also for gudiescope and hoped for wide field AP but my qhy8L has 20mm backfocus so for now will wait to get

the flattener...until I can get another camera with shorter backfocus haha

On 22/01/2021 at 17:55, AdeKing said:

Hi Charles,

I'm afraid that I didn't, I didn't get any responses to this thread and I haven't really had the time or money to do very much about it.

I was only really interested in using a Belt Mod as a way of reducing the noise whilst slewing as I was concerned about disturbing the neighbours, whose bedroom window looks out over my observing area.

In the end, I just changed the maximum motor speeds via the setup menu on the SS2K handset until I was happy with the level of noise and just saved it down as a "Quiet" configuration.

I did find the EQStar Belt-Driven GoTo solution which wasn't too badly priced (EQStarEQ5 – GoTo drive upgrade kit for EQ 5/CG-5/MEADE LXD, LX/Vixen FR, GP (- DX), GPD2, ORION SkyView and Bresser EQ 4/EQ 5), but as I was happy with the SS2K I didn't see the point in investing in a whole new GoTo system as the SS2K GoTo is really accurate, much more accurate than my EQ5 Synscan Goto ever was.

However, whilst this didn't help me, the EQStar system might offer you a solution.

Kind regards,

Ade

Hi Ade! 

Sorry it took me long to answer, didn't get notified of the response.. 

I am very happy too with the SS2KPC, got it since 2005 and not planning on changing it. The only downsides perhaps would be not being able to

set upt meridian flip...but is OK. Indeed GOTO accuracy is awesome, but I don't find mine very noisy. Usually ot it set to speed 1400x , my lx200 mount is a LOT more noisier than SS2KPC!  

Been tunning the mount and found out I'm missing two teflon bearings for some reason.. but even though, got to the point of 0.58" total RMS occasionally and usually steady 0.70"! So quite happy. The only problem I have is with DEC backlash, but tht might be the lack of one between the gear and the top part of the DEC axis. Working on it!

Thank you for your answer anyway! 

Kind Regards! 

Carles

38 minutes ago, drjolo said:

Yes, because you have two paths for the ground signal:

• first:  power supply cable -> DC hub -> 5V power cable ->  USB hub -> USB cable -> camera
• second: power supply cable -> DC hub -> 12V power cable -> camera

The 5V voltage is of course separated from the 12V voltage, but they share the same minus (ground), unless the DC converter inside the hub is isolated, but as I mentioned it is not probable. 

But in your setup it will be easy to detect. If any problems with camera signal or connection occurs, you may just power the USB hub with separate 5V supply. If the problem will disappear, then it was a ground loop. 

Oh, right.. .now I get it. So the same device (in this case the qhy8l) would have two different voltages 12 and 5 but from the same origin..  I assume this would produce image interferences or this sort of problems? in such case, isn't a wa to isolate that on the cable itself?  It seems the best option would be to get 12v USB hub then.. 

any alternative comes to mind for all this ? Since I don't have the DC hub either yet. 

good job! Very clean image  

Can I as what settings and drivers you use for your QHY8L ?? 

I have mine set to gain 6 and offset 120.. if I did the procedure correctly that was the result. 

And use NiNa recently using native drivers with Normal speed.

thanks! 

Thank you for your answer

I might have misunderstood your answer but, seems you are referring to 2 individual DC hubs

But I mean  only one DC hub but it has.  5* 12v  connections AND 2 USB ports delivering 5v. So it is the same device.  And the USB hub would get powered by this DC hub through 5v USB port instead of the 12dc port. 

Does that still make possible the ground loop you're talking about ?

Due to the cable dragging and all... I'm thinking on getting a DC Hub from DeepSkyDad to power my QHY8L through it's DC201 , and also a powered hub. 

Been trying to research about it, but have a doubt.  I have this little Logitech 4port USB2.0 hub, that can be powered by 5v and requires 2.4A. 

DDS DC hub has 2 x 5v usb ports at 3A, and 5x12V at max 10A.

Now, the qhy8l uses max 4.5Ah when TEC goes 100% which is not always since when it reach the temperature, depending on the ambient temp will go pretty

low to maintain it. 

Then to this hub would connect the DC201 to 12v socket, then the hub I could get a 3.5mmx1.3mm power socket to USB to power the Logitech HUB and will

have spare 4x12v and 1x5vUSB ports . 

Question is... will it work?  and also

Read that USB 2.0 can draw from a single device a max of 0.500mAh... That is the port in my laptop, but when conneting to a hub is the external power that 

provides the rest of mAh , right?  since for now would connect 2 devices USB 2.0, lets assume both uses their max draw of 0.500mA, a total of 1Ah would be

used from the USB 2.0 hub  ...  I'm sorry if all this sounds too dumb!! but basically trying to figure out if I will be able to run it this way or I should need a different 

USB hub 

Thanks in advance!!

Carles

Just now, Laurieast said:

Just looked, the Read Me File it says "Currently, the input images must be in JPEG format."

oh.. too bad.

thanks for the info!  

5 minutes ago, JamesF said:

There's also Hugin: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

I've only ever used it to stitch together panels for my Stellarium background, but it worked for that.

James

Thank you James, will test it too

4 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

APP - not free but really great for muliple panel mosaics. There is a free trial version.

Just been processing what should be a 9 panel mosaic but currently just 7 processed using APP to stitch the panels together.

 

Looks great Francis! 

But yeah... APP is not free , I guess PI does too but expensive also. 

But indeed will try out the free demo one day.. Heard APP does stacking very well too

This is my 2 panel rosette. although not balanced..since the upper part is 3h30 and the lower one 2h40 min , but getting there (Borg 89ED +SCAhotech flattener+qhy8L + Opotolong L-pro) 

I

2 minutes ago, Laurieast said:

I have done Lunar mosaics with Autostitch. But it was a long time ago, I don't remember what file types it can use.

http://matthewalunbrown.com/autostitch/autostitch.html

Thanks! I'll have a look!

Hi all, 

I tried to do a mosaic only couple of times and wonder how you guys and girls do it.

The only free software I know is the ICE , and even though doesn't do a bad job I wonder if there's any better. 

So far started by doing only 2 panels mosaic... The workflow would be  stacking separate panels in DSS, then open them

in StarTools, crop the necessary amount and wipe to remove gradients. Then stitch them in ICE without stretching, and

process as usual the whole picture in StarTools.  It yields OK results, I think. 

I've tried to do the stitching prior gradient removal but doesn't seem to work as good. Also tried to process both panels

first and then stitch them, but always end up with some brightness difference between the two. 

Also, I think ICE does some sort of compression to the file... I export as TIFF but STarTools doesn't open it. I have to open in 

Nebulosity then Save it as 16bit TIFF.. 

Ideas/comments welcome

Clear skies

Carles

I'm not an expert, but rather beginner,  but  had a go at your file ^^ 

StarTools 1.7456 only. 

I think flates are not ideal, as it was an area on the right with different brightness so I've used Wipe first, then the workout as usual, and again wipe uncalibrated . it is binned to 35% since my laptop is slow ^^; 

pretty good information on it, althought probably needs more time to reduce noise