Cosmic Geoff

Today I tried reprocessing some of my early efforts at planetary imaging from 2018.  At the time I was using a C8 SE and a ASI120MC camera.

Date: 6 May 2018.  Pinkish image is original (1 video processed in Registax), next is from 2x .avi combined and cropped in PIPP, total 1500 frames, processed in AS!3 (30%), , processed with Registax & colour corrected.

Larger image is from 3x .avi combined, total 1500 frames, combined in PIPP, processed in AS!3 (30%), , processed with Registax & colour corrected.  The image scale indicates that I must have used a Barlow, but I have no note of this.  According to my log this was a glancing transit of Europa.

There are more videos from the same night, but I am having trouble combining the .ser files.

12 minutes ago, spacedobsonian said:

I have decided to go with Sky-Watcher Explorer 130mm EQ-2 because it has aperture and has a EQ-2 mount which with a single speed drive installed will let me have some basic astrophotography and astronomy observing! 

I think you will find that trying to do any astrophotography with this mount is a very instructive experience. 🤣

You may be shopping for a more substantial mount very soon.😀

58 minutes ago, Raychin said:

The 8" Newtonian + equatorial mount was just a suggestion about the visual approach i want, hence i am 187cm and will manage the height.

You can reduce the height by retracting the tripod legs. But then you will have trouble observing low objects if there is a 2metre high board fence in the way...  Large Dobsonians have similar issues.  That's why it is advisable to at least see these things in the metal before buying...

1 hour ago, Raychin said:

 The Bresser Messier MCX-127 have a double fork, and i have read that this is very stable base mainly for imaging,

It should be very stable.

We don't know what brands are available to you in Bulgaria.  Celestron and Sky-watcher are OK if you avoid the very cheapest models.  I've heard good things about some Bresser models.

I cannot imagine why a legitimate trader would not accept cards or paypal.

8 minutes ago, imakebeer said:

On the number of frames question, @Cosmic Geoff says no benefit beyond 5000 frames (though I'm not sure how that can be only 20s worth - maybe 20s playback, not 20s to capture???).

My setup actually does record 5000 frames in 18 to 20 secs , ( ~275fps) with the ROI of 320x240 PX.  USB3 ports.

CPC800 at f10 with ASI462MC, exposure 0.75ms (Mars)  1.65ms (Jupiter).

320x240 is a little tight for Jupiter so it took 40 secs for a larger 544x548 px ROI, and a .ser file four times the size as for Mars

At '3.7x pixel size' it seems I am operating close to the optimum focal ratio.  Indeed I found a 1.8x Barlow did not seem to improve things any.

18 minutes ago, Raychin said:

https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/celestron-n-200-1000-advanced-vx-as-vx-8-goto-telescope/p,32998 but i am not sure if this is not a bit overkill…. It is nit compact, but have power, goto, great mount, and possible good options for upgrade. What you think?

Nice outfit, but on the downside I found the combination of 8" Newtonian + equatorial mount not very user-friendly.  The eyepiece can attain an awkward position or extreme height.  You could image with this, but the big tube will be a bit of a wind-sail.  

If you are willing to spend this much (or more) consider the Nexstar Evolution 8 (with 8" SCT) , the CPC800, or the C8 with AVX, which will all be easier to manage.   The CPC800 is great for planetary imaging, and the AVX would offer more imaging options, depending on what scope you mount on it.  The CPC800 is heavy...

Be aware that if you are only interested in visual, or your imaging ambitions only extend to planets, you will find an alt-azimuth GoTo less of a bother to set up than an equatorial one, and equally effective.

Could be the seeing. It seemed bad last night (29th) and my images with C8, ASI462MC, were below par and generally no better than yours.

Looks like you have enough frames.  I generally find no benefit beyond 5000 frames (=20 secs).   There seems to be some colour fringing in your image. 

You don't mention an ADC. It is worth using, especially if the planets are low in the sky. 

And read the manual. 🙂

It's ultimately up to you what 'scope you get. 

Of your options, 1) is most suited to widefield use and won't be so great on planets or close double stars.  'Achromatic' refractors of short focal ratio like this one have some chromatic aberration. (BTW it is not too dissimilar to a setup I use for EAA imaging (q.v. ) of deep sky objects with a ASI224MC astro camera). 

Long old-style achromats, ED and APO refractors have less chromatic aberration, but require an expensive mount (achromats) or ££££ (ED or APO).

2) is more suited to high magnification, narrow field,  planetary and double star observation (and city skies).  My first GoTo scope was a 127mm Maksutov and I was really pleased with it and intend to keep it.

3) as 1) but it is just the OTA, no mount.

4)  I have an 8SE.  It's a good scope, and a popular outfit.  Nothing wrong with the 4SE and 5SE. (BTW the 4SE is a Maksutov with a camera port.) The Celestron outfits are now somewhat expensive, and the SE mounts are intended for visual, portable use and are on the wobbly side.  The same remarks apply to the various other Celestron outfits (SLT etc).  The AVX and CPC mounts are solid (but expensive and not lightweight).

Somebody is sure to reply suggesting that you instead buy a Dobsonian. It's up to you.  If you really want GoTo and want to invest the extra money and setup time, go for it... 

As for imaging, if you buy one of the above and attach the DSLR, you will discover why other solutions may be required for serious imaging.

I recently bought a monitor intended for use with a car rear view (reversing) camera.  The listing was not very clear so I found I had bought a monitor but no camera.

I tried the monitor with my Canon 300D camera and found it makes a clear and easy to read repeater for the camera's small function screen.  The monitor runs on +12v, connects with standard plugs (5.5/2.1  and phono), and cost under £20 including postage. Screen size = 95x55mm.

You don't need a Moon filter unless you think you need a Moon filter.  🙂 It is bright compared with the night sky and will dazzle you for looking at faint night sky objects, but in actuality is no brighter than a sunlit asphalt road.   Do not cover part of the aperture - that just converts your telescope into a smaller and less capable one.

We need details of the mount, preferably with pics.

The short answer is, if it's the kind of mount one suspects it is, there is no way this is suitable for long exposures, unless maybe if you attach a camera directly. 

I looked up the Ultima 2000 to see what kind of beast it was.  Seems the CPC800, an 8" SCT on a heavy-duty twin fork and tripod, is a  current equivalent.  So you might feel dissatisfied if you transfer the OTA to a less robust mount.  

What is your budget for this?  There is little available in the way of off-the-shelf alt-azimuth GoTo mounts. There is an Ioptron for a little over £1000.  If a German equatorial would suit, look at a HEQ5 or EQ6, or if you want to stick with Celestron, an AVX. Maybe not the CGX...

If this is too much, you will be looking at used. You might score something like a CPC800 fork assembly, or a Celestron Evolution mount, for less.

If still too much, you may have to settle for a manual mount of some sort. But I wouldn't with a focal length of 2 metres to keep on track.

2 hours ago, CraigD1986 said:

I had a new EQ6-R Pro delivered yesterday,

It might be a good idea to get the mount working by reading the manual, polar aligning with a polarscope (if you have one) and doing a 2 or three star align with the handset, and checking that the goto then finds stuff. 

Once you have got that to work, you can add the ASIair etc.  Precise Polar alignment is required to minimise field rotation in images, but not essential for accurate GoTo.  And accurate Goto alignment is not essential for  a plate-solve to place the scope on target.  (I have often seen my plate-solve correct the initial GoTo effort by 0.7 degree and place the target dead center on the laptop screen.)

On 19/12/2022 at 08:03, Karl Perera said:

I'm looking to get answers to this for the content I am writing on my website and your opinions would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

We could be completely misjudging the OP, but one is getting the impression that he wants to pick our brains so that he can write a feature on AP to enhance his online brand.  

If he was actually qualified to write such a feature, he shouldn't need to ask us anything.  One would prefer to see material from imagers who got their experience at first hand.

2 hours ago, globular said:

You don't have to remove it.  The clamp can be squeezed apart to slip over it.  CARE NEEDED.  See this thread....
https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/315553-cracked-celestron-cpc-tripod-leg-clamps/

Different tripod, different clamp.

Definitely held on with two pop rivets. The rivet body appears to be aluminum.   It should be easy to cut or drill it off, as it doesn't matter if you destroy the original (broken) clamp.  As Wulfrun says, you will need a pop rivet gun and rivets.

13 minutes ago, AstroLearnerWill said:

I'm a bit confused why I don't need to polar align necessarily. My understanding is that this is important to reduce any field rotation in long exposure images and to give the guider higher accuracy and therefore better sharper images.

 

A good mechanical polar alignment will minimise field rotation.  But you don't need it just to find stuff. Even an alt-azimuth GoTo can do that. 🙂

I sometimes use an EQ5 Synscan on a fixed pillar.  Once aligned and parked at the Home position, there is no need to re-align on re-starting. The GoTo, I have found, is not very accurate unless one uses alignment stars not too far from the desired object and on the same side of the meridian. So I always plate-solve with Sharpcap, and when this gets a solution it places the object in dead center of the frame, first time. 

The OP's procedure seems to contain some unnecessary work.

3-star align I have found is a) hard work and b) not necessary if you either plate-solve or use alignment stars near the target.

Starting from scratch, the main function of putting the mount in Home  position is so (under the Synscan alignment routine) the first slew will aim the finderscope at the first alignment star so you can find and center it more easily.  Once you finish the alignment routine the mount will have recalculated the Home position.

Celestron now offer a purpose-made corrector heater which replaces the plastic ring holding the corrector in place.

The wifi dongle will NOT provide GPS unless it explicitly says it does, or it can pick it up from the mobile phone.  There may be a Celestron GPS module that provides GPS. Whatever the dongle does, it is not automatically going to align the scope with the night sky for you (that is what the $500 Starsense with its camera is for).  I should point out that even without GPS, you only have to enter the location once, not every night.

I have another Celestron scope (the CPC800) which has built-in GPS, and I am quite content with this (+ doing a 2-star auto align myself), as a time-saver, without wanting to put the Starsense on it.

I agree that the firmware upgrade process is difficult, but you don't have to do it if the mount is performing correctly. When did you last upgrade the firmware in your car? Your washing machine? Your electric toothbrush? Your DVD player?

I don't agree that operating the Celestron Nexstar mount is particularly difficult compared with the other gear you cite.  I was entirely unfamiliar with GoTo when I bought my 127mm Mak SLT and I managed to master the instructions and successfully use it after one night, and I'm no genius.  It found Uranus for me. Yay!

Give it another try, and if you still don't "get it" post again and we can help you.

My advice is to read the manual for the 5SE (you can download it if you have lost it) and master the art of doing the "2 star auto align".  It is quite easy to do, once you have practiced it a few times, and provided you know which bright star is which up there.

If you want it even simpler, if you want to observe Mars, select "Solar System Align", aim the thing at Mars, and job almost done...

If you think the Nexstar system is hard to master, it's a piece of cake compared with the Sky-watcher Synscan for an equatorial mount. We have a constant stream of newbies baffled by those mounts. 🙂

The wifi dongle probably won't help you, as I expect you will have to do the same alignment stuff, only using your phone instead of  a cabled handset.

I assume the $500 is for the Celestron Starsense camera and handset.  I actually have one, which is used on a C8 SE, big brother of your outfit. Once one has sorted out the setup (quite a task in itself), it works well and I can carry out the C8 SE system, put it down, power it  up, enter the time and date, and let it align itself while I fetch out a box of eyepieces, stool etc, instead of having to crouch behind the scope pressing buttons for a 2-star alignment.  If this convenience is worth $500 to you, fine. If not, stick to the basic system.

I can't tell anything from your video.  If you look up some elementary astronomy texts, that will tell you how quickly objects appear to move across the sky in response to the Earth's rotation. Or you can see it for yourself if you put an eyepiece in the telescope, aim it at a star or other object and just watch without touching anything.

17 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

and the guide camera (option 2) will help wth PA and guiding of course. Stacking is better if guided.

The 8" SCT I use sometimes for EAA is on an alt-azimuth GoTo mount. The live stacking in Sharpcap compensates for field rotation, etc to a remarkable extent. Definitely no need for guiding.

36 minutes ago, Deason said:

Camera is definitely moving slightly on one of the directions (sorry still not able to remember the two) as It goes off of the screen on the DSLR and with long exposure all I get is a white line!

Is this a powered mount? If not, the Earth's rotation will cause objects to move through the camera's field over the course of a few minutes.  Planetary imaging requires exposures measured in milliseconds.   I doubt very much that long exposures are feasible with your outfit.