Graeme1858

Here's my version of M100. Captured on 16/04/21 with my 9.25 SCT, CGX, ASI294MC using CPWI, NINA and PHD2. 89 x 120 seconds at 180 gain, 10 darks, 30 flats, 30 flat darks. Stacked in DSS, Processed in PixInsight. My first nearly 3 hour exposure and one of my first PixInsight process jobs. Regards Graeme

Here's M57 from 19/05/20.This was one of the first deep sky images I had a go at a couple of years ago when I didn't have a guide scope and even less of a clue than I have now. So I thought I would give it another go.20 x 240 seconds at 800iso. Could have done more, the sky was clear as a bell. But it was a school night.10 x Darks. The first one was a mass of red because the sensor was sitting at 46C so I had to wait a while!20 x Bias20 x Flats at 1/25 second on Av. The histogram looked high but they turned out ok.CPWIStellarium APTPHD2 DSS GIMP

Was wondering the same too, now I have a guidescope set up and half a clue of how to use it! With the busy todo list of running everything else, (the Zoom talk was brilliant last night, thanks) could the task be delegated to a Moderator? Regards Graeme

Cheers Jeremy. Regards Graeme

Barred spiral galaxy NGC3953. Close to M109 and a similar size and brightness. We had yet another clear Kentish night sky so I had a go at capturing it. Celestron 9.25 SCT, CGX Canon 600D 20 x lights at 300 seconds 1600iso10 darks, 20 bias, 50 flats Regards Graeme

Hello I put a cardboard and duct tape flat frames light box together recently. After reading this very informative thread I can see that my effort is definately a mark 1. Foam board is the way to go! Regards Graeme

Thanks Carol, excellent images there. And when the video finished I spotted a link to your Levels and Curves video. Very useful. Some interesting use of Curves I've not seen before. Regards Graeme

China and Russia will have their own constellations, as will UK, ESA, Japan, India, Saudi etc. There will be 100s of 1000s of satellites up there! I've not been doing astrophotography long, probably won't be doing it for much longer!

Cheers. I was quite chuffed to get nice round stars at 300 seconds after all I read about differential flex with a guide scope on a 2350mm SCT. If we ever get another clear night I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can go. Regards Graeme

Conservation of angular momentum. As soon as the cloud of hydrogen and dust that forms the star start to move to contract due to gravity. Regards Graeme

Cheers, I've had the SCT/CGX for just over a year now so I've done lots of sub 60 seconds subs but this is my first 300 second attempt. The PHD Google Group folks were very helpful. Regards Graeme

Here's my first guided DSO. I got a guidescope for Christmas and after setting it up and having a few practice runs I decided to go for M42. Celestron 9.25 SCT, CGX Mount Canon 600D Celestron 80mm guidescope QHY5-11 Mono guide camera 12 x 300 second lights (then the clouds rolled in) 12 x darks, 50 x bias Aligned with CPWI Captured with APT Guided with PHD2 Stacked in DSS Processed in Gimp Not perfect but I'm quite pleased with it. Regards Graeme

Thanks for the reminder. Just firing up the iplayer now! Regards Graeme

Wow! I got a third and I've only just noticed! Sorry I've been away. Thank you very much. Regards Graeme

Welcome Makeitso. I'm in Kent and a member of MKAS. (https://www.midkentastro.org.uk/) We meet at Breadhurst every other Friday. Regards Graeme

M13 The Great Hercules Globular Cluster 10/05/19 20 seconds unguided Celestron 9.25 SCT CGX Canon 600D Converted CR2 to TIF in PIPP Levels, curves and cropped in Gimp. Pleased to have caught the propeller. More colour in the stacked version would have been nice! Regards Graeme

Thanks Michael It's a Celestron SCT on a CGX mount. I'll try that. I need to get the APT Plate Solving up and running then I won't need to spiral! Regards Graeme

Hello As a fairly experienced visual astronomer I'm quite new to astrophotography. One of the problems I have is setting up with the camera and a pc monitor. With an eye piece and prior aligned finderscope, alignment and polar alignment is fairly straightforward but with an F10 SCT and a Canon 600D it's quite a challenge. With my GPCAM290 (with 0.5 reducer) it's an impossibility! So I put together a spreadsheet to help with spiraling out from the initial telescope alignment position to find the alignment star. A pattern emerged, from the origin, 1 tap up, 1 tap right, 2 down, 2 left, 3 up, 3 right etc. The experienced here no doubt already know this but I thought those at the same level as me might find the attached useful. Regards Graeme Spiral.pdf

Fixed it! There was a Windows.old folder on the hard drive which had the drivers in and I deleted it before another install attempt. It works now! Thanks anyway. I'm off to set up for some full Moon imaging tonight. Regards Graeme

Thanks for that. Yes, I read that too. And I was doubly sure after uninstalling and installing again. I'm guessing uninstalling the programme will uninstall the drivers as well for a clean install?

Thanks for the response Peter. I get the same symptoms with Sharpcap which also works fine on the laptop.

Hello I've been successfully using my Altair GPCAM2 290C connected to my laptop for a couple of months. Now I have an old ish second hand pc in the garage running Windows 7. I've downloaded and installed Altair Capture but the programme doesn't seem to see the camera. Windows Device Manager can see the camera and the red light flashes on the camera but it doesn't appear in the Altair Capture Camera List. Could anyone advise where I need to start my troubleshooting please. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing Altair Capture to no avail. SP1 is installed. Thanks Regards Graeme