AbsolutelyN

10 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Well if that’s from not very good seeing, I want to see what you can do when seeing is good. It’s a cracking image IMHO.

Thanks. Blue channel was complete mush, barely had a defined edge, green better and red best. 

Mars under not so good seeing very early this morning. Unfortunately blue channel in particular was impossible to get sharp but red was reasonable. 178MM with 250pds + 5x barlow. 

Brilliant, you captured a serious amount of detail here, excellent image. 

Wow, that's absolutely amazing. Thanks for all the info, on astrobin as well as here. 
I need a bigger scope 🙂

12 minutes ago, Astropedro said:

I have been absent from the Stargazers Lounge for a few years and I've just taken delivery of this camera in readiness to resume my astro imaging hobby.  I have purchased a used Skywatcher 200p on a motorised Eq5 mount along with an astro eq and a few bits and bobs.  I also own an unmoded canon 1100d which I'll eventually use for some dso imaging. This kit is similar to what I had a few years ago.  I'm looking forward to trying out this new camera as both an imaging camera and an autoguider.  it sounds rather good.  So I'm wondering if anyone has one of these and I would love to see any images you have captured with it?

 

Clear Skies

 

Pete

I think it's the same sensor as the zwo 462mc. I don't think you can go too far wrong with it, very good camera. 

23 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Lovely images. The 462 RGB image looks a little out of focus possibly? But then the derotated one looks focused nicely so maybe not.

I also prefer the 178 image as the armospheric cloud details look much nice to me.

Very nice work! 👍

Thanks Craig. Only a couple of hours clear last night so was experimenting. The 462 is a very impressive camera, certainly feels a step up from the 224 in capture speed, it's an absolute speed demon in IR, had almost 200 frames per second. I also suspect the colour is more accurate from the colour camera but the mono gives an almost three dimensional feel in comparison which I really like, just more aesthetically pleasing to my eye.  So I think I'm going to stick with the 178 for Mars for bit and push it as far as I can. Would have got a 290 but no stock anywhere and I like the wider field for lunar. I'm struggling with focus, very hard to see any difference with small focus changes so am guessing seeing just is not good enough. 

58 minutes ago, astroman001 said:

Great images. The red looks better than the IR, try a RRGB instead of IRRGB. 

Peter

Great idea, didn't think of that. Will have a play later.  Thanks

Great image, some good details coming thorough. I'm finding that getting the image scale up gives better results with one shot colour cameras.  

The weather forecast was spot on tonight, clouded over on cue just before midnight. Managed a few images with both 462mc and 178mm but Mars was not as high in the sky as it could have been if it had stayed clear. From the data I got the 178MM easily wins for me personally. The 462mc attains far faster capture speeds. Had it at 220 frames per second compared to just 150 with red on the 178 dropping to just 60 for blue. In IR the 462 was easily more than 2.5x the frame rate of the 178 making the 462 superb for IR.  

The 462 had a slight yellow fringe at the edge. Not sure on the cause. It does however seem a lot more sensitive to blue than the 224mc. Both captured with 250pds, 5x explore scientific barlow at 6000mm. No derotation, all from 20% of 5000 frames. 178mm is 5000 per filter.  

178MM IR-RGB (20% of 5000 frames per channel)

462MC RGB (single image 20% of 5000 frames)

462MC RGB derotated 5 images (20% of 25,000 frames)

462MC IR (single image 20% of 5000 frames)

Final composite of IR-RGB

https://www.astrobin.com/c3d30l/?nc=user

I'm not sure if that's 600mm with the barlow or without. In any case I'd see if you can get a bit more magnification. 

An 80mm scope will be limited by its small aperture. This is a nice image showing roughly what you might expect from it with Jupiter. 
https://www.astrobin.com/241764/?nc=user

I'm far from the best person on this forum to make suggestions as I've only done a bit of planetary but I'd suggest these points:

Make sure your scope has been cooled outside for a while before you start 
Position it on grass and try not to observe when the planet is above a nearby roof where heat may be rising
Try to ensure the planet is as high in the sky as possible so you're looking through less atmosphere
Wait for good seeing with steady atmosphere
Take your time focusing

Pixelation usually means sharpening too much. Jupiter is badly positioned from UK, too low. Makes it extremely difficult to capture a sharp image through thick atmosphere. Mars is currently best placed nice and high in the sky. 

Can you provide more detail on how you took it? Did you use a barlow? What focal length is the scope? How many frames captured and how many did you stack?  

7 minutes ago, martinl said:

Blowing is generally considered more effective for cooling. It also keeps hot air from the observer to be pulled in from the top and interfere with high power views. That said, I’m a contrarian and opted to suck. That works as well, and keeps moist air close to the ground from being pushed into the tube.

If you attach the fan or baffle with Velcro you can easily swap it around to see if it makes a difference to your views. 

Yes I've used velcro for fan, battery and to attach to bottom of scope so easy to change direction. It's a bit rough and ready but will hopefully do the job. I'll clean it up and make it a bit more presentable and secure over time. 

4 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

I use the blowing up the tube method, I thought the air in the tube would be mixed together more effectively this way and I support that with absolutely no testing or evidence whatsoever!

Brill thanks . Turned out to be really easy to make of these, all ready to test tonight assuming forecast stays clear. Thanks to everyone for help, much appreciated. 

One of the links above mentions airflow direction - I've pasted the text here. From this I assume the idea is to blow air at the mirror? I had assumed it would pull air through the tube. Any consensus on which direction is better? 

https://www.fpi-protostar.com/bgreer/fanselect.htm

"When using a rear-mounted fan, you have a choice of airflow direction; blowing onto the back of the mirror, or sucking air out the bottom of the tube. Unless the bottom of your tube is closed and carefully ducted, blowing the air stream at the mirror will be more efficient (i.e., a smaller fan can be used to get an equivalent cooling effect). In practice, this slight advantage is almost meaningless, and other more pragmatic considerations take precedent. If you regularly observe from a dry, dusty, location, consider pulling air out the bottom of the tube to reduce the accumulation of dirt on your optics."

21 hours ago, martinl said:

The main issue with undervolting fans is that they may not have enough power to start spinning. Usually you can get them going by giving them a flick with a finger in that case, kind of like starting an old airplane. I’m not sure if larger fans, like this 140mm one, is more likely to suffer this than smaller ones. I would expect so and would probably look at a slightly smaller one.  

You were absolutely right on the USB not having enough power to spin the 140mm. Unfortunately I'd already ordered it. However I found a better solution than USB - just a simple battery. Obviously need to sort the wiring better and find a case for battery but I like the idea of it being self contained so no wire trailing from back of scope. 

12 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Brilliant, I'm inspired to have a go, not done any lunar imaging before. Thanks for sharing.

Cool, look forward to seeing some images. I only started looking at planets and moon because weather is currently a bit hopeless for deep sky. It's something you can do without needing a clear sky all night too and with full moon. Really enjoying it.  

6 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I thought your first one was the nicest and sharpest.

Thanks. It's often the case the less you do the better. 

32 minutes ago, Rusted said:

I should have added that my "messing about" with your image should not remotely be seen as criticism of your skills.

Your images are excellent, are very natural, well exposed and have a lot of detail.

 

That's really interesting thanks, not really sure what is considered acceptable on lunar imaging so very much open to suggestions and feedback as I'm just making it up as I go. Very wary of going overboard with sharpening, in fact I thought I had already gone over on it. Your right in that there is more detail that can be brought out. This is my own attempt based on your feedback.  

One more from same session. Best 10% of 700 frames but with full frame of the 178MM. 

2 hours ago, Rusted said:

Beautifully processed.

I was advised [here] to reduce my video frames to 500 and stack only 75. I found it very useful advice.
Experimentation with frame numbers and stacking may find you a happy medium.

The theory is that large frame numbers and stacking lots of them merely adds to the overall noise.
You are processing a lot of average images rather than working on only the best.

Besides the arguments above, it greatly reduces the need for huge file storage. SSDs aren't cheap.
You can capture a lot of short videos in a much shorter time frame.
Which reduces tracking issues, cloud intervention, vibration, subject and wind movement.

You also get to choose between multiple videos for processing.
Which should automatically help to increase your success rate.
I like to think that multiple short captures provides far more practice than far fewer long ones.

Thanks for all that info. Not really done much in the way of lunar imaging before so not really sure what works best.  I tend to aim for 10% or 20% of total frames. I see some logic in lots of smaller clips, will give it a try.  

Thanks all, very much appreciated. Will see if I can get it all working over weekend. 

28 minutes ago, AKB said:

That's a lot of frames!  How many did you keep? 

I've never had much luck with moon (or planets, for that matter.)  Using AS! the sticking point for me seems to be placing the reference points.  I'm just amazed at how crisp your result is... my favourite crater too!

Tony

It was 2500 frames and stack of the best 500. It was only using a part of the sensor -1500x1000 - to boost frame rate.

Thanks for the input here, really appreciated. I like the USB adaptor idea. 

If I understand all this correctly the items below should do the job. Does these appear to have all the cables and parts required to build one? 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NF-P14s-redux-900-Ultra-Silent/dp/B00KF7NGUE/ref=sr_1_2_sspa
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002ZO9MVC/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C4RZ4RF

I was planning on mounting it on some Perspex I have and attaching with velcro as suggested. 

I'm looking to add a DIY cooling fan to the back of my 250pds but I'm unsure how powerful the fan needs to be.  

The idea of the fan being USB appeals for simplicity as I'm no electrician. Does anyone know if this would be suitable? 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XCTHQG3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A3EP4QEYMLH6KY&psc=1

Many thanks

13 minutes ago, AKB said:

That's stunning.  How did you DO that? (and with what?)

Thanks. It's taken with a Skywatcher 250-PDS, stack from a 1min avi in autostakkert with zwo178mm and a IR filter. There are actually clouds passing by on the clip so conditions were far from ideal!