Photosbykev

Dust bunnies eradicated  Thankfully they were on the sensor

I've recently built a new computer for image processing and rendering work and it's based on the 9900k running at 4.9Ghz with 64Gb of ram and fast m.2 drives. I understand that PI doesn't use the GPU and the author doesn't intend to support them anytime soon so it all about the cpu and memory

The postman was kind to me today and dropped off a William Optics Zenithstar 61 and Flat61A flattener and the gods smiled on me with clear skies for 30 minutes. It would be a shame not to christen the new toys

I only managed 10 lights so I didn't even consider darks or flats. The 10 lights from the Canon 5D MkIV, shot at iso 1600 x 60 seconds, were stacked and aligned in PS, median filtered for some noise reduction and then a few layer/curves tweaks to pull out some basic detail so I could look at the star profiles and and any vignetting.

Overall impression is extremely good build quality and the focusing through the mask is ok on very bright stars but quite a challenge on lesser star magnitudes. Very little vignetting through the imaging train so the image circle cover the full frame sensor and it will be simple to either remove the gradients in PS or use flats and sharp stars corner to corner with no obvious colour aberrations.

I do need to check where the weird smudges are in the imaging train because they weren't on the camera sensor yesterday, hopefully I'll find them pretty quickly because they are nasty!

Screenshots are also included of APT focusing, Stellarium for the imaging area after plate solving in APT and then PHD2 for the guiding with the ZWO ASI120mm-mini camera on a ZWO 30mm f/4 scope (I've no idea if the guiding is good or bad but the polar alignment was achieved with the iPolar camera in the SkyGuider Pro mount

I think at some point I'll add an 2" IDAS D2 filter into the imaging train and see if I can counter some local light pollution we have around here.

1 hour ago, Jkulin said:

That is really helpful Kev, I have just had a nosey on fleabay and that had a similar setup for my Sony for £30 and it was designed to work with my Benro as well, so I bought that and then will work out a bracket for my Polemaster: -

I currently have it set up like this, but have to admit I like the way yours still allows you to use the weights for counter balance: -

 

Nice setup  I decided to finish the rig off properly and bought a WO Zenithstar 61 and flattener to stick on the front of the Canon 5D4  For info, I had to add one 3/8" diameter washer under the screwhead on the bottom of the counterweight shaft. This allowed me to move the counterweight one more millimeter down the shaft. The balance is fractionally camera heavy which I prefer to keep the gearing engaged

To close this out, I've ordered the WO Zenithstar 61 Apo with the Flat61A adjustable flattener. 

21 hours ago, Astroscot2 said:

Hello Kev, very nice images, any change of seeing your SGP mount auto guider set up

Thanks

Mark

I fitted an Arca Swiss clamp plate to the SGP and a generic Arca Swiss L bracket to the camera to hold the guidescope. I went this way so shooting wide angle the bracket on the Camera base would fit the Arca Swiss clamp. The larger lenses mount directly to the clamp and the guidescope remains fixed to the camera body

Kev

3 hours ago, alan potts said:

Very nice shot Kev but I do wish camera lenses didn't leave the spikes, I need to try my 300mm F2.8 wide open see what come out. I tried it at F4 a while back on Orions belt but was far from happy, personal taste I guess.

Alan

Very few camera lenses are coma free wide open, especially at the longer focal lengths and I'll take spikes over coma every day of the week. This was at f/8 on a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. Next purchase an astrograph lol

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Stop down with a step down ring to avoid spikes

Yup I don't dislike them on the main stars but next purchase will be an astrograph for some 'proper' astro work

best regards

Kev

A nice night to tweak some system settings for astrophotography  This is 27 x 1 minute exposures with a Canon 5D4 and Canon 200mm lens on a SkyGuider Pro mount autoguided with a zwo ASI120MM mini camera and scope in PHD2. Images were aligned and median stacked in PS CC with some levels and curves adjustment. Minor crop to clean out some vignetting in the corners.

Center (RA, Dec): (304.835, 39.156)
Center (RA, hms): 20h 19m 20.394s
Center (Dec, dms): +39° 09' 20.166"
Size: 9.48 x 6.32 deg
Radius: 5.697 deg
Pixel scale: 16.7 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 270 degrees E of N

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

How about a Tecnosky 71 Quadruplet? The description says it will even cover a 36 x 36 mm frame. it looks to be a clone of the WO version that seems no longer available. Not cheap mind.

Strange spec of image circle of 36x36mm but does cover full frame I guess. This would be at the very top end of any budget I'd consider for occasional use but one to consider

50 minutes ago, GlenM said:

Sharpstar 71 SDQ ?

 

Glen.

 

That's an interesting option and similar price of the WO 73+flattener

46 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. How about a lens designed to cover full frame? It may work out more economical and you also have the advantage of an already flat field.

HTH

I've got the 400mm f/5.6L lens and it's good and almost flat at f/8 but some vignetting at f/5.6 which flats can control, and I used to have the Canon 600mm f/4L which was superb, but I'd like to get away from variable apertures and the associated spikes. I could, and have in the past, fitted a fixed circular aperture disk on the Canon lens which does work. I'd expect a good dedicated telescope to produce better images.

Kev

6 minutes ago, alan potts said:

What ever Kev but I feel you would need a flattener with the WO offerings no matter which you go for. Same size chip but different scope My 1DS 2 was very poor at the edge of a similar 70mm ED.

Alan

 

I agree the flattener will be necessary I'd hate to get annoyed by poor edge performance

Kev

Hi folks, I normally photograph with a Canon 5D4 and Canon glassware but fancy a lightweight widefield refractor around 400mm fl that will produce a nice flat image circle large enough for a full frame sensor.

One scope I keep looking at is the William Optics Zenithstar 73 II Apo refractor and I'd like some advice on what else I would require for full frame imaging or maybe alternatives to the WO 73? The WO 61 Apo is also on the radar but I suspect I would regret not going slightly larger

I'll only be using it infrequently but it will be mounted on a SkyGuider Pro with ZWO guidescope system

regards

Kev

15 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Welcome back Kev I'm still here, just 

You could pop to SGL Star Party now 

Dave

Tempted Dave but I'm guessing it's fully booked and it's also on fireworks weekend so we'll probably end up in the middle of Wales with the dog on a very remote campsite to avoid getting her stressed.

Kev

3 or 4 years ago I pretty much walked away from any serious astrophotography and SGL and spent more time shooting high resolution 360 panoramas, chasing the northern lights and landscapes than anything else.

Now I've retired after 43 years of work, bought a motorhome and started pottering around lol

I've also just taken delivery of a SkyGuider Pro from FLO and ZWO ASI120mm camera and 30mm f/4 guidescope to dip my toes back into the nights of astrophotography with all the frustrations and hassle it can throw at us

First attempt, purely as a test to see if the iPolar polar alignment and the mount were tracking correctly, was with a 600mm lens and x1.4TC and autoguiding with PHD2. Completely over the weight specification for the mount and a lead filled bag was needed to get a good balance but worth a play as the skies are pants at the moment with just an occasional hole in the clouds.

A single 5 minutes @ iso800 uncropped image processed through Pixinsight, the only image I got before the clouds rolled in again  I strongly suspect I will get a lot of rejects at this focal length but at 3-400mm and wider it should be quite nice.

It's good to see a lot of familiar names still on SGL, see you in the Forums

Meteors will generally have some colour in them (red/green) and satellites never have colour in them as they are just reflecting sunlight. The horizontal one is definitely a meteor and I'd say the vertical one is as well because of the green tint but it does look like a satellite unless your white balance is off

Kev

A zoomify version would be wonderful to look at and pretty secure from theft. I've done one on my website for a 1.5Gb panorama I made a few years ago, fairly straight forward to achieve using PS

a very rare occasion lol,

Here are a couple of images, one a printscreen from my laptop of the remote tablet window and the other shows the toys working together

Nail it and it is so neat

Sp@ce_d comment about using a mobile router was the clue I needed

I have a TP-Link MR-3040, which is a battery/usb powered mobile router, which has been flashed for using with an Android programme called DSLRController. This programme allows me to control the DSLR from an Android tablet wirelessly. The TP-link MR-3040 is also an Access Point (the lightbulb moment lol) which isn't affected by the custom firmware.

I set the MR-3040 router as an access point, connected the laptop and tablet to the Access Point network and Teamviewer 10 sees the proper IP addresses allocated by the AP i.e. 192.168.1.xxx and it works straight out of the box :)

I'm sure there are alternative methods offered above that might not need the mobile router but as I have a couple of them and the remote control is stable and quick I'm a happy bunny.

There you go Pete, for the StarParty no more eye strain trying to see what the HP Stream 7 display is saying and a hands-off way of checking progress and setting up exposure plans.

Thanks for the extra ideas I'll have a look at them this evening. Main reason for using Teamviewer is I already use it over the normal wifi/Internet, if there is a better alternative I'll look at them

sent from my Sony Xperia Z2

Just tried setting up an ad hoc network on my laptop and the computer say NO lol Windows cannot create the network.

mutter mutter mutter stupid stupid geeky stuff

I used VNC, which works particularly well with thee iPad and windows7.

That's free and works over a LAN.

Cheers

Ant

Thank you Ant

that works with no router or internet required?

Thanks Pete, I was doing that and it was giving the devices the same IPs of 127.0.0.1 which is just a loop back IP of the local device so no good. However if you do connect the laptop to itself you get an awesome display reminencsent of the old top of the Pops graphics lol

I've just noticed this line on that page To activate the LAN mode in TeamViewer full version and Host module:

I'm using the personal free version so it might not be possible without buying the full version?

I'm trying to connect my laptop (win7) to a tablet (win8.1) so I can use TeamViewer to remote control the tablet from the laptop. I can get the connection and remote the tablet in the house because they will link via the home wifi  router which does have internet access and dchp to allocate IP addresses.

If I try to the same thing out in the field where there is zero internet and I'm only using the wifi adaptors on the laptop and tablet they won't connect even if I select Use Lan connections exclusively.

Is this type of remote control actually possible? or am I wasting my time trying to remote control the tablet from the laptop in this situation? If it is possible please "Help !"