alacant

Hi Guessing: There may be cloud on one or more of the frames? Light entering the telescope? Condensation? Non-corresponding flat frames? Difficult to say without more detail, but easily fixed. If you corrected each frame before registering and stacking, even better. I used Siril, but I think ASTAP may have something similar. Cheers and HTH

Hi You already have a good choice for some of these. For the rest, perhaps one of these. It won't trouble the heq5 and you'd still have loadsa € left for a monochrome camera, filters and other stuff. Cheers and HTH.

Hi Lots of us use this. It's not bulky. More here. Cheers and HTH

Hi Excellent shot. Just keep adding frames, but if you want to give it a go... 700d? Hands on over several years with the 18Mp sensors and this model in particular: - iso 800 - No dark frames of any type - No bias frames - Dither around 5-10px between each frame - Use a clipping algorithm during stacking: sigma 5-2 works well for us Processing: Simply subtract the offset (2048) from the flat and light frames. But of course, try differing values and combinations for yourself and please post back if you find anything better. Cheers and HTH

Well done, and all the more so for using experimentation to find what works for you. Offset 50: I'm not sure whether the 533 adjusts values between 14 bit and 16 bit. It may depend upon which software you're using. To find out, simply take a bias frame with offset 50 using whichever capture software you use. Open in Siril and: right clik -> statistics Look at the median value and enter that value for the offset when processing in Siril. That should obviate the need for having to take both dark and dark-flat frames. Cheers and HTH

Hi I think you may have missed focus or the seeing was poor. Not sure how many clear nights you have where you are but at 1500mm you're going to be limited to the few which have excellent seeing. A few ideas: How about attaching your 678 to a camera lens instead? There are some good examples to be had for under €100 e.g. fixed focal length Takumar and Zeiss between 55mm and 200mm. Your mount will be able to cope admirably with that combination. Keep your 127 to look through and take -superb- photos of the surface of the moon. Another idea is to fit a reducer. Another, to upgrade the mount and guide but even then... Cheers and HTH

Correct. To begin with, try without in-camera bias and without dark frames. The 533 is so clean anyway, you may find you're better without. Probably best of course, when you're familiar with the software, to try both with and without and decide for yourself. So, enter =50 for the master bias. Cheers

Hi What offset did you use? I think 70 is the default. That should lose the negative values. To keep it simple, take flat frames only and pre-process using a value of 70 for bias (enter =70 in 'Use bias') on the calibration tab. Pre process then stack the flat frames with multiplicative normalisation to get a master flat. Pre process the light frames using the same bias with the master flat Register Stack under additive normalisation and e.g. sigma-clip 5-2 If there's still noise (533 so I doubt it) then you can try adding dark frames. Cheers and HTH

In the real world, perhaps best to lose the theory. Hands on tells us to simply remove the offset. For DSLRs, no. One of the main reasons is the impossibility of temperature matching. Cheers and HTH

Yes. No. Take as many exposures as your patience allows. Use an exposure which keeps the histogram centre or left thereof; the 18Mp sensor can take quite a bit of thrashing. Pick a target away from the moon. Cheers and HTH

Hi What do the logs say? At that image scale you're likely going to need the larger maps. Before you download, other stuff to try: - make sure 'Use scale' is unchecked (it's under 'Options') - up the settle time - ensure focus is better than perfect - make certain the mount is tracking - bin 1 - a rich star field high in the sky - unity gain (I think on a 678 it's 100) - a shorter exposure - a longer exposure If still no go, download If it still doesn't work, go with ASTAP. Cheers and HTH

Hi Keep the ISO at 800. 600d, so take no dark frames of any sort. Simply calibrate the light and flat frames by subtracting the offset. The easiest way to do that is by using Siril, the added advantage of which is that it will also take care of any banding. Cheers and HTH

Hi Maybe there is confusion between 'park' and 'home'? AFAIK, there are an infinite number of possible park positions but the home position is unique to your site. It sounds as if the motor is turning, but the worm is not meshing with the crown. I couldn't find any detail on worm adjustment as I don't think anyone has had a 350 to bits yet so maybe best to ask SW about the noise. If you are now beginning sessions with 'autohome' and have set park relative to that, ignore what follows... The only way our EQ8-r (same board, same encoders, same firmware) knows where it is, is by first registering the position of the axis encoders. This is most easily done by issuing the 'autohome' command. Under INDI eqmod, we can perform this without having to resort to the handbox. Under eqascom, you must first issue autohome from the hand controller. To have predictable parking and slewing, everything must be measured relative to the autohome position. Just in case, remove any plate solving coordinates you may have stored before you begin. Once you have the home position set correctly, simply slew to where you want to park and save that position via eqascom. Apart from that, am out of ideas but HTH anyway

Hi No need to clean as no matter how hard you try, you'll never get rid of all the dust in the optical train. Unless the sensor is damaged, flat frames will correct the dark areas and tidy your image in other ways. We don't know what DSLR you used so can only guess, but the blue banding could be a defective row of pixels on the sensor, you've left the memory card in the camera, electrical interference, a faulty cable, introduced by old camera firmware... In any case, it's easily removed in processing. Cheers and HTH

For taking video of a planet, it would be nice. Otherwise 5 minute frames of a galaxy present no problem over usb2. Dunno. Still thinking...

OK and thanks for the reply. I'm being particularly thick today so I can't find one. It appears simple enough now I know what I'm looking for, but seems impossible to find. A 3m active usb3 cable with these plugs at either end. I've tried in English and Spanish... nada. Any ideas? TIA

Hi everyone. I've a mount hub to computer connection with a usb3 female on the mount. i want to connect this to a computer around 3m away. A 3m usb3 cable doesn't work. A 0.5m usb3 cable connected to a 3m usb2 cable works. Apart from moving the computer closer to the mount -which puts it out of reach of the guy's vnc over wifi- what options do I have for usb3 between mount and computer? Cheers

No. On a 600d, they are best avoided. The bias must still however be removed, otherwise the flat frames will not calibrate correctly. Please see my previous post regarding offset and use of Siril.

~16 should do it. Yes, but only if you change NOTHING in the optical train. This includes stuff which is difficult to control such as dust settling on the camera sensor... They only take a few minutes to do so you may as well take them each time anyway to save having to deal with surprises further down the process. HTH

Hundreds of 'em. Try a search on 'siril astro' Yes. A drawing tablet or a uniform cloudy sky is fine. Set your camera on Av and adjust the t-shirt/paper until you have an exposure of around 2s. HTH

Any colour is fine. Or card or paper...

The Digic firmware introduces noise/artefacts which make processing -especially background- difficult. Link to that, the impossibility of producing temperature matched dark-light frames and, well... Just don't. We speak from bitter experience! Siril download: https://siril.org/download/ Especially this: https://siril.org/tutorials/tuto-manual/ Hope That Helps Cheers and HTH

ISO 800. Expose for as long as you can before overexposing or stars become distorted. Whichever comes first. 600d, so no dark frames of any type. Instead, calibrate simply by subtracting the offset (2048) from the flat and light frames. Siril makes this part easy. 90% moon, but way over to the east. Take any clear sky you have;) Cheers and HTH.

How about m44? One of the last clusters for a while.

Hi I don't think eqmod under ascom has autohome, so use the handbox to home it before connecting. Cheers and HTH.