alacant

Hi everyone This one is is good if you're going out or just want to get some sleep. Set the exposures going and come back when it's light. It's so faint; you need all the time you can get. The end of darkness at Alicante today was 04:50 giving us around 4 hours. The sensor was well over 30º and yes, whilst there is noise, it's nothing like as bad as some of the stories of the impossibility of using a non cooled dslr would have you believe. Undoubtedly, the dither and lack of dark frames helped. DSLR users, do have a go. It's faint but doable. Thanks for looking and wishing you clear weekend skies. 700d on nt150s: shot entirely under control of the EKOS scheduler. calibration: Siril processing: StarTools 1.8.505

Hi We can't tell -accurately- because the photograph isn't centralised, is over exposed in the bits we need to see and we do not know its orientation. It will work fine however. Cheers

Hi No, it's the TS version made especially for eos cameras. There is absolutely no problem with or without a coma corrector. For guiding, it matters not the shape of the star. Just our hands on experience. The theory may differ significantly. We would however strongly recommend the use of a cc. Without, much of an aps-c frame will be unusable; any benefit from guiding will be negated. Unless you're ok with processing hacks. HTH

Hi Yes, easily enough and will guarantee you pinpoint stars every time. We use a 120mm on a 150/1200. The 120 has bin 2x2 in firmware in case you need it. I think at f5 however, you'll be fine native. No adapters needed if you use a standard m42x0.75 helical focuser on the oag stalk. See our setup. Otherwise, a separate guide telescope will work but to get the same level of quality as with the OAG, we'd advise a longer full width dovetail, a top rail to tie the top of the rings and 6 replacement 1.4mm diameter wire springs for the main mirror. 3 to replace the existing springs and 3 more passive over the locking screws. Beware though that this adds significantly to the mass of the telescope. HTH

Mild background issues such as these are easily corrected in modern software. Don't overthink it too much:) Cheers

With your light panel illuminated in a dark room, set the camera to Av, partly depress the shutter release and note the time it gives. Set the dial back to M and dial that same exposure time in your asi app. Fire off, say 12 frames. Or simply record to the camera's SD card without connecting to the app. That's it. HTH

Hi In Siril, simply put your 2 (or any number you like) files in an empty folder, set the working folder to that same folder and hit 'Registration'. You will end up with two more files in the folder with the prefix ,'r_'. Those are the aligned-rotated-resized files you mentioned. HTH

Hi and thanks for your post. StarTools This is with an alpha of the next (soon, I feel sure) release, v1.8. Amongst other goodies, deconvolution like you wouldn't believe. Recommended. Cheers

Hi everyone To complete this week's faint-but-colourful-objects-in-cygnus series, which EKOS plate solves as attached, is the one in the middle. Much fainter than the oft imaged brighter bits. Once again, the UHC does a great job on the colour and even though we're great please-don't-remove-the-stars exponents, filter-less, this really is awash with the same and you can barely make out the nebula. The filter seems to push the nebula forward with the disadvantage that you need much longer frames Anyway, thanks for looking and dslr users, please post if you've had a go at this. 700d on nt150s. ISO800

Not sure whether you're after a camera or a telescope or both. I believe the main problem ATM is locating a supplier. Maybe you could find e.g. a used sw 72ed somewhere? Cheers

Hi and thanks for your post. Yes, I think you'll lose some of the red but get the full effect in the green and blue. The UHC does a great job of emphasising the latter. Good luck. You should be fine.

Hi everyone The UHC cuts out a lot of light but it brings the blue/green out far better than any unfiltered shot we've taken. I'm sure it helps with light pollution too; these were taken over the last two nights, accompanied by a big gibbous moon. I think the recommendation is to do the filtered frames then a few un-filtered to restore star colours. DSLR usres, do post your experiences if you've had a go. Thanks for looking. eos700d on nt150s @ ISO800 about 4 hours each

+1. It most certainly shall. Almost 100% of the top Internet houses run Linux servers. I doubt very much the Internet would be where it is today without the security and stability it offers. It's not just top end either. My school saved a lot of licence fees by replacing windows servers with Samba 4 DCs and file servers. As we go cloud, we'll all be using Linux to an ever greater extent. Desktop replacement I don't think it's meant to be. But anything client-server -and lest we forget which forum upon which we are posting- including running an astrophotogrphy setup , a big fat yes. Cheers.

Good point. It's a pity. Few have seen Linux on a modern box; the type you'd use to run the latest Windows a Mac operating systems.

Hi This is a step closer to holding the extension tube/camera assembly securely. You may want to drill and thread for a third screw in the existing collar and see if that improves stability first. @Almac 's method looks like the definitive solution though. HTH

Hi everyone Here's an idea for moonlit nights. 95% moon on the shortest night but no need to keep the dust caps on. A cheap UHC filter gave us the possibility for 4 minute frames with our terrace sun shades doubling as strategically placed moon shades. Shame about the false colour and those cringe-worthy refractor stars, but i suppose that you can't have it all ways. One suggestion was to remove them. Probably a good idea. Thanks for looking and do post your full moon target ideas; we've still a week of it to go. eos700d @ ISO800

Hi Not the ones you find in long tubes to use with a pistol grip, rather the non acidic type which retain their fluidity and do not harden over time. Not sure if this brand is available in UK but there's sure to be something similar. It's usually sold in toothpaste-type tubes, quite possibly advertised as able to be used on coloured material and/or neutral, A+, etc. HTH

Not sure what the uploads represent. They seem to have been stretched.

Hi Yeah. The sensor's sensitivity in gb @ 500nm is pretty much the same. Identical, I don't think so though. 6D; rggb HTH

Hi. Whilst pointing at the pole, twist the tube in its mounting rings until the camera is at the lowest possible position below the tube; it's back should be nearest the ground like this. Now balance. 3 axes. DEC, RA and the turning force of the tube itself that it remain stationary in any position in the sky when the clutches are loosened. Cheers and HTH.

Hi Loadsa detail and nice stars. Love it:) Suggestions? Lose the dark frames, dither and stack using a clipping algorithm. Cheers

Here is the link to the recommendations essentials for presenting data for future sessions as mentioned at the end on the presentation. https://www.startools.org/links--tutorials/starting-with-a-good-dataset/general-pre-processing-dos-and-donts Cheers

Hi This thread is now four years old. A long time in tech. Maybe a few updated thoughts? The stacking and plate solving bits of pi are very good. The processing part is however still based upon a collection of unrelated stretch-and-hope-for-the-best algorithms from 50 years ago. It probably represents the best of any old-school approach and is ok if you grew up with that, have plenty of time for processing and get on well with a mass of overlapping and hidden windows. Fortunately, alternatives are emerging which get you there significantly quicker by a totally different non-destructive route and also relieve you of the mess of windows by using a modern interface. One such app is StarTools. Its author recently gave us an explanation and a demo. In the end, it's probably not the financial outlay or the methodology of your chosen app which gets you over the processing line, rather your familiarity with it. Cheers

Many thanks to Ivo for rising at 05:00 to explain StarTools. Poor guy. FLO really ought to supply free coffee for occasions such as these!

Hi Difficult to say because we don't know how you processed it; Vega looks green with a red halo. That maybe because you missed focus and/or don't have an ir filter on the lens. You could fit a 77mm front filter (they're quite cheap); I'm not sure there are clip or in-adaptor filters for Sony. If it helps and you have no other specific uses for the full spectrum, you could consider refitting the filter in the camera as I think the front mounted filter may cause other issues for astro stuff. Cheers and HTH