Demonperformer

The other night, I got a rather weird thing happen using Sharpcap. In live-stacking, the first image arrived and it was full of stars. So, without changing any settings, I did a "platesolve" (which also realigns the scope) to centralise my target. It did its single frame capture and I got a practically blank screen and a message saying it could only detect 3 stars. I tried reducing the "sigma" setting, as advised by the on-screen message, with little effect. What gets me is that the same settings produced a whole mass of stars in each of the subs that were being live-stacked. Never had this happen to me before, and no, of course I didn't do anything intelligent like saving the log file!

I can always try to replicate this next time (although I always find trying to replicate something that isn't working to be a weird activity in itself!), but on the off-chance that anyone can see what was happening without the log file, I thought I would ask.

Thanks.

That sounds like a very nice scope. Hope you continue to get views that are worthy of it.

Tried to get this the other night, but (as it was just getting dark enough) it was disappearing behind the trees. I agree that your result is not bad at all. Thanks for sharing.

There is a C filter, which is like the L but with (without?) the IR block (can't remember which way round they are).

Some people also have a special IR-pass filters for imaging the moon and planets. And some use a set of UBVIR filters for photometry.

There are also other less usual filters. I have a CH4 filter for (particularly) Jupiter & Saturn. I also have an NE3 filter for (particularly) planetary nebulae.

So that's another nine options ...  where can I get a 16-position filter wheel ?

clearoutside is saying zero cloud for me from Wed evening through Saturday night (as far as it goes so far). But they have made promises like that before! 

Oh, and Q is the quantum efficiency of the chip

The formula in my signature addresses this very question. It is condensed from an article on the Sharpcap forum.

A is the clear area of the scope objective
mu is the pixel size of the camera
sigma is the read noise of the camera
T is the total time
n is the number of subs
t is the individual sub length

Initially confused me with the different orientations! Just goes to show what a difference the Ha makes to galaxy shots.

6 hours ago, tomato said:

I remember the Horizon and Equinox programmes in the 80’s and 90’s being so superior

they were. i've still got a load of them on disc and revisit them on occasion.

Hi, and welcome to SGL.

I'm not acquainted with the book you mention, but there is a discussion of Kepler's "Harmonic Ordering" of the solar system in chapter 7 of this paper on Ceres.

That looks like quite a haul.

That's it ... thick clouds have arrived so packing up. At least i've managed something.

An hour after sunset and still no sign of Polaris. Hope I don't fall at the first hurdle ...

Well, it's still looking good here, so I'm going to try ...

What I do is have all the index files in one folder, but copy into a second folder the ones that are appropriate for my fov. This second folder is the one to which I direct the platesolving program, so it only uses those files. You can do it by moving rather than copying - this saves disk space, but I (more than once!) ended up deleting the files and had to download them again. Got fed up with playing that game.

But it is looking vaguely hopeful for this evening (if the breeze dies down a bit). First time since 18** ... ok, a bit of an exaggeration, but it feels like it!

Hi, and welcome to SGL.

Yes, probably a setting in the capture software. Let us know what you are using and someone will be able to give you tailored advice.

Enjoy the journey.

Now you've got me wondering how it was spelt originally ...

Beats my best attempt.

Hi, Kristen, and welcome to SGL.

Enjoy the journey.

Are you restricting the index files the solver uses? The one I use starts with the widest fov and works down to the narrowest, so if I had a very narrow fov and used all the index files it would waste an awful lot of time getting even into the ballpark.

Caught the latest episode last evening. So, according to one of his early statements, Saturn is "far beyond the sun" ... in relation to what? The earth? Not at the moment - it is in the opposite direction.  Did he maybe mean to say "far away from the sun"?

Stunning, as always.

Are @FLO going to match this offer?

Never subscribed to this one, but may give them a few months to get their act together and then take a look. Certainly being run by professionals will be a good thing ... as long as it isn't pitched at such a professional level us mere mortals don't understand a word.