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Posts posted by ngwillym
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I've found that real limiting factor (in the UK at least) for imaging quality is seeing. Yes, you may have a scope/camera combination that can do sub arc second resolution, but with average UK seeing in the 2-4 arc sec range - or even worse early in the evening- its a matter of finding those very very few nights where the equipment can perform anywhere near its best.
Alternatively, find a specific area to concentrate on - e.g. planetaries, colliding galaxies or even planetary.
Clear skies (We can only hope)
Neil
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Yes, Sharpcap can do this. It allows you to save and reset a live stack after 'x' minutes - you define x.
Neil
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@Flo - any sign of a carbon fibre solid tube 12" RC?
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All,
thanks for the advice.. Secondary was removed and re-seated on its pivot and the collimation screws levelled up. A quick daytime collimation, followed by a star collimation has it looking much better - not perfect, the seeing wasn't really up to it - but I now have a doughnut to work on. There's a forecast for mist/fog over next couple of days, so hopefully the seeing will be much steadier
Happy days
Neil
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Thanks Peter - I wasn't sure if it was just collimation error or something preventing the main mirror racking in and out. I did a daylight collimation using thus approach - Daylight Collimation (robincasady.com) and it looked pretty good - hence me suspecting something more that just a dodgy secondary. As it the Hyperstar version, its not too difficult to remove the secondary for a check-out.
Neil
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Thanks @dweller - I'd thought of that too - used a flashlight to check all around the perimeter of the main mirror- but can't see anything untoward.
Ahhhhh, but something else does just occur to me - it might be a protruding fixing screw from the electric focuser - I'll check tomorrow
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It spent most of last year stored in a large plastic case in my dome (which has a frost protection heater and dehumdifier) as the planets were too low at my site to do any meaningful observing.
I decided to re-mount it and do some lunar work. BUT on trying to check the collimation - things didn't look right.
I've attached 3 pics - one from inside focus, one at best focus and one outside focus. (images taken on 18th Feb - seeing wasn't brilliant but even so I would have hoped for a much better star profile that what I got)
anyone have any ideas what's causing this - any attempt to adjust only moves the star image around the field (mirror flop) but does not improve the star profile. .
The C11 has an aftermarket electric focuser attached, (Pegasus Focuscube) but otherwise is unmodded.
Help 🙂
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Agree with Aramcheck - out of focus and well out of collimation.
What target were you aiming at? If its any sort of nebula it's unlikely you'll see much if anything at all in a live view - especially if the focus is only just slightly off. And the odd stars you're seeing might just be hot pixels. First sort out the ocllimation, then the focus.
Neil
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Nice one.
That takes me back to when I did the same thing with a Philips Toucam - quite a few years ago now
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From Setup - > ~Display -> finder Rectangle and then just double click on the 0.00 under 'rotation' for your chosen rectangle and experiment with numbers between 0 and 180 until it looks the same as your FOV
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I hope you've got a good stock of the cloud gun
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According to the NINA manual "
- If an OSC camera is used, the raw bayered data is saved"
- I'm guessing you'll need to debayer the saved image?
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do you need an actual box or splitter cable - plenty of those on ebay - 4, 6 or 8 way.
Neil
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Or there's this guy
Telescope Repair - SC Telescopes.com service repair.
Did a great job on reviving my15 year old Celestron C11
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And to answer F - that screw is to stop the scope/dovetail slipping all the way out of the saddle and ending up on the floor
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Yeay.
A reason to open the dome - as NEOWISE was below my tree line, so its not been used for days/weeks
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Nik Szymanek has been writing about it the last few (4 I think) issues of Astronomy Now.
Neil
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HI again Karen,
I live just outside Marchwood.
And the apps are good but a while ago I put together a little presentation to help beginners navigate their way around the night sky - I've attached it here - it may be of some use.
Now all we need are some clear skies.
Regards
Neil
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3 hours ago, DaveL59 said:
ahhh that explains the hail we're getting then!
Thunder & lightning here in my bit of the New Forest
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I'm lucky in that I have a dome, so I just leave the kit capturing darks at the end of an observing session (or sometimes do it the following morning when ambient temp is low)
Neil
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That fluctuation may have been caused by the cam having to work flat out to maintain the temp - what ambient were you working at, bearing in mind at best it can get to 35-40 below ambient?
Regards
Neil- 1
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+1 for autostakkert
What software do you use ?
in Imaging - Image Processing, Help and Techniques
Posted
this must be DS surevey.
AS!3 for planetary/lunar/solar stacking, Registax or Astrosurface for other processing. imPPG for Solar processing