widotje

Yep, same issue here. I can connect the asi678MC to sharpcap, but in PHD2, SGpro, and firecapture it is not detected.

Installed the latest drivers and software updates, no luck. I'm using the camera for some casual planetary viewing and imaging, for which sharpcap is oke.  

Cheers,

Wido.

has this ever been solved? same here.

Hi all, 

I see I missed a whole lot of comments, thank you so much for this valuable information. I haven't made up my mind yet. the SC 8" would be good for planets. But recently I got interested in imaging galaxies and that would require a somewhat lower f ratio, although an edge HD with reducer could do the trick. As an alternative, I see a many Richey Chretien types which may also be good for galaxy hunting...but probably worse on planets due to obstruction. And then I compare those to a large refractor (TS has an 115mm F/7 for 999). I think I'm going loco...:-). Anyway, thanks for sharing all your experiences and knowledge

Wido. 

On 04/07/2013 at 15:51, alan potts said:

good few targets, mainly Saturn, Venus the Moon

2 years later...:-). I'm actually considering the mak 180 for planetary and bright DSO astrophotography. Is there anyone who has some experience with this? As for DSO's, I'm thinking bright globular clusters and galaxies which have a relatively small FoV. Together with my ZWO 178MC and ZWO1600MM, would this be a good combination to get decent quality images?

8 hours ago, Andrew Singleton said:

Some fantastic pictures there from what seems to be a very urban environment.

I would love to own one of these camera's in the long run but have a lot of saving to do first!

Hi there, thanks! I started with a modified DSLR and after 2 years I switched to the ZWO 1600mm pro. I gave it a lot of thought because it is indeed expensive, but I don't regret it. Clear skies.

You polar align your mount with the North celestial pole using the alt-az screws on your EQ mount.

This puts your telescope in the correct position the accurately track the stars at your particular location (i.e. latitude).

I also made a video on how to polar align a telescope 🙂

Hi folks,

I have owned my Celestron Advanced VX for almost five years now and decided to make a video where i review the mount in terms of specs, pro's and cons that I have experienced over the past year, and comparing the mount to other mounts below the $1000 range such as the Ioptron CEM25p and the meade LX85. I also made a playlist from all the videos I made over the past years about setting up the AVX, how to polar and star align the mount etc. You can find the whole playlist here, hope this is useful for those who are looking for an entry level mount.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrfMN3RZZNHd_ojxbrrarZCRzHhaBMo0P

Feedback is always welcome, cheers!

Hi fellow astrographers,

I just finished a couple of videos where show you how I setup my astrophotography gear (camera, scope, filterwheel) and platesolving in Sequence Generator Pro - including a live session showing the different steps I take to connect my gear and setup and start my sequence to image a particular DSO. Hope this info is useful, and feedback is definitely welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrfMN3RZZNHf8D6LtEn6kulNl2c6M1omo

Clear skies!

Wido.

On 25/10/2019 at 13:03, Craney said:

Looks great.

I am watching this with the sound down as I am at work, whilst pretending to supervise a test with my Year 10 class.    

I am new to the higher levels of processing with PS and welcome any advice going with clear, easy to follow steps.

Good work, 10 out of 10.

Thank you! And I hope no one cheated on the test :-). 

On 25/10/2019 at 15:32, wornish said:

I learnt quite a bit from your video - Thanks.

You might want to point out that HLVG only works on Windows systems not Macs.

 

Thanks, I'll try to remember that next time. Are you aware of other software available for Macs that do a similar job?

On 25/10/2019 at 12:23, carastro said:

I also do video tutorials in Photoshop.  I watched your tutorial out of curiosity and you use quite different methods to me at times, it is interesting how many different ways there are to process.  

I like your videos and love your fluent English with the Dutch accent.  The Dutch are very good at speaking English I have found (I have Dutch friends from around 50 or more years).  

I am sure people will find this and your imaging camera tutorials very useful.

Carole 

Thank you for your positive feedback Carole!  And I'm very interested in alternative methods/techniques so if you have any recommendations I'm all ears :-).

Hello folks, 

I have made a video where I show 8 steps I often use when processing my narrowband images in Photoshop CC.

Any kind of feedback or tips you can give me are welcome...I'm eager to improve my processing skills.

And yes, I'm planning to buy pixinsight when i have the time to learn how to use this program :).

Link to the video is here: https://youtu.be/J4vyjMI-9cc

Cheers,

Wido.

@white dwarf @Nebula thanks for the positive feedback about my channel!

@Protostar If you don't mind buying a CMOS camera....(and compensate for darks, flats)...I have great experiences with my ZWO ASI 1600MM pro. 

And for those of you who jumped into CCD mono imaging. I fully agree that this would give you far better results as compared to a DSLR.  I still think the learning curve would be steep for those who start out without any knowledge. They would first have to learn how to setup, polar align, guide, stack, process and combine mono images etc. But it is of course doable.  And a second element would be the price range.  Are you willing and able to afford a high quality CCD camera. In that respect the CMOS cooled mono cameras have  been improving a lot over the past years, led by ZWO - and are more affordable in price as compared to CCDs. 

 Thanks for all the useful feedback!

Clear skies.

12 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

 True! However, I run imaging courses and often work with beginners or relative beginners and I don't agree with the idea that you need to start with DSLR or OSC. I started with monochrome CCD on the advice of the very expert Ian King, now at FLO, and I think it was great advice. I pass it on. Also a fair number of our guests have told me that they think their time with DSLRs was time wasted. I know this is a minority opinion but I hold it none the less.

Olly

Aha, OK. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I assumed that most people like myself own a DSLR...and use that as a first step into astrophotography. But that might not always be the case...and it is true that my ZWO 1600 MM pro produces far higher quality images as compared to my DSLR..and a CCD is of course supernice in terms of quality. But I don't feel that time was wasted...I first had a lot to learn about polar aligning, guiding and capturing. But I can imagine that some have other experiences. Something to consider in my future videos. Cheers!

Hi folks,

I thought it would be fun to make a video on my recent attempt to capture the North America Nebula in Narrowband:

https://youtu.be/MXMTuGdF9Sw

Cheers and clear skies!

Wido. 

On 14/10/2019 at 20:58, ollypenrice said:

I would.

Olly

Hehehe. Depends on his/her socio-economic status and if you like him/her....lol

On 14/10/2019 at 22:59, gorann said:

I really like your effort into helping people get into this great hobby! Just two comments. A scientific one is that the need for red light sensitivity of our cameras has nothing to do with the red shift you show in your cartoon. Red shift is something affecting far far away galaxies but the reason we need cameras sensitive in red is that  our milky way nebulas often send out much of their light from glowing hydrogen atoms at the red H-alpha wavelength of 656 nm. Secondly, I think you may be slightly wrong in suggesting that CMOS is noisier than CCD, I thought it is often quite the opposite, but others may have more to say about that.

Thanks for the update Goran. You are definitely correct about the redshift. I was confused because I saw some info on the Hubble Space Telescope where they mentioned this. It only applies to early galaxies.

For CMOS, I always thought that those sensors were heavier on read noise, hence the dark frames needed to compensate for this. But if this is not accurate I'm all ears.

Thanks for watching the video!

5 hours ago, carastro said:

That's come out very well from Utrecht.  I know full well the difficulties with LP I live in Bortle 8. SE London.

Carole 

Thanks Carole! I'm still thinking about migrating to spain / greece to do astrophotography...especially with the weather we have been getting in the past month :-). 

I captured this early september, after that, only rain, ah well, we're used to it I guess.

Hi folks, 

My second attempt to capture NGC 7000 using the Hubble Palette from my Bortle 8 class city Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

Some details: 

Imaging telescope: TS photoline 80mm apo

Imaging camera:ZWO ASI 1600MM-Cool pro

Mount:Celestron Advanced VX

Guiding telescope or lens:Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope

Guiding camera:Zwo ASI120MC

Focal reducer:TS2 Flattener

Software: Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop CC 

Filters: ZWO S-II ZWO 7nm SII,  ZWO O-III 7nm,  ZWO H-alpha 7 nm

Images:

ZWO S-II ZWO 7nm SII: 45x300" bin 1x1
ZWO H-alpha 7 nm: 68x300" bin 1x1
ZWO O-III 7nm: 65x300" bin 1x1

all cooled at -25C, 5 minutes exposure.

Compensated with flats, but had trouble adding dark frames for some reason so I left those out...

Total integration time: 15.8 hours. 

During a - close to - full mone (93%). 

Let me know what you think (honest opinions are appreciated :-)!

Cheers and clear skies,

Wido.

On 09/10/2019 at 20:31, Xplode said:

This is our first mosaic from SkyEyE Observatory with our new telescope, a 14,5" reflector.

Ola Skarpen did most of the editing while i did the stacking and stitching
It was a lot of work getting the panels aligned and stretched exactly the same, but it was definitely worth the efford.

Gear:
AG Optical Convergent FA14 14.5" reflector (1855mm/f5)
10 Micron GM2000
Optec Gemini focusing rotator
Moravian G3-16200 (pixel scale 0.67")
ZWO ASI174MM Mini (OAG)

Exposures
Chroma Ha 3nm 50mm: 101x600" bin 1x1
Baader OIII 2" 8.5nm: 48x600" bin 2x2
Baader SII 2" 7nm: 70x600" bin 2x2
Total time 36,7 hours shared between the 4 panels. 
 

Click for full resolution

Detail from the 100% image

I love the way you post process...still got a lot to learn. What techniques / software are you using? Any tips? thanks

Hi folks,

From time to time get asked what kind of astrophotography camera should I buy on the (social) media accounts where i upload my images.

There are many technical discussions (which is helpful of course) but in my opinion it often also depends on the interests of the person itself en his/her skill level...

For example, I wouldn't recommend a CCD mono camera >$3K to a person who is starting his/her hobby :-). 

Anyhow, I attempted to capture that in a video and put it on my personal YouTube channel, here's the link:

https://youtu.be/HhIAEnVMzHU

Feedback is highly appreciated, and I know I have a (Dutch) accent...being a non native speaker...

I'll keep at it and hopefully it will improve over time :-).

Clear skies, 

Wido.

I folks,

As nights are cloudy here in the Netherlands, I decided to make a video showing my different steps on how I polar align my telescope using sharpcap.

You can find it here:

I'm also wondering if this is the best way, or is there other software that is superior to this?

I've been hearing good things about EKOS and the ASIAIR?

Cheers,

Wido. 

20 hours ago, carastro said:

Enjoyed the video, yes narrowband is my life saver too at home, but I travel to campsites (Bortle 4) on a regular basis as well. 

Also been to Utrecht, albeit many years ago.

Carole 

Thanks @carastro  @upahill,

I've recently been to the south of the Peloponnesos (Greece). With my family so no astrophotography gear, only my DSLR and a kitlens. It was so beautiful to see the milkyway and jupiter (close to the milkyway) during some moonless nights. Truly amazing. We don't get that in Utrecht (although I do like living in the city).

Some day I'll buy a tiny house in a green zone and put all of my astrography equipment there :-). 

Hi there,

I'm pretty much bound to light polluted skies in Utrecht (the Netherlands). So I made a video on how to perform astrophotography in the city using narrowband filters.

In this case, I'm using ZWO 7nm narrowband filters (Ha, Sii, Oiii) to image IC1396 - The Elephant Trunck Nebula.

I also discuss differences between imaging with broadband and narrowband filters and how narrowband can rescue astrophotographers who are dealing with a lot of light pollution like me.

You can find the video here, hope you find it useful:

https://youtu.be/0_yjtMllNK4

Clear skies!