Craney

Cannot see the file.....  check you have loaded it properly   (jpeg ??)

A-Ha !!!!    so I'm not going totally du-lally.

Those great folk at ATIK  have listened to my ramblings and detected a bug in the code which resulted in the above issue.

    "....this issue has now been fixed and the core software will be updated this week ".  

That is about 12 hours after I initially reported it.   Excellent customer service.

So    @ollypenrice   , if you are thinking of moving over to Dusk then maybe wait a week or so just in case.

Sean.

Lacerta Mgen is very good in terms of portability and tracking success.  I find that re-calibrating every time you lock on to a new object is better for overall accuracy..    Moon glow and sky brightness can cause a 'no-stars-detected' with Mgen which can leave you a bit stuck, especially in the Summer months,  but you do have options of gain and sensitivity.    There is not a great deal between Mgen and PHd2 in terms of performance without going to the milli-pixel resolution.

Maybe the Mgen just edges it with a smaller tracking square, but Phd has a more user friendly GUI, but that necessitates the laptop.     I am not sure if you can swap cameras with the Mgen which means you might have to use their own chip, and although sensitive it does have a small FOV.

Both methods have worked for me when necessary.   I'm sure somebody more erudite than me will come along and give you more technicals.

Sean.

What did the Postman bring..??   

I'm too scared to look...

Yikes, I aint goin' into the garden after dark.....

( Thanks to FLO.    This is the big beastie of a TeleGizmo cover.   Big enough for a 10" Newt on an EQ.  )

Thanks for the reply Olly,

I have had the EFW on the table today watching what it does in DUSK.   I was right, the individual snapshot and loop function recognises all 9 filter positions and correctly  works through them when manually selected.  

Alas,  when you input a sequence of filter changes in the PLANNER section, the sequencer goes straight to position 2 when you want it to go to position 1.  In fact I cannot get the sequencer to go to position 1when in this mode..... which was my LUM  filter.     But once it has made this mistake, it is then consistent with the relative positioning for the next step. ie  position 2 beomes 3,   3 becomes 4 etc....   This error occurs with  1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4........ and  1,1,1,1, 2,2,2,2, 3,3,3,3, 4,4,4,4   type runs.       Thankfully it is not a random error, or sporadic.  It seems to me that the planner resets where the 'home' position is on the FW.

So, why not set everything  "position minus 1"...... ah yes, but remember the sequencer/planner only recognises 8 positions.... so I cant enter '9'  for it to incorrectly go to '1'  if that makes sense.

Various attempts at reloading software did not make any difference.

Thanks for the heads up on the FITS files.   I will see if I can yield any info from them.

I know what you mean about Artemis.   It is very much belt and braces, but hey!!..... its clear and simple.   Dusk has a bit more functionality to it  and a modern looking user interface, but essentially it does the same job.....It is a nice environment to work with and if it all performed flawleessly I would be a convert.

I have put a message out on the ATIK forum as well. Fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Sean.

Ha !!   when I said  " all round" ,    I meant the set up,  not the star-shapes.  

They look alright from my viewpoint and my prescription ( !!! )  .   But saying that, once I get some level of proficiency at this astro-photography mularkie, I make take a peep at me own pixels with the software you have used.  I hate to think what horrors lie in wait.....

Very nice  all round.      Pier, scope, image ......and that Polar alignment !!!!!   ...all the zeros.....  good work. 

Hello everybody,

( I think this could be a driver or ASCOM setup thing and so I have tentatively put it into the Software forum..... please move if better elsewhere ).

This could be a simple one, but it is evading me at the moment, but I am a bear of little brain.

I have a Atik 414mono, EFW2 running on a Win 10 pro Toughbook.

About a week or so ago during the last bit of clear skies,whilst using DUSK  I noticed that some of my subs didn't look right the morning after.   ie.  that's meant to be a BLUE sub and looks suspiciously like a H-Alpha.    
On investigation,   when performing  single or looped shots on the normal camera menu tab, it could find all  1-9 slots.... ok  and relocate to find the correct slot.......but when I set up the sequencer and set it off going in good faith , ( and left to get a cup of tea etc)  ...it went to position '2' instead of the required '1'   etc.... and since I have  a LUM,R,G,B,Ha sequence  it took a RED sub and not a LUM one.....and so on.

An additional fact which might be useful in diagnosis is that in the sequencer menu, the Filter wheel option only goes up to 8 max.... but just a menu away to the side, the same program reckons I have got 9 slots..... hmmmm confusing ??

.....and another thing,   an old version of  Artemis Capture works Ok  with the sequencing without changing anything on the computer.    Then back to DUSK and it's up to the silly behaviour again.   What could be the issue??

I could have been going wrong for a long time, ... oh my.... hope I have not published any 'unbelievable'  images,  but the lack of clear nights has hidden the problem behind the long list of other more immediate issues...  ??

Anyways, any help much appreciated.

Sean

That's about the time of astronomical darkness in these parts.... so something to look out for before setting the imaging run going

They are beautiful images...    What time were you   awake/asleep   to in order to capture them ??

Hi David,  

I use a 414ex mono  with an SW Equinox 80mm (F6.25) without any additional correction,  and do not notice any significant**  elongation.

** Obviously this is a very subjective matter. I have enough battles with all the rest of the kit / sky conditions etc..  to become too retentive over the microscopic details  (maybe I should ?)  but you have to draw the line somewhere between producing a decent  acceptable image within a limited timespan and   pixel madness !!...

This is a recent shot with the 414 /80mm combo , the Veil..,  just don't look too closely    

.

ISS is always a suspect, being bright in the early evening and coming in from the West, but I have never seen structure on such a wide angle shot.   Could it be a plane catching the last rays of Sunlight at altitude ??

23 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

OMG thats a disaster!! shoot those things down i say!

Yessir..  just let me get a GPS fix on it.......

... oops, sorry @alan potts,   didn't read the original post thoroughly enough.   Yes, the 80 Esprit gets very good reviews and again is on the right side of the price inflation /rarity value as the glass gets bigger.

Still If I was going for a quality refractor, I might weigh up a larger aperture for light grasp but slightly faster than F5 to get more galaxies and smaller DSO's..... but with a decent Focal reducer available as well, which ultimately makes the scope more flexible.   (if I dare to use such a word in the same context as imaging...😮)

The 100mm APO refractor niche seems very well populated with quality scopes.   There must be a point where local seeing conditions, mount guiding accuracy and a whole host of other factors just negate the extra  £4000  ($4000)  that you could spend.

eg.  I quite fancy some counterweights for my NEQ6  hewn out of Iridium based meteorites,  but......

Me thinks a  graphic artist has been let loose on this.... say cheese.....

What object are you going for  ??  

I'm giving a new pier a work-out as well.  Fingers crossed.

i'm not an expert reviewer and only use the simplest routines...... ie... scheduling   a Ha LRGB  or narrowband sequence , but a couple of things I cannot quite suss out, probably need to read the manual a bit better !!!

I have a 9x 1.25" insert on the EFW2, but I cannot  sequence FW position 9, it only seems to go up to 8 on the scheduler. Not critical but annoying because I have Hbeta in FWposition 9.

Some sequences just will not start, is it because I have the exposure loop still active....??... well when I turn it off, it still doesn't start.  Have to reload program to get it to work.

Scheduler seems to write out directories of all the previous sequences I have had.  ie. I store images in folders with the date as the 'name', when I create a new sequence it writes out all the previous ones as well, there must be a way to reset all of this.

Other than that, good piece of software. I used to like the Artemis one as well. Straightforward and it works.

Sean.

It is a fine shot.  Did you have to take a lot of subs  ?   

When you say 'vintage'......  just how old ??  I'm wondering if I am expecting too much from my OSC.  

I have a second hand QHY8Pro, but have not really got it to perform very effectively  (yet).  Probably more 'user-error' than anything else, but with the results I have had, it seems very sensitive to any ambient conditions.   My subs never look that convincing and I usually have to stretch the histogram to confirm that I have captured the object.

To gain any depth to an imageI think I am really am going  to have to commit hours to it rather than 10x3mins that I do now.

Any secrets ??

Sean.

33 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

 

 

Pelican

.....  or Klingon Bird of Prey class starship.....   ??

On 11/05/2019 at 20:44, JamesF said:

 

Your shadow looks like you are enjoying a fine malt whiskey, as you survey the task ahead....

3 minutes ago, JamesF said:

......You can't be too far from the end now.

Is there a collective noun for Observatories.... ???    🤩

Our you using  "Dusk" or the older software ??

I am imaging with "Dusk" in the garden at the moment and when I was faffing I noticed a checkbox  that wanted  to know which type of image  I was taking.....   LIGHTS or DARKS ?

Just wondering if you have inadvertently pressed something like this and are getting featureless images.

Just  a suggestion. Hope you solve it.

5 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

but apparently not to whoever packed it!

( or maybe listed it) 

So, the big question.....   is a 1300D better than an  1100D   ??

Excellent.

I hope the dog didn't christen the pier in the usually canine manner  !!!