Moonshed

You are making great progress, my first attempts at the Orion Nebula were not as good as that but I have the excuse (always handy to have an excuse up your sleeve) that 30 years ago I was using a film camera. What a pain that was! Keep at it and before you know it you will have magnificent pictures of the heavens with which to impress your friends and a very respectful overdraft. Who needs money anyway? 😀

Make sure you do, it’s very good and you will love it!

I bet you watched “Queen’s Gambit” though.

Don’t get disheartened he says, then proceeds to explain why the 11 dimensions of the space time continuum combined with string theory is the reason why a solution to the seeming disparities between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity may lie within the merging of chaos theory and Mandelbrot sets of infinite complexity. 😂 Personally I think the magnification of my Mars image is somewhere between 10 and 1,000 depending on how far you sit from your computer screen and whether you use metric or imperial measurements. Vlaiv, I bet you’re a Grand Master chess player 🏆🥇🏅🎖🏅

Thank you Tony and vlaiv, I just knew it would be dead easy stuff you could do in your head. When I asked the question I didn’t realise the complexities involved with pixels, radians, arc seconds and mystical Druid symbols. That’ll teach me! At least I know the answer to give now: “Magnification? Yes of course, it’s somewhere between humungous and stupendous, depending on the temperature of the chip’s pixels.” That should do it. But seriously thank you so much for giving me the information, it’s much appreciated! It will take me a while to digest it, I may be gone some time...

I understand that by dividing the focal length of the ‘scope by the focal length of the eyepiece we arrive at the amount of magnification that combination gives. Today I was asked what the magnification was of an image of Mars I took recently and I have no idea! I used a planetary camera and do not have a clue as to how to work it out. Could somebody please tell me what the magic formula is? Thanks in advance.

Thank goodness for that, I was beginning to think I would never get the hang of this! A decent image? That’s a first 😄, thank you.

Ahhhh... I knew all along of course, I was just pretending. 🤥 I have got so used to getting bad images this last couple of weeks I just naturally assumed it was me yet again! Thanks, I am so relieved it isn’t me this time, first good news I’ve had since opposition.

I have been busy practicing taking images of Mars with my new ZWO, flip mirror, and new software FireCapture and Autostakkert. After many trials and tribulations things are finally beginning to come together and my images, although needing a huge improvement, are at last taking shape. My one remaining problem, ignoring for now my need to learn how to process images properly, is that all my Mars images after stacking are not a regular shape, looking a little like the Moon a few days after full. After stacking I first process in Registax 6.0 then move to PhotoShop. This is the finished image. Any help would as always be gratefully received. Keith

Yes of course. The problem began when I first downloaded Autostakkert because I was tired and lazy so had it unzip to my desktop, never a good idea! After a week or so of experimenting and getting the hang of things I decided it was time to unclutter my desktop, junk folders everywhere. So I trashed all the stuff I didn’t need. Unfortunately, amongst all the rubbish I trashed was a strange little icon that said “sharpen-filter”, never even noticed it before and that went as well. It transpired that it was an essential piece of software needed to run Autostakkert and without it no files could be opened. I did not realise any of this until as a last resort I decided to uninstall it and download and install it again, that’s when the funny little icon popped up again. This time I filed it safely away in its correct home. No problems since then.

Yes I can do that but the problem I had was that Autostakkert would not open ANY avi file, regardless of format. Doesn’t matter now because I sorted it out.

I have solved the problem, it runs fine now so at last I can open my files and get them stacked! What a pain it has been.

P R O B L E M S O L V E D! I had tried everything under the sun but still Autostakkert point blank refused to open any of my files. In desperation I thrashed my laptop within an inch of its life with a hefty branch, but still it refused. After days spent at the keyboard my back ached, my neck is stiff and I have a constant headache. My wife wisely has kept away. Enough! I cried as I raised a 10 lb sledge hammer high above my head, but.....wait....I have one last thing I haven’t tried. I uninstalled Autostakkert and downloaded another copy and installed it. IT WORKED! I realised what I had done wrong. My desktop had become so cluttered over these last few days I decided to have a tidy up and trashed a lot of stuff I didn’t need. However, I trashed an extension of Autostakkert that I did need, something called a “sharpen_filter”. I can’t believe I spent all this time on trying to fix it! live and learn. my wife is talking to me again😄

Couldn’t agree more! Trying to get decent PA was driving me to despair, that’s when I came on here and asked for solutions, the PoleMaster was highly recommended. It’s the best piece of gear I have bought and now it’s just a routine part of my set up, taking as you say only a few minutes. One less annoyance to have to bother with. The advantage is that I can now do at least 150 second subs with my Cannon whereas previously the best I could manage was around 90 seconds and of course that makes one hell of a difference in the amount of detail captured. Stick with it, maybe take a break if you need but don’t give up, astronomy has been my fascination for the last 60 years.

I have used the debayer in FireCapture while observing Mars and adjusted the settings until the colour looked realistic on screen and then starting recording, so far so good. However, when trying to open the AVI of Mars in AutoStakkert it wouldn’t open, just kept giving me an error message, I have shown this in another thread “Weird error message in AutoStakkert”. I checked around online and found a few people who said after debayer is done it should be deselected so as not to be in force during recording. I don’t understand, why do it and not use it? Have I got this wrong? Could you let me know if after getting the colours right do you record it like that, or switch debayer off. I am so confused.

I use a photography carry case with the foam cube cut out base to store all my eyepieces, filters, Barlow, right angle viewer, telextender, Easy Guider and bits and bobs. I know it’s more expensive than some hobby boxes or tool boxes but I’ve had mine for 30 years and it’s still perfect for keeping all my valuable telescope accessories safe and easy to transport and store away.

I have previously had no problem in opening my avi files for stacking in AutoStakkert but this was before I knew about debayering. Since I have done this in FireCapture and managed to get some decent colour into my Mars AVIs I have been unable to open any of them in AutoStakkert. What’s more I can’t now even open the previous ones that were not debayerd and previously opened up no problem. This is the error message that appears every time I try to open any AVI, debayered or not. All AVIs created in FireCapture. I can’t make head nor tale of it so if anyone has any idea what I am doing wrong I would appreciate some advice before I take a 10 lb sledge hammer to my laptop. It’s been a bit of a week!

Thank you all so much. I have played around with the debayering in both FireCapture and AutoSkakkert and managed to get some fairly reasonable colour of my living room ( total cloud cover) from what previously was pretty much only greyscale. I have found a YouTube tutorial and shall work my way through it but at least I now understand why Mars was green. I shall continue to try and experiment to get the most realistic colour of Mars when the sky is clear again. Thanks again, I really appreciate all your help.

Okay, I bought the ZWO ASI224MC colour camera and a flip mirror. I have run 8 videos of Mars the last few days. The problem is that after stacking in AutoStakkert and getting an image it is always green, this is before any processing. I have discovered that all of my videos are a little out of focus but have discovered today how to correct that by starting in APT and focusing with their Bahtinov Mask. However, the poor focus does not affect the colour and even after trying everything in Photoshop I cannot get rid of the green. There does not appear to be any red in the image that I can bring out. I have no idea why. I took a 90 second video using FireCapture. The finished image after staking in AutoStakker is attached. What am I doing wrong? It’s driving me nuts. DFF121FD-92B1-4621-A51D-9E13A3488C65.tiff

After recently purchasing a ZWO ASI224MC colour camera I had awful problems trying to find Mars, very frustrating considering that's the main reason why I bought it. Placing Mars in the centre of my Telrad reticle was a waste of time and effort, as was using the usually trusty GOTO, I could easily spend 45 mins to no avail. So, as I always do in these situations, I came on here and asked what other members do. There were a number of useful suggestions but the one that most appealed to me was the flip mirror, quick and easy and didn’t need a YouTube tutorial! I ordered one from Amazon, an Omegon Syncfocus flip-mirror for £60 and it arrived today. Unbelievable the sky tonight was clear and the Milky Way looked wonderful so I couldn’t resist trying it out and maybe capturing some more videos of Mars. OMG! It was amazing! After spending around 30 minutes getting it set up correctly I was ready to give it a try. I manually swung the ‘scope around until it more or less lined up on Mars, centred it in the Telrad then went to the flip-mirror eyepiece I had put in. I could see Mars nice and sharp but off centre, so with a few dabs on the buttons I had it centred, flipped the mirror back to camera and checked FireCapture on the screen. There was Mars dead centre, I couldn’t believe it. I even moved the scope away and brought it back to Mars and it was again centred in a few seconds! Yet again many thanks to all of you that replied to my thread “I have a problem finding Mars” and gave your recommendations. All I need now is to discover I took amazing images of Mars and I will be even happier, if that’s possible 😄

Thank you for that info, it’s something I will definitely have a go at because it sounds so good.

Okay Peter, thanks for that, thought I would have to fork out even more money, glad to see it’s unnecessary.

I understand that plate solving is a very accurate method for PA. The thing is I use a PoleMaster and achieve very accurate PA and use APT for star focusing and setting subs etc.. The part that I have difficulty with is actually finding Mars, either using the mount’s GOTO or the Telrad. I expect plate solving may help with the precision required to locate a planet but is yet another thing I would have to master, having only this week started using my new ZWO, using FireCapture and using AutoStakker, it’s been a bit of a heavy week to be honest. I am expecting that by using a flip mirror with an illuminated reticle eyepiece my problem will be resolved and I will be able to find Mars and also achieve good focus on it too. Many thanks for your advice though, noted.

Yes, I know. I have aligned the Telrad to Telrad utter perfection with the telescope eyepiece. The precision I have achieved is the fantasy dream of the original Telrad designers and if I say so myself, and I do, it is so incredible, so unbelievably perfect, so superhuman in its execution, I have nominated myself for the Nobel Prize in Twiddling and Fiddling. My family backs my nomination wholeheartedly. 😄 Thanks for your help. I hope you realise this is just for a little light hearted relief and is in no way actually making fun of your comment which in fact is a very valid point. Sometimes this hobby can become somewhat frustrating.

Hi Michael I have ordered the flip mirror and it arrives Tuesday. I am guessing that an illuminated reticle eyepiece is pretty much essential for this and have looked at some. I found this one on Amazon which is really cheap at £30 delivered and I feel it will be good enough for the job. What do you think? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Astromania-Illuminated-Reticle-Telescope-Eyepiece/dp/B085DL11YT/ref=sr_1_5?crid=30HKTGZQGRHGP&dchild=1&keywords=reticle+eyepiece+telescope&qid=1604850610&sprefix=Reticke%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-5 Thanks again. Keith