spillage

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Don't forget you can adjust the tilt of the 130P-DS focuser tube

I didn't know you could do that. Are you able to explain how this is done and can it be done with everything attached?

Cheers

Hi All,

This really is the first time I have tried photoshop with any of my images.

I came across a great tutorial on how to deal with elongated stars which works well and more importantly is easy enough for me to understand. However is leaves a bit of dark circle in the image if zoomed in and I cannot work out how to blur this line out.

All the stuff I seem to find goes on about cutting our part of the image and blurring the whole background...I thought the blur tool would work but it seems not..(user error?)

Any help would be much appropriated but I am a PS newbie.

I have suffered from tilt for an age and can never be sure if is camera, focus tube or poor collimation or possibly all three adding up.

Not sure if anyone here has one or tried one but this adaptor might be of use. For only about £45 its worth a go but I think it will only work with the baader mpcc.

Not too sure when using a dslr but I would be tempted to say its a bit of tilt maybe from the actual focus tube and possible spacing, maybe too close.

I found adding or removing a couple mm gave me a clear indication where I was with mine.

Are the stars the same with a shorter/longer exposure?

I would crop  the inner part and work on that. www.lightvortexastronomy.com is a great site for help with PI.

If you are having eqmod issues it might be worth listing your kit as it would help diagnose any issues.

I prefer stellarium for choosing target but always use cdc to connect to the scope as I just like the way it works. I do find that once your platesolving you really do not need to use cdc or stellarium to move the mount to you target as it is all done via the software (APT, NINA, SGPro). I am sure with APT you can also load up a previous image and use this to platesolve back to the same position.

With APT you can download extra targets to add to the standard list available. (I have them somewhere if wanted).

Hope some of the above is useful and not just me rambling on..

That is a great image and worthy of being satisfied about. I am sure that everyone here is too critical of their own work. It keeps the guys at flo busy....

I use N.I.N.A and think its a great bit of kit. Similar to SGPro but with a better support group who seem very keen to move things along an listen to the users. I have not used sgpro for a good 6 months now.

Not sure how many images have been stacked or what software was used but DSS should remove you trails with the right settings.

I use the baader one and I can agree it is fussy about spacing. I found that starting at the recommended spacing and then just adding/removing a few mm will clearly see which direction you need to move it and then you can do you fine adjustment. I remember that the recommended spacing was not correct for mine and I think I need to add some extra.

(still not 100% happy with the results but maybe due to movement in the train as it have been moved about or just tracking.)

Thanks @lenscap Typical user error. My text file was not layed out as in your example. But now I can clearly see how do it.

Cheers,

Hi All,

I am trying to make my own horizon in cdc but struggling to get it to work correctly. I have used a standard text file like below.

0 0

5 25

10 30

15 25

20 0

From 0-355

Some if this works but not all. I have failed to find an example of how it should look. If anyone is able to help by showing me their example it would be appreciated.

cheers,

If you can find a second hand eq5 pro at the right price you may find it suitable for your needs. I would consider the 130pds over the 150pds though. like others have mentioned a mount for your camera will not really hold a telescope. A mount that will hold the 130/150 will be much more than maybe you want to spend. I do see a few heq5 mounts come up second hand, it just depends on how portable you want to be.

Hi

It has been a while since I did anything with a webcam but if you put your finger into the light path does this show on the screen. You will need to turn down the exposure time as much as possible in the daytime and I can remember spending ages getting my old nextimage5 working.

They were a popular webcam and being a flashed 880 should not make a difference. I am sure someone on here will have one and be able to help further.

Cheers,

As @JamesF mentions, if its not attached to your scope then you will not be able to get focus.

For what it is worth, I have spent a long time trying to get the best out of my mount. The reality is that the components are not 100% and there are manufacturing discrepancies.

I will admit to having DEC backlash and I am sure something is loose (sure its the cog on the worm shaft). My RA is as close as it will ever be so this has now been left alone. I only use the 130pds with a st80 strapped to it so not much weight there but still will get around 0.6-0.8" rms (I have even seen sub 0.5" on occasion) in total.

I think what I am trying to say is just run the mount see how it performs. If you not that happy make very small adjustments and run it again. Also I find equal balance very important with the belt mod.

21 minutes ago, JamesF said:

what has happened to them all...

Maybe they are such a pig to set up correctly that most have ended up going into landfill..Or the back of a cupboard..😮

17 minutes ago, Robindonne said:

is it solid enough

I guess it depends on your mount and guide scope. If you are near the max limit and you need to keep an eye on adding extra weight then you will have use a small guide scope which I think normally use this type of connection. But I would have thought that guiding stability may be compromised. If you can use scope rings clamped down as tight as possible then its not going to move.

7 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

movement of the primary

Oh thanks Olly. I always thought that SCT's had the issues with mirror flop and did not  think that reflectors suffered from it to that extent.

12 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

The Quattro requires an OAG

Sorry I do not understand this? I have the 8" quattro with one of my st80's strapped to for guiding as I do no use an oag.

As you have a good mount you might find it easier, quicker and cheaper to by a second hand st80. As long as it is attached to your main scope securely you will be good to go.

You can even stick a cheap SW autofocuser on the thing. They are heavier but your mount will cope as I have had my quattro 8 and a st80 strapped to it for guiding.

I keep looking a oag's but cannot fault my st80's and have been using then for a couple of years.

are you clicking on "add as new" box so it shows up in the box?

Try here.

Its been a while since I used APT and do not have the obs pc running. If phd starts within apt then there is no need to manually connect.

Hi

This looks just backlash on the mount. Did you do the belt mod yourself?

I would loosen off the four nuts on the RA worm housing. You need to slacken off the top grub screw and wind out the bottom screw 1/4 turn at a time. Tighten nip up at least three of the four bolts and then move the mount in RA and check for binding. I would continue doing this until the mount binds and then slowly take the bottom grub screw in until the binding stops. If you then still have some backlash then tighten up the worm (make sure the black cap on the other side of the control panel is done up tight first then wind in the opposite side and this should remove any remaining play.

Hope this is some help?

That is odd. Have you selected eq5/6 in the drop down menu on that connection page?

Have you tried connecting to APT first and then opening PHD2. If both are set to the same within ascom then they should both connect at the same time.

If you take your camera off the scope after every session then you will need to take flats before you remove the camera. If it all stays together then just run off some flats and keep using the same ones until they appear to stop working.

I have has worse and flats have removed it all.

If you are using startools and have not closed the program then the crop size should be still kept to use on other images. In PI I always use DynamicCrop but save the process to drag and drop on all the images I will be using. Not sure if any of this is helpful.

Cheers,

6 hours ago, RolandKol said:

Maybe someone has a good link to RGB noise reduction tutorial on Pixinsight?

Hi Roland,

I would highly recommend the light vortex astronomy as they have some great PI tutorials.

I would Dynamic Crop, run ABE/DBE on the single RGB data, combine in pixelmath, then use background neutralization and the colour calibration followed by SCNR and move on from there. Although I am starting to use Photometric Colour Calibration instead of BN and CC more, not sure if this is better or not but I am just starting out with PI.

Not sure if any of this info would be of any use to you.

Cheers,