Anthonyexmouth

Want sure where to post this but as it's for a scope I thought here. 

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced 3d printing service? Just bought an sv165 guide scope and the narrowband channel made a little dew shield design available and I'd like to get it printed. 

25 minutes ago, malc-c said:

I don't think the screens are the same - The connector in the top image has far more pins on the flex cable than the low, which has just 16 on a 1mm pitch.  Whilst they may be physically the same size, the controllers will be different.

Regretfully the screens are custom for Synta handsets.  I had one donated to the exchange program, it works just fine but the screen was damaged - finding replacements  has resulted in dead ends.   

Yeah, you're right. Same dimensions. didnt look at the connector

So my original v4 is the newer one. I'll pop the screen into my original one. 

31 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

What firmware version does the replacement handset run ? Will the screen fit your old handset ?

Yeah. Identical screen. What would the power input socket on the new one be for? 

Backstory. When I bought my HEQ5 about 5 yrs ago from FLO, within a day I had dropped the hand controller directly on its screen and broke the LCD, not an issue really as I'd always planned to use ASCOM. 

Anyway, it always annoyed me having an unused but broken controller with no way to get a replacement screen. Forward to now, picked up a working controller on eBay for £15. Now do I just keep this controller or swap the screens. My original one is the one with Celestron on the board. The one I just bought is the more populated board. Is there a difference? Is one better? The new one has a power port on it. Anyway. here's the pics. Which one should I keep and put the screen in?

1 hour ago, Gary Clayton said:

Good idea, just enjoy using and learning about it and by the time you have cropped your stacked image's, you won't notice any iffy stars.

Had a play with the Foraxx Palette for the first time. Subs were a little short, didn't check the sequence template before I started. 60x120s. Will got for longer next time. Need to get rid of that halo too. 

17 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

I have found that you can't always rely on what the software tells you and looking at NINA it shows that you have both left/right and top/bottom tilt, so I would tweak one axis at a time until you have it as low as possible. I have come to the conclusion after talking to other "SM90" users "pixel peepers" that the reducers-flatteners don't fully correct for a complete flat field no matter what FLO says, that being said your very close now.

I'll probably live with this for a while. I need to get to grips with processing with this new filter. I saw a post the other day somewhere and can't remember where about an SM90 owner buying a 3rd party reducer because they didn't get on with the SM version. 

6 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

ASTAP flips the image so you can't compare them with out sorting out the correct orientation, I would say that you back focus is as close as your going to get it so just adjust the tilt as shown by NINA 

But doesn't ASTAP show the tilt to be left to right but NINA shows it on the diagonal, or am I reading it wrong? 

After stacking the results are ok, well better than I've ever had. Still need to work on this dualband processing. It's all so red. 

Finally getting around to doing my back focus spacing. NINA reported the curvature to be 2200 before tinkering and now its 50000. Not too sure what all the info in the NIA page means so if anyone can tell me if this looks ok or not and what I can do to improve. Stars in the top right and bottom left look a little dodgy. This is tilt, right? Also , does ASTAP agree with NINA? I'm reading it as ASTAP giving the right and left side wonky but NINA gives the diagonal.  Heres NINA, ASTAP and an image after tinkering. 

Well after a little tinkering this Is the resulting image. Still a problem in the top right and bottom left. Haven't stacked it yet though. 120s sub

Unexpected clear skies. Think my back focus is sorted or is there still room for improvement? 

Do NINA and ASTAP agree? I don't really know how to read this. 

38 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

Try to get the curvature radius as large as possible, using the 1:1 flattener I got mine over 1500mm

Ah, and you have the correct focus step size in the image too, I'll plug that in next time I run that inspector. . Looks like I've got clouds for days now. 

All the bits to dial in my backfocus are in my possession now. My backfocus with my SM90 0.8 reducer to my 294mc via my ZWO filter drawer and a 16.5mm extension was exactly 55mm but NINA image inspector said it needed reducing. I've dropped in a 15mm extension tube in place of the 16.5mm and will go from there when the clouds clear. But while I'm waiting. Do these NINA numbers give any indication how out my back focus is? 

IGNORE THIS POST ABOVE.

Someone, obviously not me, is an idiot. 

Had my filter drawer a while and the invoice states m42/m48. Up to now didn't think much of it but finally got around to getting some spacers to get my back focus dialled in. I've been using a 16.5mm ZWO spacer thats m48f to m42 male but i've taken the drawer off and found that the reducing ring in the drawer is actually m54, so it's not m42/m48. 

Have I been sent the wrong one? kinda leaves me in a pickle with my new spacers and extension rings I bought. 

5 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

In PixInsight you could combine the images with the NBRGB combination tool (stack both as separate images first and extract RGB from the duo narrowband to use as Ha/O3).

The results vary and it takes some effort to try with different settings but i think this might be the easiest way. I would use the stars from the LP filter image and starless mixed from both the LP and duoband one with the NBRGB tool.

Probably not very scientific, but should work to make a nice looking combined image.

Alternatively you could try combining with pixel math using the max operator, but this has potential to go wrong if the 2 datasets vary greatly in SNR. Takes more work to get a nice result IMO. Third option would be combining in Photoshop with the lighten blend mode to get the best parts of the narrowband image added to where you want.

 I don't have PS so thats a none starter. Wouldn't have a clue how to use it anyway. I'll check out the NBRGB tool. Kinda stuck in my ways with PI using the same half dozen tools, I need to expand my knowledge.

My first proper outing last night with a dual band filter. Backfocus needs work but my new m48 spacers are in Evri delivery hell at the moment.

Any pointers on processing dualband data would be appreciated. 

Quick stretch and NoiseX/BlurX.

I've been on the fence to which dual filter to but for ages, I grabbed the cheaper Askar duo on my last ride up to FLO. Only had a couple of hours on it last night and my backfocus needs work but I'm kinda happy so far. Need to see what a bright star does if there are any halos. When my neighbours house gets out of the way i'll take a similar shot of the veil and post it here. 

Anyone got any links or pointers for processing dual band images? 

Here's a rushed stretch and blurX/NoiseX of the heart from last night. 

5 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Yes there is, but it really depends what you use to define "good" part.

There is scientifically correct way to get visual representation of captured light. I'm sure that there is a good way to get visually pleasing result as well (probably not the same method though).

I was just wondering if I could make use of the old data with the lp filter or am I just better off getting more with the dual band filter and keeping the filter sets separate? 

Is there a good way to combine osc data from dual narrow band filter and a lp filter? 

What is off axis abberation? 

4 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I don't have one but I do have a Hitecastro one which looks the same. They will be 12v outputs. The cigar plug cable is beefy because its designed to handle lots of amps as some dew bands are quite big. The 5.5 x 2.1 plugs we use on most astro kit are only really good for a few amps before they start overheating. 

Ah, ok. Ill hardwire the cigar lighter cable into my pier

I thought it might have been dual inputs for increased amp loading. 

Just picked up a s/h Rother Valley Dew controller. Anyone here got one and confirm the bottom 2 ports are for 12v power in? Don't want to blow it before I've used it. If they are power in I can desolder the cigar lighter lead thats attached.

All sorted now. Panic over. 

Accidentally clicked on the "nightly" builds instead of the beta. Now NINA wont start, get a .net error and even after updating .net it still wont start. Is there an easy way to get back to the nightly version without losing all my settings?