Anthonyexmouth

Just now, miguel87 said:

You obviously never tested it!

I have, many many times. 

3 minutes ago, miguel87 said:

I know you are talking about the tip. It's still a huge no.

The path of the tip of the stick will form an arc. So already that means it cannot work as every hour's line would point in a different direction.

I am 100% confident this is definitely not true.

100% confident doesn't mean 100% right. 

sounds like it should be wrong but it works, you were obviously never a boy scout. the tip of the shadows follows a straight line all day

1 minute ago, miguel87 said:

There is no way that would work. To start with, the path if you marked every hour for a day would not be a straight line.

Second the sun sets in different locations not always due east and west.

If you did this between 8 and 9pm near mid summer, the line would be heading towards a north-south line.

 

it works all days, any day. as long as the sun shines. 

im not talking about the direction of the shadow, just the very tip of the shadow. that tip travels in a due east direction as the day progresses. 

37 minutes ago, spikkyboy said:

The east / west line for the rear legs is a great idea I think we have a winner thank you. I was trying to mark out 120 degree quadrants but your idea is much more accurate and a whole lot faster.

if you've got the time, and who hasn't at the moment, an even more accurate way to do it and it give you true north which is what you want rather than magnetic is to have an upright stick that wont move at all, mark the tip of the shadow on the ground, come back a few hours later and mark the new tip of the shadow and draw a line between them, thats exactly east-west in relation to true north. A stick/pole about 2-3 feet works best. as upright as possible but doesn't have to be accurate just stiff and wont move between markings. 

2 hours ago, spikkyboy said:

This may seem like a stupid post, I have an HEQ5PRO mount and the manual assumes an awful lot.

States align front leg marked N to north.

OK great, but what about the other two legs??? you can put one leg pointed to North and swivel the whole tripod 360 degrees around it.

Imagine the tripod legs form a triangle on the floor and the north leg is the point of the triangle, there is only one wat it can point north, you cant spin the other legs around and it still points north

 

My intention was to mark with waterproof marker my tripod foot positions on the patio and drop it onto the same spot every time.

I did this on my deck when i started, worked really well and saved a lot of time setting up. 

Downloaded various compass apps to my phone. The only exact way here is to attach the side of the phone to a 90 degree surface on the scope and swivel it around the from foot until N is achieved?

Compass apps hate being near any metal. If you can lay the compass on the floor without the tripod anywhere near and ping a chalk line east-west setting the rear legs so they both touch the line will make the tripod point north, as long as the north leg is on the north side of the line. you can then mark the floor where the legs touch and you know its pointing north. 

B

5 hours ago, AntHart said:

I didn’t realise sharp cap could do that! ...that’s very useful to know thank you  also the live stacking ..that’s great to know too.

This would save me a good few quid not needing the polar scope/polemaster which makes the laptop method considerably cheaper.

 

Now I really am torn!

thanks for your help mate 👍🏼

I think as a newbie the laptop method is the best way to go. It may not be the simplest but its certainly not rocket science to set it up and with help from here you'll be ok. Keeps costs down and if youve got a laptop anyway why not. Most of the software is either free or extremely cheap. Sharpcap £10, APT £10ish with a free 30 day trial. eqmod/ascom Free. 

theres certainly a place for mount mounted computers but I'd make sure I enjoyed the hobby first and really needed remote access to it. I think if ASIAir had a web interface rather than resticted to the tablet app it would be more appealing. Stellarmate has web access and works in a similar way off a raspberry pi. If remote operation is the way you choose take a look at that option too, if you have a raspberry pi knocking about the stellarmate OS is £50. 

5 minutes ago, Callum1985 said:

will do, its looking like its going to be clear tonight, so i will give this another go tonight and post my findings, in relation to the Flats and Bias, have i gone to the extreme taking this many or is more better ? 

If you're gonna be changing cameras soon I wouldnt bother, just have a play with this one and see what you get. 

1 minute ago, Callum1985 said:

Thank you for the quick reply, 

Thats what i was finding with the right side, i thought it was just my lack of experience on PS.. regarding capture software i am unable to use any. the 10d canon will not work on any remote trigger software above 30secs due to being a ....well dinosaur ! .. so i have a remote shutter straight in the camera, the guiding i use is a standalone Skywatcher synguider 

I am debating upgrading the guider as dithering seems to be a must and at present i am unable to do this due to the synguider not being able to attach to a laptop. 

 

thank you for looking at this an i will try again tonight with lower subs and higher iso . 

Have you tried APT? theres a free trial version. 

Is there ever a time dithering can be a problem? granted, only had a few cameras but back when I started with a Canon I have always dithered, APT is set to dither every frame and I dont even think about it. Currently using a 294mc pro. 

You lose a few edge pixels when stacking but seems to make for a cleaner image in most situations.

I had a quick look and, I may well be corrected, I think 7 mins subs on a DSLR is going to be way too long, the sensor is going to cook the image. It's all blown out on the right hand side. I'd say many many more about 2mins would be better and shoot for 800/1600 ISO. What capture software are you using? APT is probably the best option, it can do an awful lot for the low price it asks, dithering, platesolving and better live view than trying to look at the camera screen

3 hours ago, AntHart said:

Hey

Im a complete beginner to imaging.

Trying to decide/work out the pros and cons of going for..

1. A windows based laptop system with software (stellarium/eqv / phd / apt / backyard eos )

OR

2. The ASIair Pro with an iPad or android tablet

I have neither a laptop or a tablet at the moment so this is kind of a fresh start in every sense!

I must say though if a laptop is suggested I only need something good enough for image acquisition and running the software to track and control...I have a Decent spec windows desktop for editing /stacking/processing 

My mount is an EQ6 pro synscan and I have a Canon 6d dslr.

 

A spanner in the works!...and mainly the reason I’m posting...

The ASIair does the polar alignment via the app and main scope.. so no need for a separate electronic polar scope(which I want for ease and accuracy setting up) that I would need to buy if I used a laptop rather than a tablet and ASIair app

The ASI unit is £300 ...a polar scope is £250

A cheap laptop (15inch min) is around the same price as an iPad or android tablet.

This is what I’m really struggling with!

The fact it’s wireless isn’t a factor for me I’m happy with either 

What I want is the best setup for a beginner that’s easy to understand and use but able to perform and help me get some great images.

What do you guys suggest ? Where would your money go?

 

Cheers, Ant 

 

 

 

 

or polar alignment you dont need a dedicated polar cam, I use sharpcap for polar alignment, it's £10 a yr, uses your imaging/guide cam and gives exactly the same results as a polemaster. I tried both side by side and got identical accuracy so sold the polemaster. as for leaving a laptop outside, I run a single 15 metre usb cable into the house and all works. If the ASIAir had a web interface to be able to control from a remote laptop it might be more appealing but one thing i've got to enjoy recently is using the DSS live stacking to keep an eye on the data being collected, live stackings isn't available with the ASIAir.  

47 minutes ago, stevewanstall said:

I guess most of the time you keep the cameras, scopes and mount indoors, then set them up on the pillar for a session?

No, been setup like that for over a year. Everything stays on the pier. 

My obsy will get jealous, all it ever gets is a shake to check for spiders. 

2 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

How about doing it without "assistant" or "wizard" or "helper" and such?

Just plain old "capture image" and you set exposure and parameters and capture some flats and then repeat with same parameters but this time cover the scope to capture flat darks.

I'll have a crack at that when its dark, will be easier to avoid light leak as its a permanent garden setup.

Just been reading the SharpCap docs and does it make a master flat for you? thats kinda the way i'm reading it. Anyway, heres the result. I set it to output a .tiff but still outputs a .png

Just gonna give it a go taking flats with SharpCap. It suggests taking monochrome flats. Should I do that or tick the colour box?

13 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

If you are already using manual exposure for both flats and use the exact same exposure length and settings for flats and your darks are good (shot at exact same exposure/settings as your lights) - you should be ok calibration wise.

What is left to do is check if you have any light leaks, and make sure you turn of dark optimization in DSS.

Don't use drizzle - there is no point.

If you are using latest version of DSS, make sure that:

a) Dark optimization is turned off (it is turned on by default I believe in latest version)

b) Dark multiplication factor is not applied

Both settings are under Dark

Ill check that as soon as I get home.

Did you see the large motes in the flat? What could I be doing wrong that would make them still show in the stacked image? 

I carried out the new set of calibration at night to make sure there was no light leak, put the 2 covers over the pier too in case neighbours turned any lights on. 

4 hours ago, vlaiv said:

I'm failing to download Autosave.tif for some reason, but I wonder

How come that your single flat sub is 22MB while stacked version is 400MB - that is x20 increase in size. Maybe you made mosaic or something?

In any case - from fits header on flat, I see that you are using APT - and it seems that people have issues with APT and automatic calibration frames. I'm not sure why is that, I personally don't use APT so can't tell what might go wrong.

Don't use any automated process or wizard - shoot all your subs on manual settings. Take dark, flats and flat darks (plenty of each) and of course pay attention that darks are matching lights in all settings and that flat darks are matching flats in all settings.

I was hoping I'd avoided the apt problem by not using the flats aid and just eye balling it and shooting manually. The stack is bigger because I drizzled in DSS to see if the same thing happened. Are you saying I should maybe use a different capture software to get the calibration frames? 

Am i expecting too much from the stacking process ability to remove dust motes? 

I can see the motes in my flats but they are also there after stacking in the final image, fairly large ones. 

will add a flat and stacked image for anyone whos interested. Stacking in DSS mainly, sometimes APP but still confused about some of the settings there. 

F_2020-03-28_16-59-09_4.5s_294mc__Color_G125_OFS22.fit

Autosave.tif

Stellarium doesn't need stellarium scope anymore. grab the latest version. 

platesolving is the way to go for accuracy here too, APT platesolving goto is a game changer for minimal expense. 

11 hours ago, fairyhippopo said:

is it good for planetary?

This is my very first, and to date, only planetary imaging session. Really need to have another go at this sometime. 

Oh, if you get the chance, go for the next size up if you can afford it. The 90mm comes with a silly mounting plate, every other model bigger comes with a standard dovetail, that was pretty much my only regret with the 90. 

i had one, got it to try out a little planetary and lunar. ended up gathering dust as i couldnt be bothered to swap scopes on my mount. great for the price, focus can be tricky but adding a clothes peg to the focuser helps with fine adjustment. 

1 minute ago, fwm891 said:

Probably not much difference but I use -20°C as a standard. Easily reached in winter and in range for summer nights.

last summer i found i was running at 85% to maintain -15 so stuck with that throughout the year. not sure i could get to -20 all year down here in devon. 

Anyone got any opinion or experience on this idea? Wanna hold off until i get some feedback but idle hands and all that. Don't wanna balls up my mount.