Anthonyexmouth

2 hours ago, Look left said:

Anthonyexmouth are you having USB 2 to the hub then USB 3 from hub to USB 3 on your laptop?

i,m assuming the hub is usb3 . 

As the ZWO 120 mc is USB 2 . Are you having USB all the way through? Could this cause any issues.

I  have a usb 3 hub stuck to the side of the mount, plugged into that is my HEQ5 and my ASI294mc, the 290mc guide cam is daisy chained through the 294mc and then a 15m usb 3 cable back to the laptop. 

9 hours ago, fwm891 said:

@Anthonyexmouth I imaged the comet with a Celestron RASA 8 at f2 with an ASI294MC Pro cooled to -20°C. Processed in PI. Image is cropped to remove stacking edges

Ah cool, so imaging at 480mm isn't too short then. I'll give that comet a go if it clears. Not taken my 294 down to -20, do you think its worth pushing it a bit lower than my usual -15? 

I lied, mine is of C/2017 T2 Panstarrs

better than my attempt. what did you image with?

Would encoders be a replacement for guiding? or is guiding superior? 

1 hour ago, drumsolo said:

Hoping someone can help me work out what is going on with my HEQ5 Pro mount. 

Set up last night and I keep getting the same problem, trailing stars even without guiding and taking a 20 sec exposure! Never had problems like this, my Polar alignment was within 3 degrees.

It seemed worse when I was pointed south towards the beehive cluster for example but weirdly I did manage to get some good exposures of the same target when guiding for 3 minutes! Seems a bit random.

Here's the images, a 20 sec exposure showing the trails and a longer one with no real issues.

could this simply be the cables trailing and causing some drag as I didn't loop them up?

I also moved the mount with out the weights on a couple months back and had a horrible crunching sound. Gear problems?

 

Need help! Any ideas please??

 

Thanks

Stuart

The 200mm scope is a big old lump for an Heq5. Was it breezy?

1 minute ago, alexwolf said:

Press F1 within planetarium...

thanks, just sorted it as you replied, just updated to 0.2 and was having trouble added comet data and then all the stars turned off. Used the sidebar icon that controls whats displayed which in 5 yrs of using stellarium i have never noticed or used. i'm gonna put it down to being new in this release and no one will convince me otherwise. lol

Ok, not sure what i've done but I seem to have turned all the stars off. Please help 

1 minute ago, Wyvernp said:

Yup indeed, the whole idea for the automated rig is so I can setup and go to sleep on those late summer nights (I'm not a natural night owl)

even better for the winter when its bloody cold outside. 

Just now, Wyvernp said:

Thanks! It is a cheaper one unfortunately, but I had it lying around. Will be the first thing I upgrade if I have connectivity issues.

probably be ok during the summer but worth saving now for the colder weather. 

Im running a 15m USB 3 cable to a hub on my mount and all working fine. just make sure you get a good startech or similar hub, cheap ones really dont like the cold. 

On 28/03/2020 at 10:30, Look left said:

Alan , good advice I must admit it's on 40 so will relook at this today .

40 should be fine for the USB speed. 

Whats probably happening is dodgy usb cable/hub causing issues, disconnecting the camera in APT and reconnecting will temp fix it, i had the same problem a while ago and was an old worn out USB hub. replaced with a quality startech hub and never had the problem again. 

On 09/03/2020 at 05:27, Damien Cannane said:

Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial! Everything worked like a charm, both for Solve+ and Blind, using a .FITS image already saved on my PC.... everything except for one issue. It returns exactly the right RA and Dec, but it exactly doubles my resolution. I'm at 1.24"/pixel and it's saying I'm at 2.48"/pixel. I've triple checked my focal length, and it does say 400mm under Tools. This is correct as I'm using a RASA 8. Does this matter? Will it still Sync properly and re-center my targets when connected to my Atlas mount with EQMOD?

To be clear, I just mean the image scale is wrong as displayed in APT. If I run it directly in All Sky Plate Solver, it comes out correctly. 

 

Thanks,

Damien

Is it binning the platesolving image?

4 minutes ago, drumsolo said:

I use PHD 1, is that info still available?

Why are you still using that old version? 

4 minutes ago, drumsolo said:

Here is the full image.

I ae PHD guiding  didn't see any errors. Never had a problem before guding, Im not sure what you mean about RA oscillation or where i would find it?

Is that a crop? can you post the full image?

Both are needed, Polar Alignment first, then star alignment. 

quick google search will provide many polar alignment videos. as for star alignment, that will be a case of following the handset instructions once polar alignment is done. 

1 minute ago, Adam1234 said:

How come together they can be detrimental? 

I'm not sure of the technical reason, but far more knowlegable people here have said that CMOS are better calibrated with dark-flats. bias and dark-flats are doing the same job i think and using both causes issues. 

I always find M51 too small a target for my ed80, still a nice pic. M101 fills the frame a little better. 

Also, I think using bias and dark flats together can be detrimental to the stacking. dark flats are the way to go with a CMOS sensor

I upgraded my adjustment bolts and they work okish, the issue i find is the head threads aren't cut very well so the bolts have a bit of play, was considering redrilling and tapping with a larger and finer thread, windering if anyone else has considered or done this. might make for better PA adjustments

Hi, when using a OSC camera and APP + GIMP , is there a way to get a more defined star colour. Imaging M44 and would like to see more colour in the image than I am getting. 

3 minutes ago, DougM43 said:

thanks,
Yes have installed Ascom, (think I needed to install it to get APT to recognise the camera,) will figure it out and install EQMOD now, I presume it’s EQMOD that controls the mount? 

The most important thing with EQMOD is in setup, make sure your location is correct and set the BAUD RATE to 9600 when you scan for the port. 

It looks a lot more complicated than it really is. first thing to do is make sure you have a good quality usb hub for the mount end and a good quality usb cable to run to the laptop. once you've got APT running with plate solving you'll never look back. Step 1 is to get the ASCOM platform installed and then the EQMOD software. best  to approachi this is steps. get EQMOD working then move onto pairing with APT. 

Have you downloaded and installed ASCOM and EQMOD yet?

1 minute ago, vlaiv said:

Just some info - I've used very short flats - a few milliseconds long exposures with my ASI1600 and did not have issues with flats. Just made sure I was using matching darks (also few ms long - exactly the same settings as flats).

from what i've read it's a specific thing with the 294. 

2 minutes ago, Rocket Stars said:

Intresting. What would the reason be, deep welldepth? High readnoise? 

What would Sharpcap give you? 

I did read the reason a while ago but cant remember now, someone found that using short flats was causing issues when stacking and found longer ones in the seconds rather than milliseconds was producing much better results.