Anthonyexmouth

Just now, Gary Clayton said:

Its odd that your having issues with Hocus Focus as I am still using it (latest update) with no issues, how dark was it when you tried?, as that's the only time I have had it fail so I wait until after midnight.

Waited until after midnight to check it was dark enough, As soon as I switched everything but hocus focus star detection off I got a good V curve and all sorted. And after thinking about it, it did start playing up after the last HF update a few weeks ago, had no updates since. 

Just now, Gary Clayton said:

Yep but any duo-duel band filter is bound too lose some, that said there is some blue in there which I could have pushed harder.

Ah ok, I was under the impression that reflection nebula were more of a broadband target and a dualband blocks a lot of it completely. Only had a dual narrowband filter less that a week so I might be talking out of my....... 

5 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

Well I did a while ago but my old brain can't remember, I will check next time I boot up my image acquisition pc. In the mean time check out this great video for setting this up: 

 

Autofocus is fine now I've switched back to using the default Nina autofocus and not Hocus Focus. I just wanted to get the focuser distance movement per step for the image inspector to adjust my tilt. I don't think it's super critical but with the correct number I think it give you an accurate adjustment figure. 

9 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

I managed 2 hours last night on NGC6914, imaged though the twilight here in the UK and processed in the HOO palette 

StellaMira 90 with 1:1 flattener
Antlia golden dual band 5nm filter
Altair Astro Hypercam 26C Camera
Ioptron CEM40G equatorial mount

Don't you miss out on a lot of the reflection nebula when using a dual band filter on this target? 

1 minute ago, Gary Clayton said:

Well I did a while ago but my old brain can't remember, I will check next time I boot up my image acquisition pc.

Thanks. 

41 minutes ago, Bargy said:

Don't want to hijack or anything, I'm really new to Imaging and I have a couple of the Optolong filters, but not done may targets yet.

I'm using the OSC 2600MC camera and I wanted to know - how do you know what filter to use on what target? For example I just put up my first post yesterday or the first image I have taken in the hobby, in which I used the L-Ultimate filter https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/411348-first-ever-dso-imaged-and-processed-ic1805-heart-nebula/

Everything is red with some yellow - but I saw a similar post where the same target ad blue's and green's in it as well - is that because I'm limited with my filter, or just the editor playing with colour schemes in post processing? I wondered if there was some kind of database online, or some way of looking at what type light a target object emits - so I can match that with the right kind of filter (if any) to make sure I don't block out stuff I would want to capture. 

Thanks

You're probably seeing a narrowband image or someone has processed a osc image as a Hubble or Fornax image. Check out paulyman astro on YouTube for some good osc processing tips. 

OK, has anyone here with an SM90 or maybe someone a @FLO done the calcs to work out what the step size is for the focuser paired with the ZWO eaf? I want to input it in NINA for the image Abberation tool. 

1 hour ago, 900SL said:

It's easier to run 15V PD from a USB-C socket.

It's a new Anker Powercore III Elite 25600 mA so I don't want to invalidate the warranty. I'm a bit annoyed Anker didn't implement the 12V PD protocol, it supplies 9V, 15 & 20V but not 12V

PD is pretty good onboard, it's more efficient than using an external step up or step down buck converter

 

 

 

How would you initiate the handshake between the camera and powerbank to supply the 15v? 

What else do you need to power? 

Well, I reverted back to letting NINA do the focus and star detection and the autofocus worked, so looks like it's a Hocus Focus issue. I'll try again next time they update it. 

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

It was the Esprit fine focus that was slipping. I had a DeepskyDad AF3 on there. Changed to a Pegasus focus motor and that fits onto the course focus just like the EAF. It was around that time though that I watched that video above and setup the new focuser with correct backlash settings etc. If I was you I'd take the EAF off and inspect it for excessive play in the shaft before refitting. Hopefully that sorts it. What version of NINA are you on?

Wherever the latest beta is. It hasn't updated in a while. If I get a clear patch I'll try the default focus instead of hocus ficus

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

Yes, mine says 7nm on the label on the box.

That filter printing is the same as mine. 

4 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I had issues last year with AF. Turned out to be a slipping focuser so been sorted since but my graph did look like your wonky one above. When I sorted the focuser I looked at Patriot Astro youtube channel on how to set up the AF steps in NINA. Been solid ever since.

 

Was it your focuser body itself or the eaf slipping? Mine is a r&p, if it was my old crayford I'd suspect that was slipping. 

32 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

Yes, mine says 7nm on the label on the box.

Nothing on my label. 

Is the askar duo a 7nm bandpass? 

7 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

The original Askar Duo-Band filter does suffer from the odd halo on stars, same as the L-eXtreme. It's a good filter for OSC NB imaging and does pull out good Ha & Oiii data. I have one and used it on a few of my images. The halo's can be cleaned up in post-processing with the CloneStamp after the stars have been removed.

I haven't done a profile for SPCC but use the White Reference "Photon Flux", 656.0nm for the Red channel and 500.7nm for the Green & Blue channels for an HOO image, all with a band width of 7nm.

See these threads for details and images:

 

I did give it a go last night on the elephant truck and seems ok. Although session ruined with me auto focus issues. Are those options you mentioned in the spcc filter menu? 

18 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

Are you using Nina to focus or the Hocus focus plugin?, I have found  that the light summer nights can have an affect on focus so I usually wait until after midnight.

Hocus focus. Maybe I should try the default focus. I do remember there was a HF update recently that might have pooched it. 

Well, I just bought an Askar Duo-band filter, not the colour magic magic one, the cheaper £199 one. Wondering if anyone has any feedback on this and also anyone created a filter profile for Pixinsight SPCC for this filter? 

Wondering if I made a mistake getting the cheaper one and should maybe return it and splash out for a colour magic one or the Antlia filter. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/askar-filters/askar-duo-band-narrowband-filter.html

7 hours ago, Gary Clayton said:

If you have not changed any settings, I would first check for any loose grub screws on the ZWO focusers flex connector

I did check that. Maybe I'll have to take it all off and reseat it all to make sure. Manual focus seems to be spot on though. Jogging back and forth the focus returns to the same eaf position. Manually can get to focus at HFR 2.2ish but auto seems to lose its mind and give wildly high numbers. Wonder if its a NINA issue. 

Step size has been 50 since I installed the eaf last summer with no issues. Nothing changed.

Every run is a nightmare. This is the latest. 

Or I get this error. 

My Nina/zwo eaf has started to play up after being solid for a year. Nothing changed as it's a permanent setup. Getting this error message which doesn't seem to correspond to the graph. Any ideas? I've lost a few nights because of this  

Anyone know if/where I can get a stainless nylon tipped M4 thumb screw? I can find M4 nylon tipped grub screws but not thumb screws. I did see some on Alibaba but I think 1000 is overkill.

I picked up my rotator the other day. Should make things easier now. Shame it wasn't a standard feature. Turned out an expensive ride up to FLO, ended up buying an Askar duo filter and seems a boat load of clouds too. 

7 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

Yes I am happy with it, I now have a two pixel scales to play with 1.4 and 1.8 and it seems to correct nicely for my APS-C sensor, that said so does the 0.8 reducer.

I just wondered if the process of breaking down the image train to change would be worth it over just cropping the wider view. 

15 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

I ended up with mine Infront of the filter tray as I thought it best to keep the filters as close to the camera as possible.

Are you happy with the 1x flattener? Do you think it's making enough difference in reach to have with the reducer as well?