newbie alert

18 minutes ago, Trevor Matthews said:

Thanks for that. Jeez this is a tricky hobby, perhaps I should stick to the 3D printing and sell the lot... :-(

Or sell some 3d printing to fund the astro 🙂🌛

Seriously thou, just use the equipment you have 

Where you place your sensor also dictates your focal length, which in turn alters your f ratio...  Having perfect sampling won't  automatically turn your images into Damien peach quality overnight.. 

Problem with a high focal length scope even with the reducer is your fov, m31 is hugel.... Even with a fairly large sensor you will need at least a 4 pane mosaic to fit it in, maybe more.. 

M81 bodes is far smaller and frames up far better but that's only half the story... The rest is up to the equipment, but depends on the level of image that you're looking to achieve..

7 hours ago, Sabalias said:

Thanks for the helpful info. I'm using pulse guiding through Astroberry so I will try the PA module in EKOS (as Sharpcap isn't available for my setup as far as I'm aware).

Stu

I've heard thats quite accurate 

9 hours ago, Sabalias said:

I’m not sure what you mean by calibrating on Dec 56.7. I’m just asking PHD2 to do it’s thing.  Edit - I see you are referring to the Dec angle at calibration; this is because I start guiding after slewing to the target. Presumably I need to get the calibration done before I start slewing?

For tightening up PA I probably need to start drift aligning or something because I think I’m as good as I can get using the polar scope. 

I’m happier with the guiding I got last night; previous attempts were really bad (hence the initial post). 

Stu

Hi Stu, depends if you're pulse guiding or ST4, if ST4 you calibrate on every target and after the flip, if pulse guiding then you calibrate on the equator/ meridian

Polar scope pa is deemed a rough alignment

And to drift you need to point south, but as you say your house is there

Have you tried sharpcap?

Why are you calibrating on Dec 56.7?...

you could also tighten up your PA

A Error= 2.7 arc-min

What level of error are you looking to achieve as these are really budget mounts and always going to have machining inaccuracies

What does your calibration data look like, and have you a screenshot of your guiding?

1 hour ago, SamAndrew said:

Ok the so the purpose of the GEM is to serve the people who need 1lb of additional capacity over the HEM44, and the HEM44 serves people who need 1lb more capacity than the HAE43. Remind me which one has the best guiding accuracy, payload to weight ratio, £ to payload ratio? Google is coming up a bit short.

It's categorised as

CEM

GEM

HARMONIC

Some don't like the CEM design , I wouldnt buy a harmonic but looking at the sales lots do and as you pointed out some find a Az mount suits them fine.... Not all about payload 

Nice, have you been on any trips up the mountains?  

12 minutes ago, Starflyer said:

ASI 174MM Mini, OAG at 1200mm fl

Ok, sorry I see it now

13 hours ago, callisto said:

I know it's classed as "old" now, but proud owner of a CEM25p 

If it suits your setup, what else do you need...

12 hours ago, SamAndrew said:

The payload to weight ratio is better on both the GEM45 and GEM28 to the equivalent CEM. The CEM design is different for the sake of being different, and that's coming from someone with a CEM120. 

The largest design in the gem range is the gem 45..ie 45lb payload , so it's not for the sake of just being different, it serves that purpose 

12 hours ago, SamAndrew said:

How much more expensive is the CEM70 now compared to what you paid for you CEM60? we're paying for all this unnecessary choice

That's the whole reason I bought the 60, as I couldn't justify the extra £650 for the extra 10lb payload and black powder coat... plus the 60 was about to be discontinued and replaced by the 70... Plus if I left it any longer the 60 was about to disappear, as it was there wasn't any left in the country, I had to buy from Germany 

12 hours ago, SamAndrew said:

How is a (well healed) newbie meant to make a choice. it's hard enough for the casual astronomer to decide if they want AZ or EQ.

Research and elimination... You should know what type of mount you  want for your needs, ie Eq or Az, and you  should know the weight capacity area of your setup with adjustments to future proof... Easy, Google it

1 hour ago, Graeme said:

And here it is with the shuttering struck.

Looks like we didn't use the poker on the rear section! But the cube and pier are as solid as a rock.

Going to start laying bricks tomorrow. I'll pug up the holes in the concrete with the mortar!

This is definitely the most accurate spirit level I have ever used!

I need to get an M6 tap to fix the bolts that came with the Baader adapter to the brake disc.

 

 

Looking good so far 

Can't think what your issue is... They do a full range in all categories... I'd not want a harmonic/ planetary but some at the moment do, so it be a cem or a gem for me... Cem design are smaller and lighter for their payload capacity to the gem design...only thing to think about is the size, and would I justify the expense of the encoder.... Simples.. 

If they discontinued 3/4 of the range it will cost them sales

Proud owner of a cem 60

50 minutes ago, Astro74 said:

Sorry my mistake .. let me explain 

I will be using photoshop for processing I meant image capture 

sharcap was recommended to me as the software to use just wondered if it’s a good one and why that one ?

do I need something else on top of it to stack or will Sharpcap do this also ? 

For capture I'd recommend APT, NINA, or indeed sharpcap, out of the 3 I'd choose  APT as it suits me better

For stacking, most start with DSS as it's free, but APP has a bit more control, abit more finesse 

1 hour ago, Astro74 said:

Hello 

I’m a complete beginner to AP and to processing- which would be better NINA or Sharpcap ? I need it to be very simple and easy to use for a beginner.

thanks 

 

These are softwares for capture.. AP does include planetary but as the capture is different Nina isn't really recommend..

As for processing,if you search Photoshop, affinity photo etc, remember you need to also stack your images so something like DSS, APP, gimp , ASTAP can all stack... 

I also use a cem 60, if you have the mount connected and have the ascom drivers/ platform installed then I can't see it being the issue... I hunch my bets in the hub... Glitchy things where they cost you clear nights of imaging... Is the 585 plugged directly into the laptop or into the hub? 

Personally I find Nina abit clunky and prefer to use APT..  but if you want to continue I'd recommend using the sequencer once you have everything working.... I'd also recommend plugging the equipment into the same port everytime, using different ports can cause their own issues

On 30/01/2023 at 21:32, nickarp2000 said:

This works well up to this point.

I click the button "Load the image"

I then click to Slew and Centre. ......nothing happens

I get a message at the bottom that says "Mount, waiting for first slew"

If you try without using stellarium, so go to the framing tab and enter your target name, IE m42, if you press the load the image does it frame m42 with your sensor and pixels and scopes FL filled out?... From there you can slew and center and also platesolve the image 

Really nice, like that tremendously... Always a sucka for the rosette and mono

That CME is massive, glad it wasn't pointing towards us🫣

Great animation

10 hours ago, Starflyer said:

It's in arc seconds.

So your arc secs per pixel is the same as your pixel per pixel is it? 🤔

If it gudes at .2  arc secs per pixel then  fabulous.. no point ever upgrading

On opening the mount back up did the grease get built up in a certain area of the worm? If so then you can reduce it by this amount that you put in next time, no need to fill up all the threads ... 

Lots of areas within the mount can cause it to bind but let's say it is from the worm adjustments, if you set it unloaded from inside the house and presume it's 15-20 degrees, then trying to run it at -2,-5 as it has been lately that adjustment could be way out..

Things to check..

Lateral play on the worm spindle

Bearings on the worm spindle

Locking nut on the  Ra shaft not overtightened

  Also factory set I've never found the worm central to the ring gear 

17 hours ago, Starflyer said:

Hey Carl, I love my iOptron CEM60 mounts, and I'd say go for a CEM70 but it's over your budget and that's without a tripod, it'd be a mount for life though.  You may get away with a CEM40 or a GEM45 but the Esprit 120 is a big, long, lump and I'd want to find someone to speak to who's successfully using that combo before buying one.

This is 17KGs, I still can't image in wind but when it's calm it performs amazingly.

Cheers, Ian

I have the same mount, looked astonished on your guiding as mine doesn't guide like that but then I see you're on pixels...which could be absolutely anything 

4 hours ago, OK Apricot said:

@newbie alert As said above the idea of the OAG is to save space and weight on the mini rig I take abroad. I'm testing it on the 80ED because it's mostly galaxies I'd like to image for the next few months and this scope is the highest FL at my disposal! I didn't confirm in my original post, but the guide focal length was the first thing I'd changed before entering the ASIAIR. It has it down at 520mm with reducer after plate solving so I just copied that as my guide focal length. I didn't measure anything but to summarise, the process was this - Find focus with imaging camera and lock focuser, fiddle with OAG until focus achieved, double check focus of both cameras is close. The stars are perfectly acceptable with a little astigmatism present. If there is a guide assistant with the ASIAIR please could you point me in the right direction? According to Astro Tools CCD calculator the image scale of my 80ED/533 is 1.52"/px. Most of the time the guiding was slightly below that, but there were some excursions

Sorry , my mistake thought a ed80 was 750mm FL... Went on memory... So it should be 600mm FL and 510 with the reducer?

Sorry with the air you don't get the full PhD package, so no guide assistant? 

Is there the drift alignment tool? As I was going to suggest you pull that up to help with calibration on Dec 0 but again it may not be available with the air,  never used one..

Not too sure that there's anything much to benefit from using a OAG with a 80mm frac..

I use one with my esprit 80 as my camera has a internal filterwheel/oag

Rules for the oag setup is... Set your focal length of the guider as the full FL of the scope inc the reducer so I think a ed80 is 750mm X .85 of the reducer is 637.5....Setup your spacing needed for your telescope and imaging camera, this is dictated by the scope that you're using, ... Measure the distance from the prism to the imaging camera sensor,  and replicate this distance from the prism to guide camera sensor taking into account the backfocus distance of the guide cam.. both should now come to focus at the same time, fine tuning maybe needed to get round stars and not seagulls or rugby ball stars... Simples

With PhD, it's of no use to play with the min mo, aggressivness etc, simply run the guide assistant for at least a worm period of the mount and apply the settings.. 

Use a 3 sec loop of the guide exposure .. job done

Finally your pixel scale of your imaging setup is 1.22 so as long as your under that it's fine... Remember to look at arc sec per pixel and not pixels per pixel as most do too often... 

Send starlight xpress an email with those images attached...

1 hour ago, barbulo said:

I feel the same need as the OP since I´m also moving from APT to NINA. 

There is no problem with a GOTO mount because NINA can slew and center automatically. But what about with a star tracker? With APT you solve the image and "show" the result in your planetarium (CdC in my case). Then you can see how far you are from the target and manually approach or rotate. AFAIK, in NINA´s framing wizard you can see the rotation of the camera if you´ve the target already framed. But how do you manually do the approach?

Since I haven´t found a way to do it with NINA, I keep on using APT for this purpose.

Within Apt you can setup a framing mask to help manually frame the target as it was before