RolandKol

Ouch, just noticed your thread! I hope you will sort it out before October!
as per tests indoors....
Sadly, I do not remember which software can track how your motors perform and show the graph and other data output... Maybe PemPro or PECPrep (they are used to measure PEC) or something similar.... 
But I afraid, all of them will need active guiding and they are more about PEC.

What about the "old school" manual tests?

Simply release the clutches and turn it slowly, maybe you will feel something in RA, or, turn it in different speeds using the handset and keep your arm on the mount, - also listen... if you will feel some slight bumps or sounds... prepare the mount for the ride back....
 

4 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I've been getting my friend to print out the occasional part for me on his 3d printer, exclusively for astroimaging applications.  However I'm getting a bit conscious of asking him, and as such I think I would like to take the plunge and buy my own.

I feel like the guy asking 'Whats the best telescope to buy?' on the forum!

So any recommendations?  Something for small stuff, £500 or less.

TIA

Adam.

In this price range you may explore printers wirh dual print heads (with two nozzles. Please note, there are dual printers with single nozzles, aka "Cyclops" - avoid them).

Or, at least, check for printer with an option to get upgraded to the dual nozzle one.

I have got my printer in January, sadly, l didn't know about dual nozzle printers at that time.

This kind of printer will enable to print supports with other type of plastic (some even dissolve in the water, but expensive...), in other words, -  it enables to print all kinds of shapes with. 

I print in Petg mostly, l've read, Pla is quite a good support material for it (and vise versa), as they do not stick to each other...

Sadly, l cannot test it

19 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

I bought one of these to guide my wide-field rig.  It comes in a bundle with the ASI120MM.  High quality indeed.

However, I spent two hours trying to get the blasted thing to focus last night to no avail and gave up in frustration.  With or without the included extender it will not focus.  I will have to try again later. 

is your ASI120MM - mini?
if yes, - yep, quite tricky... Do not push full camera inside... In my case, I have managed to get in focus only having 1cm IN!!!! A bit strange...
On another hand, with ASI224, I had no problems at all... 

P.S.
Moon is ON, - it will help a lot.

P.P.S Oops, have not noticed your last post somehow...
And I do not remember having any extender with ASI mini.... can you drop a pic, I will check my boxes

2 hours ago, Rainer said:

Is that the tripod which comes for a mount for 100 kg payload ? Looks a bit flimsy to me ... a Losmandy type tripod would be much more adequate, like this one 

Now payload means according to what I know the total admissible weight something can carry  ad in this case it would be Telescope equipment plus counterweights or are they using Payload just for telescope equipment plus additionally counterweights ?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/payload 

As per their Facebook comments, they tested the mount on the pier and used SW tripod to make a picture....

10 minutes ago, Kaliska said:

Any idea how much was it for "early backers" to buy?

P.S.

I think they always write prices with VAT included.

10 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

I've got a friend waiting for his.. hope it performs straight from the off   seems like a eternity he's been waiting...paid for months ago..

Yep... On their Facebook page, under that post in the comments, they have explained, -

"JTW Astronomy: The OGEM wasn't released for sale as the performance wasn't to the standard we promised. It was OK but we were aiming higher."

Lets hope they fixed all the issues on this one and we will have one more nice competitor on the market.

If you still have occasion, maybe try few subs at F4 and F6 and check how it performs....

It would be really painful to use such a lens even at F4, - but I would test it just out of the curiosity....

and would send the lens back anyways.... If you bought it online, you have a month to change the mind

10 hours ago, spillage said:

I use something similar to this and finds it holds okay.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-compression-ring-adapter-for-skywatcher-newtonians-m54.html

I just started using this one with my ASI1600 also. Focus achieved properly, camera is held properly, - nice ring.

Not sure about issues yet, as I found coma only on the top right corner of the image (strange), - but it can be related to other parts of the rig as I just removed my OAG and play with spacings a bit.

Omg...
I would expect something similar at wide open... But not from Samyang...
Is this one from the latest release?

My apologies, - sadly I have no advise... but was keeping an eye on it as a next possible lens...

7 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I am lucky to be in a darkish area. Chart says bortle 3.8 but I'd guess a little higher. 

What I miss with PI is the blink feature. 

I'll have to start saving for that. 

3.8!!! hrrrr!  my place is  8/9!!!!

As per APP, - people do produce a very nice images with it.

Not sure if you checked this one, but https://youtu.be/eFtufjtuDns (starting from 4min 15sec)  is quite automatic!  
if you did choose stretch 25%, choose the smaller 15% or 20% and I guess you will end up with a nice image at the end of-course, colour calibration is a bit more tricky, but I am sure you will end up with a nice results APP also.

42 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I wanted to use PI but already had 2 trials and after buying the camera I had to settle on APP for a while and this was my first time using that. 

Got 2 clear nights coming up. Not sure whether to add more data to this or pic another target. 

Still a bit lost with this camera but so much nicer than the canon. 

 you have only 40min on it!
So if you like it, - I would say you need at least 3h on it to make a nice test image... After 3h, visually noticeable SNR increase is 12h, so I usually stop at ~3h (depends how many subs were lost due to tracking issues or clouds or ....).
To be honest, I would like to see your 3 hour image as even 40mins are really nice, you probably hide in quite a dark place

But on another hand, once I received my astro-cam, I been shooting left and right, to check what result I can get on different nebulas and galaxies with a limited 1h integration per each target.

We learn as we play, don't we?  it must be a pleasure.

As per APP, - not sure, as never used it. Lets hope someone will pop-in to give you advise.
I do not know how the image is stretched in APP, - but you should reduce this part quite heavily.... And green... yep sometimes is nice, but OIII regions are closer to be  blue, so the Colour calibration step in your procedure was not successful.

Hi Anthony,

I think you "over-cooked" yours a bit...

Below is my quick interpretation of your nice data of only 40 minutes!   

I used PI for that.

As you have A Very big amount of stars in the image, - it was quite difficult to control them via Star Mask, so I have not spend a lot of time on it.

but with proper Start Mask for the smaller ones, - you can get rid of them completely using Morphological Transformation tool in PI, but I do love it as it is...

Not sure which software you use, - so I will not start explaining every step I did.

just a short example, made by beginner with some experience  

P.S. I think, I have over-cooked it slightly also...

1 hour ago, gorann said:

 

If anything it should be cheaper than the mk1 since it does not seem to have the Alt Az adjustments of the mk1. How would it work for people that already have a pier and cannot fit in that elbow?

Sorry, missed initially, "optional wedge/adaptor" will be available also for users who have a pier already.

In my case, 

I just received the catch-up email with the descriptions of the main MK2 Upgrades. 

Options: elbow pier or on a Berlebach tripod

and

At the bottom of the email, the question if I am still interested.
 

No price...

15 hours ago, Startinez said:

First image with the 130PDS (and first planetary imaging result), and quite happy with the final result. Untracked from a 37 second video, aligned and stacked etc.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

A very nice first pancake!  Congrats!

next time, try using ROI (Region of Interest) while recording (something around 200x200), - it will crop the black area around the target and you will be able to get higher FPS rates. More data you actually need, not just black space

Also, sharpcap and firecapture has a target tracking option, will help a lot.

Barlow? x3 probably will fit nicely
(maybe you will find something handy also here, - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/313652-130pds-planetary-imaging/ )

yep... I just tried to do it also...

complete failure....

maybe something like  this one will lead you towards some ideas....

https://www.stage-electrics.co.uk/shop/sales/stage-engineering---mechanical/hook-clamps-suspensions-and-couplers/standard-48mm---50mm/u-bolts-and-saddle-clamps---48mm/product.aspx?code=504-9457&gclid=CjwKCAjw36DpBRAYEiwAmVVDMArjyY0DARmM-mHP-rvSX66SRlF8keNp1f6SWCIl6w5uBHzXwz5nmRoCvVcQAvD_BwE

(in fact, you just need the fixing plates (2 per one leg) with threaded hole in the center  - M8 or M10)...
maybe this one will not bend and thread is strong enough https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-strong-screw-or-bolt-on-plate-with-M10-threaded-hole-for-adjustable-foot-/311855155521

you can bolt plates together and use the central/clamping  hole for the bolt with the plate on one end, but I could not find any clamping bolts or just flat ends/shoes for M10....

Not sure, - just ideas... and probably wrong ones

Probably this one... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131970046886
Expensive toy...
I am almost sure, you will find clamps for fracture of this price... 
we need some carpenters to join this thread!

21 hours ago, Arran townsend said:

Which do you think I should get, a light pollution filter or a genuine polar scope?

First of all! - 300sec with a barn door tracker - SUPER!  Very good job done!

As to the rest: I cannot give you a proper advise as there are some variables: 

1) How fast and how repeatable your good PA can be achieved?
300sec means, - you are in the game even without a proper Polar Scope... However, if the current set up makes it very difficult to re-align and get to 5min exposures, means you will not be able to repeat it each session, or you will lose lots of the dark time by setting it up...

PA is essential... You know it better than me... Bad PA=Bad Tracking... If you have Bad tracking, - LP filter is useless as you have no result anyway!

2) And if, lets say, PA does not take much time to get to 300sec and it can be repeated easily, 
I would go for LP filter only if images at 300sec are getting too bright, OR even better,
Would check how to advance re-targeting procedures for the next night session, as I guess... You end up missing the target all the time and end up cropping quite a lot at the end. Finder scope, which you modded to Polar Scope, would help in this step.

If you get 300secs with Histogram Peak at Left or Close to Center, - LP filter will help, but not too much, you simply need more data on the same target. It means, more sessions, - good PA and good re-targeting first.

On another hand, there are CLS clipIn filters for around £80, - not so expensive... Plus, you may probably try finding the second hand ones for half a price.

As I understand, you use Canon 1200D, which is the entry level cam... I would also consider to check for the second hand AstroModified camera on the astrobuysell and eBay auctions, - or...

you know what I mean!  

get your hands dirty and mod 1200D yourself 

but I am not sure if 1200D worth time, I never had it.

P.S. "Mein Kampf" against the Light Polution ended up in Mono imaging... Probably everyone can assure you, there is no better way as a narrow band imaging from the city...  Some people do use DSLRs and Narrow Band filters, -  investigate this area also.  5min exposures probably will be enough for H-Alpha 12nm.

P.P.S.

Focusing, - get bahtinov mask for your lens, or make one.. And the easy "Y focusing mask" works well also

10 hours ago, Arran townsend said:

Hi Vlaiv, judging from my unfiltered photos, do you think that using a light pollution filter would benifit me?, I live in a bortal 7 area, but I can't see any light pollution in my images, perhaps I don't know what it looks like...

Hi Aaran,
I will agree with Vlaiv,

In your case even 15sec exposures have star trails @ 300mm FL. And light pollution has the minor impact... Star trails is the main battle you should fight. 
To get nice images, you will need to reduce your exposures drastically or upgrade tracker.

In the first case, @F7 and short exposures, - you will not get much data to produce nice images... Or it will take quite a few sessions... But, as I understand, you are limited to one target per session, as to re-target next night is quite difficult task with your set-up.

If you do not want to go small EQ tracker way, - reduce FL to 135 or 200mm and try imaging closer to F4 and with shorter exposures.

Once you get a nice round stars in the center of the images (you will have some coma/"egg shaped" stars in the corners, - you will not avoid it probably), try to get longer exposures by improving your barn door tracker..

And once you will notice, you reached the exposure time then images become too bright (or Histogram Peak falls into the right side), - you may start thinking about filters.

The image below, is only the example what you may get without filters, - it was done from London Bortle 8/9, ISO100, no filters, but @F2 135mm and 30sec exposures (45sec exposures, were too bright at F2..., 60sec almost white).

This one is not even close to the perfect image, just a usual not experienced image using EQ mount, - but I would start thinking about filters after I get result like this or even better one.

1 hour ago, Doug64 said:

Hi,

I hope someone can help me, I'm writing this whilst banging head on the table as I've waisted 8 hours taking Darks..

I've recently bought a Zwo 1600MM Cool And I have been learning APT as I've never used it before.

I have been making a Darks Library, over the past 24 hours I've created one set of Darks at Gain 139, this morning I set up APT to do a sequence of Darks at Gain 200.  In order to set the Gain to 200 I opened up Settings under Camera in APT and adjusted the slider to Gain to 200 and pressed OK.  Everything appeared to be working correctly.

Having set up the imaging plan I went out and have just returned to find that every Dark taken today has a Gain of 139 and not 200. 

I've run a check and each time I set the Gain to 200 and run a sequence for Darks the images taken have a gain of 139 and in the camera settings the gain has gone from 200 to 139.

I've checked that the Manage Gain box in Settings is ticked.

I know I'm doing something wrong in APT but I can't figure out what it is.

Can anyone help so I don't waste anymore time.

Thanks

Doug

Hi Doug,

Not sure with slider you been adjusting, as l haven't used APT for awhile,

But ASI gain settings should be adjusted in the Cam driver itself.

As per cameras in the list you provided,

it is quite difficult to advise, - most of them will perform well except ZWO ASI1600MM, which may have problems with the frost, thats why ZWO released Pro version, - which has Frost problem solved (or lets say, reduced to minimum, - as Once you push camera to freeze to -20C in a very humid area, you can get some Frost on any camera).

Choosing Astro camera is a real challenge, as even the best spec camera May (or May Not) fit your expectations on the field of view, So always check FOV on the websites like this one  http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ - just choose "imaging mode" on the top

in your case, with 183M and 200PDS, the FOV will look like that https://tinyurl.com/y6s6t6jr 

(200P and 200PDS have the same Focal Length and ZWO ASI 183M has the same sensor as Altair 183M, both items of yours are not present on the data base of the website, so I used analogies).

Also, always try to check google, astrobin and flickr websites for the images done with the set up you going to have and see the results. Of course, sometimes it is impossible to find the same scope+the same camera, - the main things to look at is Focal Length and Sensor.
Alrair 183M uses the same sensor as ZWO ASI 183M and QHY 183M and etc. Your PDS has Focal length 1000mm, - so all results online with similar specs will show you probable Image you can get.

Just keep in mind, No One, No One enjoys to share images which they failed. So Most of the time, you will see the examples of the Best possible results from the darkest places of the world  

I did not want to touch this field, but I think you should read a bit and make your self familiar with terms "Undersampling" and "Oversampling", - it is a real can of worms.

But to be honest, with such small pixels and high resolutions we have on our current sensors, I do not think it causes much problems, but there are a lot of people who want to Match their Camera to their scope as good as possible.

Flo even has http://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability calculator for that. 

Mono is expensive way to go, - so read a bit more before you push the trigger...

And finally:

if you will decide to go a cheaper way, which is CMOS, look few steps further, - Filters....

Filter price goes Up by brand and specs, but the main price driving factor is the Size... Keep it in mind all the time, - just try to pick up full Final setup on any website and see how the Final price jumps once you Press OK on the narrow band Filters.
Some narrow band filter sets are more expensive than any camera in your list.

To save money, you will be made too look at 31mm Filters, which are smallest, but...

Each camera has it's specific back focus distance and the longer the back focus it has, the Larger Filter you will need. The Clear winner in the Price battle here is ASI183M or ASI1600MM-Pro, as they have the 6.5mm - the smallest backfocus from all the astrocams on the Market, It enables to use the smallest 31mm filters almost or completely without Vignetting (you do not loose data due to dark corners and etc). In comparison, Altair has backfocus -  17.5mm.

I do have ASI cam, and I can be a bit Bias, so look at my comments carefully and double-check and even triple-check before you take it for granted!  I never had Altair, - maybe it performs OK with 17.5mm backfocus and 31mm Filters, - but I am in doubt about it.

Look at this comment as the directions for your personal investigations and... decisions.

Some answers, as I understand them:

1. Not sure why Mono is more expensive, - maybe marketing... You always pay more for the better option... Statement: "Technically, color camera is giving you three channels worth of data whereas mono is giving you three times as long an exposure" is incorrect, as technically Colour cam (if the same sensor used) is LESS sensitive, good explanation is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD0ZH2doSlk
2. Theoretically, yes, you can use MONO camera without any filters, but... it will be too sensitive to Infra Red waves and image will be a bit blurry... Further more, - later you will not be able to process it to color. Not useful option, waste of time and money
3. Filterwheel light leak is not often. you will not have it 99%.
4. Cameras for Planets and DSO are very different, - thats why I suggested to get a Fast Guider Camera, which you will be able to use as a Planetary. Planetary cameras a very fast (with USB 3 connection) and they do not need to be cooled, so you can get away with quite a cheep option like ASI224MC or similar. 
5. Where does pixel count become relevant? I've seen cameras having 2 million pixels cost more than ones having 20 million pixels. Why would this be? I believe that small pixel count (sensor size) cameras are more suitable as guide cameras while larger pixel count cameras are suitable as main cameras. Is my understanding correct? - Old School CCD cameras usually are with smaller amounts of pixels which are also quite large in comparison to CMOS, it has it's benefits and cons also. Smaller or Larger amount of pixels will determine the Field Of View and the size of file you will have per Sub-exposure. Small sensor will behave like a small eyepiece with "larger magnification", - good for galaxies or small nebulas, but not so good for large objects. So it mostly depends on targets you want to image.

P.S. there is much more... need to run back home!  I am sure someone will add.

1 hour ago, AweSIM said:

Hi Roland. i appreciate that you do seem to understand my confusion and thought process. Thank you for your valuable suggestion. I do believe that I should save for a mono cam and filter wheel. If I have some more funds, I would even try to save for a guidescope and a guide camera as well. From what I've read on Carole's blog, a mono camera and filter should work quite well even in light polluted areas due to the fact that they let in such a narrowband. Thank you once again. 😃

No problem,

Just keep in mind, - while imaging in Mono + Narrow Band filters, you will need guiding 100%, as due to the nature of the narrow band imaging, your exposures will be minimum 3min ( with CMOS astrocam) or even longer around 10mins (with CCD).
There are LRGB filters also, - which do not remove Light pollution at all, but it is the main set for Galaxies and brighter nebulas like Orion and etc and with CMOS you can get away with 30sec exposures.

As per Mono without the filter-wheel... I do not see myself enjoying it at all... As filters will have to be moved around quite often and at the end, - Flats will not match each session (dust and etc), which will make your  post processing quite difficult and time consuming.

or, - you will have to restrict yourself to "one night per one target" only... no fun... 

While choosing astrocam for imaging, as previously mentioned, -  look at the cooled versions only. Cooling will reduce a lot of noise, plus, you will be able to control temperature of the Dark subs, - in other words, you will be able to create the library of darks with the different exposures/settings in advance and do not waste imaging time during the night.
If £££ amounts becoming too heavy for your wallet (and probably will, as Mono + Filters + Wheel + Guider Set Up will most likely be around £2k+), - I would suggest to go guiding way initially, as it is quite challenging task at the start and needs experience to perform properly, plus if you choose fast colour guider camera, you can do planetary imaging or even hunt some galaxies like M51 or smaller ones while saving funds for mono setup

I will second Carole and will offer the same,

If you have got funds, jump into mono without wasting time on DSLR or color astro-camera. Mono cost a lot as you will need to buy filter wheel and filters in addition, - but it worth it by all means.

I was in your shoes one year and a bit ago, and I simply could not justify the Price of Mono, but the more topics I read on this matter, the more advise Topics I created myself, - the advise was just one, - "Go Mono".

There are 2 main options for Mono: CCD (like Altair) and CMOS (as ZWO Asi for example). CMOS is a bit cheaper option with it's challenges, advantages and disadvantages over CCD.

As per "fix Nikon" + Guider... it depends on the area you are in... I cannot do longer subs than 30sec from my back-garden in London as they get overexposed even with ISO100, and I can easily do 30sec without a guider.

P.S.

For guider cam, if you will decide to get one, go for something like ASI 224MC, it is a nice guider CAM and plus, - quite a good camera for Planetary imaging, plus it has quite a small pixel size which has some impact on a better guiding.

I am strongly considering to try Anycubic Photon next year....
My Mega-S works fine, - but a bit slow @0.1mm 
Photon @0.1 should be ~ 4 times faster... 
Need to hide all cast iron frying pans before that purchase