RolandKol

Hi again,

can you please advise, which offset I should go for?

AstroBaby's or Ocal World?
 

AstroB pic:

Ocal World:

Hrrr,
I spent all night yesterday with that.... Ended up with perfect view via cam and Cheshire, but constantly failing to get a proper offset....

6 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Yep, completely forgot you are with CCd and large pixels.

Guys with CCD's do go for binning x2 quite usually.

It looks like it's your case

P.S.

Oops, sadly no... it will get even worse with binning... My apologies...
So try with no reducer first.

Yep, completely forgot you are with CCd and large pixels.

Guys with CCD's do go for binning x2 quite usually.

It looks like it's your case

P.S.

Oops, sadly no... it will get even worse with binning... My apologies

in short, - no you should not... better go opposite way and get reducer.
I am sure, guys can support it with maths, but I am not so bright...
So why no?

I testest in on similar set up, - what you will end up getting with x2 barlow, - VERY large/thick stars and kinda image which you will not want to show to anyone, even if the main target was quite small and fits into FOV.
In addition, - are you sure about your mount? as with x2.5 barlow, you will have to guide extremely well.. I greately doubt Skywatchers belew EQ8 are able to accomplish it.

On another hand, reducer will enable you to take looooong exposures 5-10min as guiding will not be an issue, plus most of the nebulas will nicely fit into your FOV.

3 minutes ago, 900SL said:

It will be interesting to see if sensor development will permit real time readout during exposure moving forward. This could potentially allow guiding from bright point sources from a single sensor during extended exposures. I'm sure there's associated issues with this though 😂

I saw a cam online around 3years ago, it was something like 5K USD, it had additional sensor built in and was advertised as 2in1.
Cannot find it anymore

28 minutes ago, MichaelBibby said:

I presume part of the reason you had to take so many subs is owing to light pollution (I live under Bortal 4 skies)?

Actually no.

The reason was, -  I simply could!

More data is always better than less, as you will want to get as much SNR as possible.
I had 2 clear nights, - and used them... Just keep in mind, I have not used all 6 or 7 hours on the target per night as my backgarden was very strickly covered with the treas and etc...
5k short subs, - can be done easily  during one night (depends how short they are), just count ~6h per night, usually DSO images are done per several sessions or even split into years... One night image is kinda, test image.
As per live stacking, - sadly, cannot advise... I am more than sure, it will be ok with 15 - 30sec, but cannot tell anything about the shorter ones.

P.S.

Thanks

41 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

No

In fact, slightly yes....
Not actual mount tracking, but substitute...
If ROI imaging applied, you can set up FireCapture to track target to keep ROI central to target. I do not remember if FireCapture has options to send any corrections to the mount, but ROI tracking was usually enough if imaging is started with planet slightly off center of FOV
https://skyinspector.co.uk/firecapture-features-explainer/#ROI_Position

On 02/10/2022 at 05:28, MichaelBibby said:

Zwo asi585mc or Sony a6000?

I have a 8" F5 (1000mm) Newt on a belt modded Heq5 pro and am interested primarily in DSO.
Given the fact that I'm pushing the weight limits of my mount, and I aren't using a guidescope, I will be limited to short exposures (between 1 - 30 sec). Which camera will make the most of these limitations: the Zwo asi585mc/player one Uranus C or the Sony a6000? And why? I know the 585 has 2.9um pixels and the a6000 has 3.88um which would be more suited to my focal length, gather light faster and be more forgiving of tracking problems, but what other factors/specs should I consider?

I just want to insert my 2 pence...
Short exposure DSO imaging is a real headache mate...

Just in 2 hours you may end up with the amount of 5k or more subs (16-32mb each), later stacking will take ages and software may even freeze or crash...
(not even talking about selecting best images, - blinking is not the option... Any other solution will also take ages, so you will end up dropping all images into the stack blindly).

Unless you have lots of patience and good hardware to process all of that.

You can read my experiences of a similar imaging below (process was done on MSI gaming laptop, with i7 9gen CPU, 16RAM and GPU GeForece 1050).

My suggestion, - go for the second hand cam which you will be able to use for guiding later, play with it on some galaxies and planets and if you decide to stay in hoby, later get the better mount or smaller scope and move from there.

Hi, thinking of this focuser as an upgrade.

Any update on this field?

BTW,  will ZWO autofcoser have an option to fitted to it? I could not find any proper pics of the focusers bottom online.

Hi guys, 

I was out of hobby for a while, now struggling to process my "welcome back" Heart  

The image is OK, however I am still not happy.

Main issue, - are stars.... they are not very round... I keep improving on reducing coma and tilt and at the moment this is the best I have, so please ignore if possible.

In pix,  - I keep blurring them (the stars) out, cannot keep them sharp... Also, star colours do not listen to me, even Starnet v2 is not the tool I am able to use properly... Looks like my both hands are left...  

Some channels, have larger stars, - I cannot find the proper way to reduce SII or OIII to H level without funny artifacts...

If someone does not mind spending some time and "playing around" with my data, - I would be happy for any advice.

The aim, - to keep stars sharp!

P.S.

I do recall, it is handy to BIN CMOS images, - however I do not recall on which step... Before Deconvolution or after?  
(or maybe Before stacking? if so, before or after calibration?)

P.P.S.

Images taken with ASI1600MM, Antlia 3nm glass on 130PDS, 120sec, gain 200.

H - around 4h, the rest 2h each, - all almost under the LED street lights.

Files are here: 

H - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit

OIII - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit

SII - [IC1805] - Light 27092022.fit

Finally, my result...

8 hours ago, Space Oddities said:

It's been a long time since I've used my 130P-DS, and since then I have made quite a few adjustments, so I thought I could share them here!

I added a long Arca-Swiss plate on top, to attach accessories and act as a handle ; ordered a 3D Printed light shield for the rear ; got some knobs to ease collimation ; and like I shared a few weeks ago, added some felt inside the tube to improve the darkness (still no idea if that was worth it, but it was fun!). I also switched to the Maxfield 0.95x flattener, hopefully I'll get better stars than with the Baader MPCC. Finally I got a long Losmandy plate, which allows me to put the tune on the table to collimate it. I couldn't do that with the green vixen dovetail, which was very annoying.

Here are some pictures!

 

 

I control everything from my "astro box", a plastic box that I cut to allow cables to run from my kitchen. The box contains a 15V power supply for the mount, and a 12V one for the rest of the rig. There's a mini PC (when I'm not using the ASIAIR), a travel WiFi router that connects the rig to my network via Ethernet (and ports for a second rig one day), and it also provides me with a fast WiFi outside, which makes setting up the ASIAIR very quick. I also added a TP Link surveillance camera.

All of that so I can control and watch my scope lazily from the comfort of my bed ; I'll probably thank myself when winter comes!  
 

 

Tonight I will do some test pictures, I want to check my collimation and see how stars behave in the corners. If all goes well, I'll do some imaging. I'm planning to photograph the soul nebula in a 2x1 mosaic. I have never tried this feature on the ASIAIR, but it seems rather straightforward! Finger crossed!

Happy to see my design of the back cover  3D print  

have not used my pix for a year or so, - it was interesting to test the memory...
(cheated a bit, used StarNet2)

2 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Although looking at it again most likely a satellite trail rather than a meteorite.

yee... most likely one of these "Elon Musk toy alikes"  

Yep, I know
But it was sooo cute, - I could not hold myself from sharing

Especially after quite a period of time without imaging 

After quite a long pause in this hobby, - I was setting up my scope this night.
I decided to  check the focus, the collimation and etc on Capella and got this nice result

"I am not saying it's Aliens!"   but also, have no idea what that was, - never had such a nice flares/glows previously

At last I had some joy this night

P.S. 4 sec subs, 2022/09/17  time: 01:17:30 - 01:31:45

7 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Out of interest how & why are you using the fish-eye lens for this?

I failed to achieve focus (on the secondary/primary mirror view) without it at all.

if it is possible without the lens, - I would be very happy to get rid of it as off-centre view causes lots of headache.

P.S.

As per question "how" - I am a bit confused... Simply, screwed it in and ZWO 224 becomes as a wide view web-cam..

P.P.S.  just in case, - ZWO224 comes with the fisheye lens in the box if I recall it correctly... or maybe I bought it ages ago.

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Try the 180° first.

Although we'd recommend aligning and collimating properly, to do what you want without doing so, locate the three pairs of push-pull screws at 120°around the base of the focuser. Use those to align the focuser.

Cheers 

I have updated my initial post, - maybe you have not noticed... it is strange behaviour of ZWO 224 in the drawtube (tried 2 of tubes I got). Camera simply does not look directly and probably is not the best choice for collimation... I suspect, the ZWO fisheye lense creates a slight offset.

at the moment I have ended up on this stage...  sadly will not manage to do a star test today...

Hi guys,

Is it normal to have cam so off centre on 130PDS? 
I guess focuser is placed really bad (as I have removed him previously for scope flocking), but it seems there is not way to place it back so camera would face dead centre...

Maybe I should try to rotate whole focuser 180 degrees?

please ignore the secondary mirror, just pay attention to the crosshair position (placed by sharpcap)

update...

silly me... it is the cam position in the focuser's drawtube....
anyway, cannot get it look directly....

22 hours ago, dazzystar said:

Thanks very much!

Sorry, I hope it is not too late, if you will decide to go my way.
that 10mm thickness...

it actually had a purpose... in my case it aligned the shafts of the motor and the focuser....

So be careful, - slightly slimmer one may be more universal, as washers and etc can adjust the position of the motor shaft.

27 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

It will be quite difficult to find the part for your specific scope and motor, - try to draft it yourself.

Similar to the one below (it may actually fit yours with a good amount of luck, will not fit.. missed PG5 part in your message initially)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4705351

In my case (not for your scope, so dimensions are probably different), 

I used Nema Stepper Mount bracket for around £2.5 and from ebay bought test size of Clear Polycarbonate Sheet 10mm x 50 mm x 120mm (if I recall dimensions correctly), - drilled holes  = holder....
P.S.

(10mm is probably too thick, but it is not heavy anyway)
setup does not look nice, - but works flawlessly

17 hours ago, dazzystar said:

I'm looking for something to mount my Nema 17 PG5 to a Startravel 102. Does anyone have any 3D files I can print. I've looked in the usual placed to no avail

It will be quite difficult to find the part for your specific scope and motor, - try to draft it yourself.

Similar to the one below (it may actually fit yours with a good amount of luck, will not fit.. missed PG5 part in your message initially)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4705351

14 hours ago, UKDiver said:

Quite likely.

I'd take a similar approach to the council, asking them to reply in a set timescale. They might have a key performance indicator on their website.

Adrian

In our covidsteria times, - performance indication options are most likely scrapped  So I will avoid framing them into any timescales initially....
The auto-response email states something like "due to covid, we will look into the matter within 6 months", but I was lucky to get a call back after 3 days
P.S. 
It loos like my Council works much better than DVLA giving/extending HGV driver's licenses

2 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Take a picture of your garden at night and up the exposure or ISO to 'compliment' the amount of light intruding your garden.

I am almost sure, I will need to down exp or iso if I will try to image via my window as cam will get blind  
hmm or maybe I should try using my Ha 3nm filter?   hahah joking

These LEDs are actually bright as a welding lights.... I do not need to invent anything.

Email/Reply:

"I completely agree with all statements related to energy efficiency of LED lanterns in statements described under "The benefits to residents include:"   and do agree with most statements of benefits to the environment, however:

1) These street lights are very bright and have no shading. (I feel I need to add more here)

2) NonShaded light covers around 20-30m distance which includes private gardens and any nocturnal wildlife. (I feel I need to add more here)

3) Street lights are in the same height as our house windows. (I will add pictures as @IB20 suggested also think of drawing googlemaps based scheme of light protrusion to our gardens followed by pics).

4)  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/light-pollution#how-much-light-shines

5) https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=513

6) https://jech.bmj.com/content/69/11/1118 "Results from this study suggest that when risks are carefully considered, local authorities can safely reduce street lighting saving both costs and energy using switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, and white light strategies without necessarily impacting negatively upon road traffic collisions and crime. The participating local authorities included a good range of communities in terms of population density, geographic location, and economic resources."

7) https://cdn.buglife.org.uk/2019/08/A-Review-of-the-Impact-of-Artificial-Light-on-Invertebrates-docx_0.pdf

8).  https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Shedding_light_leaflet.pdf

9)