Spaced Out

Don't know if this is the right place to post this ? Anyway... caught a fireball on the all-sky cam this evening, sadly it missed my live stream cameras tho, just got the flash ! flash.mp4

Yep... you can just see Pleiades in this vid as I panned up to the corona. I went to set the telescope up but as it was hitting twilight I could see naked eye red overhead ! I packed up and went out with my camera instead. An amazing night that. Corona Short Vid.mp4

I fiddled about with some stuff and it works. Got a rubbish memory but I swapped some cables around and changed the USB hub between my PC and the gear, don't remember exactly what fixed it but it was cable/usb hub related I think. Sorry I can't be more specific.

You might find this useful, I did when I started doing nightscapes/MW photography. https://www.lonelyspeck.com/lonely-specks-ultimate-list-of-best-astrophotography-lenses/ Personally I have the sammy 14mm f2.8 and the 24mm f1.4, I much prefer the 24mm in fact I've just bought a second 24mm f1.4 for doing timelapse stuff ! I only use the 14mm for very wide angle stuff like startrails, lunar halos etc, the 24mm gathers much more light and detail so it is my goto lens for the Milky Way, stopped down to F2 it is very sharp. I also use the 24mm for Auroras and Milky Way panoramas. However, I do use a full frame camera not a crop sensor, I am not sure how the 24mm would be on a 650D, maybe too tight ? I use 6D and R6mk2. The 6D is an old camera now and you can pick them up pretty cheap (I got a 2nd one recently for £250), they are excellent for the price, I'd highly recommend one as a cheap way to enter full frame nightscape/MW photography, they have good low light performance. I've just got a star adventurer mini so I am thinking of getting one of the 6Ds astromodded to use with that. Anyway, a bit of a ramble there... hope that link helps. PS - I shoot in dark locations and usually the foreground is darker than the sky, sometimes I paint light or up the exposure time (nothing moving so star trails not an issue), sometimes I do neither, depends on the situation and the effect you are going for. It is quite common practice to do different exposures for foreground and sky tho then blend them together later in photoshop or something similar. I use Lightroom and Photoshop for processing.

It's a security camera so shoots 20 frames per second video, I just sped the video up a bit to create a timelapse. My all-sky camera had a nightmare with changes in brightness so I haven't attempted to make a timelapse but got some crazy stills from it.

I used shutter speed 1/25, aperture f.2 (should have been 1.4 for video but I was so excited I forgot to change it !), ISO 51200 😲.

Canon R6 mk2.

Here in Northumberland we're lucky enough to live under dark skies (sqm-l 21.4). We saw naked eye pinks and greens, the best I've ever seen in the UK. Here's a 'real time' video I took, a local Sedge Warbler was nice company to have for such an event ! Embleton quarry aurora med file 2.mp4

Here's a short timelapse from the Aurora Cam Fri/Sat. Really pleased with the way this cheap security camera is performing so far. 🙂 aurora cam timelapse 11-05-2024 short version.mp4

Go for it ! My live stream video and all-sky stills cam were both easy to do and not that expensive. For example, I set up the live stream with an IP security camera that cost £79, I wanted to see how well it worked, if it's ok then I may invest in a better camera later on (I'd love a live stream with a Sony mirrorless camera but they cost £££ !). Low light technology in security cameras seems to be improving every year tho and when a new cam comes out the previous ones drop in price, there's a couple of cheapy IP security cameras around now that claim to be 'star cameras'.

Thanks everyone for the help and tips ! 👍

This is great ! Thank you for taking the time to write this, it has set me on right track. I will try using it from scratch again with a different image/set of calibration frames. Only ever used it a couple of times before, quite a while ago and then I just dabbled with a couple of things. I'm interested to see what it can do.

Thanks, it was my first ever attempt at using a SW 250 PDS the other night so it was more of a test session, setting up coma corrector spacing and the guiding etc, no calibration frames taken unfortunately, it's just stack of about 20x 60 sec subs. Could the lack of calibration frames be the issue ? I will try deleting some of the points as you've suggested and see what happens. Interestingly, I just restarted Siril to try again and ran into exactly the same issue of the 'compute background' button not working, nothing happens and then the 'apply' button remains greyed out. 🤔

Brilliant ! Thanks. I thought I did but nothing happened. Just restarted and tried it again tho and it has worked ! However, it produced this 🤔 , I'm guessing there is a setting somewhere that I need to work out. ...

The motion detection software got this a couple of nights ago. Meteor 13-02-2024.mp4

Sounds good. How did you get on with it ? Love a project !

Hi all I'm a total newb to Siril, using it for the first time today. Just following a simple processing tutorial on a TIF image (previously stacked using DSS - 16 bit). I've got as far as background extraction and hit a snag, the 'apply' button is greyed out and I can’t work out why. Did a quick google and can't find an answer to this so I thought I'd just ask here. Sure I’m missing something really obvious and will no doubt look foolish, but you've got to start somewhere ! Thanks

Really ? Wow ! Thanks. 🙂

Thanks ! It's just an IP security camera but one that performs fairly well in low light. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tapo-Weatherproof-Detection-Starlight-C325WB/dp/B0CB1TGPJG?th=1 I was amazed to see the Milky Way on it the other night, incredible for a 20 frames per second video camera, ok, it was very subtle but it was there ! Here's a timelapse, if you squint and use your imagination you can just about see it.... MW timelapse 2.mp4

Its not bad for the price, I actually got the Milky Way on mine the other day, incredible for a 20 frames per second security camera ! Here's a timelapse, you'll need to squint but you can just about see it ! 🧐 MW timelapse 2.mp4

The motion detection software was triggered again this evening, I presume this is a meteor blazing behind the clouds 🤔. Meteor 03-02-2024.mp4

I can email it you if you like ? Drop me a DM with your email. 👍 Thanks, I could easily schedule the camera to turn on and off with its own software but I need to leave it on 24/7 as it's a live stream. Its the motion detection software I need to turn on and off, this is possible by adding in some code, just working out how to do it atm but I am not a programmer ! Fairly confident I'll get it sorted tho. 🤞

This guy on YouTube uses a C325WB with the Contacam software for meteors.

Thanks, I've got the software working OK, just trying to work out how to schedule it to turn off in the daytime ! I think it's meteor, seen a few aircraft on here, they are much slower and they strobe.

I got the C325WB purely for it's low light performance. Hunted around for info on cameras and it seemed to be one of the best IP security cams for under £100 for low light stuff. Wanted to catch auroras with it, so good low light performance and wide angle were the main things.