Spaced Out

Hi all. I've set up a live stream camera so that I can monitor the sky for the Aurora Borealis. I hope this will run 24/7. I wanted to share this with a few mates so I've added it to a webpage and made it public. There is an all-sky cam on the page too. I’m in the process of setting up some motion detection software to see if I can catch any meteors on the live stream 🤔.

Just chucking it on here in case anyone is interested. 🙂

northumberland-astro.space/sky-cameras/

On 08/12/2023 at 18:22, alacant said:

Hi

Why not the SW Quattro monorail? No need to adapt anything then.

Will the base fit the 130PDS tube ? I remember having trouble finding a new focuser + base that would just bolt on because of the smaller tube size. Didn't look at a SW quattro tho, think at the time I assumed it would just be the same as the PDS unit.

3 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Can you post a link please 

Here you go. Was 29.95, now £35 🤔. There are cheaper ones on ebay but I wanted one that would go quite high + this one had thicker tubes too. Be warned, it'll definitely blow over if there is any wind, so some weights or guy ropes are essential. It's portable and lightweight tho, which is what I was looking for and it comes in its own roll up bag for storage, a bit like a tent bag.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225113641527

Haven’t tried it out yet (I'm waiting for some weight bags to arrive now), I'll report back after the first use tho and let you know if it is any good.

So I got this today, £30 off ebay. It goes up to 10ft tall, a bit higher than our garden fence and blocks the offending streetlights (you can just see them on the right side of the pic). Seems ok just need some sandbags or something to add weight to the feet and stop it blowing over !

Thanks all for your replies. I've got 4 lights in a cluster and they are affecting my images quite badly. This never used to happen, it's only started since the council changed the lights to 'dark sky compliant' units, a change that I actually pushed for ! I think they have altered the angle of one light in particular and it is a right PITA now, it is facing us so can't be shielded in my direction. Anyway whilst searching for something suitable I have found lots of these photo backdrop stands fairly cheap, I think I might give one a go, just chuck a blanket over it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phot-R-Background-Adjustable-Photography-Non-Woven/dp/B015OVMMPA?th=1

Hi all

I’m seeking ideas for a simple and portable screen to block out some distant (but bright) streetlights. Just wondering what other people are using ? Any advice welcome.

Thanks

On 26/01/2023 at 16:19, Gary Clayton said:

Yes it does unscrew leaving an M63 thread on the end of the focus tube, mine has some play in it causing camera tilt when repositioning the camera for better composition of the target. It's something that I had not noticed until imaging more than one target per night.

Just wondering if the WO rotator did anything to improve your tilt situation at all ? I've got some minor tilt that I suspect might be coming from the rotator.  

OK, that's what I needed to know. Thanks.

I know, I do that, but that was not my question.

Hi All

Just a quick one, I hope. Whenever I use the search function in Cartes du Ciel it always centres the object. Is there a way to turn this feature off so the chart doesn't move ?

Thanks

My first attempt at M31 with the SM90, still learning the ropes with processing.

SM90 + ZWO ASI 2600MC

60x 120secs (+ darks, flats and dark flats) stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop.

At last, I can contribute something 🙂. Here's my first image using the SM90 from last night. I'm still learning the ropes with processing so it's not an expert effort by any means, but I was pleased to pick up some dust !

I'm really enjoying using the SM90 so far, I bought it because I couldn't afford a SW Esprit 100 but I am pleased I went for this, the build quality is lovely. 

SM90 + ZWO ASI 2600MC

35x 120secs stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop.

On 06/11/2022 at 01:40, ONIKKINEN said:

 so if you are wondering whether or not your SQM-L is accurate or not given your neighbors new lights, you could check with ASTAP whether the data agrees with the other measurements.

Thanks for this info. My readings were usually 21.3 ish (21.4 on a good night) but I haven't taken any readings since the neighbours installed their new lights. 

On 06/11/2022 at 09:12, Elp said:

A background extraction on Siril will normally sort it out very easily.

Maybe also talk to the neighbour to politely ask why their light needs to be on all night and not with a motion sensor. Otherwise if possible try to image nearer to a fence or some sort of shield to minimise the glow.

 

I have already spoken to the neighbours, I was so polite but just got a sort of defensive response, a bit of a brick wall tbh. 🙁

The light they have is a cheap solar thing that stays on all night 'for security'. It isn't directly visible from my garden and I can't see much of a glow from it either tbh, so I was hoping it wouldn't have too much impact on my imaging. I can't move the telescope unfortunately, its a concrete pier. I may have to buy a dew shield to see if that helps and start using Siril.

8 hours ago, Elp said:

Looks like light pollution to me. I always get it when imaging R, G, B or OSC. What time was it, Orion rises a bit later in the evening so is low close to the horizon, Pleiades is much higher in the sky so is less affected.

Hmmmm... This is what I am worried about tbh. I live under fairly dark skies (21.4 SQM-L) and there is usually very little light pollution, but, my neighbours 2 doors down have just put a light in their garden that is solar powered and on all night ! It is not in direct line of sight from my telescope location (a couple of fences sit in between and shield it), but I wondered if this might be the problem ? 

Does anyone think that glow is definitely from Alnitak, or definitely something else ? I'd like to try and understand what it is.  Took some images of M45 the same night, the glow was not visible in the stacked image for that tho.

5 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Siril is awesome.  I just follow this for my images and it works very well:

https://siril.org/tutorials/tuto-manual/

Thanks, I'll take a look. 👍

38 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Probably glow from Alnitak, or an internal reflection between 2 or more of the lenses in your flattener(?). Could also just be gradient from the sky, difficult to tell.

But its easily removed with a good background extraction tool, i ran this JPEG through the background extraction tool in Siril and its definitely removable:

Wow... That's amazing, thank you. I think I need to learn how to use Siril !

Hi all

Just done a quick stack from the other night of M78. As I started stretching I noticed a prominent glow in the bottom right of the image. A quick and dirty process below to show what I mean.

Does anyone know what might be causing this ? At first I thought it might be light from Alnitak, but I assume that would be too far away to cause this ?

The image is OSC, light frames stacked with darks, flats and dark flats in DSS.

Thanks

OK, I've sorted it. Just in case anyone else has the same problem, you need to tick the 'auto refresh' box in Settings - Date/Time and then click 'apply'.

Hi all

I've started using Cartes du Ciel but am having trouble getting the view to update in real time. Can anyone offer advice please ? I suspect this may just be a setting somewhere, but I don't know where !

Thanks

5 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

I assume this psu isn't working any more either? 

I've not tried it again tonight. I just assumed the brand new ZWO one should work, so it concerns me that the problem persists, but I take your point, I'll try the other one again and see if it still works ok.  👍

Hmmmm........ Got a new ZWO power supply for this camera but testing it this evening and the problem with the inbuilt USB hub persists 🙁.

The guide camera and main camera just won't work at the same time via the USB hub on ASI 2600, the guide camera seems to run OK but the main camera just hangs and refuses to download the image. If I run separate cables from the cameras to the laptop they both work fine, just when I plug the guidecam into the ASI 2600 that I get the problems.

I'm a bit stumped now ?

11 hours ago, Jamgood said:

Can you lower the USB Buffer in your software? It is usually set to 80. Dropping it down to 40 can help with random disconnects, etc.

Good call ! I already have it set to 40. 👍

12 hours ago, Len1257 said:

As you haven't tested this with an alternative power supply I would definitely go down that route. Get something decent as a lot of cheap stuff is very questionable.

Thanks. I tested the cameras this evening with a different PSU and everything seems to work as expected, which is encouraging. I have just ordered the proper ZWO PSU for it, so hopefully that will sort it. 🤞