scitmon

Took delivery  of mine today!  Can anyone tell me what the screw on the red part behind the tube rings does?  

Apologies for the upcoming clouds 

had a quick go in pixinsight.

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

If you want to fix the focuser on the ED80 then have a look at the video below. I know this isn't the 10:1 Crayford but they suffer from the same issue. I did this tune to my ED100 DS Pro and it made quite a difference.

I can also recommend THIS focuser for the ED80 & ED100, I have one on both of mine, and it has a built-in rotator as well.

 

Thank you for the recommendation, do you use it for imaging? If so does it cope well with a camera and filter wheel?

Is there a 100mm on the horizon?  Why is the 104 ED not for sale anymore?

My interest is deep sky objects.  Focal length I'm less concerned with than I am with getting a good match to my camera.  Or is this the wrong approach?

I've played around with the CCD suitability calculator on https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability, so for example if I was to go with the StellaMira 90mm ED Triplet f/6 that would give me 1.77" / pixel.  Is there a sweetspot to aim for on this figure?

Hello all, 

I really started to struggle with the SW 80ED's focuser slipping with the weight of my camera and filter wheel last imaging season. I attempted to fix it adjusting the tension screws, but the increased resistance did not go down well with my Sesto Senso focuser.  I'm still not sure if I've permanently damaged it or not, but time will tell.

Anyway, instead of forking out £300+ on a Baader steeltrack or similar, I thought that money would be better spent going towards a triplet (or more) imaging scope that already has a sturdy focuser.  So I would like recommendations please!

Criteria:

• Good fit for a ZWO ASI 294MC pro and L-eXtreme filter in typical UK skies
• Not too heavy for a AZEQ6

You might want to consider using a star removal tool such as Star Tools to stretch your stars and your nebulosity serperatly.  Makes life much easier and you can control the background noise stretching easier too.  Here is my very quick go with Pixinisight, didn't do any noise reduction or deconvoluting etc.

looks like it could be walking noise... did you dither?

Does this mean all my lights have been adversley effected?  Not sure what the implications of having the wrong bit depth set are?

Yes I had it set to 14 which I thought was correct.  I see that they recommend 16 though so I will give that a try (it is showing higher ADUs with 16 in)

Installed the beta version of NINA and had a look at the flat wizard page:

Notice the ADU of 100% Histogram Mean Target?  Why is it only 16384 when others here see higher?

Ok, I'll check out the latest version.  I'm presuming that Dynamic Exposure is the one to go for with my LED light panel method.  It does sounds like the method I've been using anyway so I have my doubts anything will be different, but I'll try and report back.

7 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

Which drop down item are you selecting in the wizard? There's three to choose from which are: sky flats, dynamic exposure and dynamic brightness (if memory serves). 

I'm not familiar with that drop down?  I see no mention of it in https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/master/site/tabs/flatwizard/ either.  Is it a feature of an older version?

I will defo drop the exposure time next time then and see how that works out.  I still would like to get to the bottom of why I can't get above 14k ADU on Nina's flat wizard though.

42 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

Did you reduce your exposure time when you upped the gain to 200? 

I tend to use higher gain on my ASI 071 Pro camera, but tend to only go up to 2 mins when using a narrowband filter (usually the one I use is the L-enhance).

No, but should that matter as long as I don't saturate pixels?  It should still calibrate out should it not?

It was set to 200 pretty sure of that.

10 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Did you make new darks also? Remember everything has to be set to gain 200, flats, darks, lights and dark flats. 

Adam

Yes I did.  I've been trying various things since that post, I think pushing the exposure as far as possible seems to improve things but I still cant calibrate out those top left and bottom right corners. 

I read in other threads that 25k-30k ADU for flats is desired, but I cant get anywhere near that with NINA's flat wizard.  I set the mean histogram target to 90% and it still only reports to be 14k ADU.  Not sure what to make of that?

Ok the problem is clearly with the Sesto Senso.  It's failing to slew with the high pitched noise even when off the telescope, and powered with its own cable in isolation.  I'll have to contact @FLO to see what my options are.

Ok I've just done some more testing of the Sesto in isolation.  I don't think the problem is voltage associated as it holds well above 12 volts when failing to slew in these conditions.  I did see a jump in amps from 1 to 3 amps when failing to slew through the Pegasus, and as the socket is rated for 5 amps I don't see why that should be a problem.

I switched back to the cigarette style power connection, slewed (and it worked), and saw the amps draw was not nearly as much, I'd say 1amp to 1.5 amps.

Why does the amps jump up so much more through the Pegasus!?

Everything works fine connection wise, it doesn't drop out.  However, when I command the Sesto to move to a focus position, it starts to move then almost immediatly gives up, followed by a high pitch noise coming from it.  Do you happen to notice what voltage yours drops too when its moving the focus tube?  

On 07/03/2022 at 01:00, Budgie1 said:

What gain & offset settings are yo using?

Some using the ASI294MC Pro (me included) have had issues with the flat calibration frames causing the red & green gradients in the combined image in your second post, this only seems to happen when a duel band filter, like the L-eXtreme, is used.

To make the flats calibrate correctly with this filter, the answer seems to be setting the gain at 200 and the offset at 30, see the thread below:

I've now used these gain & offset settings over four sessions and haven't had any issues and the flats have calibrated correctly, including the Flaming Star, which I did this weekend.

I tried gain 200 offset 30 last night and made the flats today, with worse results unfortunatly.  Left is my gain 120, right is my gain 200

May I ask whats your method of taking flats are?

Yes I beleive so.  I'll try using it without the camera a dew heaters running tomorrow.

I'm using the https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/nevada-ps-08-6a-8a-regulated-linear-power-supply.html

Also, the Sesto has no problems working from the same power supply, when using the supplied cigarette lighter style cable.

Ok I am still having issues.  I got my cable from Dew Control as @Richard_ recommended, but I'm still having issues getting the Sesto Senso to work.  Same issues as before.   I'm trying to power the Sesto, a mini pc, 2 heater bands, my main ZWO camera and the guide camera from the Pegasus.  I don't understand what the problem is.  I do see the voltage drop below 12v when trying to slew the focuser, is this a problem?