scitmon

I’m trying to attach my new ZWO manual filter wheel to my image train with the correct spacing. The nearest guide I could find anywhere is this image: This is the diagram for the Electronic version, which I’ve replicated successfully apart from the T2-T2 adapter was not included with my manual FW. I do have a much thinner one that came with my 294MC pro I’ve used but this has not added any spacing, wheras the one in the diagram adds 2mm. I would like to know a) will my setup work or have problems? and b) does the manual FW supposed to come with the 2mm adapter?

Something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MW4RG1Y/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_WTZ7MM08B9XZC0F9NV7P is probably best. Your mount and scope lends itself best to "lucky imaging" types of targets such as the moon and planets. If you are looking towards faint deepsky objects that require longer exposures, you will start to get star trailing.

I had this problem starting out with my ASI 294MC, the problem turned out to be something with the ZWO native drivers I was using. I was advised to change to the ASCOM drivers which solved the problem.

Yes longer dove tail will do it, or bit of a bodge solution would be to try some ankle weights https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=ankle+weights&crid=2AXMNEF6XE0TR&sprefix=ankle+we%2Caps%2C168&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_8

Just stacked my M31 image and noticed one star has a significant halo. Is it unusual just to have one star with a halo? What's the probable cause? The image was taken with: SW 80ED Pro -> IDAS D2 LP Filter -> ZWO ASI 294 MC Pro

Here is the resulting image: link: https://www.astrobin.com/vldzyc/0/ Not bad in the end! Time to get a L-eXtreme filter

Ok, I have done 30 darks and 30 "lights" (with lens cap on), same settings as before but with the ASCOM drivers. Both sets of images have a k value of around 0.0295 like the darks had with the native drivers. So whatever happened on the night I took the lights will probably remain a mystery, and hopefully won't happen again. Here is the stack of the 30 calibrated "lights" with a STF:

Certainly worth a try, I thought I read somewhere that native should always be used above ASCOM... shame I have to wait for the next clear skies to try it out. In the mean time, to try and produce a better image with the data I'm stuck with, can you tell me what Pixel Math formula you used to produce this image? Also thank you all for your input, I appreciate the time you've taken to help me figure this out.

I used the latest native drivers from ZWO.

Out of curiousity, if I calibrate one dark with another, should it produce a fairly even, clean image? This is what I get:

out of curiousity, what capture software did you use?

@Laurin Dave would you mind telling me who you get the "mean level" of a dark? I'm currently half way through capturing another 30 darks, camera off the scope, cap on and foil covering the cap. Edit: Doesn't matter, i've tested one dark on one light frame and it obliterates the data again. I really don't understand whats happening. As the attached pic of the calibrate settings correct?

I don't see how NINA would calibrate them, there was nothing to calibrate with? The camera is brand new so it should be taking clean images. Perhaps I'll tell NINA to take lights but keep the camera cover on and compare to darks might be worth doing. I'll have another go at taking the darks tonight and see what happens.

Thank you for the reply. a) yes, all on NINA b) first time was off with the cap on, second time was on the scope with the telescope lens cap on inside with the light off. Would that have been sufficient? Light: 2021-10-30_20-32-59__-14.80_120.00s_0030.fits Dark: 2021-11-01_19-16-43__-14.80_120.00s_0001.fits Flat: 2021-10-31_10-53-08__-15.40_4.50s_0000.fits Flat calibrated with a dark: 2021-10-31_10-53-08__-15.40_4.50s_0000_c.xisf

Can any ZWO 294MC Pro users outthere please share how they take and process thier calibration frames because I'm having problems calibrating out my amp glow: I've taken two lots of darks making sure they have the same length, temp, gain and offset but this amp glow will not go away. When calibrating in Pixinsight, it seems the only setting that doesn't completely obliterate the detail in my images is the "Optimize" checkbox being checked, ,but evevywhere I read says it should not be.

This should be an interesting topic that I'm glad you've raised as I am too wondering how best to use Starnet. My initial thoughts are that starnet is probably best used as a tool to create better masks to stretch your original image with.

I did try the script and saw it too, would you be able to provide the settings used on the darks tab of WBPP?

No bias frames. Im using only dark for this example.

Ok a little more progress. I've retaken my darks (30 frames), matched length, temperature, gain and offset. They are working much better but they have not eliminated the amp glow on the right: Any Pixinsight users with the ASI294MC outthere that have success calibrating this out?

Now that I've moved into the world of CMOS imaging, I've lost the luxury of the DSLR AV mode when it comes to making flats. It's time to make a flat panel and I'm looking for recommendations... Needs to be dimmable and big enough for at least an 80mm aperture. Anyone got any?

Hello all, I'm attempting to calibrate and integrate my images from my very first session with the ZWO ASI 294MC and I'm having problems. I think I've tracked the problem down to the Lights Calibration with my Darks. If I exclude the master dark I see my target (see attached pic top right) when testing with a single light frame, if I include it I don't (top left). Is this right?!

I too am in the camp of never having used it in AZ mode. At the time of me buying it I don't think there was such a hefty price difference between it and the EQ only one so I thought it was worth the little extra. If I was buying now I would probably put extra money towards a separate AZ mount if I really needed one because changing between the two modes is too much of a faff at short notice.

I'm not overly familiar with WBPP as I learned to do it the manual way, but yes I think you are right that image registration does indeed try to star align. I've done a little googling and turned up something interesting... for each batch, are you picking separate reference frames? If so, try picking the same reference frame for both batches.

You need to run a Star Alignment on your final images from each night. Once you've done this you can combine the two images with pixel math or image integration. If I remember correctly, image integration needs at least 3 images to integrate, but you can get around this by cloning each nights image, then combine the 4.