Vroobel

The mount weight is 90kg, the OTA + accessories are another 20kg. I assemble and disassemble it usually in around 30 mins, but it takes much more before I'm ready to the session. 🙂

Hi,

After welding the fork my mount is ready for the Fish Head Nebula (in action now).

It's so rigid now that regardless of the average seeing it's able to guide quite decent.  

Hi,

Not first time I would say that the ASTAP performs the stacking better than the Affiniy Photo. After a post processing in the Affinity Photo we can see improved details and greater dynamics in the nebula.

Who else can see a goblin's head in hat with explicit right eye and ear, mouth and eagle nose with a wart? Also, his torso, right arm, and part of his left arm.

There is also some kind of necklace, it looks like a small man with his leg up.

I'd venture to say that the goblin gives us the middle finger...

Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. (Wikipedia)

Hi,

Several weeks ago I realised that the aluminium fork in my EQ fork mount is not stiff enough. I decided to order the welding it and finally it works much better. Last night I confirmed it.

The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281)
Newton 9" F/5.5, Optolong L-eXtreme, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.
20 x 300s only because of clouds, ISO1250 + 3 x 20 calibration frames.

Wow, the C8 works as the guider! That's biggest guider I ever saw!

Mike, you are not the only one showing pics with the diagonal in the path, so I asked in case if I missed something important. 

Hi, 

Sorry for an offtop, could you tell me - all guys who use diagonals during the astrophotography - why you do it? Every additional piece of glass in the path brings unwanted distortion and loss of light. If you need the optical length to focus, I suggest use of proper extension instead. Correct me please, if I'm wrong. 🤔

Hi,

Night 11-12/11/2022, Jupiter and Mars.

Starwave 102ED F/11, Baader UV/IR Cut 2", ZWO ADC, ASI678MC

Jupiter: 50% of around 3000 frames (2.5 min), SharpCap, Autostakkert, Registax, Affinity Photo.

Mars: 10% of around 5000 klatek, SharpCap, Autostakkert, Registax.

Jupiter, Mars and the Moon tonight. 🙂

Oho, lot of questions!

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Is this problem only seen on long exposures? Is daylight use OK?

Honestly, I don't know. I just checked, it seems similar regardles the exposition time (60s, 150s, 300s), but I think it's more visible with stronger stretching. And I don't remember whether I took photos shorter than 60s.

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

If so, might there be stray light getting in somewhere else?

I don't think so. It happens both with no filter at all and with filters LPS: IDAS LPS-D2 and IDAS LPS-P2 and also dual band Opiolong L-eXtreme. The last one especially should cut out all unwanted light.  

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

A crack in the case? Missing screw?

Hmm, I didn't realise any. Moreover, When I sent the camera to astro modification, I had a question about its condition. I replied that it's in very good used condition. I have bought it from a professional seller as used with a 12 month warranty, so they would risk a lot if they sell faulty camera for nearly 500£. Regarding the missing screw, I think I would know about it if it happened, from the man who modified the camera.

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Wrapping the camera in something opaque at night might help you. Even if it is insulating tape. Anything lightproof.

That's interesting approach. Thanks for the idea!  

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Or is there an LED somewhere in/on the camera that is working and stray light finds its way to the sensor?
There are options on Canon camreas to tourn off indicators. I don't know the details for the 6D.

No, it isn't. That means there is a red LED indicating (as I think) saving the image to the memory card. It's off during the exposition. Also the viewfinder is black at all, only displaying some values when the camera begins saving data.
I'm not sure, but I think I already switched the indicators off.  

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Or is it a degrading sensor?

What do you mean?  

I have no Canon or compatible lens, I have bought the body only just as a full frame sensor for astrophotography, so I cannot compare and check it in other ways.

My conclusion is that it's more visible with stronger post processing. This is a complicated subject. My home-made EQ fork mount still requires some improvements. I can obtain nice pics, but I think the signal is low because of poor guiding. I work on it and have some ideas, so we'll see very soon. Sey stars, they are not pinpoint, but like small disks or more often ovals. The worse the guiding is, the more oval they are. I suspect that improving the guiding would significantly limit the need of strong stretching, am I right? Maybe then the bars are less visible?

Vroobel

Edit.
I forgot to mention that the bars are rather dark on a lighter background - the gradient makes them visible. But after use of the GradientXterminator the bars are also visible. Why are they dark? If it's an effect of unwanted light they should be bright.  

Hi Michael,

Yes, my viewfinder is covered. 

I dont't complain about the gradient. I asked for a cause of the dark bars in the bottom. 

Tomasz.

Thank you @vlaivfor your patience and another explanation. I found nearly same question in one of following threads about cameras, your answer also was there. I had to ask, if not I simply forget. 

Edit. 

I mean I found the question and answer after I asked my one. 

What about a binning mode 2 or 3, if needed? I mean using the 3.75um pixel for the Quark. The effective pixel area is 4 or 9 times bigger than. What about the readout noise? 

Hi,

I have a Canon EOS 6D Mk I camera that I bought as used from a professional camera seller with a 12 month warranty, so I think it was a good deal. Since the beginning I have had some problems with dark bars in the bottom right corner of the pictures and they are unable to be removed, even if I also do a set of 20 or 50 calibration frames. In the meantime I ordered an astro modification at one of the local specialists. I still see the unwanted effect, so I mention the modification to exclude the case that it happened just because of the operation. I place two highly stretched raw stacks of the M81 and M82 obtained with the IDAS LPS-P2 filter and also the M45 without any filter to exclude the suspicion that it can be caused by some filters. Accidentally you can see a gradient, but it's not related to any gradient, because I experienced it in different conditions.

I hope someone can explain why it happens and how to cope with it.

Best regards,
Vroobel  

I would say ASI678MC. Look please on this calculator:

https://www.astropix.com/html/astrophotography/astrophotography-calculators.html#cs

Taking an average seeing 4/5 into account the 2um pixel doesn't require any Barlow. 

Hi,

This picture is a simple test, how my IDAS LPS-P2 works. I had to buy used one, that's why I had no choice and decided to do it just for test, even with 74% of the full Moon.

I performed 250 x 60s light frames, but a half of them were unusable because of the Moon's light, so it's a little bit poor.

Newton 9" F/5.5, IDAS LPS-P2, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.
108 x 60s ISO1250 + 3 x 50 calibration frames.

24 minutes ago, badhex said:

I meant to comment on this before. Your mount is a beast! I followed your build thread - incredible stuff. Well done. 

Thank you, that's nice.  

Hi,

I just found out about this thread, so copied my post from the "Show us your set up in action at night" one.

Sunspot group #3135. Starvawe 102ED F/11, Baader OIII visual 2" and ASI678MC. 

Oops, I didn't know about it

Hi.

To be honest, it is not at night, but it is still the astrophotography.

Sunspot group #3135. Starvawe 102ED F/11, Baader OIII visual 2" and ASI678MC. 

That's why yesterday I equipped my laptop with second internal 1TB SSD. Windows 11, all installed software and documents are kept on the main SSD, while the second one is only for the astrophotography purpose. Thankfully the 1TB SSD by Intel is 4.5x cheaper than the camera 🤣

Hi, 

I have the ASI678MC and finally my ASI224MC can rest on the Evoguide 50ED for purpose of guiding. I'm going to use the 678 with my Starwave 102ED F/11, they match perfectly to each other.

https://www.astropix.com/html/astrophotography/astrophotography-calculators.html#ispp

There are also Baader 2" UV/IR Cut and ZWO ADC in the path. 

The camera offers a lot of ROI formats. Because of a poor PA I had to use 2160x2160 for #3131 sunspot. It was moving across the field, but I'm happy of the result. Please be aware that it was only around 3/5 of seeing (a jet stream >20m/s). I still wait for the perfect air condition.

2ms exposures and only 30fps was enough to fill out my laptop's SSD transfer. 22 AVIs 5000 frames each one means over 400GB of data! That's crazy! 😁

Hi,

Another revision of the M31 taken previously. Only a brightness and contrast are corrected. The core of M31 seems a little bit too bright, but the general look in my opinion is better, than previously.

Hi,

Last night I had a plan to take some photos of the Pacmna Nebula. Unfortunatelly, I met some problem around Zenith, so I changed the plan and aimed my OTA on the Pleiades. I had an idea to not use any filter. I have read that a dew shield may protect the OTA from a side light, so I wanted to test it with a brand new Astro Essentials one.

Newton 9" F/5.5, no filter, Baader MPCC Mk III, EOS 6D mod.
150 x 60s + 3 x 20 calibration frames, ISO1250.

It was very hard to remove the Bortle 6-7 sky cast. I'm pretty proud of the effect, even if it's not perfect.

And here is, how the single RAW looks like.

Hi,

Picture of Mars, 20% of 5000 frames 31th September 2022 at 06:20 by SharpCap using Bresser Messier 10" Newtonian OTA reduced to 9" (F/5.5), Revelation 2" x2 ED Barlow and ASI678MC camera on my ATM EQ fork mount. Place of capturing: backyard in Liverpool, 53* 25' N. Bortle 6-7. Seeing: like usually in my location, 3/5. Stacking and sharpening performed with the AutoStakkert!, some cosmetics with Affinity Photo and Registax 6. Altitude: 44* 03' over horizon (Stellarium). I forgot: I used Baader UV/IR Cut filter.

Hi,

Hunt for the Pacman.