david_taurus83

What issues are you having? The settings look ok but you have to remember that PHD is trying to compensate for everything else, flexure, mirror movement, mount inaccuracies etc 

14 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

That's really nice. Can clearly see the teeth and jaw of the alien queens skull:)

Is your 6d stock? 6d is full frame?

 

Thanks! The 6D is full frame yes and it has been modified.

Great result! I would keep at it and add more, maybe 5/6 hours worth. I took this on a single session with a redcat and my 6D a few days before or after the summer solstice so don’t listen to any naysayers that say you can’t image in summer time.

Baader solar film is shiny, like tin foil but thinner.

Why the 18mm spacer? Can you not change it to a 10mm or 7.5mm?

Edit: Sorry, I read that again and realised you need to push focus out for the guide cam. Is it a nosepiece type guide camera? You got a picture of how everything sits together?

The Celestron OAG is a great unit but the stalk is a bit short. See below pic of mine when used with the correct 0.7 Edge reducer for my C8 Edge HD. The prism looks like it would barely pick up any light through the reducer. That said, I have no problem getting guide stars across the chip of my ASI174 mini. The sensor is massive compared to other guide cameras. How does it look if you look at it like below with your reducer?

I have found the answer to this. It is to sell your Samsung device and buy an iPhone lol

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I've just looked at my SS7 Plus and there doesn't seem to be an option to custom load one, only the dozen or so default presets to choose from.

There never was an option to load from the app. You needed to put the png file into the Horizons folder through the file manager on the phone/tablet. The custom horizon could then be selected from the list in the app. The same method doesn't appear to work now though unless somebody has figured it out.

Has anybody ever figured out how to get SS to display a custom horizon ie my back garden, on either SS6 or SS7? It used to work great on my Samsung S20 but since changing to an S23 it doesn't work? I have put the landscape picture into the correct folder via accessing the phone through a PC but it doesn't appear in the app? I wouldn't have bought SS7 Pro if I knew it wouldn't work!

The Noctua fan and silicone 'screws' have done the trick.

For a few pound cheaper, I have ordered a Noctua fan off Amazon that comes with the rubber thingies. I was going to get the Sunon one but then others have reported issues with those as well. For the record, I had never noticed any issues with the Sunon fan in my camera until it packed up. I'm sure the issue is the cheap one I have put in but I have also never imaged at near 1.5m focal length either. Hopefully I can get the new fan installed in time for yet more testing of my latest setup. I thought after a successful Saturday night I was there!

There have been a number of threads on this subject and I think I may be another victim of this affliction! After the unexpected clear sky on Saturday night, I noticed when doing flats early Sunday morning that the cooler was on 100% but only at -9°C. Turns out the fan had packed in. I have some spare cheap fans the same size so I changed it yesterday, ready for a second clear night. I left the scope to its own devices last night and ran everything through Blink today. Saturday nights subs with no fan running all are nice and consistantly round. Sunday nights subs however all have a slight elongation from left to right. The only thing that changed between both nights was a non working fan to a new working one. Scope is a C8 Edge and focal length is 1480mm. Guiding was pretty good for both nights. I've seen on the other threads that some people have used some sort of rubber type screws to isolate the fan a bit better. Is that the only fix or is there a better quality fan to use?

Interestingly the Saturday subs were all around -2°C and the fixed pattern noise looks more evident than Sundays -10°C subs with working fan so I would say yes, cooling is better.

Have you tried without the reducer? You will have coma around the edges but should all point towards the centre and stars should be round in centre. If they are anything but round then the issue is with the scope itself.

I can't believe I missed this! I always take aurora reports with a pinch of salt as usually its northern parts that get to see a glimpse and with Birminghams light dome to the north I've never really thought we could get views like this in Rubery, West Midlands. Picture below is taken off the local FB page. Gutted!

Not sure then. I dug out the old spare laptop which I last used it on to see if there are any clues in the settings. Nothing appears obvious. Perhaps the Auxiliary option is mount peripherals that I was thinking of. It definitely worked for me at the time but your issues definitely ring a bell also. I belive I also had issues getting a dark library to complete. I just can't remember what I did to fix it!

1 hour ago, JonHigh said:

Thank you for your reply. Yup I have tried everything including a full computer reset annoying. However what’s more annoying it’s that after reloading the Apps on the fresh install of windows 11 it’s still the same! 
I have in the meantime dusted off an old Windows 10 Dell laptop and going to see if that works. I’ll post again once that’s done. If you remember how you fixed it I will be keen to know as I like my Lenovo! 
Wondering if it’s Windows 11?

It's not Windows. It's something to do with how it connects to PHD. Is there an option for Auxiliary camera?

I had this issue with a 290C! I was trying to use it with Stellarmate but also with PHD2 as a standalone guider. I can't exactly remember how to sort it but I think it was something to do with one of the camera selection settings in the connection screen in PHD. Have you tried them all? Ascom, Touptek, etc I will have to have a bit of a search and a think but there is a way to get it to work

Every 3 or 4 subs us fine with that sensor. Say 1 or 2 dithering per 10 minutes is what I work with. I never reject frames because of satellite streaks and they always get removed along with hot pixels. I had a 2600MC and have a 533MM. No amp glow but plenty of hot pixels.

Half an arc second guiding is still pretty good. That would be very good on a Skywatcher mount.

A bit more testing last night. Redone a set of flats but this time dimmed the flats panel and took 5s Lum flats and 5s darks. This has cured the bright central spot and appears to have corrected the lights properly. I only took about 30 x 60s light frames as a test but starting to look promising. Guiding wasnt great last night due to all the thin cloud so star shapes a little pointy. I'm not entirely convinced its all guiding though. I'm sure my secondary screws are on the tight side so I may need to look at this again, especially now with warmer weather the scope is getting warm and cold every 24 hours so it could be a pinched secondary. Do i really need to check/adjust collimation and take new flats every night? Also, I'm not sure what the dark patch is on the bottom right of the lights image as it doesnt match anything in the flats though i suppose thats what cropping is for.

I've tried a few different things like velcro straps, cable ties, those spiral type cable wraps. Best solution is the cable sleeves mentioned earlier as they allow the cables a little bit of movement in the sleeve itself. Also best if you can connect all your imaging train to a device (ASIAir, mini PC, Pegasus box, USB hub etc) on the scope or dovetail bar on the Dec axis as it stops everything getting wrapped around the mount. There's will always be the need for a power cable to go from source to device/mount unless your mount has through mount capabilities. I have a power cable and USB 3 from Pegasus UPB to shed through the pier. This is as tidy as I can get it.

I have imaged on 24th of June before, below pic was just over 2 hours worth from bortle 6 with a DSLR!

I just hope the longer days bring some weather with them!

On 29/04/2024 at 15:27, Vic L S said:

That would be so helpful, thank you! 

Sorry, didn't get a chance to look at this last night. My 174MM mini comes into focus at this point. The sensor is about 1.5mm below the top of the holder as its 52.5mm from back of camera. If we were to replace my camera now with yours the sensor would be 12.5mm above the holder and I don't think there's 11mm inward travel on the helical focuser. So I would have to say with the 0.7 reducer you wouldn't be able to focus your camera. It should work though without the reducer as the backfocus is a further 30mm out. I would do some research though to see what camera most people use with this setup. As u mentioned above, the prism doesn't go down far into the light path with the reducer so a smaller sensor may struggle to pick up stars.

6 hours ago, michaelmorris said:

Nope, I'm a government scientific regulator.  However, my partner is an (excellent) Architect 🙂.  We have built it together.  She has greatly influenced the choice of materials used and the method of construction and has been VERY active in building it with me.

To paraphrase an old advert.

Carlsberg don't do girlfriends, but if they did ... 

 

 

Lol I remember that ad growing up in Ireland

What camera are you using and what spacers? Should it not be 55mm back from the reducer to the camera sensor? Adding a filter would theoretically push the focal point out a bit.