david_taurus83

Also, have you installed both ASI Ascom driver and ASI camera driver?

Have you tried Sharpcap or ASIcap? Anything showing in device manager? Is it just the cameras that don't work?

Have you definitely got the latest ZWO camera driver installed? Have you tried with one camera first and see if it all connects? It's a known issue where PHD and imaging software conflict with camera selection especially if they are same brand. Are you connected through the Pegasus box or direct to the PC?

Processed this last night after, ahem, a "few" Christmas beers. It hasn't come out too bad! Just under 28 hours worth of SHO data. The SII and OIII were collected during those 2 cold nights we had a couple of weeks ago but the Ha was a real struggle. Collected under a bright moon and lots of passing clouds over 5 different nights, I had to throw out quite a lot but the stack pulled through in the end. Full details on the Astrobin page.

https://astrob.in/x9ngya/0/

Nice capture! What equipment did you use for this?

On 20/12/2022 at 13:12, StuartT said:

there are people using 15m USB cables it seems

These cables are designed to carry the signal over those distances and usually have a booster or repeater on the cable. They're not just 15m long USB cables. I think USB2 max length is 5m and USB3 is 2 or 3. 

9 hours ago, powerlord said:

I've found the same thing - yes, it does stars well, but does nowt at all with nebulosity on anything I've tried on it. 

I thought the same with my M45 I processed yesterday but that's quite coarse pixel scale at over 3" per pixel. I tried with same Ha data I had already processed on the Tulip Nebula and yet to process Tadpoles. Its subtle but it does work. It even sharpens the dark dust so I don't think it's to do with SNR but more so on high contrast areas. These gifs probably aren't the best quality to showcase the changes, it looks better in PI but you get the idea. It's a very good deconvolution tool, much better than the PI deconvolution process. I've never gotten anything as good out of that. These gifs are BlurX applied directly to the native stacks of Ha data on each nebula.

32 minutes ago, powerlord said:

You don't have a choice with the asi2600 - it has a built in UV/IR window.

Hmm yes I just seen that in the blurb though it only says IR cut. I might have to have a try without a filter myself.

Do you not use any filter at all? Not even an IR/UV filter? Do you not get bloated stars?

Nice capture BTW, this is next on my list for the Redcat if we get a clear evening over the holidays! 

I don't think USB3 cables either side of a hub will work well. As mentioned, they are contrary things and your devices may well spit their dummies out. 2 options I know to work well are CAT5 ethernet to USB2 extension which works very well up to 15m (Startech claim up to 50m but I've never needed that long). The downside here is you are limited to USB2 speeds so may not be ideal if you do planetary or solar imaging. The other is a good quality USB3 extender. I recently bought a Lindy 15m active USB3 repeater. Works great from my mount to the shed, no issues or connectivity problems. I had a quick look at the sun a couple of weeks ago with my ASI533MM and I was getting around 35fps whereas before with the Startech USB2 setup I was only getting 12/15fps.

Not cheap at just over £100 now on Amazon but you get what you pay for. They can also be piggybacked if you needed more reach.

https://www.lindy.co.uk/usb-c4/15m-usb-3-0-active-extension-pro-p10396

7 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

Super image….👏🏻

Did you by any chance use the Noise reduction before using BlurX, as there are some artefacts on the stars that seem to be caused by this, I found this out when re doing some of my data…BlurX needs to be used first….

Thanks Stuart. No, I used BlurX in place of deconvolution after DBE. Normally would only try deconvolution on a mono image so it was an extra step with this. NoiseX came after before colour calibration.

If your taking about the flaring on bright stars, I sometimes get this with the Redcat. I had similar artifacts a few years ago with an Altair 70mm quad as well and offset halos when using a filter. Myself and Emil swapped filters at the time to try out as he also had halos on his quad. We both concluded it was just a thing with these quad designs.

First light with all the ASI stuff. Wow! I can see why everyone raves about the ASIAir. Setup is very simple and it works really well with its own kit. Very pleased with it. Also the AM5 mount worked a treat. Guided under 0.8" RMS over the 2 good nights we had last week. I didn't have to throw a single sub. The 2600MC. Needs no introduction really. The single subs didn't look much better than what my 6D can produce, but put them all together? Different story completely. I didn't think it was possible to capture the faint stuff from my bortle 6 location. I'm going to enjoy this little setup I think.

I jumped on the BlurX wagon with this, couldn't see much gains in the nebula (image scale is 3.1"pp) but the stars are sharpened and smaller. Not one for pixel peeping this one though its not intended as such. 

140 x 120s subs gain 100

Optolong L-Pro filter

1 hour ago, raadoo said:

It seems someone at TS has been listening. They just released an adjustable corrector: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p16155_TS-Optics-Full-Format-0-8x-Corrector-for-APO-Refractors---M92x1-Connection---ADJUSTABLE.html 

I like the idea but it would be perfect if the lens assembly itself moved independently inside the housing. That way you should stay relatively focused while you adjusted in live view or camera looping subs quickly.

Or as Adam points out above, set it to factory specs and cheat with BlurX!

1 hour ago, StevieDvd said:

You have the 2 screws in the side of the clamp which are shorter. I took the findershoe & long screws off the side of the AM5 and relocated it to the clamp and used the short screws to fill the vacant holes left on the AM5 body.

Do you mean these 2?

1 hour ago, geeklee said:

 

Perfect, I'll have a dig about and see what I have and maybe use the AM5 one too.  Did you just fit the dovetail bracket to the ASIAIR or something else?

I got the new Air Mini direct from ZWO and it came with a bracket already attached. 

48 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

@david_taurus83

I just noticed your 'modified' finderscope. Is that the SVBony SV161 double helical focuser with an extra adapter (red), to make focusing easier? What camera is the guide camera that fits so flush?

Bought this one from Amazon a week ago (it's reduced to £19.99) for that very purpose. Due to the weather I've only managed to check the focus roughly using a not too distant chimney.

No it's the ZWO helical focuser. I have the SVBony one as well and they are almost the same except the SVBony one has a shoulder on the inside that prevents the nose of the camera from going all the way through. The ZWO one doesn't have this. The SVBony one has 10mm of focus travel though to the ZWO's 6mm.

And the ZWO inside..

@geeklee Yes exactly that! I pinched it off the 200P I have in the shed as it won't ever get used but I might swap it for the red one that comes on the side of the AM5. Just need to make sure I have short enough screws to go back in the holes as I believe there are some wires underneath that can become snagged?

@The Admiral Here we go

21 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Here's what it did at default settings to our NGC7331 data from 2019 Olly.  Looks pretty good to me, certainly not as artificial looking as the Astrobin image of the same galaxy that Colm put a link to.   I've also tried it on Samyang 135 data and it does a good job there too  in particular reducing the coma on corner stars.

Dave

 

I have to admit, it does look very good! I may have to swallow my pride on this one!

6 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

If you have a way of measuring something to a certain degree of accuracy, and you also have a good knowledge of what your measurement errors are, might you not, in principle, measure with an accuracy which exceeds that of your system?

Olly

Not quite sure I understand your point Olly? To me it's like taking RGB data with an amateur scope and using Hubble Lum data then to tidy it up? I know it's not exactly like that but perhaps the same principle?

13 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

It does, I agree, but I can’t help thinking the tool is just adding information that was not there to start with, which is just wrong, this tool was trained with Hubble data, ….so it’s adding what it think should be there based on what the AI has been trained on… I’m not sure this is right personally…I’m on the fence…🤔🤔

I agree, if it adds resolution to an image that exceeds the capabilities of the scope and equipment used to capture it, then what's the point of the hobby? Might as well just invest in a powerful PC, software and a load of processing tools and make it up as you go along. Surprised though that it's available on Pixinsight if this is the case, knowing how the developers feel about "real astrophotos"

4 hours ago, The Admiral said:

Intrigued by what looks like a change in design of the base, much smaller than mine. Any chance of a photo in daylight please? Might just be a trick of the light.

Ian

I've just got home now and starting to get dark but looking at your pictures it looks the same? Probably a trick of the camera angle on mine?

When you say "jammed" do you mean it just tracked into the observatory? Or slewed or you moved it with force? I would be very surprised if it damaged any gears as it should just slip on its clutch. With the clutch tightened you should still be able to move the mount if you pull on the counterweight bar.

What a fantastic little piece of machinery. Just works straight out of the box.

A well deserved tip of the hat to ZWO..

What do you plan to do with it? I know there's a Canon app and if the camera has WiFi you can connect to it and view images, maybe live view. Not sure what else it can do, I tried it once on my 6D.

I would have expected the Pegasus box should be shielding this sort of thing from happening givin the price of them. What happens if you separate the power source? Is the PC and mount all powered from the same socket?