david_taurus83

The 1.25" Lunt wedge used to come without the ND filter in place. I had this version and it required screwing the an ND filter into the eyepiec each time. I believe the newer ones now come with it already installed in the wedge. Just a thought if your buying second hand so you know what to look for. 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I made my solar cap over the last couple of evenings. Made it out of a 6" plastic drain pipe cap. Cut a 100mm hole out of the middle and inserted the filter cell on the inside. With some strips of soft velcro it is a perfect snug fit. I added some safety cord as a precaution as well. Had a quick go earlier. I'm glad I got the 5.0 film as I have to set gain to 0 and only 3.5 millisecond exposures. Anyway, here's my first picture captured with the Oiii filter. It seemed a bit steadier than the green today. Stacked 20% of 700 frames or so in Autostakkert3. Pseudo colour version out of mono. Not sure if it's just seeing or focus but I'm pleased with the result. Will experiment more with AS3 in future.

Should I also stop down to f10? Any benefit leaving things at native f5.5? 

The Baader 5.0 film came today. Should have enough spare to knock something up for my 150 heritage dob and maybe the binos. That's why I didn't order the 3.8. 

Yeah thas too hot. Below 20°C EXIF temps and its pretty good though. Was the screen off and opened out?

With this warmer weather, if it was me, I would dither every frame.

Thanks for clarifying. I also would prob use the Ha filter in the filterwheel as it seems most appropriate. I'm guessing I would be better off making the aperture 55mm so imaging at F10?

I've only tried this once in the past and enjoyed it but I didn't keep up with it as it meant changing out all my deep sky image train to fit a Lunt wedge. Seeing all the great WL images now the sun is becoming active again so I fancy giving it a go again. My question is can I simply put a solar film filter up front of my Esprit 100 during the day and image in WL with my deep sky imaging kit? Ie is it safe to use with my filterwheel etc. Do I need the Baader photo film or will the normal stuff be OK? Would be using my ASI533MM.

3 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I've had issues in the past with the canon Eos utility software preventing things from seeing the camera.  If the eosnutility software is set to turn on when you connect a canon camera it can stop stuff seeing the camera.  You might have an icon in the applications tray that will let you know if it is on.  You can right click on it and change the settings though.

This assumes you have the eosnutility software installed of course.

 

 

This.

10 hours ago, Oliver2278 said:

Thanks for all of your replies,  I will implement all your wisdom when next the cloud part!  One other thing, when I place the HA filter in with the mirror on lockup will this effect the working of the camera in anyway, or was the camera designed to have such a filter put in place?  Thanks again.!

Perfectly fine to use a clip in filter and hold up the mirror. I use a LP filter myself in this way. Who done the mod? They should have also shimmed the sensor a little to compensate the fact the IR filter has been removed. As Michael above has mentioned, this is usually done so you can focus properly with camera lenses. If using on a telescope, then it's not necessary but the 2 main camera modifiers in the UK always do it anyway.

32 minutes ago, Jezphil said:

Hello David

Thank you for this. That total distance is: the filter wheel at 22mm + 55mm to the end of the camera housing as illustrated by your blue lines above. So that is 22+55=77mm, plus an extra 13mm to the sensor. So 90mm! And this should be 55mm? Blimey. Does this make sense? I am way, way out, right?

Yes, I'd say that's a tad too much! Do you have a 20mm spacer?

That looks like way too much between the camera and filter wheel. If the EF2 is 22mm and the Atik has 13mm to sensor, you should only have a 20mm spacer to make up the difference as the SW reducers are usually only 55mm requirement. That spacer looks more than 20mm to me. Also, you should have the camera threaded as close as possible to the filterwheel and the spacer between filterwheel and reducer if possible. 

Edit: You should have this much spacing between end of camera to the reducer.

Not sure about all the Powerboxes but the Ultimate version has a 14v safety cut out built in so just make sure that your only inputting 13.8v with everything switched off or you'll run into issues. Depending on the quality of input device and cable thickness you will likely see a voltage drop with everything switched on but as long as it doesn't dip below 12v you'll be fine.

Wow! I didn't know you could get so much detail with WL. And solar film at that!

I actually think this is where the appeal of the hobby is to most beginners. That excitement of setting up new kit, figuring out how it all works, the frustration, the problem solving, getting everything to talk to each other and work correctly while finally watching those subs appear on screen. It's marvellous!

There used to be a setting somewhere in the app you had to tick to allow solar observing. A safety feature. Is this still the case? If you use the slew buttons do the motors spin the mount?

19 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

Below is a tabulated version of the sensor analysis taken from OP's text file. 

Highlighted in orange is the Gain you chose (100). However, the Gain you should be using is highlighted in blue (200).

The tell tale sign is the sudden drop in Read Noise and the increase in Dynamic Range. If you use a Gain of 200 with your camera, your images will have about one third of the read noise compared to images taken with Gain 100.

Ah, I didn't see the txt file. Yes, that's what I was getting at. These cameras have a low gain and high gain threshold where the read noise drops. Also, Sharpcap gain might not be the same as NINA gain etc

https://forums.sharpcap.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=4633

4 hours ago, Rob20236 said:

 im using the same gain as you at 100 but my offset is at 60 rather than 50. same at -10 c. 

I'm pretty sure that 100 gain on the Altair camera will not be the same as that of a ZWO or QHY version so you can't use that as a comparison. Can you post up a screenshot of your sensor analysis results?

I made a water cooled box for my 6D as a side project over lockdown. Pretty sure I was inspired by @Adam J much tidier project than mine.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/354732-yet-another-dslr-coolbox-thread/

Live view adds significant thermal noise to the sensor. It really needs to be kept to a minimum if possible as you haven't got the luxury of a cooled sensor. I even avoid it for focusing and use single snapshots instead. If mirror lockup works with the ASI Air then great! I can tell you my old 600D mirror action was a lot louder and stronger than the 6D action. I don't use any lock up feature with it and I don't get any spoiled subs.

That looks like flexure. How are you guiding?

What camera is that? Looks like someone has already had a go at it by the look of that retaining ring..

I managed to gather a few more subs on this last week. Below images are a combination of:

34 x 300s Ha (2hr 50)

26 x 300s OIII (2hr 10)

26 x 300s SII (2hr 10)

20 x 30s each RGB for stars

Just over 7 hours total integration under astronomical twilight.

Moody HOO with RGB stars

SHO with RGB stars

If its the Horizon ones with FPL53 then they'll be good. Practically same as Altair, TS etc all made in China after all.

The Baaders are the best option for the price point. My first OIII had terrible halos but the replacement didn't. Bit of a gamble on that. I have all Astronomiks now and they are great. No halos on the 6nm narrowbands. I do get the odd faint halo on the green or blue filters, depending on the star but I can't say for sure if that's the Astronomiks or the IDAS D2 LPS filter I use. Nothing near as bad as the Baader OIII I had.