david_taurus83

Can you not align with the DSLR instead on bright stars or planets with liveview if you camera has it? 

Cracking image!

26 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

I used to own the 1600mm and it was awful for that issue. So much so that I just had to avoid any bright stars. AFAIK that Panasonic sensor is the only cmos sensor to suffer this issue, open to correction of course. There're also CCD's that suffer micro lensing artifacts but none seem to be as bad as the Panasonic. 

Richard.

I'm sure I've seen examples of the Kofak 8300 with mild microlensing but nothing as psychedelic as the 1600. Looks more like diffraction spikes.

1 minute ago, Minhlead said:

Mine too. But I still have to figure out a way to deal with the re import. Vnese custom department are just not to be messed with. 

Surely you can show them the correspondence with Daystar? You sent it back on the premise they were going to repair it but issued a refund instead?

6 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Well I thought so, it does certainly suggest that in the telescope text.  Looks like it’s M68 and the scope focuser is M74.  Unless I’m missing something or haven’t attached adapters correctly  

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sharpstar/sharpstar-94edph-f5-5-triplet-ed-apo-telescope.html

 

That is a bit odd. I'm used to using M68 to M63 adapters for mounting flatteners to 2.5" drawtubes but there doesn't appear to be an advert for an M74 to M68 adapter?

Hi Nicola, the part you have circled is the locking ring. You rotate it clockwise to lock the nosepiece in the focuser. Its pretty solid once locked but can take a bit of effort to get it tight enough. Personally, I don't like it as you can sometimes move the entire focuser but it will do the job. The screw on top of the focuser (near the white tube) allows you to rotate the entire focuser. The brass screws can be tightened or loosened to adjust how stiff you want it to be when rotating.

7 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

The new 2.5” field flattener doesnt fit the focuser 🤷‍♂️  👎🏻👎🏻

 

Eh?! Its for that scope?

Full set of Astronomiks now. Happy days!

Also, just looked at the video for the focuser. My WO focuser and Altair (same focusers) do that with a load on it. Its just the backlash in the gear mesh being taken up after you rack in and not really an issue when using the DSD AF though the critical focus zone at f4.4 will be much narrower.

Id start at 106mm and work in at 1mm increments. Its much better than having to go back and forth.

I had an AZEQ6 and it was a good mount. Downsized things and now have the CEM25P and also a good mount, I've had a 100mm f7 doublet on it for imaging, maybe 8kg total. If I wanted a bigger mount again, I think I would go for an iOptron again.

Regarding compatibility with the ASIAir, I'm on the FB page and there are folk on there that use their Air with iOptrons.

Both should work fine but then its question of size. I have a CEM25 and I would put it in the EQ5 class size of mount for capacity. The EQ6R is bigger and heavier and just as capable of the iOptron in terms of performance but with a bigger load capacity. You can never have too much mount but portability and capacity need to be considered.

Hi Paul. No, you don't need to take darks for each filter. As mentioned above, there is no light falling on the sensor so its irrelevant what filter is in place. Perhaps you have read about 'flat darks' (or dark flats as they are commonly mis-named). These are the recommended calibration frames for flats if your using a CMOS sensor. If you were to take flats for every filter then you may need to take a dark frame to match the flat exposure. If your flat exposure was different every time then it would need for a new set of flat darks for every set of flats.

Is the software still supported? What i mean are software updates for the Pro the same for the original model? 

I would imagine it should work fine but may need very long exposures to get a good SNR. The Enhance filter may be better for a DSLR.

Love the level of detail on the 'animals'. Great image and only 6 hours as well! Can't believe its got less than an hour each of oxygen and sulphur.

7 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

It  might be a single image but its a TIFF - have you got NINA saving images as TIFFs instead of FITS ???

Can you upload the autosaved DSS file ??

 

If he has gone ahead and stacked without debayering then it wont work as the bayer matrix will get all jumbled up. You need to debayer colour images before stacking. So a red pixel stacks with a red pixel, blue with blue etc. It may still be possible to use the data though. First I'd try again in DSS but make sure the below settings are enabled. If you click on the RAW settings tab and go to the FITS tab make sure the box is ticked to debayer a colour image. Try stacking then. If that fails and still outputs a greyscale image, I would try and convert them back into FITS files and then try stacking again.

In Pixinsight. Just to be clear, you set NINA to output TIFF files, and not FITS? So you have a bunch of TIFF files before stacking?

Here is your image debayered. Is this the stack or a single sub?

One other thing to note is the focal length is recorded at 82mm. I'm not familiar with the ASIAir but this may affect the accuracy of the plate solving results and also pointing accuracy. Make sure to set it back to 330mm next time as well 😉

As I thought, the gain is indeed set at 0. The info is stored in the FITS header. This will be stored in every image you take, kinda like a list of details for every image. I used Pixinsight to open it but there is a free program called FITS Liberator that will let you preview the image and also review the FITS header info.

Yes, setting a higher gain will amplify the signal, in layman terms. Like turning the volume up so to speak. I think 120 is unity gain for your camera which without going into it too much is basically the best all round gain for that camera. Give it a try next time your out.

I would hazard a guess and say your gain was set to 0 by mistake. Can you upload a single uncalibrated sub?

6 minutes ago, GHOSTGOJ said:

I used the ASI 294mc pro so cooled to -20 degrees C so the camera itself shouldn't be a problem, or atleast i would hope not

Aha! What gain?! What software did you use?

This is an autostretch from Pixinsight. Somethings not quite right with the data or calibration. Statistics showed a minimum ADU value of 1458 in the extracted Luminance image. The background and nebula area were practically the same at 1470.

The Lightwave is their generic reducer, it is probably the same as the OVL version,  Stellamira etc and should work well enough with a range of scopes. The Starwave one is more designed for the Starwave line of scopes as it lists specific back spacing for either the 80EDR, 102EDR and 110ED. It also has a rotator built in. It may work with your scope but its trial and error getting the spacing right. I have it on my 80EDR and the backspacing is 63mm. For your shorter focal length i'd try 65mm to start with, should you choose it. Personally, if they are offering an optically matched 1.0 flattener for that specific scope, then I'd go for that, as in theory it should offer superior performance. What camera do you plane to use? Sensor size will dictate how well the flattener/reducer should perform. Have you spoke with Altair?