david_taurus83

Out of the ASI071 or QHY168 I would choose the QHY as it has dew heating on both sensor glass and cover glass. I'm sure I've read someone saying they had issues if the ASI was cooled too low or too quickly. Prob best get advice from folk who've owned them?

Theres now a 294MM?

FLO currently have stock..

I struggled a few days ago. It was giving me an alternative link to a .net address. It was the same for the Canadian ABS as well.

13 hours ago, m.tweedy said:

Curious question-why did you move from the CMOS to the smaller sensor ATIK

I had an ASI1600 and sold it to go back to a DSLR. I grew a bit tired of half finished LRGB projects. The modded 6D I have is great and you can get a decent image in 1 night as long as you can get a few hours of data but I almost instantly missed the crutch of narrowband data for when the moons about. IMO the Atik seems to produce cleaner images than CMOS. Going by other peoples images that is. Smaller sensor yes, but easier to get a flatter field hopefully. Most of my imaging to date has been wide field stuff at 330mm focal length so its time for a change now to get a bit closer to smaller regions of targets at 450/550mm.

I'm still keeping my 6D BTW. Dont think I could sell it as it served me very well over lockdown.

Thanks all for the advice. I think I'll just do a darks library anyway. 5, 10 and 15 minutes to start with. No harm just having them to hand. I will try without dithering to start with seeing as I'll have darks. I could use Pixinsights CosmeticCorrection to clean up any hot pixels left in the calibrated subs. Looking forward to doing mono and narrowband again. Just need a scope now. And guide scope, guide camera etc. Pretty much everything I sold a few months ago! 🙃🙂🙃🙂🤔

40 minutes ago, m.tweedy said:

flats again never bothered however i have noticed a couple of dust bunnies recently so will do some eventually. Your assumption about the ADU and histogram are right. 

 

 

You know, I never even considered not using flats! I've had an ASI1600, Canon 600D and 6D so medium to large sensors and flats were always necessary. I have a an SX filterwheel with 1.25" filters. Perhaps i won't have vignetting?

Great pics BTW!

Thats some contrasting opinions there @m.tweedy& @vlaiv

Regarding dithering, I should be more clear. When I say recentring I mean settling. Also, my mount can overshoot due to backlash so the settle time can be quite a bit. Up to 60s some times. If I'm doing 60s subs (CMOS) and dither after every 3 frames that's 15 minutes per hour. I would say that's significantly eating into image time. I suppose I could simply try without to start with.

Dithering. Is it needed or do I just do a darks library? Dithering eats into a lot imaging time, especially if using CMOS and hundreds of short subs. Whereas I can do a darks library during the day. I get i will be taking longer subs with this and not a deal breaker if I should still dither but if its not needed its less hassle with PHD trying to recentre each time.

Bias frames. Do I include these in my post processing again? Do I just set the exposre to 0 or do I need to be specific ie. 0.001 or whatever the lowest setting is?

Darks. I have seen some people mention you dont need darks at all. Is it worth the time creating a library anyway?

Flats. I assume I'm still looking for an ADU value of 21k or there abouts, a third to a half the histogram? These are calibrated with just a master bias?

Software for capturing calibration frames. Atik has its own capture software. Is this software free to download or is it licensed based and offered when bought from new? Is there any benefit to using Atiks software compared to say, APT, NINA, Sharpcap etc

Cooling. What is a nice happy medium for this camera here in the UK? It has a conservative cooling delta though I got it down to -5°C indoors last night at 80% power. -10/-15 most of the year round when imaging in anger?

This is my first CCD camera so beginners learning curve again for me. 🙂

The IDAS are very good filters. The D2 is supposed to be very good at reducing LED light pollution. I have one myself but still have orange lights on my street, also filters those out well.

They have also released the IDAS NBX which looks like their version of the Optolong L extreme

What is the difference between a CC and an RC as they look identical to me?

30 minutes ago, astro mick said:

Hi David.

Sorry for the late reply.Yes indeed,it was this exerllent Tutorial that got me started,and as i say my DSLR worked straight away.

I will try your suggestion about the star detection settings.

Many thanks.

Mick.

The standard settings usually work but when I switched from an ASI1600 to a Canon 6D with pixels almost twice as large, im sure I had to play with the star size settings. As mentioned above, you dont need to test things at night with fresh images. You can select an image taken previously from the Image tab by double tapping it and then press solve or blind. Dont need to be connected to mount, camera etc

Woop woop!

Back in the mono!

Wanted one of these for ages and this package came along and I couldn't refuse!

Now I just need a scope...

I think the CCD branded ones have IR/UV cut.

Havr you read my tutorial? You might need to tweak the minimum star size in the settings in PS2.

Or try downloading the new ASTAP feature. Its very fast!

Have you installed EQMod as well as ASCOM? Or you could try with the ST4 cable?

I know a few lads who play golf and when you consider club fees, the shoes, the clothes, the clubs, this hobby isn't that expensive after all!

Just now, Astrid said:

I don't know... I would prefer a bigger aperture. I think it is too late though.

Daaamn this suckss 

People take great pics with little 50mm refractors. You dont need a 200mm mirror to start off with. I'd even recommend starting off with a 130PDS.

If its not too late, ask if you can exchange the 200P for the 150PDS. The 200 is a beast of a scope and the 150 will be much more manageable on an EQ5 mount.

Its there if you look closely behind all them stars!

2nd image with the Canon 6D and 70/200 EF L IS ii. No light pollution filter from my Bortle 6 garden.

210 x 45s ISO1600 @ f4. 200mm focal length.

3 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Discord is like a real-time thread you can’t really search forum questions the usual way basically you post a question and hope someone answers it , personally I don’t like this discord type forum .

Same as. Ive had some questions answered on there but I don't like the format. Reminds me of the old Internet chat rooms. I'm on the FB page and ive seen a few questions on there with answers to "go use the Discord forum, this is for fans of NINA" which I found odd.

I thought it was a bit of craic and I did chuckle at the video. I like his videos.

Kids are exposed to far worse things nowadays on TV and video games. My lot don't even watch TV. They watch YouTube videos of other people playing video games 🤔

For just 2 images I'd use Dynamic Alignment. Pick plenty of stars around the edges as well as centre. The scale of both may be slightly out and causing alignment issues.

Yes, camera upright or upside down will always be parallel with right ascension, turn it on its side and it will be aligned with declination.

With your scope in the home position and the camera is upright, the width of the sensor will be parallel with the right ascension lines. So you should be very close to your framing angle already. The coords you want are also below, 2nd image.

Nina is free.