david_taurus83

I have to say, even with the minor reflection, they are very nice images of the Horse and Flame.😀

It's not the cover. It's condensation. Found this out myself. Again, answers above solve it. I use a dew strap wrapped around the dec axis with heated side facing outwards left on 24/7. About 50% is fine.

Whilst stargazing?!

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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!

Do you mean these 2?

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

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

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?

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"

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.