david_taurus83

@StaceStar has recently acquired an Altair Astro triband filter but I cant for the life of me find a link?!?!

10 hours ago, Star101 said:

I have been a subscriber to iTelescope.net for a couple of years but never gotten around to imaging.

I have imaged M16 from my garden before but my limited view between the houses allows me to only get about 20 minutes viewing.

Today, I was looking at iTelescopes wide range of scopes. I compared some settings with a FOV calculator and before I knew it I was selecting M16, using the T30 telescope in Australia. 

Here is image using 4 x 60s Lum quick process in Pixinsight.

Following on from this session I decided to book an hours time on same scope tomorrow afternoon my time using only 30s subs to see if I can get a decent colour image

Do many others use remote imaging by subscription? What is your opinion?

Thanks for looking

 

I've been a subscriber for a couple of months now and still undecided if I'll keep up with the 40 plan. I've asked about their OSC options as I was thinking about Lum on one setup and OSC on another to try and make efficient use of credits but the Bathurst obsy is under maintenance at the moment. It's the only one which houses OSC I think.

Just so your aware, the minimum image time is 60s per sub. If you shoot 30s, then they will still charge you for 60s though they do cap this surcharge.

https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/articles/212714-billing-surcharges

23 hours ago, sloz1664 said:

I 

I purchased a UGREEN 12v powered usb2 hub a couple of years ago. Not faltered yet.

Steve

 

23 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

The postman brought me a new UGREEN USB cable for my QSI 683 WSG-8 camera 👍 Sadly it didn't solve my camera disconnection issue 🙁 However, I found a work-around that seems to be 100% reliable so I now have a good quality spare cable 😎

The postman also brought me a replacement 32Gb SanDisk memory card for my Disting 4 as the original one just died - great service from Amazon on both counts 😍

I also have a UGREEN 15m repeater cable that works great. Had my ASI1600 connected to the laptop indoors and it didn't drop any subs. Quality.

Hi. The ASI120 is a good camera. Will work well on planetary and the moon. You'll struggle to do DSO though with that scope and mount. Not impossible but definitely not easy.

I've heard good reports of the TS flatteners. Altair advertise a 3 element 3" 0.79 reducer for the 102 ED-R but it's not in stock. TS do a 4 element version and quote the same backspace requirements. It also looks identical. Also a 2" filter drawer to put my IDAS LPS into the system and something I've been after for ages. A TS slim camera rotator. It's a lot sturdier than pictures suggest. No rocking or tilting once its tightened up. Well engineered. Can even remove the camera quickly from the train.

11 hours ago, Stu said:

I've used TS many times and they are very good in my experience. It takes a few days longer to get the goods but they have been highly reliable whenever I've used them.

I would be tempted by this one:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p9868_TS-Optics-PhotoLine-102mm-f-7-FPL-53-Doublet-Apo-with-2-5--Focuser.html

Stu

Altair version is a bit cheaper.

https://www.altairastro.com/Starwave-102ED-FPL53-Refractor.html

 

I have this scope and I'm very happy with it for observing. Jon @parallaxerr also has one and he is a more experienced observer than me so be interesting to find out how he finds it?

40 minutes ago, johninderby said:

It uses an optional mini ball head for adjustment. Incredibly easy to adjust.

None of those links show the mini ball head? Is that a separate purchase?

1 minute ago, chaz2b said:

Adjust it?

you place on scope and align, small hole on front projects a dot on the rear screen, there’s no adjusting.🤔

It don't need adjusting like a RDF?

34 minutes ago, chaz2b said:

My new Bonny SvBONY has arrived, one week after I ordered it...from China! All their slow boats must be anchored up.

well made and robust, should last me till the last sunset😎

chaz

How do you adjust it?

Not really a shot in action but it spends more time in this position than anything else!

 

Changing things up from this:

 

 

Some difference!

 

 

To this!

 

 

102 EDR is ready! Chance of less clouds later. Hopefully get to do some testing. What's the chances of the flattener working straight off the bat?🤔

8 hours ago, bokchoy ninja said:

What scope and camera do you use with it? Would you recommend this flattener?

I use a WO GT71 420mm F5.9 triplet. I think the Hotech spacing is dependant on focal length more so than focal ratio. Alan's works at the quoted 55mm. Explore Scientific do a flattener for your scope. Have you considered that?

I have one of those. Yes, you can thread 2" filters into the nosepiece. Spacers, you'll have to experiment. Start at 55mm and see how you get on. It's not enough for my current setup. Its somewhere between 70/80mm for me. Still working on it!

5 minutes ago, BillyBoy said:

All good info...

The Stellarmate can work direct from the rpi, no other computer is needed but that is not the most efficient way to use, and at the end of the month with the new version there is an app that will control it all, so can be controlled by tablet or phone just like the ASIair, there is also a Facebook user group for the Stellarmate, so in my opinion the SM still wins as it controls all cameras and hardwear including DSD focusers...

How much input is needed to setup the SM? Is it easy to use? This is coming from someone who's only ever used Windows. Do you need Linux to run it? I have a laptop here that's in the drawer unused...

The ASIAir supports DSLR now and works off a tablet or mobile phone. No PC or laptop needed whatsoever. It has internal guiding and platesolving. Basically plug and play. But definitely tailored more to ZWO products. If it would support my autofocuser (DeepSkyDad) and offered more control over guiding and dithering I would be all over it. Don't think I can give up the functionality of APT for it just yet.

 

The Stellarmate is probably much more functional with wider support options but it needs a bit more user input to setup, (from what I gather as I've never tried it) and I'm not sure whether you still need a PC to control from your 'warm room' side of things!

 

So if you want a fully mobile setup and you have ASI or a DSLR cameras, I would say the Air is the way to go.

 

FYI theres a very good group on FB for the ZWO ASIAir with plenty of support. I've joined it to keep tabs on development. The Air is not without its bugs and niggles but ZWO themselves are active in the group and do take stuff onboard. That said, even with a laptop the hobby isn't without its bugs and niggles...

4 minutes ago, johninderby said:

It seems like it’s the USB2 cameras that use the regular USB cables that give trouble with newer tablets but the ones that use the mini USB connection on the camera seem to work. 🤔

Yes definitely a USB traffic issue. For ages I thought the issues with my 1600MM were because I use a Startech USB2 to CAT5 extender. It had a quirk where the 1600 wouldn't download images unless the 120 was looping frames in PHD!!! Every now and again it would also just give the dreaded BUSY message in APT and could stay that way for hours until I stopped the image plan and restarted it. Very infuriating as I couldn't take my eyes off it while imaging. Well, since moving to a modern laptop it works brilliantly. Downloads quicker and hasn't skipped a single frame. But then the 120 wouldn't work properly. It gives a split frame effect in both PHD and Sharpcap. Googling brings up results from CO and ZWO forums where it's a known issue for some. ZWO say they didn't anticipate such issues with USB3. As you have said though, the USB3 versions of the 120 and the new Minis have addressed the issue. I could have just swapped for one of those but it's nearly my birthday 😁

2 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Just sold my ASI120MC because it’s incompatible with my tablet. 🤬

My 120MM works great in my old Win 7 USB2 laptop but I had trouble with the 1600MM. That's fixed now with the new laptop but the 120 wouldn't work!

New guide camera. The ASI120 is incompatible with my new USB3 laptop 🤷‍♂️

11 minutes ago, matt_baker said:

So all I literally have to do is:

Polar Align

Load up APT and PHD

Use PointCraft to slew to a bright star and focus

Slew to target and solve to centre

Start Guiding

Start Imaging

 

Is this pretty much right?

Yep. My routine is:

Setup in home position

Polar align in Sharpcap

Take first image in home position

Platesolve and sync

Use the drift align tool in PHD to slew to meridian and celestial equator

Calibrate

Slew to target, platesolve, sync and repeat until on target.

Run autofocuser

Run image plan.

Watch clouds roll in.

4 hours ago, Juicy6 said:

Very good tutorial! If you contact Ivaylo Stoynov, the author of APT, he might give you a free key...

Christer, Sweden (paying contributor to APT)

Thanks! I already pay for it! The reason for the demo version in the screenshots is because I wanted to do a fresh install of everything from scratch!?

1 hour ago, matt_baker said:

I use an EQDirect cable straight from the handset to my PC 

Then I'd normally use EQMod to align and Carte Du Ciel to sync coords 

I'm wanting to use APT with a D5300 that I know supports it and want to plate solve to make alignment quick and easy

I'd say the answer is yes. I've not tried, but as long as APT calls up EQMod when you press Connect Scope, then you could just use that to select targets. Personally, I use CdC as its database is more extensive. As for Stellarium or Stellarium Scope, I was never able to correctly sync. Switched to CdC and never looked back.

Hi Matt. I'm not quite sure. Platesolving an image is one thing, syncing its coords to the mount is another. How do you connect to the mount?

30 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

This is an excellent thread - thanks for detailing your procedure and I really p[leased for you that it is working so well.

Funnily enough, I have just been experimenting with ASPS myself as I want an independent blind solver but I keep on coming up with the same issue - the software will collect the correct Latitude for my site from 'the telescope' but the wrong Longitude. I dare say that I can enter this manually but it worries me that it cannot extract this basic data on my own installation! Anyone else had this issue?

Thanks Steve. No, not had that issue though does it really matter? Section of sky looks the same no matter where you are! The only bug I came across yesterday was I got an error message trying to Blind solve at first in APT. For some reason ASPS wouldn't clear the file (see attached) I used to test it initially and it kept coming up in the file path even after uninstalling and reinstalling. Drove me crackers! The fix was to simply click the folder icon and select another file. I closed it and the issue was resolved?! I never had that issue when I installed 'for real' so I'm hoping nobody else gets it.

 

The recurring problem I get is with PS2 default values where it solves some images and not others. Changing the min and max star values seems to solve this so I would encourage others to try the same. I work with small pixels so users of CCD's may need to experiment with the values as they will have bigger pixels.

I've seen a few threads where people are struggling to setup the platesolving routine in Astrophotography Tool. Though people do try to offer advice on the forum, if your not IT savvy then it can be a struggle. I'm no computer guru but I'm comfortable enough to be able to navigate my way around Windows. I've recently invested in a new laptop and have installed all my astro imaging stuff onto that so while its still fresh on my mind, I've decided to do a tutorial with step by step instructions of how to setup platesolving in APT. This is quite a long post but I've added lots of screenshots to try and make it easy for the user to follow.

 

Astrophotography Tool is a brilliant free program that can control your entire imaging session. It can control your camera, image plans, control the mount, control focus, filterwheels etc. More information and downloads can be found here: https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx

 

For this tutorial I have uninstalled all the previous software and files I've used in the past so its a fresh install from scratch again.

 

Step 1. Open APT. On the right hand side, go to the tools tab. In here we will find the object calculator below the camera tab. In here we are going to setup the profile of your scope. Basically, you need to enter the focal length of your scope. When APT connects to your camera, it will auto detect the pixel size and sensor size and use this information along with your scope focal length to determine the field of view of the image you are trying to platesolve.

 

Click on the button with 3 dots and select the Profile tab.

 

 

Add a new Profile. Name it whatever you want. For me, I use the name of my scope, a William Optics GT71 and I input its focal length of 420mm. This is the scopes native focal length. If you are using a flattener/reducer, then you would need to put in the equivalent focal length if using a reducer. Example, I own two flatteners. One is the Hotech SCA flattener. This doesnt reduce the focal length so my first profile with the native focal length is ok. If I am using my WO Flat6A II flattener, this reduces the focal length by 0.8 effectively makng the focal length 336mm and increasing the field of view(FOV). So I add both profiles. You may only work with one focal length or you may have an array of scopes, flatteners and focal lenghts. Now is the time to put them into their relevant profiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2. With the correct focal lengths saved in their profiles, now we are going to download the add-ons and catalogues needed for platesolving. Highlight the Gear tab.

 

 

 

 

Click on Point Craft. You could also take a moment to read the short summary by hovering the cursor over the Point Craft button.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the Point Craft box is the setting tab.

 

 

 

 

Clicking Setting opens up the box where we need to enter the directory paths to the add-ons. Simply put, APT doesnt platesolve the the image itself, it 'asks' another program to do this. The add-on programs in question are Plate Solve 2 (PS2) and All Sky Plate Solver (ASPS). In the settings box are the links to the software, also free, and the catalogues they use to platesolve your image. Internet connection is required for the next part. If your PC or laptop lives in an observatory with no access to the internet, or you simply refuse to let it connect to the internet for fear of windows updates, you could use another PC to download onto a USB stick and then transfer to your imaging PC.

 

 

 

 

Lets start with Plate Solve 2. Click on the Download PlateSolve 2 button.

 

 

 

 

This will open your browser and direct you to the Planewave website where we will download PS2 and the catalogues. Scroll down the page to PS2 and download PS2, APM catalogue and the UCAC3 catalogue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save the files to a memorable location. If, like me you use Firefox, downloads are saved to the Downloads folder.

 

 

 

 

We now need to put the catalogues somewhere where they will be easy to find later. I actually choose to put all the platesolving software and catalogues into the same folder where APT stores its images. So I create a new folder and call it PlateSolve 2.28 in the APT_Images folder on my C drive. You can of course save to anywhere but the key is to remember where!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your UCACS3 catalogue will be in a zipped folder. You will need to extract the files. Right click, and extract to your chosen folder. In my case, the new PlateSolve 2.28 folder in APT_Images. This should create a new subfolder populated with UC3 files as below.

 

 

 

 

This is the main directory I use with PS2 so you could skip the APM catalogue, though I personally choose to install it anyway. Navigate back to your downloads location and open the APM Catalogue installer. Follow the intial prompts and when you get to the Select Destination Location window, you could let it install at its own location, or like me, you could save to the same folder as the UCACS3 directory. The choice is yours, just remember all these locations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you've followed my example, your single platesolving folder should have 2 directories now installed. For the rest of the tutorial, I'm going to assume you've followed my lead and installed everything to the one folder.

 

 

 

 

Now, go back to your downloads location, right click the PlateSolve2.28 zipped file and extract it to the platesolving folder. In hindsight, I've possibly made a confusing error here as I've called my platesolving folder the same as the new sub folder containing PS2! No matter, as it will still work!

 

 

 

 

Step3. Configuring the Plate Solve 2 add-on. Open the subfolder we have just extracted containing the PS2 application and double click on the icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on File and then Configure Catalogue Directories.

 

 

 

 

The next window will show the status for both directories as not found. Click on each of these and navigate to the platesolving folder and select the relevant directory folder for each.

 

 

 

 

The status for both should now read OK.

 

 

 

 

Now go to edit parameters. Make sure the UCACS3 directory is selected. The rest of the default settings can work ok but I have had issues with these. I found a tip on another forum somewhere and it was recommended to change the minimum and maximum star sizes. I double each value. 12 for max star size and 6 for minimum star size. The rest of the settings dont need altering. You can enter your location settings at the bottom but i dont think this matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, lets see if it works! As you can see from above, I had already tried to solve an image of the Iris Nebula i took last year. It failed initially so I had to adjust the settings. It failed because the FOV is set too wide. For the Iris Nebula, I used a 600D on a 200p scope at 1000mm focal length. We change these to 1.28° x 0.85° and voila!

 

 

 

 

You dont need to worry about testing it like I have above. I only done it to make sure it was working. You also dont need to worry about inputing the FOV as APT will use the profiles we have set up in Step 1 and provide PS2 with the correct FOV information. Close the application and navigate back to the Point Craft settings in APT. Click on the tab beside the PlateSolve2 path and navigate to your platesolve folder with both APM and UCACS3 directories and also the PS2 application folder. See the mistake I made by calling the platesolve folder the same as the PS2 folder. Apologies if this is confusing! Make sure you click on the actual PS2 application folder.

 

 

 

 

Your directory path for PS2 is now set.

 

 

 

 

Step 4. Setting up the All Sky Plate Solver. Click on the tab that says Download ASPS.

 

 

 

 

This will open up your browser again and take you to the ASPS webpage.

 

 

 

 

Scroll down the page to the download link and run the installer. Before you start installing ASPS, close APT as it will fail to install if its open. As with PS2, it asks to select the destination folder.

 

 

 

 

Again, I choose my single confusingly named platesolve folder!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finish the installation and launch the ASPS application at the end. Go and make a cup of tea or coffee while ASPS installs the Astrometry library.

 

 

 

 

When its finished downloading the below window pops up. Click Yes.

 

 

 

 

The next bit is similar to the profiles section in APT except you need to know your cameras pixel size and sensor width. Start with your shortest focal length and input your camera pixel size and also the sensor width, in either number of pixels or physical dimension of the sensor. Use an internet search to find this information if you need to. Once you enter the information the application will highlight what indexes it needs to install based upon your FOV. Install the highlighted indexes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have only one scope or FOV then you would be done. If like me you work with another focal length, then enter this into the box and another index or indexes may become highlighted. Install these also. If you have different cameras with different pixel and chip sizes, you would need to do the same for these. For all your optical and camera configurations, install all the highlighted indexes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Done when finsished. Now lets do a test. I loaded an image i took a few weeks ago of M81.

 

 

 

 

The application read the FITS header and asked to confirm my focal length.

 

 

 

 

30 odd seconds later and we have a result!

 

 

 

 

Close the application and open up APT again. As we did with PS2, navigate back to the Point Craft settings window, click the button beside the ASPS path and navigate to the platesolve folder where the ASPS application is saved.

***If for some reason the PS2 path is empty, repeat the above for this and navigate back to where the application is saved.

Click OK and we should now be all set for some testing in APT!

 

 

 

 

Step 5. Hoping it all works! Lets start with loading up an image in APT from the Img tab. I'm doing this during the day or if you are actually imaging at the moment you could use a picture you have just taken. Make sure you have selected the correct focal length profile in the Tools tab.

 

 

 

 

Go to Gear and press Point Craft. In the top section there are 2 options we are going to look at. Solve and Blind. Both produce the same result but they have a different method of working. Lets start with Solve. This uses PS2 to platesolve. It is typically faster than Blind but it does require you to input the approximate position of the image. In my example, I know its of the M81/M82 area.

 

 

 

 

Click Objects at the top and scroll or search for M81. Or perhaps your looking for a star, so look under the stars tab.

 

 

 

 

When you select your target it will populate the top boxes with the approximate position of the target we are looking for.

 

 

 

 

Now click Solve with fingers crossed...

 

 

 

 

Success! It solved in 7 seconds! The image centre is displayed in the centre of the window. Now, the clever bit and the real reason we want to plate solve.

Lets say you had set your mount up in the home position and polar aligned. You connect to the mount via Cartes du Ciel (EQMod) and issue a command to slew to M81. Make sure you also connect to the mount in APT by selecting Connect Scope.

You take a short image but in all likelyhood the result doesnt show M81 in the FOV. Well, no problem! Follow the above procedure, select M81 in the objects tab to populate the approx position and hit Solve. When the result comes in, hit Sync and if you watch the EQMod box the scope coords should change to match the same coords of the image you have just solved! Magic! Just issue another command to slew to M81 and the next image should have it in the FOV! If not repeat the process until you are happy with the pointing of your scope.

 

Before we finish, lets not forget about the Blind function. This uses the ASPS application. Unlike Solve above, Blind doesnt need you to input the approximate position of the image prior to solving. Just load or take an image and hit Blind. It does take a little bit longer but usually gets a result withing a minute or so. If using it in the field, repeat the above, Blind, Sync, and repeat until you are happy you are on target.

 

 

 

 

Just to point out, you need to start EQMod with the scope in the home position. If you manually move the mount to somewhere near your target and then start EQMod, platesolving will still work on the image but EQMod wont Sync the results if they are too far away from where it thinks the scope is pointing. Always start EQMod/Cartes du Ciel first and then issue a Goto command to your prefered target. As long as your in the viscinity with your solved image, it should Sync the mount. No more star alignments!

 

 

I hope people will find this tutorial useful. Hopefully the length of this post doesnt put people off, its really a lot quicker to set up than it has took me to compile this!

 

If you spot any mistakes, anything left out or a better way of doing things then let me know!

 

David

Got another one of these boxes. Aluminium? More like glorified baking tray! They are cheaply made and maybe a little overpriced but better that the cardboard box!

It's normal though some lens cells seem to introduce it more than others. I see it in my GT71 but not to the point where it distracts. I think of it as an artifact of the design, like diffraction spikes on a Newtonian.