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Hi, Just wondering what other people are doing for this Camera or Cameras with the same sensor insofar as calibrations frames are concerned. Is it ok to take Lights, Darks, Flats and Dark Flats, skipping Bias frames ?

The Eastern Veil Nebula The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus, a supernova remnant and part of the Cygnus Loop. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than our Sun, which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. NGC 6992 is around 2,400 light-years from Earth and is expanding at a velocity of about 1.5 million kilometers per hour. Acquisition HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Modded German Equatorial Mount William Optics Zenithstar 73 Refractor - 420mm f/5.9 ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro Cooled Camera - Minus 10 Degrees Celcius ZWO 120MM Mini Guide Camera Altair Starwave 50mm Guidescope ZWO EAF Focuser Stellarium Plate Solving PHD2 Guiding Software with multi-star guiding and Astrophotography Tool Data 5 Hours and 25 Minutes x 180 second Exposures Gain 100 - Offset 50 Calibrated with Dark Frames Bortle 5/6

So last night, after writing this topic, I stumbled upon a thread about StarXterminator. I had heard of it but thought it was some other freeware software and just guessed it wasn't as good as Starnet as I hadn't heard much about it... Upon further reading I noticed the author is Russell Croman, which immediately got my attention. I have his PS Astronomy Toolset which I think is excellent. I downloaded the trial version, and ran my image through it, after I'd run the same image through Starnet. Brilliant! No more artifacts, no halos around bright stars or blotchiness. A nice smooth starless image. As you know the star field in the Eastern Veil region is immense, and starnet couldn't remove lots of tiny stars covering the nebulosity, StarX removed all of them. The other great thing about it is that I can use it on my desktop computer within Photoshop, it's just a simple Filter - StarXterminator - OK. 3 clicks for a Starless image. Starnet doesn't run on my desktop so I had to run it on my Laptop. StarX is also a lot quicker, the process took 10 minutes whereas Starnet takes 30-40 minutes. Really excellent star removal software, you can try for yourself here: https://www.rc-astro.com/resources/StarXTerminator/

Hi, I'm new to Starnet, fantastic software! Being able to edit nebulosity separately from the Stars is superb. I am however, not quite sure on the best work flow for Photoshop. I'm processing my image of the Eastern Veil Nebula, which is probably one of the hardest targets I imagine there is for Star removal, there's two things - one is that the the stars do mainly get removed, but when I stretch the starless image in Photoshop, to reveal and enhance the nebula, it seems to bring up quite few fainter and smaller stars with it which don't look very good. What is the recommended processing method and how should I, and how much should I stretch the image before applying Starnet? I applied a linear level's adjustment on the image without using any curve stretching, do I need to do non-linear curve stretches first ? Thanks for any help!

Hi all, So I think I've finally worked out how to use my ZWO EAF ! Bought it months ago and had a couple of sessions where I tried to get things to work and just couldn't (and cloud at other times!)- I think I was doing it wrong because APT said something along the lines of frame a star so I think I was zoomed in after I'd taken an image with APT and had a Star selected with Focus Aid, I ran the Autofocus tool and the results were all over the place. I couldn't understand why it wasn't working. I wasn't getting a V Curve or anything like that, the dots were all over the place and instead of a V Curve I got more like S Curves! Anyway it seems I was over thinking things as tonight I thought I'd give it another try and just ran Autofocus Aid again, it prompted me to open Focus Craft first so I did that, it didn't show any values on the image I'd taken, the main difference is I was zoomed out (1x1) on the image so all stars were in view, and no stars were selected with focus aid, and I just clicked on 'Run' in the Autofocus Aid. So when I manually focused at the start of the imaging session with my Bahtinov mask I had a calculation of 2600 on the focuser position. After running Autofocus Aid I finally got a V Curve and the focuser position 2585, so I think I've figured out how to Autofocus, but I just wanted to check if it does look ok? Thanks!

Just got up to check my laptop and apt, phd2, eqmod etc. All closed. Laptop still running. Only thing it had open was a teamviewer advert which you get when the session ends so I am guessing the laptop didnt reboot as that wouldnt have been on the screen. Wonder what could have caused that? Imaging plan was set to finish around 4.30am but finished at 2.30 am looking at the time of the latest fits file, so looks like two hours lost. If it was win updates and a reboot the teamviewer ad wouldnt have been on the screen so I cant understand how all those programs decided to close on their own! Usually if theres a software crash its just one program. Annoying as it was really clear last night! Edit - just checked Windows update logs - it was actually a Windows update! and not just a small update it downloaded and installed 20H1.

I'm going to start over tonight, now I've got a better idea (I think) of what I'm doing, but what I meant was, when focusing with the mask on a bright star, do I then remove the mask and slew over to the target I intend to image, and then run the autofocus aid, or do I stay on the bright star, and run the autofocus aid there, then slew over to the target to begin imaging ?

When I focus on a bright star with the Bahitnov mask, should I then move to the target and run the autofocus tool or should I run the autofocus tool after removing the bahitnov mask (staying on the bright star) and then slew over to target to begin imaging?

No I just thought that 2694 wasn't that far away from 2680 but I will check tonight. When I recheck focus should I stay on a bright star ? ie. last night I focused with the mask on Deneb, then slewed over to the Heart Nebula and chose a star in that star field for the auto focus routine, thing is I can't then recheck focus without slewing over to a bright star again so should I check manual focus with the bahitnov mask on Deneb, then choose a star there for autofocus, and then recheck focus on Deneb?

Thanks guys, took me a couple of hours to get my head around how to focus manually, not easy after a few months not doing it and with the ZWO EAF for the first time. (Let me know if any of this could be improved / better ) If anyone's interested I chose bin 4x4, 10 second exposures (because I've got the L-eNhance filter in the imaging train) and image preview 1:1. Slewed over to Deneb which was really nice to focus with. I focused manually with my Bahitnov mask and recorded a focus position of 2680. I then slewed over to the Heart Nebula and took an image, chose a star at random really but with as low a HFD as I could and then clicked 'Run' on the Autofocus Aid. Here are the results... Does this look alright?

Hi, I'm not really sure what I'm doing with regards the ZWO EAF I have. I bought the EAF in Spring this year but since then, mainly due to the weather and lack of astro darkness I haven't done any imaging. We've got a couple of clear nights forecast so I'm getting back into imaging. I've installed the EAF and it seems to work fine, I can control it with APT although it took me a while to work out how to use it to focus. I'm just not sure if my routine is right. Do I have to still manually focus with the bahtinov mask before each session and then run the autofocus tool in APT? How do I know for sure that the focus is completely accurate after the autofocus tool has run ? I don't want to focus with the bahitnov mask, run the autofocus tool and then start imaging without knowing that it's definitely focused properly but I'm not sure how to ascertain whether it is or not.

Hi, I have myself this lens and am wondering whether I should give it a go for Astrophotography - I could use at 300mm but realise I may have to stop it down to /f4 (?) with respect to chromatic abberation. I'm thinking if it's suitable I could buy the 1.4 Extender to make the Lens 420mm and f/4. A nice widefield focal length with a fast aperture. A couple of things - it's an expensive lens, and therefore I'm a bit worried about dew on the front lens element - I'd use a dew heater band but is there any reason to worry about the front element when it comes in from the outside and the lens might fog up? Is there a way of autofocusing this lens? I think I read a while ago someone mentioning about how, with the optics and design of the lens, it needs refocusing every 30 minutes. Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks Joel

Hi, We've had a couple of clear nights lately but last night was the first time I got my rig out after having added the ZWO EAF (my first auto focuser so I'm new to this) To begin with I couldn't see anything in live view, I had focused the scope in the daytime a couple of weeks ago but I focused on something which was too close) So I adjusted the focus in APT by moving the focuser inwards to 0 (to start with it was at about 5000) I got the stars in the field nice and small, and then slewed over to my target and chose a star in the field with 'Focus Aid' setting image preview 1:1 and selecting a star, and taking an image. I then ran the Auto Focus Aid and clicked 'Run' It went through it's passes, taking images, and then when it had finished this is what the stars look like (the image is 1:1) but to me the stars don't look focused. Does anyone have any idea why? Thanks, Joel

I just had a look in APT, changed the step size to 50 and had a go moving focus. Yes you can focus in and out as much as you want - for some reason I thought you could only focus so much once the EAF is installed. /facepalm

That's the thing though, if I connect the coupler to the focuser shaft on the flat part of the coupler, and likewise connect the EAF to the coupler by tightening the grub screws on the flat part of the EAF shaft... at say 60 on the drawtube, the ZWO is at a 45 degree angle or virtually upside down to the scope so it's impossible to install the bracket across the mounting holes. Fortunately somehow managed to connect the coupler to the scope focus shaft flat part, and the ZWO and it's at 63. By eye after racking in and out last night on some stars I ascertained that the focus was sharpest at 64 - 63 so I should hopefully have enough travel now with the scope and EAF attached. Because I'm basing this on the guesstimate that you can't rack out to infinity once the EAF is mounted? You can't really rotate the coarse focus knob at all so I am thinking that you need to be close to focus to begin with before mounting.

Thats what i have done. Tightened up on the flat part of the z73 shaft and flat part of the EAF.

Doesnt the draw tube need to be roughly in focus though? I mean on the z73 you can rack out the focus draw tube quite a bit with a large scale from 0-100 or something with a fair bit of travel. If i rack out to 80 the stars are well OOF, same if I rack in to 75 for instance. Stars become focused at around 65. If I racked the drawtube out to 80 where its OOF and installed the ZWO EAF at that point it would be no good would it as the drawtube would be so far out and once the EAF is installed there is only so much travel the drawtube can do? Thats what I am thinking, but happy if you are right!

Right I think I've sorted it, attached the ZWO EAF as best I can. It's now set at 63, I can rack out a bit with the fine focus knob but can't rack inwards much, just about gets to 64 but no more than that really. Hopefully it's ok. Will test it next clear night and hopefully the PSU I've got ordered arrives tomorrow.

So I just realised tonight - bit of a rookie mistake - that before I installed my ZWO EAF I hadn't marked my focus position on the drawtube, on the Z73 there are markings to indicate your focus on the drawtube. I've just been outside focusing and have established that my drawtube needs to be at 63. So I locked the focus in at this position with the focus screw that comes with the scope. Problem now is that the coupling goes on at an angle to the scope - on the flat part of the metal that the coarse focus knob would normally attach to is 45 degrees to the vertical of the scope. I'm not sure this will make much sense to anyone but I'm really hoping it does, it basically means that I would have to rack the drawtube out or inwards the flat part of the ZWO EAF and scope to be horizontal. This is on the theory of practice as to whether it the coupling needs clamping to the flat parts of either metal?

ah I have set plate solving up a few months ago, not sure you read my post properly!

Yes the Goto++ is amazing. I've made a couple of tutorials on my youtube channel as I was so happy with it. I put off plate solving for a long time thinking you needed a PHD in Astrophotography to understand it, so easy when you build up the courage to just get on with installing it and seeing what it's about!

Thanks guys. Just as well I've literally paid for the full version of APT about 20 minutes ago! Downloaded the beta version. I see the Autofocus Aid has been developed quite a lot. Need to work out how to utilise it now.

Hi. Just wondering if anyone utilises APT with a ZWO EAF. I've just bought the ZWO EAF - presumably I don't need to use a Bahitnov mask anymore do I ? I can't find any installation instructions at all for APT - how does autofocus now work? I'm assuming I slew to a bright star to begin with and then click on the 'Focusing Aid' tool, place that over the star, and then click on the 'Auto-Focus Aid' tool and click run. Should I leave the settings as default ? I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks for the reassurance.

Hi, Just wondering if I've installed the ZWO EAF correctly? The reason I ask is because when you push the EAF onto the coupling I couldn't push it so that the EAF was flush against it. The reason being that the part of metal which sticks out after you remove the coarse focus knob obviously goes through part of the coupler and so there's only so much room that the ZWO can then push through to. I just didn't know if it is supposed to be flush against the coupling. I've installed it and it seems to be rock solid with no movement.