Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

teoria_del_big_bang

Members
  • Posts

    3,880
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by teoria_del_big_bang

  1. On 25/02/2024 at 22:06, Stuart1971 said:

    Can I ask too, is it possible to set the zero position on this rotator, by this I mean if I wanted the rotator to be in a certain orientation when at zero, this could be set…?

    tbh not sure. For sure you can set a zero but not sure if NINA would just overwrite that after a successful plate solve, again the guy to ask is Pavle at DSD, he is very good and will sort you out.

    pavle.gartner@gmail.com

    • Thanks 1
  2. Hi Bryan,

    Glad I could be of some assistance but looks like you sorted much of it yourself.

    Whatever, I am just so glad you have got it all working and hopefully like myself will come to think it is one of the best things I did to upgrade my rig, so easy when used with NINA to get perfect alignment of images session after session on same target .

    Steve

    • Like 1
  3. If you are still having issues then email Pavle at DSD, he is very good and will sort you out.

    pavle.gartner@gmail.com

    Only other thought is if you had bought 2nd hand was the Firmware out of date ?

    Mine is quite old but this is my Firmware version. Like I say email Pavle he sorted me out on a few issues with both rotator and flat panel.


    image.png.d9067081c9492063ec75d1f30aeeaced.png

    Steve

    • Thanks 1
  4. 6 hours ago, assouptro said:

    Thanks for answering!! 
    I have the same rotator, and I use Nina

    I initially had some issues getting it to plate solve and rotate without searching but I think I have that dialled now (not enough time under stars to be confident!) 

    One thing I have a problem with is connecting the rotator to phd2 as well as Nina 

    I need phd2 to know the rotation as I have an oag in the mix and it ideally has to go behind the rotator so it doesn’t cast a different shadow on the chip of my imaging camera 

    Have you any advice? 
     

    many thanks again for replying 

    Bryan 😊

    Sorry but not really any idea how to connect to PHD2. I didn't even know you could do this.

    I know you say it has to do this because of the OAG but it would still work shouldn't it so long as  PHD2 recalibrates every time you have moved the rotator , which shouldn't be too much of an issue because that is only really every time you change targets and even if you manage 3 or 4 targets in a night still not too much lost time.

    Steve 

    • Thanks 1
  5. 13 minutes ago, tomato said:

    Thanks for your thoughts, the supply came from a regulated mains powered supply:

    I would have thought there is a good chance the negative posts are grounded on that type of supply but it is only a thought.
    And ultimately what effect that has I am not sure I guess it depends what else is already plugged into and what bits are connected by pieces of metal (or carbon I guess). But I would have thought if the negative is earthed then that is safest but I must be honest I really do not know.
    Like I say I have seen these flashes in the past when connecting things live, but again in the dark a small flash looks horrendous, so I always supposed it was just a very small arc as the plug went in and nothing sinister,  but since I have always tried to discipline myself to always plug things in when powered down. Sometimes though just too tempting to plug that last lead you forgot in without a power down.

    Steve

  6. 2 hours ago, Starflyer said:

    This may be related to your other problems.  I have heard of an HEQ5 mount being fried when the outside of a power plug momentarily touched a tripod leg. 

    I don't know enough about this and perhaps someone with electronics expertise will be along to explain exactly what happens.  Essentially, you'd expect them both at zero volts, the negative on the power plug and the tripod, or in your case the camera body.  But in some circumstances you can get a voltage leak that results in a difference in potential between various parts of the system, maybe the powered usb hub makes it worse, I don't know.

    Who are the electronics gurus here?

    I am not putting myself forward as an electronics Guru here, admittedly I did go to part time to college to do electronics for 5 years but that was 40 years ago.
    Anyway for what it is worth saying both the legs of the tripod and the outer pole of the plug are both at zero volts is normally meaningless.
    Obviously, we have to assume the HEQ5 is connected to 12V power source and that the outer casing of the mount (an hence the tripod) are also connected to zero volts of its power supply for anything to be meaningful. 

    With this assumption then yes the tripod may well be at zero volts (now the important bit to grasp) wrt (with respect to) the +12V DC of it's power supply.
    And in the same  manner the plug on this other power supply, that touched the leg, will also be at zero volts wrt the inner pole of that same plug.
    BUT, to each other the zero volts of the tripod / mount has no reference to the zero volts of the outer power supply plug. They will have no potential to each other at all.

    Best similarity I can give is imagine both supplies as 2 batteries, if you took a voltmeter and measured the potential between the negative of each battery then there will be no reading (meter may show some fluctuations as it picks up radiation), but it does not mean they are at the same potential voltage, similarly if you tried to measure from the positive of one battery to the negative of the other again there is no voltage there. But, connect the positive of battery 1 to the negative of the battery 2 and now you make that negative of battery 2 the same potential as the positive of battery 1 and you now can measure a voltage from battery 1 negative to the positive of battery 2, and the voltage will be the sum of the two battery voltages.

    I do not know if I have explained that very well but you see that until the two batteries have one node of each connected then there is no voltage between them at all.

    Now that is not the end of the tale as some power supplies may have the negative tied down to earth potential, and if both supplies have them tied to earth then the negatives would be the same potential, but only if both are tied to earth, not if just one was. In my experience normally none of the encapsulated (black box oblong supplies) have the negative to earth, but if using on of the bigger supplies that come with amp and volt meters on the front and a red and black post terminals then those could be tied to earth.

    Apologies if that sounds like unsubstantiated waffle, I often struggle to explain what I really mean and non of this explains why a HEQ or CCD would  be fried.

    But as I believe it, because essentially on these black box supplies the negatives are essentially floating until they are plugged into something which then may ground the negative to earth potential, a switch mode supply, if powered up but not connected, can assume quite a large potential, wrt  earth that results in a spike when it is connected as it then becomes earthed.
    In all circumstances I would not recommend  plugging in a 12v (or any voltage) supply whilst switched on, it should be switched on after plugging it in.

    And, I think similarly, the ccd casing MAY be earthed by virtue it is connected to the scope and mount via various metal spacers and other metalwork, and within the ccd the negative supply may be also connected to the casing. So similarly plugging in a live power source could mean the centre may touch slightly before the outer casing does and may then momentarily apply a larger voltage just for a split second until the outer casing connects, just enough of a spike to fry some circuitry.

    These are just my thoughts, and I obviously cannot say for sure, I am just offering one possibility.
    In the past I too have seen flashes of sparks when connecting live 12V DC plugs to equipment, normally not had anything fry doing it though, but it has since made me check the plugs are dead when plugging them in and then only switching them on after they are connected.

  7. I have never seen instructions like that. Like you say it seems wrong.
    I have always used the little arrow on side to orientate them. 
    Only other thing I have read, on the Badder website is that if you suffer halos to try them opposite way round and on my Baader OIII I had terrible halos bit the same which ever way round I fitted it.

    Steve

    • Like 2
  8. 55 minutes ago, Nika1982 said:

    also she still believe in Father Christmas

    Hang on here, what are you suggesting here - that he doesn't exist ?

    Seriously though, some good advice above.
    It is great when a child shows interests in something like space, or any science based interest, and of course as responsible parents we wish to nurture that interest, and of course we should.
    Hopefully your daughter will embrace the telescope, but be prepared that she could be disappointed depending what her expectations are, unfortunately I think many adults also get the urge to buy a telescope and a month or two later it is on Fleabay. I personally think the problem is they are generally underwhelmed with what they see, as the truth is through a telescope most stars are still little points of light, a tad bigger and brighter but still small dots, they expected to see things along the lines of  Hubble images, and sat out in the cold dark night they just give up.

    But for the odd few, like the majority on this forum, they are far from underwhelmed, yes they are small dots but through a telescope on a good night there are so many of them, a multitude more than can be seen by eye in anything but a dark sky area, then there are galaxies, un unbelievable number of them, again not much more than misshapen fuzzy stars, but we know they are far more than just stars, planets, clusters and so on. All you can do is hope your Daughter is like that but at a young age may not be the case (but you have to try).
    So, as well as the scope make sure you, and your daughter have some really warm clothes, hat gloves etc as most good clear nights can be pretty cold in the UK.
    Buy her some books to help her understand where to point the scope and what to expect to see, the moon is a fascinating place to start and even through  a pair of binoculars such detail can be seen. Encourage her to sketch what she sees, maybe take a few images with her mobile.
    Remember that Magnification is not necessarily what we are going for. Many new to the hobby just want a scope with huge magnification and that is really not the way to go. For the stars even the most powerful scope on earth they will still be dots of light, they are so far away that's all you will ever see, and at high magnification you will struggle to keep things in view as the will pass at huge speed past the field of view as the earth rotates. So it is more the field of view that you need to concern yourself with. So before buying anything I would repost your choices on this forum and let some of the many knowledgeable members give you their opinion. 


    Do all you can to keep her interest because if she does carry on with the obsession of what is out there then it can become a great relaxing and informative hobby, but obviously do not force her, if she loses interest then in years to come that urge may well return so worth keeping safe somewhere 🙂 .

    Steve

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  9. Have you contacted Starlight Xpress ? I cannot remember what issue I had it was a few years back but they were very helpful and prompt to react.
    Not that this helps but a that is a cracking image, I hope you can still salvage something from it if the flats are of no use.

    Steve

  10. 1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

    What does the new FW actually give you, I know it says new high speed mode, but what does this mean for deep sky imaging….?

    I don't know TBH, and not sure I will even do the upgrade, unfortunately I am busy getting ready for a trip to China for work so will not be doing anything until December at earliest. I may take a look when out there if I get chance and try to digest if the upgrade is worth it .

    Steve

    • Like 1
  11. I have not had chance to check it out yet but I asked the question on the QHY help page and they gave me the following link

    https://www.qhyccd.com/file/repository/publish/firmware_update/220818/QHYCCD_firmware_upgrade.zip

     

    There reply was:
    Hello,Yes, you can update the firmware to support the new high-speed mode, please download the latest firmware at this link and follow the instructions to update.

    This link should download the two files you require.

    Steve

  12. I just wondered is it possible to upgrade the firmware on a QHY268 bought back in 2021 to get the new modes , and if it is where do you download the software to do the installation and the new firmware ?

    EDIT: I have searched the "not very helpful" QHY website and found instructions how to do it, so I assume it is possible, but cannot find where to download the two files required.

    Steve

    • Like 1
  13. 31 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

    Ok, so in theory his should have been better, maybe his cooler is not working….🤔

    The setpoint according to the header was -20 but actual was -15. Which funnily enough is about as low as mine will go, I struggled to get it past -15 unless a very cold night, and as the camera has a very low readout noise anyway I always used -10 so cooler doesn't need to struggle.

    Steve

    • Like 2
  14. 1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

    Those are not darks he has posted but bias frames, and if blown up to the point of the pixels looking square then all out frames would look like that…yours look the same as mine…

    I agree that they it is essentially a bias frame but I am not sure it looks same as my 0.3 sec .
    The frame size is same as mine but if I magnify both images to same size the 0.5 test shot of the OP seems to have a lot of hot pixels that my 0.3 bias does not.


    image.png.7c036cfd807075491084ea2a2658bec1.png  image.png.2bdea07708df87555dd52d95f670b880.png

    Mine on left I am struggling to find any pixels above 0.01 whereas the OP's has a lot at 0.3791.
    Am I doing something wrong here both are unstretched just a temporary stretch in PI to see the pixels easier, which does not affect the readout of pixel values, both are blown up same size.

    Apart from all these "hot pixels which all seem to be almost an identical values between 0.3790 and 0.3792 which is a bit all they are all almost exactly the same, then all other pixels are about same readout as mine.

    Now again as it stands I have no images at this extended fullwell mode used on his image, so both images are taken on different modes, whether this has an affect I am not sure, I wouldn't think it would.

    And again when viewed as normal these hot pixels may not have any effect, I am not saying they do and with processing should be taken out.
    So you are probably correct that this is normal but just a bit different to mine, for whatever reason.

     

    image.png.f142cc5df138949d4f732c494e4102b3.pngimage.png.1f528c93141c07d84d9ea42297ff7673.png

    And looking at the statistics they are significantly different, but again I admit I do not know what difference this makes to a final image, maybe nothing, and also because they are normalised but taken in different modes then maybe not a like for like comparison, below is the 16 bit values.

    image.png.551b85e9a02b116330b6458a242e764c.pngimage.png.55fc920a25d97b67da089b076ab8e930.png

    So it does show a difference but apart from minimum and maximum values the mean looks comparable with my 0.3 sec image being 405 and the longer 0.5 exposure is 765 which due to different exposure lengths is comparable.

    Now because I am no expert I am not sure what all this means but I would imaging after processing the extra hot pixels will not have any effect as they will be removed with the processing.

    @Stuart1971 does any of my rabble make sense ?

    Steve

     

  15. Hi Nicolàs,

    Mine are using Gain56, offset 25 and mode #1 (High Gain Mode) , I do not think in my firmware I actually have the CMS modes I seem to remember only 4 modes when I set mine up and not looked into updating the firmware, whether that would make a difference I do not know but I would be surprised as it is intended to extend the fullwell so don't see why you would get this effect.
    But can you try the same mode as my frames just to check ?

    Steve

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  16. I agree something looks very odd with that dark.
    Shortest dark I have with my QHY268M  is 4S and unfortunately cannot try to take any at the moment but the difference is chalk and cheese. These two images are stretched  exactly the same, the left is yours and the right my 4 second one.
    image.thumb.png.b95c3fe6a2c20e6ef55c588879696897.png

    What gain and offsets were you using, there seems to be very little info in the fits header ?
    I take it this is a single dark not a stacked one ?

    It doesn't look like light leak either when taking the image.

    I do have a 0.3S Bias, so basically similar to your 0.5S dark and again at same stretch as above looks nothing like yours.

    image.png.ea53c3e921d85afebed1340aa8176bd4.png

    Steve

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  17. 2 minutes ago, DeCosta said:

    Wow thanks for the quick feedback.  So are the tilt and the backspacing the same issue or are they related?  I guess I can get some thin spacers to increase the back spacing and try to improve that way.   But tilt not sure how that gets addressed? 

    The thin spacers are what's required to tune in the back-focus, Don't forget that the thickness of the filters affects the backspacing and you need to add 1/3 of the thickness to the back-focus, so a 3mm filter will add 1 mm to BF, but even then the theoretical FF may need tuning in to your actual setup to get the best scenario so still need these thin spacers.

    Tilt is a bit different and not as easy to tune in.

    Steve

  18. Well I am no expert and others will be along to assist more than I can do, but I just looked briefly at the NGC6888 and yest there is some elongation but for one thing generally it is a very good single frame and you should not think otherwise.
    Personally I do not think it is particularly due to guiding and for a 5 min sub most of the stars towards the centre seem pretty round which they would not be if it were the guiding. Looks like the back-focus might need tuning in a bit hence why elongated in the corners and maybe some slight tilt hence why when you rotate the camera the biggest problem is in a different corner.

    Anyway as I say I will not give too much advice as I do not want to send you down the wrong route and others far more experienced will help much more , I just wanted to give you some encouragement as from what I see I do not think you are out of your depth at all, or done anything stupid, in fact the list of things you have done seem very logical trying to solve this issue. 
    It is a steep learning curve and we all had issues in the beginning, I I read lots of threads about this so a very common issue.

    Steve

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.