teoria_del_big_bang

2 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

When I said boring, I meant in the visual aspect... It seems much more bland than, say, the colourful whisps of nebulosity that some nebulae cover the frame to frame in detail... but astronomy is interesting in all forms... I knew that the galaxy was not going to be as "colorful" as other objects but it's not imaged often and I want to target the objects that are neglected and/or objects that are further south and not visible (easily or at all) from the northern hemisphere.

Yeah I know what you mean and these are new to me (mind you so is a lot of it 🙂 ) and I guess they are so far away and  that seeing any detail is almost impossible with land based equipment (of any affordable type anyway) but still worth capturing and fair play to you not just going after easy targets.

Steve

Very nice image, I think interacting galaxies are anything but boring.

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter by the way, I guess you may suffer from a lack of processing time for the next 20+ years I am afraid, unless you get your kids into AP at a young age 🙂 

Steve

I am fairly new to AP but I now have 2 different flatteners and this cc and they all have dimensions from the camera end of the flattener / corrector to the imagings plane. I cannot see the manufacturers giving dimensions from the centre. I just can't see how you would measure this to less than 1 mm.

Steve

That's what I was led to believe.

I have a MkIII as well. This is an extract for the VIP edition manual as I could not find reference to it in the MkIII manual (probably on line somewhere) but I am sure it is the same for both.

Steve

Sorry did you mean Astrometry.net and not Astronomy.net?

Steve

What does the log file say?

A succesful solve is similar to below:

2019-09-25 10:05:50,783 Starting Job processing for Job 3628901
2019-09-25 10:05:50,785 Creating directory /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901
2019-09-25 10:05:50,786 submission id 2942687
2019-09-25 10:05:50,789 running: augment-xylist --downsample 2 --tweak-order 2 --scale-units degwidth --scale-low 0.1 --wcs wcs.fits --out /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901/job.axy --image /home/nova/nova/net/data/files/uploaded/a79/a79fa082ae6b59aa4cac0e1430a21068b8a380ad --rdls rdls.fits --scale-high 180.0 --corr corr.fits 
2019-09-25 10:06:00,476 created axy file /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901/job.axy
2019-09-25 10:06:00,477 command: cd /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901 && /home/nova/nova/net/solvescript.sh job-nova-3628901 job.axy >> /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901/log
2019-09-25 10:06:09,550 Solver completed successfully.
2019-09-25 10:06:09,550 Checking for WCS file /home/nova/nova/net/data/jobs/0362/03628901/wcs.fits
2019-09-25 10:06:09,550 WCS file exists
2019-09-25 10:06:09,555 Created TanWCS: <TanWCS: CRVAL (38.212110, 61.024879) CRPIX (1556.232651, 1812.368713) CD (-0.000038, -0.000491; 0.000491 -0.000037) Image size (4656.000000, 3520.000000)>
2019-09-25 10:06:09,575 SkyLocation: <SkyLocation: nside(32) healpix(663)>
2019-09-25 10:06:09,577 Created Calibration Calibration 2351470
2019-09-25 10:06:09,667 Finished job 3628901

Steve

That's a superb image 🙂 

Steve

33 minutes ago, AstroKane said:

Not a ramble at all - I was really leaning toward Mono. Ultimately, OSC just suited my ability and expectations. As you say it is nice to have a recognisable image at the end of the night. They are not award winners by any means but if you look at my very first images compared to the newer ones it like I've hired Hubble 😂

I am planning to upgrade my mount in 2020 and once that is up and running I would most probably look to include a mono cam and filters. I think to jump straight into that would have been a bridge too far for me.

I think a sensible route and logical progression. As I said I think I should have also gone this route. It need not be any more expensive really as you can sell your OSC on if need be loosing little money in the process although I would think often you will be tempted to keep it for those quick grab sessions where it looks like clowds are lurking just around the corner 🙂 

Steve

I also doubt it will happen here anytime soon but if it did and even if police would not enforce it then it does give you leverage with any neighbours, including businesses, to act accordingly or take them to court (even if you never do the threat would be there so any sensible offender might think twice about lighting up the area like Wembley stadium - just maybe ?

Steve

One other aspect to consider maybe if you can park your car near to your imaging site then potentially there is a 12v (or actually more like 13.8V) supply there. Obviously do not go mad as I would hate for you not to be able to start the car in the morning but could at least power your laptop via the supply in the link hence you only need the power pack to run the mount which as I said most of time will be using less than 0.5A.

BUT (always a but) I am sure at some stage you will need to also power at least one dew band maybe a couple and these will probably take 0.5 to 1 A each.

Steve

By the way the way I have gone is that I have a stand alone mini computer to run my mount and all the associated software such as APT, Stellarium, PHD2 etc and this runs from 12v dc. I just use my laptop to connect to it remotely to set the plan in progress and to polar align with Polemaster. After that the 12v computer can run on its own. So apart from checking the images as they come off my laptop does very little and I can put it to sleep or even turn it off all together  to preserve the battery, or I can just have a spare laptop battery as turning it off to swap them does not affect the mount or the imaging plan. I find this a real asset.

Steve

56 minutes ago, Brian28 said:

Hi Steve , I was looking at buying a large Leasure battery anything from 80 to 110 ah .. but ..

im a bit unsure about connecting up some of the equipment and doing damage .. for instance my laptop has a 10.8 V battery , and I'm concerned about my QSI cameras .. 

your thoughts would be appreciated    ...

Brian 

Yes I know what you mean two expensive pieces of kit there.

And the chemistry of both Li-ion and Lithium Polymer (Li-Po) batteries is a complicated one and I am by no means an expert on them. So please these are only what I have read up on , I probably am no wiser than yourself.

My battery on my Lenovo laptop is a Li-ion and is also 10.8V, I think a common size battery although some laptops have more cells and thus may be higher voltage.

But when I look at the output of my charger it is 16V DC. So my initial thought was that as we use a higher voltage to charge the battery than the battery output voltage it should be fine to just plug the 12V straight into the laptop, Simple!  But my understanding is that is NOT the case. Ther charging circuit in the laptop which is between the charging socket and the battery will be designed for a certain voltage (maybe even a range of voltages) but will almost certainly expect higher than 12V.

I am not sure doing this would damage the laptop or battery (not sure it won't either but I am sure there will be protection diodes and the like inside the laptop to prevent damage to laptop at least)  but it probably would not charge the battery. So you would need to buy a DC to DC converter something like this:

Universal-Adapter-Automatic-Voltage

This seems to have all the common voltages for laptop chargers, as I said mine is 16V but most seem to be 18V.

Regarding the camera I am not familiar with these (but they look a real nice bit of kit and so I really see why you would worry). But my ZWO 1600 the only power is for the cooling fan, the camera itself is just powered via the USB3 and so plugging 12V DC (or even 13.8V DC as you may get from supplies using car batteries) works fine as the camera spec says 9 to 15v in the manual so I would double check what it says for your camera but for sure mine is happy.

My manual states:-

Power consumption
ASI camera
s are designed to have very low power consumption which is around 300ma@5V .
You only need the USB cable to power up the camera . H owever you will need a separate power
supply to activa te the cooler . We recommend 12V at 3 A or more AC DC adapter for cool er power
supply (2.1 mm *5.5 mm , center positive). You may also use a b attery supply from 9 to 15V to
power the cooler

Also whilst writing this @Carbon Brush makes a very important point above. Lithium batteries can be quite dangerous, they can deliver a lot of current very quickly and can set on fire if damaged so I would not try to go cheap on one, and certainly if they are trying to hoodwink you into thinking it has nega power by giving the capacity as a misleadingly high figure than I would avoid.

Steve

Hi Stephen,

I am a bit in the same boat in that although my LP is not so bad from my back garden we all strive for darker skies and it definitely is the best way to get good data so have been looking into portable power. And it is a worry that you find a great spot and real dark skies only to pack up after a couple of hours because the batteries gone.

The one you suggest does not look anywhere near good enough for your purpose and is very misleading in the title as it suggests it provides 22.4 Ampere hours. But not at 12V, if you read on it says 22.4 Ah at 3.7V, so when running things at 12V you will have more like 3.2 A hours. 

So I would say do not scrimp and buy something that is an unknown off Amazon or Ebay, I did and they were rubbish. As @Davey-T says manufacturers do exaggerate their capacity or make it misleading as in this case and they do deteriorate to some extent as they get older, although LiPos are supposed to be much better if looked after.

Also as I am sure you will test before leaving your house. Even when imaging from your driveway use the battery you buy and if you can run it again without charging the next night get a good idea exactly how long it lasts.

Also remember that both your mount and laptop will not run at full power all night in fact it will be very little time it does so. Your mount will only ever take 2A when slewing, most of the time when tracking will be less than 0.5 A. Most of time your laptop is not running all the devices such as har drive at full seed or disc drice etc, turn screen brightness right down, it's dark you will not want it very bright. Your laptop does have a battery that you say lasts about 2 hours, use it. But if left plugged into your portable battery your laptop will run mostly from that as it will be charging your laptop battery all the time so if you know it runs for sure for 2 hours then unplug from charging 1.5 hours before end of session but remember to charge when you get home.

In the end I bought the big Celestron Lithium 13.2 Ah LiFePO4 Powertank Pro, expensive I know (although I was lucky and bought 2nd hand off this forum 🙂 ) and there are plenty of  Tracer batteries that are far cheaper but a good one will not be cheap still but all that gear is no good at all without power.

Steve

I do see where you are coming from and was in exactly that same position a few months back after spending my first year in AP with a DSLR.  And you are right in that there is no right and wrong and nobody can really help you make that final decision, except to lay out to pros and cons of each and let you weigh them up yourself.

In the end I opted for a mono. And don 't  get me wrong I love it and am progressing reasonably well with it (I already had the filter wheel 2nd hand anyway and some filters but to do the camera justice also laid out on some nice Badder filters LRGB and NB so an appreciable outlay for me anyway).

But I do think I may have been better to start with OSC and then progress to Mono. 

I do not think good results necessarily come any easier  (after all good results is a combination of so many things, good viewing, steady mount, good guiding and good processing) but because there are less steps involved (both in the imaging with different filters, flats with different filters and then pre processing all the different filtered images before finally stacking and post processing) there is less to go wrong and the results come quicker whether they are good or bad results. And it is the results I think that allow you to progress, even if the results are less than what you expect, so long as you learn from them and hopefully the next images are better then you feel a sense of achievement.  And after all any image of something we cannot see, is light years away above maybe haze and an atmosphere that distorts light is an achievement. What some members of this forum actually produce is more than that and that is what we all strive for. 

However, I think I would always have ended up with the mono, but would have been nice, especially in the UK where often imaging time is measured in hours rather than days due to weather to get some colour images relatively quickly.

Sorry for the ramble and it is just from a complete novice so it is only my opinion and thoughts not necessarily what it is like for everyone.

Hopefully for you OSC is the right choice and those images certainly looks that way 🙂 

Steve

Tony,

Not the quick fix you had hoped but glad all is well now.

Steve

1 minute ago, Dinglem said:

I recently got one of these they are just the right length to attach the tube rings which could be a problem if you are stuggling to get it all balanced. I aquired a 2nd hand Altair Astro dual Losmandy mounting bar which made setting up quite easy. I will warn you though that the Skywatcher Losmandy bar is slightly narrower and if I hadn't been next to my scope I could have had a very expensive accident, I'd mounted it and thought I'd tightened it up fully, but I was picking up my guidescope when I heard something creaking, on looking back at my mount I noticed the scope's dovetail bar was sliding down the clamp. Luckily I grabbed it in time, I now have to really lean on the locking screw to ensure it is safe, I think I'll purchase a new dovetail bar to replace the Skywatcher one.

I did read a thread recently about this, I guess it must have been yours. So so glad you managed to catch it before it fell. I guess although being mad about it slipping you must have felt so lucky and so glad you caught it in time.

Thanks for the warning anyway it is well noted.

Steve

The Losmandy 'D' Style Dovetail supplied with Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED PRO seems very short. I have not had chance to try the balance when the camera and Filter Wheel are fitted and the focuser extended but I suspect the supplied dovetail will be half way out of the HEQ5 clamp and so think I may need a longer dovetail.

What have other owners of these scopes done regarding this?

Steve

16 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Thanks Teoria.   Unless you have very dark, clear, stable sky I would say the amount of data is a big part of it.  I have seen very well processed images created from 3 hours of data--but that is quite the challenge...I certainly can't do it with my sky.  You can tell the star is a double in your image--that's about the average appearance I have found with respect to separation, so not too bad.  The details in the edge of the wall are visible, and I'd say focus was on, and guiding seems to have been spot on too--you just need more photons!   Also--it is very hard to get the separation in a zoom of a widefield image.  I posted one I took with the FSQ 106 and .6x reducer that had less separation than yours, so Take heart--I do not think its the equipment.  The WO Z73 is an APO...and most apos these days are quite good.  I did not realize Baader made a 3.5nm Ha filter- Baaders are decent--I have a set of the normal ones (7.5nm and 8 nm).   Keep at it.

Rodd

Thanks for that, it does help to know that I am going in the right direction.

It was only about 2 years ago I bought my fist scope and probably like many starting out thought bung a camera on the end of it instead of the EP how hard can it be ?  Well as we all find I think damned hard if not seemingly impossible at times. But I think the fact it is not so easy makes this so interesting and rewarding when you do achieve something.

Steve

Very nice image. Even the enlarged image is clear and shows great definition.

I think the quality of your images are astounding and is a real insight for me in how far I have to go with imaging to get even near this sort of quality.

I just tried this on a recent image of mine and there was no separation.  In fact what I thought was a reasonable image when viewed in it's entirety looks awful when I zoom in to make scale similar to your enlarged image.

Is that just the quality of my scope, my lack of knowledge in the processing side,or is it just poor data (or maybe lack of data - WO Z73, ZWO 1600 Mono Pro, 9x 400s Baadar Ha 3.5 Nm, 8x 400s Baader OIII 4.5 Nm, 7x 400s Baader SII 8Nm)  that I have over-stretched.

Nice report, sounds like a great evening. I think Friday was a good day nationwide for us all.

Steve

Only time I had this was after a bearing replacement and it would stall when slewing but I could jog the axis okay at speeds only just below full speed (messed about with speeds in EQMOD and it was only at absolute top speed it stalled. It was due to putting too much pre-load on the taper bearings. 

What I was wondering was if you had jog speed set lower than full speed that's why it might have worked but not when slewing but sounds a different issue. It does sound like a software issue but very strange.

I am not sure what this will prove but in APT you can type a position to slew to manually.

Then you could type the current position into Ra so that doesn't move and type a position to go to in Dec then press GoTo. Then only Dec should move, in fact is should be no different to when jogging with gamepad. If that fails to work then looks like the issue is between APT and EQMOD. Like I say doesn't help a lot but at least you can sort issue out during daylight (hopefully).

Steve

I know you are not happy but that looks a very nice image.

I was on the same target Friday and my Ha I was very happy with considering the moon and neighbours floodlights on and off all night but I don't really have anything much on my OIII or SII (from what I have seen on individual stretched subs - not had time to process them yet) so will also be interested on replies to your thread. Mine were all 400 S subs.

Steve

When moving with gamepad did you do it at the fastest velocity?

When slewing could the stepper motor be stalling because it is at full speed? I admit you would probably know something was wrong if this happened because the motors are quite noisy when they stall but it was just a thought.

Steve

Awesome! Thats a word used far too often and I usually try to avoid using it but in this case is the right word.

That is just Awesome (can't believe it I ve used it twice).

It's just SO clear and detailed, well worth the effort.

Steve