teoria_del_big_bang

A quick look at the Guidelog does show quite a bit of calibration going on, but certainly it does not calibrate every time guiding is enabled but there are a number of calibrations.
The calibration seems to last for about 90 seconds, which is pretty normal, and without doing it for myself I cannot remember seeing anything like that when it calibrates - I am not even sure the graph starts recording until calibration is complete and guiding begins (but not sure - I don't look that closely anymore now guiding just works).

There is a lot of info in the log but I am not the best person to interpret it all - but there are plenty on SGL that are.

Steve

27 minutes ago, malc-c said:

I must admit however that I don't see that behaviour with my guiding, so maybe there is still more to this than we know.

me neither, never seen anything like that. There is no scaling shown but assume it is not a super low scaling (not sure how low it can go).

But it does sort of seem something like calibration where something is moving Dec then moving Ra and eventually guiding (although not perfect does eventually settle down a lot and attempt to guide.

Steve

30 minutes ago, Wael Hassan said:

I made a profile on phd with mount HEQ5 and camera zwo 120 mms ....i use usb cable with my Windows tablet 

I really meant how do you start the imaging, do you have a usb cable to the DSLR camera and do it from a laptop, I really meant yu are not doing it manually by ressing the camera shutter button ?
Like I said a bit if a silly question.

Steve

Oh wow, what a stunning image. Such detail and superb colour 🙂 

Steve

Incredible detail for such  a small target

Steve

7 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

If you Invert the image - apply SCNR - and then re-invert the image the halos disappear.

 

Removing Green I presume ?

Steve

Congratulations to all the winners, some great processing resulting in great images.

Steve

6 minutes ago, cuivenion said:

Hi, yes I meant the main gear that meshes with the worm. vlaiv gave a good explanation in an earlier post.

Thought so, then this is the error the modification should address, all being well.

Steve

I wonder what percentage of newbie imagers have images of Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy as their first images.
Or would it be the moon ?

I think with my Dob I did take some dodgy pics of the moon with my mobile but when I got an imaging setup Orion and Andromeda were certainly my first acquisitions 🙂 

Steve

49 minutes ago, cuivenion said:

You can still get backlash from the worm and the main gear. If the main gear isn’t perfectly round it will bind at some points and be too slack at others.

Are we talking the large gear that meshes with the worm here or the main gears that drive the worm that the Rowan Belt mod replaces ?

If the gear that meshes with the worm then I think the idea id this modification is to remove the back lsh that cannot be removed by changing the overall mesh as you say because out of round of the gear (or even just general manufacturing errors) causes binding at least once per rev (maybe more times per rev if more errors than just runout or roundness.

So without this modification you can improve tracking no end by removing the overall backlash between this gear and worm by adjusting the position of the gear to the worm.
But because of the errors in the machining of both worm and gear this can only remove backlash on certain parts of the meshing as you say it will tend to bind at at least one point in a revolution of the gear, unless it was made perfectly round and with no runout of the pivot wrt the gear cutting.

And the removal of backlash anyway is no easy task as the adjustment required is very fine and the difference to optimum backlash removal and binding is only a few degrees of the very small grub screw (from memory - a while since I tuned mine in).

But this modification should make both the overall removal of backlash and also stop it binding as the weak(ish) spring should take up any slack to prevent backlash and will allow some small movement to prevent binding (so the spring is always under some amount of compression).

If you are talking the main gears that the belt mod replaces then it needs the belt mod to remove that backlash.
Doing both mods (in theory) will remove almost all the backlash (I think anyway if I have understood it properly) .

Steve

Silly question maybe but how are you initiating the images - via laptop and usb cable or other method ?

Can you attach the image (the fits file) to a post ?

The stars look elongated as well as doubled up.

Steve

Hi Adam,

Personally having invested a significant amount into this hobby I would want to know whether new to the hobby or not.

And I would go further than that in that I would welcome a service I could send my images off for an analysis, at a reasonable cost if that's what it takes (people will now tell me I can already do this).
Only issue I would have with a 3rd party service like this if it did cost is whether they would find issues and then offer a repair at significant cost, very much like some dodgy garages used to do with your car 🙂 
So for me your offer to send your trained opinion would be welcomed - I cannot speak for everyone.

It's a bit like going to the doctors, the news you get may not be what you wanted to hear but in most cases it allows you to put things right, and often hearing that it is treatable is very welcome news rather than carrying on thinking it is you that is the fault.
 

On a really good Marine Aquarium forum I used to be part of they had various elected "experts" in certain aspects of the hobby, in addition to Moderators and Administrators that people could ask questions and even be mentored if new to the hobby. So one or two may be great on fish, others corals, others water maintenance, filters etc and so on.
I did this for quite a while until various things led me to leave the hobby (usual work commitments) and it really worked well.

I am not going suggest we have this on the website as it does impose on the "experts" as it would take up quite a bit of their time and needs a fair level of commitment, but something along those lines would be great.

Anyway, after that ramble I would say generally if you are willing to get involved to say something. If they decide not to take your advice that's fine, but in addition others may see the thread as well and think "Oh my images look very similar" and so more than the OP may benefit.

Steve 

Hi,  I am not so experienced so maybe not the best person to give any advice as yet, also my preference is imaging so my scopes are generally a bit different anyway.
But a bit more info might help the ones that can help you to give best advice, Are you wanting a goto version that you can align and then command to go to a certain star on a handset or are you wanting to star hop from well known stars yourself ?

Steve

2 hours ago, Dave61 said:

My name is Dave  and I live on the sunny South Coast here in the UK with my wife and our dog Susie.

Funny enough having travelled all over the world with my work and holidays in Uk and abroad until last year I had never spent a holiday on the south coast (except Torquay) until last year when Covid stopped my holidays to Spain so we booked a cottage near to Battle for a week and realised what we were missing.
Yes it was Sunny, all week, the skies were dark so took the astro gear and we had a great week, returning in September again this year.
Took my sons dog and he loved the walks and especially the beaches, some of then were so quiet it was great.

One good thing to come out of the covid situation for us anyway.

Welcome to SGL, but be warned some on here are barking mad 🤣

Steve

I just can't stop drooling looking at that camera. Then the thought of a 50mm filter wheel full of filters to go with it, well I can dream 🙂 .

I hope you get your hands on one soon Olly 🙂 

And the travel restrictions end soon so we can all come and have a go 🙂 

Steve

I really do want one like that. That is a great image, well done with that one 🙂 

Steve

7 hours ago, symmetal said:

Great detail and star colours. You need to rotate it by 180 degrees though to see the monkey. 😀

2 hours ago, Stu said:

I actually see a different monkey head this way up, more like a gorilla perhaps, and the other way up is more monkey like with crazy hair! 🤣

1 hour ago, Laurin Dave said:

definitely a great ape..  no tail ! 

16 minutes ago, wimvb said:

This is the only orientation where I see a clear primate head, although at times, it looks like Chewbacca. I guess I should print the other orientation and hang it on a wall.

Has the lock-down sent everyone mad ????

Ha Ha, I love the banter, absolutely meaningless but great all  the same.

Monkey, Ape or a Star Wars furry thing it is a great image 🙂 

Steve

21 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

I think a dark frame should be as you describe: pretty much completely black with a smattering of hot pixels (and amp glow, if your camera is affected by it).

I would still say that this is almost true for an averaged stack of say 20 or more frames but a single dark frame will have random noise in there, especially on a non cooled DSLR, hence why we average a umber of frames and up to a point the more the better (20 usually minimum and 50+ common) to reduce any random noise.
How it looks also depends on the amount it is stretched.
Auto stretched images will rarely be just black which is why when comparing one image to another by stretching them you must make sure they are stretched exactly the same.

Look at THIS article

21 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Flat frames should be a nice uniform grey

Unstretched yes but when stretched it will have blobs and patches of different shades of grey depending on how much dust and dirt are on the optics and other things like vignetting.

Steve

I think thats pretty normal for a single dark frame that has been auto stretched.

Stack 50 of them together with the correct parameters and it will look a lot better.

If doing an auto stretch on what is effectively a black frame will stretch it a huge amount so will pick u any small discrepencies.
Even on a stacked image an auto stretch will pick something up.
In Pixinsight do an auto stretch on a single frame then use exactly the same stretch (so not an auto stretch) on a correctly stacked master dark and you will see a big difference (well I do anyway if I am doing it right 🙂 )

Steve

I think considering your conditions then you have produced a great image so do not be disheartened.

You probably do need the LP filter then but it will mean you need longer exposures as you will lose some of the nebulosity as well as filtering the LP.

Steve

8 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Is there a big red button marked, "Do Not Press"?

What like the AZ-5 button on the ill fated Chernobyl reactor ?

Steve

Hi,

Processing data is not something that comes easy and as a relative newbie I am still learning all the time and there is no easy remedy but to practice and keep practicing with lots of searching on Google for methods used in your particular software.

I found it good to borrow somebodies known good data to do some practicing then you know that the data is good and see if you can create a worthy image. Trouble I found when learning is that sometimes my data was poor and so did not help with learning how to process as the lack of strong data was making it hard for me.
There are often small competitions on SGL that give everybody the same data (maybe it might be mono not from a DSLR) but the processing is similar so that may help as you would see what others are achieving with same data and you can even ask them how they did various things.

I too have had a quick go at processing the original stack and also struggling to get any different to Adrian without getting overblown bloated stars, so whilst I am by no means competent at this I fear you may have done as well as you can with the data.

If your tracking is good enough maybe try longer exposures.

I also wonder if your IDAS LP filter also is not helping, particular with this target and is also blocking a lot of the nebulosity from the horsehead ???
How was the moon when you shot this, that could also be a factor.

If your LP is not horrendous then I would be tempted to try a shot or two without the filter to see what data you may be loosing.

What software are you using ?

Steve

12 minutes ago, Wael Hassan said:

problem is that the stars are doubled...they have no trails but they are two stars near each other by very small distant....thats my problem now with guiding .

Are you sure you are waiting until PHD had finished calibration before imaging ?

I assume you are starting the mount tracking first, then starting PHD2 guiding, depending on the setup PHD2 may then start calibrating by deliberately moving the mount and detecting how many pixels the target star (s) move, you will see a message in lower left say something like "nudging South". When finished the box at bottom right that says "Cal" will change from red to green.
Only after this should you start to image.
Calibration can take a minute or two.

You should then start to take a series of images and all the time keep the mount tracking and PHD2 guiding.
So really the issue of 2 stars should only happen on 1st image if that is the cause then others should be fine.

Maybe post one of your images in your next post may give us a clue.

Steve