teoria_del_big_bang

8 hours ago, Adam J said:

The problem with using the HFR option alone is that you can have situations when a couple of bad subs or high level cloud will cause a refocus when none is needed and indeed in some cases could make it worse.

Yes, I see that now, makes perfect sense 🙂
So, thinking about it now should I actually totally remove the re-focus on HFR, or just put it to a larger tolerance ?
From this point you raise I think I should remove the option all together and either re-focus every so often as a matter of course AND re-focus on a certain temperature change.
 

8 hours ago, Adam J said:

over the years have learnt the temperature shift that has to happen in order to require a refocus on my scopes. This is something that is easier if you are using a temperature probe somewhere in yoursetup.

I do have a temperature probe so maybe I need now to take the time out to learn, like you have, what amount of temperature change does what to the focus. The Sesto Senso focusser has a temperature probe and you can enable a temperature compensation but so far never used this, I also have a temperature probe on my Pegasus PPBA I can use in Nina to refocus on a certain change in temperature.

8 hours ago, Adam J said:

It also makes sense to me to refocus after a flip as you have stopped imaging anyway to perform the flip and so I find it worth while. This is especially the case as you can get into a situation that the system is looking at different stars before the flip to after and so the base HFR changes post flip. It also negates any possibility of the focuser itself shifting during the flip.

Yes totally agree and I would always refocus after the flip.

Thanks Adam for all the good advice 🙂 

Steve 

First clear night of the year for me last night (although fog rolled in about 2 am to spoil the imaging sequence I hoped would go through till nautical dawn.)

And a few nights prior to this sat indoors while the clouds were still active practicing with the advance sequencer has paid dividends.
With help from this thread (thanks @scotty38 and @CedricTheBrave directing me to  Patriot Astro) I don't know why I was so afraid of the advance sequencer.
And wow, how good is this sequencer, I now love NINA even more, what can't it do ?

The centre after drift is great, although when thick fog rolls in off them Pennines it can't do owt about that  😂😂😂🤣

The parallel sequence instruction, a brilliant time saver, so much you can do, I am never going back to simple sequencer now.

And the ability to set up all these templates and just send your target from the Framing Assistant to the pre written template of your choice means you are up and imaging in no time, and being able to change things "on the fly" was brilliant as after a couple of images I decided I needed more exposure time for SII and OII I could just change them without stopping the sequence and starting all over again. brilliant.

I could go on and on, does it show that I really like this sequencer ? 🙂 

Steve 

On 12/01/2023 at 19:21, rnobleeddy said:

When people mention the tilt adaptor, is that referring to the three screw ring that attaches to the dovetail, that takes the back spacing to 23.5mm? That appeared to be the only option with my OSC version, but it's not immediately obvious to me how to use it.

As far as I remember the OSC version does have a tilt adjuster and will be the part you are talking about, the mono does not come with this piece but I believe you can buy some screws to adapt the plate for the mono to do something similar.

Steve

On 15/01/2023 at 08:48, A320Flyer said:

I use focus offsets in NINA (used the Dark Customs plugin to set them up). But in the NINA options I don’t actually specify which filter is the autofocus filter! 
When doing NB, in my Sequence, I have:

First clear night of the year last night and used the same plug in, very easy and didn't take too long.

Turns out all the filters (same manufacturer and thickness) were pretty similar anyway, the LRGB were all very close and the spread was only 32 pulses of the autofocuser which really is hardly nothing, the 3 NB filters also very close to each other with only 12 pulses between them which is probably why I could not see any noticeable problem not focusing on filter change.
I guess this will not always be the same for all filter collections.

Anyway better to have even these small offsets in and now just focus on HFR change.

Steve

On 15/01/2023 at 21:31, TrojanMan said:

It has been a dream of mine to get into astrophotography for decades. I owned a cheap scope before but it never worked right so I got rid of it years ago. I am willing to spend some bucks on the equipment but want to make sure I get the right stuff for what I am wanting to image. I understand the mount is the most important part. I was looking at the SkyWatcher EQ6R PRO for the mount. Beyond that I have very little idea what the best equipment would be.

I would like to image the gas giants fairly well and deep sky objects such as Andromeda, Triangulum, etc very well.

This question has been asked so many times in my short time as a member of SGL, and 5 years ago myself included.

And like the very good advise above that there is no real setup that will do for both, and this is very true but also the techniques of obtaining the data and processing the data,  even software to an extent are different.
Even DSO.s really require different scope/ camera  combinations due to the wildly differing sized of these objects., but that's not an issue as there are plenty of targets out there for whatever setup you have to keep you gooing for many years. 

So as above advice I would pick one avenue to start with, the learning curve is steep enough as it is and trying to do both right from the off will do nothing but slow you down getting to grips with everything.

For me a decent refractor seemed the easiest route, with a DSLR and a decent mount that will allow you to progress to what will probably be a heavier setup.

I started with a WO72 with dslr and  used that without guiding to start with as that again adds complexity you can do without until you at least get some sort of images under your belt.
I fairly soon though decided I wanted to go mono and a filter wheel as my light pollution meant most of my imaging was narrowband, however there are good dual or triband filters to do sme sort of narrowband with a colour camera about now, also as Olly says above a DSLR (even an astro modded one that means you then cannot really use for daytime photography may not give you the best results a dedicated CCD will.

So some aspect of your choice of whether you go DSLR, OSC (one shot colour) CCD or mono CCD may  depend on your location and the amount of light pollution.

Most of all keep in mind to walk before you can run, unless you are extremely luck or just a genius there will be a learning curve and great images will not come with any setup straight out of the box, no matter how much your budget is.
$6K to $8K is a very decent budget for a starter setup, don't get me wrong that amount is easy to spend (far too easy) but is also a lot more than many people start out with.

First purchase ?
Has to be the book Every Photon Counts and read it through, every page, several times, at same time ask plenty of questions on SGL, it will pay you dividends in the end and stop you buying stuff you regret.

THis is a great hobby and if you are determined you will thoroughly enjoy it as well as the great company and advice from SGL members 🙂 

Most of all enjoy the journey 🙂 

Steve

Do you get any more clues if you look at the log files. You may need to change the logging level to see more info, not something I have really used tbh but worth looking maybe ?

Steve

Just a wild thought what happens if you shut down PHD2 ?
I wondered if PHD2 was connecting to your main camera by mistake I have had that before albeit in a different software to NINA when using two ZWO cameras.
If  NINA started autoguiding when auto focussing, then that could explain why you can take a snapshot with no guiding but not in autofocus.

Steve

Is the gain of -1 correct ?

As it seems to be a download probem what about trying a different USB cable and / or a different usb port. Unikely if on happens on AF and not a normal snapshot.

Not one I have seen.

I am sure this is not needed but somebody will ask anyway, I take it you have tried checking for NINA updates and also done a full shut down of computer and restart ?

Steve

That really is an amazing image 🙂 
Thanks for sharing with us.

Steve

The above two posts describe how I would hope to acheve and far better and far more concise than I would have explained.

18 hours ago, tomato said:

These days I’m probably guilty of reducing them a bit too much, as a voice keeps telling me they should be tiny points of light, never discernible disks.

However, I am also a bit the same as  tomato depending on the target. If there are so many stars and the nebula is maybe feint I would reduce the stars more than normal to allow the nebula to stand out more., but if not too many stars in the image I may not reduce them so much.
I do not really like a star;ess image as a final image but do use starless images during the processing.

But I guess as implied above in some posts none of these images are natural to a human eye at all and most of all if it is your image then I personally think it is up to you what you do,.
If everybody took astro images with the target the same fov, same view of the stars, same colours in the nebula then why bother showing it to everybody on SGL, we would have seen it all before.

Steve

There is of course more than one way to do this as you suggest and I had the same dilemma a while back.

In the end I actually placed the fanless PC on the tripod not  the OTA and bought a Pegasus powerbox advanced (not cheap but you would not regret getting one especially with NINA as it can control everything on it from a remote PC). The PPBA was placed on the OTA.

Reasons I decided on this after a lot of thought:

• Keep the weight added to the OTA to a minimum as the PPBA weight very little.
• Using this setup I could use short good quality USB cables to connect everything  (except the mount - see below) to the PPBA and also power everything (except the mount - see below) from the PPBA .
• Wherever you place the PC there will always be the at least 2 cables that need a loop to allow movement., but my decision was based on the fact I could get away with only 2 looped cables that need to move with the OTA and it kept the weight on the OTA down (my PC whilst fanless has quite a heavy heatsink type casing).

1. If PC and PPBA on OTA need  3 looped cables (maybe 4 if PC is 5V or 19V and not 12V):
   • 1 USB from PPBA to mount
   • 1 power either from ground to mount or PPBA to mount
   • 1 power to PPBA 
   • 1 power to PC IF PC is not 12V and so cannot be powered from PPBA.
      
2. If PC on tripod or fixed portion of mount needs only 2 looped cables,  as the power to PC and both the power and USB to the mount do not have to move if you run the power from the power source on the ground and run the USB direct to the PC and not the PPBA, so can be neatly clipped up if necessary without needing to worry about them being stretched or getting trapped when the mount slews. :
   • 1 USB from PC to PPBA.
   • 1 power from ground to PPBA.

Steve

6 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Did i see that it needs the UCAC4 catalogues in the plane wave spec?

I don't actually know what that means I just downloaded the files in one zip file from the link on NINA and then unzipped all to same directory.

Steve

Hi Chris,

I previously did not have PlateSolve3 installed for NINA but have just downloaded it now.
I put all the files in my "Program Files" directory, but only because that's where I already had ASTAP and All Sky Plate Solver, shouldn't really matter where you put it.

So these are the files and directories I have downloaded.

You then need to run it as a stand alone program by clicking on the platesolve3.80.exe file before using it in NINA so you can set the proper directories for the star catalogues.
But it sounds like you have already done this so should be fine.

So having clicked on PlateSolve3.80.exe I clicked on File menu and then Configure Directories and set the proper directories for the star catalogues:

If all is good you should see two Status OK messages.

Then set the path to PlateSolve3.8.exe in NINA like below, make sure it is the full path to the exe file not just the directory.

Then set PlateSolve3 for both your Platesolver and Blind Platesolver:

Then to test as it is daylight I loaded a random image I had  in Framing in NINA.

• Set Image Source to File
• Click on Load Image
• Select the image.

iIt then brings up the platesolving dialogue box.
Make sure the data is correct for pixel size, focal length and binning.
You can either enter the approximate coordinates of the image if they are not embedded in the image file and then click on Plate solver, or leave them at zero and click Blind solver.
Personally I wouldn't bother with the coordinates if not readily available as it seems to blind solve pretty quickly.

For me al seemed to work perfectly and  blind solved in about 5 seconds.

I hope you can get yours working the same, I do not see why it shouldn't 🙂 

Steve

15 hours ago, knobby said:

When I look back at old captures, despite the zwo filters being 'parfocal' I think I can see a shift in sharpness on them .

13 hours ago, AMcD said:

For LRGB I am using Antlia Pro LRGB filters. Whilst Antlia state that "The uniformity in substrate thickness delivers good parfocal performance across all Antlia filters" my understanding has always been it is a good practice to refocus between filters to account for any slight shift between them.

1 hour ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Any curved bit of glass has the potential to slightly change the focus at different wavelengths.

Yes, for the best results, you should refocus at every filter change.

Thanks for the info , looks like I really should focus on a filter change, or better still spend an hour or two next clear night and determine all my filter offsets then I can use those in NINA.

Steve

Hi Chris,

Having looked in the NINA instructions for platesolving it looks like I was wrong  about PlateSolve3 and that in fact it is a recommended platesolver and is very good for long focal lengths with a small fov and fewer stars.
It was probably PlateSolve2 that was not recommended as it could not blind plate solve.

The instructions are as follows if you have not seen these:

PlateSolve3#
Author: PlaneWave Instruments (Dave Rowe) URL: PlateSolve 3.80 5GB

Nina has kindly been selected to add the new PlateSolve3 program to its arsenal of platesolvers, courtesy of Dave Rowe. PlateSolve3 is a standalone executable which has been improved to work with longer focal lengths and smaller FOVs with fewer stars. This download has the necessary catalogues already added. Just unpack it into a directory of your choosing and point to it in Nina platesolving options.
You need to start the executable once standalone and select File - Configure directory.
Set the GaiaDr2 location to the 'UD Catalog' directory in the unpacked PlateSolve3.80 directory.
Then set the UCAC4 location to the 'Kepler' directory in the same unpacked directory. You will also need to set your location in View - Parameters

Benefits

Works really well with long focal lengths and small FOVs. Tested up to 12000mm.
Very fast (blind) solver
Does not require an Internet connection
Drawbacks

A little slow to start up.
The regional settings of windows need to be set to use a point as the decimal symbol
Recommendation

Primary Solver: Recommended
Blind Solver: Recommended

These instructions can be found HERE along with a link to the full download of PlateSo;ve3, which you may already have, but maybe best to download the latest version again and follow these instructions to the full and I hope it will then work well for you.
Let us all know how it goes.

Good Luck 🙂 

Steve

You are certainly right about this Winter so far but if there is anything good to come out of it that re-process is one, it is a fantastic image.
 

I seem to remember your original so the curiosity in me got the better of me to compare them, I hope you do not mind, and the new detail you have brought out is amazing, the colour is more subtle, which I prefer.
All in all a well deserved reprocess of some great data. 

@Fegato if you don't want this comparison I will remove it no problem.

Steve

Is the directory actually :C\chris\nina  ? or something like  :C\chris\nina \platesolve3 

However from all the threads i have seen of platesolving in NINA most seem to suggest not using  platesolve at all and use ASTAP,.

Also whilst it seems a huge leap  think it would be worth taking it and using NINA for all your framing and platesolving and forget the other programs, that seems awfully hard and time consuming.
When I first went to using NINA I too was wary about using the inbuilt sky atlas but you can use either Stellarium or CDC to find your target if you are like me and like to look what targets are about and then you can NINA and import the coordinates from these direct into NINA and do further framing if you wish, including a really good manual rotation aid if you do not have a rotator.
Once you have done that NINA will do everything for you.

If in doubt I recommend looking at all the helpful tutorials of PatriotAstro on YouTube. Such as THIS one.

If you do want to just use Platesolve 3 then maybe some screen shots of your setup in NINA and of the directory of platesolve3 in file explorer might help.

Steve

40 minutes ago, knobby said:

Good question, I've only recently set up an autofocuser and took the easy way out ... Refocus on a filter change 🙂

I guess it is a question I could solve myself given lots of clear nights but if anything like last year that will not happen.

Is this the safe optio or have you seen you need to re-focus for different filters ?

Steve

I am currently just getting into NINA advanced sequencer.
In my limited time so far imaging I have used parfocal filters, or at least I assumed parfocal as they are all from same manufacturer and all same thickness and have not refocused after filter changes but just re-focussed after so many images or after a certain temperature change. I can't say I have noticed a loss in focus on filter changes but probably not checked to the nth degree any change in focus just that it look okay to me by eye inspecting the images when zoomed in.
NINA now allows you to be more intelligent so I focus after a HFR change but wondering if that is enough?

I don't really want to be re-focussing every filter change so when I get some clear skies will take time to see if I need to use offsets to avoid this.
Does anyone find they need to use offsets or actually refocus after filter changes when using so-called par focal filters ???

Is using the HFR option enough, ?
In NINA there are also options to do so after temperature changes, after a preset time, after filter change, after a number of exposures but I would have thought using HFR would really then just do it when it was required, but then I think that means it actually has to go slightly out of focus before it takes any action so is it better just to do it every so often anyway ?

Sorry if I seem a bit clueless with this but it is obviously important not to waste images through bad focus yet not to waste potential imaging time focussing every few minutes as it does take time to re-focus.

A final thought I had was that when using LRGB could I allow it to maybe go slightly more out of focus during the RGB which will probably be binned 2x2 and then make sure it is precisely focussed before going back to the Luminance?
 

Steve

I think Olly hit the nail on the head, a very nice chap indeed and always there to help.
He had a huge amount of posts on this forum so sad it tool so long to hear this awful news.

Many thanks @thunderbird02 for taking the time to tell us the news, albeit bad news.

Steve

9 hours ago, Dark Adaptation said:

Hi, I have a quick question. Would it be possible to submit a drawing of the constellation? With details about how I drew it? Or does it have to be photographed? I'm not thinking just dots for stars and lines connecting them like a star map--more like a drawing similar to what you would get if you captured the image with a camera.

Thanks!

I am an out and out imager but I love seeing observers drawings and as somebody who cannot draw to save his life I really am astounded at some of the drawings people do so I certainly would love to see  drawings or sketches 🙂 

Steve

Fantastic image and what a difference 🙂 

Steve

8 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

I have neither the money nor the minerals to explore the idea of Pix yet 😅. I use DSS and Photoshop which I'm starting to get comfortable with, a consistent workflow and all that. It's on the cards for future though for an easier imitation hubble palette from OSC. 

Ha Ha, yes I know  what you mean, but I won;t go there, apart from some minor enhancements BXT may give you it looks like you are managing just fine with the processing anyway 🙂 

Steve

5 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

The travel router is the source of the hotspot. You definitely dont need a sim or an actual internet connection with this method.

I admit I am very flakey with network stuff but I thought they just had to be on the same network not necessary connected to the outside world via the internet.
I have used hotspots when in remote areas on holiday that had not internet, well I think I did.

Steve