Stewartfrom the Cotswolds

Thanks Alan, (I think haha) a few more things for me to learn, need to get my head around noise swamping. I will get back to you with the offset next time I have the gear out.

I am just getting started with image processing and need a little advice. I have an ASI183mc pro (one shot colour, cooled). Capturing with SGPro and processing with Pix in Sight. What I'm not sure about is how to work out either in Pix or SGPro what level of exposure I am getting and there for how long my subs need to be. How do I check if I'm over exposing stars or galaxy centers, and how much exposure is a good guide to work from? Regards Stewart

I'm using an ASI183mc pro camera and I'm trying to build a reference library of master bias and darks. I use nebulosity but found that even when stretched there was absolutely no detail ( solid grey) in my bias frames. Is this normal or have I perhaps done something wrong.? I captured 200 exposures of 0.01 secs.

Has anyone tried this combo or something similar, I'm looking at the mono cooled version of the camera and so will need a filter wheel too. I'm sure the bare camera will achieve focus but not sure if it will adding in a wheel. Has anyone had any experience of this.

Thinking about this camera now:ZWO ASI1600MM Monochrome 4/3" CMOS USB 3.0 Deep Sky Imaging CameraAny thoughts on them and are they solid and reliable?

Thanks for all the hello's folks, looking forwards to annoying you all with my daft questions, haha.

Well the story so far, and I almost can't believe this all works. I've now got the mount connected directly without hand controller to a usb hub via a HitecAstro EqDirect cable, the hub then connects to a usb ethernet server module which then all links back to the main computer in my lounge via ethernet, starting Stellarium scope, starts stellarium and EQmod, so I can use the main computer to remotely control the scope fifty feet away in the garden. If I'm at the scope I can control stellarium on the main pc via remote desktop app on my iphone, I mean WTF what an amazing system, and it works.

Mount is a sky watcher AZ-EQ6 GT and have an orion starshoot autoguider pro with 60mm refractor for guiding. Currently a 130mm by 650mm Newtonian ota which will be the last thing to upgrade as I want all the other necessaries first so I know what weight to allow for the ota. This will be a dedicated astro cam, I run a 27inch screen at 2560 x 1440 resolution so a camera that would fill that sort of screen would be great. Is ccd better than cmos and is it worth going for peltier active cooling? Also do you ultimately get better images with a mono and narrow band filters than with a single shot colour? I think for this camera I will stick to DSO as the focal length of my ota isn't enough for solar system.

Hi folks, a very open question here as I don't know a huge amount about astro-photography yet. I am looking for a one off 'spend the money now' sort job so that I'm not immediately looking for an upgrade. I do like deep space objects like nebula's etc but also hoping to shoot the moon and planets too if possible! Will consider anything in the region of £500 - £1500 so please fire away with ideas as to what I should be looking at. Cheers Stewart

Once I have the mount all set up and the tracking scope working and all the cables sorted I will be looking at a dedicated astronomy camera, I don't know if I will still need a 2x barlow with a proper imager or not. The idea is to connect all the usb cables on the rig to a hub and then connect that hub to a usb-ethernet gizmo and have the whole lot at the end of a network cable connected to my computer in the lounge and fully remote controlled, or at least that's the plan.

Lol @Dave, I think that's what I like about this hobby so much, the depth of knowledge about everything is so vast even experts are always still learning. @happy-kat I have a modified barlow which I can get focus on my dslr but I will be getting a dedicated imaging camera in time and will look closer at focusing options then. It might mean a whole new ota rather than spending lots of money on a dedicated remote focuser for the tube I have.

Hi Ron do you ever have issue with signal loss using wifi I figure for this sort of thing and slight loss of comms count mean lots of lost time?

Hi, I've been away from the hobby a while due to the poor tracking accuracy of a cheap Celestron goto mount. I have just bought a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6GT mount and excitedly awaiting its arrival, I hope this is going to be a good imaging mount but it was all I could afford right now. I have the Celestron Newtonian 130SLT tube assembly and some decent eyepieces, a Bahtinov mask and laser collumator. I want to be able to control the scope remotely from inside the house and use it for astrophotography so I'm looking for ideas on what I will need for connectivity eg. long usb cable hub power supply options for the whole rig etc and obviously a camera, want to get as far as possible with this tube before I then upgrade to something better. Cheers Stewart

Hi all, just getting back to the stars after a break without a mount.