With respect to your gear, that second picture is pretty much flawless. I have a 180Mak too and I'd be thrilled to get a shot like that.

On 11/10/2020 at 12:34, skyhog said:

You will have to pop back and let us all know how you get on. Seems to be a common query with this cam. 

Tharts a promising image by the way. Bit of a challenge with these tiny chips!! 

The non existant problem has now been solved. Here's an explanation of what happened and why I mistakingly thought I was in monochrome when I realy wasn't.

When you open the files in DSS that you wish to stack, a list is created with a description of each file. Such as exposure time, ISO (if relevant), Dimensions and...Depth. When I stacked the first batch I noticed that it said '8bit greyscale' in the description. Upon stacking I saw that the photo was monochrome and the histogram was black and white only. I then checked my settings in Ekos and sure enough, the depth was set to 8 bit. Aaargh!

Ok, so I then set it to 16bit Raw and fired a few sequences in the daytime of my living room with the 150 degrees adapter lens. Loaded them into DSS and to my dismay I saw that the description now said '16bit greyscale'. An improvement, but still greyscale. In my frustration and infantile rage, I turned to SGL for guidance. You commented within a few hours that if I'd shot them in 16bit Raw, they'd be fine once I stacked them. Did I listen? Oh no, not me. Better throw a hissy fit in the living room over the 'piece of s*** camera and the complete and utter incompetence of Stellarmates inventors', right?  At some point, out of boredom, I sat and fiddled around with DSS and discovered that what you suggested was indeed true. Once I stacked the 16bit greayscale pictures, the colour histogram popped out. Just as you said. Regardless of the '16bit greyscale' description. Sorry Skyhog...I should've listened. 😬

In my own defense; why the heck does it say '16bit greyscale' when it is in fact in colour? I did a bit of searching on the web and there is in fact an explanation for this. It's got something to do with debayering. But to be honest, I didn't quite understand it. Mostly because I'd lost interest now that my non existing problem had been solved.

Fast forward to last night. Set my sights on the Pinwheel galaxy, double and triple checked that the camera was set for 16bit Raw, caught it smack center and set the sequence to blast off 25, 2mins exposures. Because of the late hour, I hurridly dismantled my setup after it'd finished. As I gathered all the power cables in a bunch to carry them inside, I managed to drag my still plugged in laptop to the ground and smash it.

I'm not a clever man. 😭

22 hours ago, Stargazer33 said:

What processing software are you using? ....*snip*

 

I have used several programs. But my prefered program is DeepSkyStacker. See my response to Skyhog for further.

4 hours ago, skyhog said:

You will have to pop back and let us all know how you get on. Seems to be a common query with this cam. 

Tharts a promising image by the way. Bit of a challenge with these tiny chips!! 

Will do. Worried about what you said about this being reported before. We'll see.

Yeah, considering it's 8bit grayscale sloshed together with no darks or any other post production, it's at least recognizable

23 minutes ago, skyhog said:

I just tried doing as I said with the 385 and it seems to work fine, so rather odd. I do know that raw8 gives the problems you describe. The root of the problem, as I recall is getting the software to correctly debayer the images. I know you can set the debayer pattern in DSS but what I've just tried seems to work with the defaults. 

Hmm...very odd.

I seem to remember theres a 'factory default' setting or reset button in there somewhere. Maybe I'll try that. When I find it :).

Thanks, though.

3 hours ago, skyhog said:

If you shoot at raw16 and save out Fits files, stack in DSS, you should find the resultant image is fine.  

Indeed I should. 

I did try and stack the images that I got even though they were 8bit grayscale. This was what I got from a quick stacking. As you can see, no colours:

Hi all.

I've been using my ZWO385MC for planetary purposes and my DSLR for DSO's. I've only ever used my 385MC with Sharpcap. It's been working fine.

So the other day I wanted to see how it would fare on DSO's. I use Stellarmate and Ekos for that purpose. I took some test pictures and was quite enthused at the result and decided to go for a longer sequence. Each picture looked fine in the Ekos Fits viewer and so I left it to its own devices for about an hour.

The next day to my dismay I found out that all my pictures were 8bit grayscale. Argh! It was really my own fault for thinking that it was just 'plug and play'. But, oh well.

It took a while before I found the settings in Ekos where I set up the camera. But no matter what I do, the pictures always come out either 8bit or 16bit grayscale, depending on wether I've set it for 8bit Raw or 16bit Raw. I've also tried to set it RGB24 and it also turns out as 8bit grayscale.

The odd thing is that everything looks fine in the Ekos Fits viewer. Good colours and such. But when I view them in any other program, they are either 8 or 16 bit grayscale.

I'm pretty sure there's just some setting that I've overlooked. But I can't for the life of me find out where and what. 

Can anyone help me pinpoint the problem?

4mins with an AZ GTI is pretty impressive. Even in EQ mode.

First image. There's nothing quite like it, is there?

Congratulations on a very nice first picture.

2 minutes ago, Debo said:

No guidescope required, I use a driven SkyWatcher EQ8 equatorial mount that's polar aligned and this keeps the target fairly accurately centred, if I need to make any small manual adjustments I use the SynScan hand controller 

 

Ok, so manual adjustments. Gotcha.

I was just in awe at how precise and steady your picture was without 'proper' polar alignment. Just wondered if there was some 'trick' to it. As it happens, there was. Just not as magical and intricate as I'd envisioned :). 

Thanks again.

At the risk of being Captain Obvious here, I do suggest checking that the clutches are tightened properly.

Your description sounds very much like the same problems I went through, until the headslapping moment where I realized what was wrong.

In addition, do check the nuts and bolts that connect the mount head and the tripod. When my accuracy once again started to deteriorate, but the clutches were finger tight as they should be, I found that the nuts slowly but surely were coming lose. This mount does require regular checkups. But if you do, I really can't think of anything bad to say about it.

Hoping you get it sorted.

George

8 minutes ago, Debo said:

Hi George,

The Firecapture software I use to record the individual vids has a reticle option which helps me keep the image roughly centred. 

Post capture the final individual images are then all aligned using the software ImPPG.

 

I know this is going to sound ignorant, but I don't know this program.

So are you are using a guidescope or are you just ocasionally adjusting manually?

Thanks a bunch. That was pretty awesome. National Geographic material right there.

May I ask how you got such a steady alignment to allow you to do this? Permanent setup, or....?

On 30/08/2020 at 09:23, valleyman said:

Hi Guys

Is it OK to use a SW 120 ED Pro with a Daystar Quark H Alpha

The 120 has a F/number of F/7.5 

I have done it with a 80ED and Quark and  a Baader Continuum Filter before but is the 120 going to be OK.

regards

Pat

Baader Solar Continuum Filter

 

The short answer is : Yes. No problem.

However, both suppliers that I have talked with (FLO and Astroshop.de) both recommend a UV/IR Cut Filter.

I've used my Quark without filter on my ED80. For one viewing session of about 1 hour, I have also used it filterless in my 120mm f/8,33. No problems.

Ultimately I did decide to spare the Quark from unnecessary energy and opted for the UV/IR Filter. It's a minor investment compared to the Quark. I have no documentation for this, but in my mind I'm sparing my Quark and thus prolonging its life. 

But once again; Daystar themselves say that you can use it up to aperture 120mm without any additional filters. My experience with it gives me no reason to doubt it.

I concur with Peter Drew that the cheapest solution is a 40-50mm solar telescope.

You can actually buy a 'filter' called Daystar Quark  . But they cost more than a 40-50mm dedicated sun telescope and would be of no use to you and your newtonian reflector. The Quark is primarily designed for use with refractors. 

I'm just mentioning it because I think that this was what you had in mind. 

On 06/08/2020 at 11:40, Bizibilder said:

In "white light" viewing or imaging all wavelengths of light are observed.  The only filter used is to reduce the amount of that light to a safe level.  In my case I use a Baader ND5.0 solar filter, a Herschel wedge has the same effect but using a prism (and often additional filters).  In my images above you should note that even though the images are taken with a normal colour DSLR camera the orange colour is entirely false!  The true "colour" of the image is seen in the image with the Long/Lat grid superimposed.

Thanks Bizibilder.

I was thinking along those lines, but have learned from experience that my first line of thought on AP matters is often wrong :).

Good to have another Scandi on the forum. I'm from Denmark.

Indeed the long summernights are a problem for guys like us. Luckily, the moon does present itself regularly and poses a very good target. Particularly with the maksutov telescope you impulsively bought. As you, I too find myself in limbo half of the year. I've recently gotten myself into sun watching and photographing for that very reason. 

The mount you bought should serve you well for many years. It will serve you at your current beginners level as well as leave loads of room for growth and expansion. I think you've made a good choice there. For a beginner, the inclination is to go and buy a massive and expensive telescope, only to realize that you've got nothing to put it on, thus rendering it more or less useless. Trust me, in that respect I know what I'm talking about :).

Btw, welcome to SGL.

Expertly done, mate. Very impressive division on the rings. I'm a bit jealous, but enjoyed the photo none the less :).

Ignorant, but genuine question: What do you mean when you say 'white light'?

14 minutes ago, Adam1234 said:

Keep an eye on your camera if you have that plugged into the USB hub. I don't know what camera you're using but I'm using the ZWO ASI1600mm Pro, and discovered an issue recently where it kept disconnecting when plugged in to the hub, but it's absolutely fine if plugged directly to the laptop. The weird thing was that the guide scope and filter wheel were connecting fine, even though they connect to the USB hub via the camera. 

I'll be using a ASI ZWO 385MC. I'll keep the issue in mind. Thanks for the 'warning'.

Maybe I'll plug the mouse into the hub instead and the main camera into the one USB port.

2 minutes ago, RayD said:

Data wise will be fine. 

The one thing you will probably want to do is make sure it is a powered hub as your laptop hub may struggle to provide the power needed to run all the devices, a couple of which are USB powered.

Ahh, hadn't thought of the power issue. Good catch.

Thanks

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but here goes.

I have an older laptop that I'm thinking of using for imaging. It only has two USB2 ports. For the most part I prefer using a mouse rather than the finger pad. So that leaves one USB port for cameras and 'other stuff'.

Let's just for arguments sake say that I have a main camera, a guide camera, a focuser and mount control. If I put those four into a USB-hub which is connected to the single USB2 port, what will happen?

A. Nothing. The single port will not be able to distinguish what signal goes to what because it's all jumbled together in the hub. It's like playing four different television programs at the same time on one screen.

B. Technically, it'll work. But because you're cramming a data-stream meant for four ports into one, you'll experience 'lag' during big data transfers. But it will get there eventually. As fast as the USB2 will allow. 

C. It'll be fine. I'm surprised you're even asking.

Anyone got any experience with this?

Georg

On 24/06/2020 at 21:41, astro_al said:

The replacement Quark is going back and I don't have the energy for another round so will be leaving it there. 

I think I will go down the Lunt LS60 route but not sure if that will be sooner or later as it is a big increase in price over the Quark. If sooner then I will need to let some other stuff go, namely the FC-100 and FC-76, and I am not sure about that.

I have learned that I really like Ha viewing though 😀

Sorry to hear that.

I'm worried now that mine is actually the same, but that I just don't have the experience to see the problem. I'm still quite happy about mine though. I'll just put my fingers in my ears and go 'lalalalalalaaaa' whenever someone starts talking Lunt, because I simply can't afford it. But quality costs. As is the case with most commercial items.

Stunning!

After recently having acquired a Quark and using it with my 80ED, I've come to appreciate much more the work and skill required to take such photos. 👏

Well,  you've given me something to shoot for. Although I feel you've set the bar unreasonably high :).

On 18/06/2020 at 16:27, Davey-T said:

Using second hand one that I purchased to keep me going, got to send the last replacement one back to Daystar when the current situation sorts itself out, the one they supplied before that one sounds like yours, nice proms no surface detail, it actually had no lettering on it to state which it was unlike previous ones that had Chromosphere printed on the end, I've an idea it may have been a prom' version as it did the best proms of the five I've tried.

Doesn't say much for Daystar QC that they could send it out like it but I get the impression that the Daystar QC department is the end user 😥

Dave

This might be silly Davey, but have you tried a different cable and/or mains plug?

I found the supplied mains adapter sub par. It was like a clip-on job and the connection was terrible. I initially didn't get a light either until I wiggled the cable about and saw the LED blink a few times.  I used one of the many mains/USB converters I had lying around and now it works fine. The cable itself is also sub par. The connectors/plugs are quite low quality. The metal suffers from fatigue too quickly (like the cheap cables you can buy from Wish.com and the like) and so after a couple of weeks use, they'll lose contact altogether.

I feel that Daystar have cut a realy big corner on this seconday, but integral, part of the Quark package. It's certainly worth checking up on, if you haven't already.