Rustang

10 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Polar alignment shouldn't affect it I wouldn't think.
FL should also be correct.

Its been a while since I used APT so cannot help too much but are you sure all the data in "Object Calculator" are correct and you clicked on "Recalc" afterwards ?
I am not sure the recalc is required or not but all the other data should be correct.

Apart from that I just can't remember. You should have some logs somewhere that record what happened when it failed, but not sure where they are stored.

  

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, I wasn't clear as such as to when I say it failed, it solved but the failure was that the target wasn't there! I did some tests on bright stars but they weren't even in frame or in the middle of the frame once solved!!? 

I hadn't pressed 'reclac' either as I don't think I ever have. All other settings in that box are correct. 

To help me understand one of last night's continuous issues, my plate solving in APT has been perfect for a while now. I've moved from a DSLR to a mono cam and filterwheel. My mount did not find the targets correctly last night, and platesolving did not work either, as in it did solve but not on target! I did some tests on some bright stars but they never appeared in frame! So is this a mount issue? Say pola alighment!? Something I'm missing to set in APT!? or somewhere else!? Or like a few recent things, just one of those, worked fine, then didn't randomly but its ok again situations! 

I'm using a x0.8 reducer that I've used with the DSLR which brings the 600m fl down to 480mm, I've had those settings set in APT as well, that's not going to change with the new camera is it,? I just trying to check everything ! 

My pola alighment has also never let me down. 

Thanks guys. 

Thanks guys, APT plate solving has been working a treat for a while so that's why I'm annoyed and confused that it wasn't playing ball last night. I've also always managed to get pretty close to target for plate solving so I don't know why that's wasn't working either. Maybe I'm missing a new setting or something. Today is another day, let's try again tonight and see how I get on. There are much bigger things in life to cry about so il shut up and get on with it, I'm just really passionate about the imaging side of things that's all and really don't won't to pack it all in but I'm also not wanting the continuous frustration with equipment failure. 

I know I'm not the first, I know I won't be the last but when you have a rubbish night it's just incredibly frustrating, some nights have more reasons to be than others. I guess I just need to vent before I try and sleep. 

Like many I've dedicated so much time to this hobby, done my best to cope with the rough and the smooth and been really pleased when the results are all worth it, it's what keeps you going. I felt I was coming to the end of what I could with a DSLR so had recently started to look into a dedicated camera. Well out of no where, it happened, I purchased Adam's full QHY mono camera, filter wheel and filters set. Although it happened earlier than planned, the move just felt right. After some stress and learning I became happy in my DSLR bubble, even had my guiding in TOT 0.30's last session, it was all going well but I fancied moving on. I knew that going mono would be some degree of stress and a whole new way of learning. I took most of the day getting the software set up yesterday, the last issue was a bit of trouble with the external USB port, I did my very best to remain calm, I got some help on here and it was sorted. I went to bed thinking, well it was a bit of a faff but actually seemed less stressful than when I set up the guiding software!. I was nervous but excited as the next step would be out under the stars. Well that was tonight and I've just spent 4hrs getting no where but just being fed up. First issue, USB port (Again!) nearly shut everything down and gave up then. Deep breaths, right, it took a while to set everything up so let's just see if I can sort it, googled stuff, tried some things, somehow sorted. From then on it was still just issue after issue but with things that have worked fine before! When I eventually got the guiding working, I wasn't 100% sure I was on target, even after plate solving as there was no nebulosity in a single 10 min HA exposure!? So I stopped guiding, parked then un parked the scope and did some test runs on some bright stars. The mount could not find it the stars correctly or plate solve correctly! Why, you have worked fine before and as far as I can tell you have the correct new camera settings so why!? After that I was done for the night and fed up so packed up. If I'm honest I'm at that stage of asking if its all worth it, I'm not trying to be melodramatic but I think I'm running out of steam and patience with what feels like constant issues with this hobby, maybe I just don't have the mental strength for it as I'm easily stressed and anxious. It's hard to take when you have honestly dedicated so much to it to get probably more hassle than pleasure back.

Do I won't to give it up though? No, not really but..... 

31 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

There are various how tos on the internet, from simply uninstalling the USB controllers, Windows will reinstall them on rebooting, to editing them out of the registry.

As David said powered hubs are advisable and Startech are good, I have a couple.

Dave

Ok, we are sorted!! Thanks for the info in regards to online how to's, I started to read a help guide which stated to follow its steps in order, Step number 2 was a simple computer re start, that has sorted the issue and the external USB is now working! Thanks for all your help. Im pleased I dont have to spend out again just yet!!

9 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

There are various how tos on the internet, from simply uninstalling the USB controllers, Windows will reinstall them on rebooting, to editing them out of the registry.

As David said powered hubs are advisable and Startech are good, I have a couple.

Dave

Ok thanks, i will check that out, the Startech will be another expensive though that's the problem. What will uninstalling them do to the ports that I know work with say the mount, will that still connect ok afterwards!?

7 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

What OS are you using ? some older versions of Windows get in muddle with USB plugged unplugged and different things swopped to different sockets.

Dave

Thanks for your reply, its windows 8

11 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

You dont say whether the USB hub is powered or not - if its not powered its almost certain to give problems. The best one I ever found for reliability was the Startech one - https://www.ebuyer.com/196841-startech-com-mountable-rugged-industrial-7-port-usb-hub-st7200usbm

Thanks for your reply, Its not powered.

I needed an extra USB port because I now need to run a filter wheel. I have two external USB hubs, one old, one brand new. So If I plug my filter wheel or guide camera straight into the 'laptop' USB port, they connect fine, If I plugged both devices into either 'external' USB port, then the 'external' ports into the same USB 'laptop' port, the software I'm using (APT & PHD2) cant find the devices. Any ideas!? is there a port number setting somewhere i need to check!?

Never posted here before but its exciting! What did the postman bring? My journey into Narrowband imaging!

Thanks Adam! 👍

😊

Great image, especially for the short intergration time. It just needs some 30 sec subs blended in to save some of the core details and your done! 👍

42 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Nice image for a DSLR.

I notice you have a 600D and get a lot of banding. I have a nodded 600D too and the banding makes it really poor for deep sky so I stopped using it. Even in processing I was struggling to remove them. It was odd because pre - modding it was not too bad.

It can be a pain but not on every target, just one of the qwerks of the DSLR. Il be moving on to a deciated astro camera later in the year, from what I've been reading they come with their qwerks too but once mastered I'm hoping to produce images of a higher level of detail and clarity. I've been really chuffed with some of the images my DSLR has produced though. 

Well for a DSLR I thinks its ok, I feel its more of a target for a dedicated camera being a mag 10 target but 3.5hrs of 5min sub data has done an ok job on some of the details. The annoying DSLR banding issue didnt get removed in the stack but has had some cleaning up in post. I'm happy with it for a first attempt, Ive stretched it as far as it could probably go.

Modified 600D

SW 80 ED DS PRO

Optolong L-enhance

Beautiful. 

4 minutes ago, Erling G-P said:

That sounds great!  How if I may ask, do you connect the camera with the PC?

Sure, for the camera I use the correct USB cable and for the mount I use an EQ Direct cable, £35 from FLO. 

Trying out my wider field mock up using a Takumar 135mm f3.5 lens. Tested the lens today, pretty good for £40, infinity focus seems sharper at f4 so will probably see how that goes first. Looking forward to some cheap wider field astrophotography. 

35 minutes ago, Erling G-P said:

I am yes, thanks again all for the kind comments

Regarding plate solving; would it work with a DSLR, or do you need a dedicated camera for that ?

100% I'm still using a Canon 600D 👍

8 hours ago, Erling G-P said:

Thanks guys,

Been trying to keep a computer out of the loop, which is probably strange for an IT guy, but as soon as a computer is introduced, a whole lot of "why don't you..." questions pops up, and I have been worrying that the preciously few imaging windows will all be spent trying to get a multitude of software set up and configured.   Sounds like it might be time well spent, so should probably take the plunge..

Totally understand that, you have to do what works for you, it's working as that's a great image! The software side of things is a faff and takes time to set up, but 100% worth it, it's something to consider when your ready. 

Lovely image. Get yourself set up on APT and sort out platesolving, you will question why you never did it straight away, it saves so much time! I had trouble some nights with star alignments and the hand control, well not any more, now it's just pola align, choose target, plate solve, capture! Once over the med line, park scope, send back to target (it now goes the other way), plate solve and capture. 

3 hours ago, Simon Pepper said:

I have checked cloudy nights and Astrobin and actually I hear of people complaining about random gradients that are not taken out when using calibration frames links below. This appears to be when using narrowband filters such as lextreme which is annoying as I think the 294 suits me better, however these threads are making me think again as I have been using the lextreme a lot recently... 

 

https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/astrophotography/other/flat-frames-l-extreme-asi294mc/

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/661685-word-of-warning-asi294mc-pro-and-opt-triad-and-nb/page-2

 

 

 

 

Yeah that doesn't sound good does it, good find! 

34 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

My sentiments exactly...... though the wife may disagree 😂

😂

2 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Thank you. Yeah the banding is an odd one, sometimes it is there and can be processed out, sometimes it's not and sometimes it's there and so bad there's nothing you can do 😂 . There is a debanding algorithm in Siril that's pretty good at dealing with it most of the time. 

My heart is set on the 2600 it's just the cost is hard to swallow. 

Well besides everything I've said above, you could also just say sod it and just buy it, you can't spend money when your dead! 😊

54 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

I've just moved from a modded EOS 1300D to the ASI294MC Pro Cooled. I was lucky enough to get it second hand from a member on here, otherwise I'd still be using the modded DSLR.

It's different to the DSLR and takes a bit of getting used too, but I'm getting there with more imaging time.

There is a great difference in the general noise level in the images, compared to the DSLR, which requires minimal post-processing. The sensitivity of the sensor plays a part, as does the ingestion time, seeing, mount condition/balance, PA and focus. The camera gain setting and sensor cooling also play a part in getting a good clean image, finding that sweet spot for your camera can save time in post-processing. 

What I do like about the OSC is being able to create the calibration frames when I want too and build my library of darks, flats & dark-flats when it's cloudy. The ASI294MC does have amp-glow from the sensor, which the ASI533MC apparently doesn't suffer  from, but the dark frames take that out when stacking. I did learn that if you use Bias frames with the ASI294, they affected the amp-glow reduction, so the advice is not to use Bias frames with this camera, which seems to work for me.

Overall I'm impressed with the camera, could I improve on it? Sure, but I'd be looking at upgrading my mount before a different camera. One upgrade I do want to get is the L-eXtreme filter, so I can image during the full moon. I'm lucky to live in a Bortle 2 area, so I currently only use a UV/IR cut filter and nothing else.

In my short time using the ASI294MC I've had some great results, poor results and some surprises.

The great - M81 & M82 - Nice clean image with good detail in the galaxies.

The not so good - IC422 - plenty of ingestion time but not much detail in the nebula.

The surprise - M31 - 15x180s subs and discovered I forgot to turn on the camera's cooling, then went off to do another target. Processed the stack anyway and came up with this. Sure, the centre is blown out and the stars look a bit bloated but I was quite pleased with it, seeing as I was going to bin the subs because the cooling wasn't right!

There appears to be enough to faff around with even with an OSC then! 😁

38 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

I agree with this completely and a part of me thinks (especially with regards to the images I've seen on Astrobin) are the better images I've seen with the 2600 simply due to the fact that beginners (of which I still class myself) are more likely to go for the 294 due to its price point over the 2600.

I've no intention of leaving this hobby either so that's why I wanted to push myelf budget wise and go for the 2600 as it's up at the top of the pile for OSC. I have also got to the stage where  I can generally deal with most of the noise in an image (see image below taken with my trusty old 450d, still some banding evident) but I do love the idea of this being not so much of a problem with a cooled camera

 

That's a stunning image mate and proves the capability of a DSLR when worked well. Looks great even on a big screen. Yeah the good old banding issue, astro pixel processor seemed to get rid of it in the stack but ive used up my free trail with that so still on DSS which doesnt remove it!. I can just about handel it in PS but depends how bad it is. Sounds like you know what one you wont to go for! 👍

19 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Thanks for all the input everyone. As a bit of background, I'm currently imaging with a modded 450D and although I'm pretty happy with my results I'm fed up with the constant battle against noise that is inherent with DSLRs. I'm imaging with a SW 72ED and a WO Redcat V1.5 and to a lesser extent a couple of sub 150mm focal length camera lenses.  I really like the idea of staying with an APS-C sensor as I like really wide fields of view and that is one of the main reasons I'm drawn to the 2600 along with all the great reviews I've read. I will probably add another OTA at some point in the 6-700mm focal length range. 

@DaveS I have looked at other brands but I wanted to ensure compatibility with my ZWO guide camera so I could connect the guide camera>main imaging camera > laptop and I'm not sure if this is possible with the other brands? I haven't looked at pixel scale a great deal if I'm honest but I will do before I buy. 

@Rustang Money is a factor and is probably the main reason I keep going back forth between camera choices, but I also want to ensure that whatever I get is going to last me a fair few years. However, If I could basically get two cameras for the price of one and have way more options when it comes to shooting different targets then it's a no brainer. I'd also be able to buy a 294 way sooner than buying a 2600

I have also thought about the fact that I can get a fully functioning mono setup for the price of the 2600 but I don't want the associated faff and then the added cost of buying better filters so OSC it is for now. I also keep looking on Astrobin and although there are some great images taken with the 294 the ones taken with the 2600 just look better in my opinion (at east to my eyes). 

I'm probably just overthinking all of this and would more than likely be really happy with the 294MC Pro if it meant I cured my noise problem

 

 

Again, no offense to anyone but make sure your looking at the more experienced people using these cameras because Ive seen some very noisy images taken with dedicated camera's aswell, enough to put you off but these were more so with the ASI1600, you may not get so much of an issue with the 924/2600. I'm thinking its just user experience though, as with the DSLR, Ive manged to improve on the noise a bit myself, it wasnt great at the start, its been 3 years of learning and its improved so I appreciate it does take some time to get to grips with things. I appreciate your thoughts on Mono vs OSC, I'm not 100% sure yet if I wont the faff/dedication/expensive needed for mono but then I'm not going to be leaving this hobby anytime soon!. Ive gone totally the other way at the moment and Ive got an old 135mm manual lens coming in the post for some simple widefield imaging as I'm not quite financially ready for the next step and it also gives me more time to ponder. If they could bring out decent, none noisy and not stupidly expensive DSLR then I think i would be set!